Recently I asked a friend is she thought I was crazy because I was actually looking forward to the dead of winter. Not gaze-at-Christmas-lights-in-light-falling-snow winter. I’m looking forward to put-on-long-underwear-to-get-the-mail winter.

This isn’t because I have some sick wish for cold-weather misery. I don’t. I live in Maine. I can’t ski. My car is old enough to have its own driver’s license and all its problems that I call “quirky” in the summer (it’s 80 degrees and my back windows just fell down, how charming and refreshing) become serious freaking problems in the winter (it’s -65 degrees and my mother-effing back windows just fell down and now I have a half inch of snow in my back seat).*

She said she thinks I’m crazy, by the way. But I’m still standing by my reasons. I want my weekends back — specifically my Sundays. During the summer there’s just so much darn pressure to use up every minute doing something active and Facebook picture worthy.

The truth of the matter is, I just want to bake bread. I just want to take an entire afternoon, put in a load of laundry, turn on a podcast of This American Life, and bake some gosh darn bread.

Well folks, we’re just about there. There’s still hikes to go on, and apples that need to be picked, and leaves that need to be peeped, but the return of football has officially made lazy Sundays acceptable.

So bread is back. Hallelujah. But lest you don’t want to miss out on the aforementioned mandatory fall activities, I have some transition bread for you. All the warm bread smelling goodness, without being tied down by a double yeast rise.

It’s made with wheat flour so you feel good about it and it makes a hearty accompaniment to soup or stew. But also did you see that part about the beer? Porter, specifically, my most favorite of all the beers. And because it has beer in it, it goes with football. So if we want to get technical about it, baking this bread should probably be added to those mandatory fall activities.

Whole Wheat Porter Bread
As written from King Arthur Flour

I received this recipe in hard-copy form from a friend’s mom. I Googled around to try to find a link for you, but there wasn’t anything on the official website. However, it has been reposted on some other message boards.

Also, go with a porter that you would otherwise want to drink. First off, because then you can buy a six-pack and be like “Oh yeah, well I had to buy all this beer” and just drink the others while watching football. Second, you can really taste the porter here. I haven’t tried it, but I can reasonably guess that a stout would also work wonderfully. 

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
4 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup packed brown sugar (I used light, but I think dark would work, too)
1 (12 fluid ounce) bottle of porter beer

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan with butter or cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine all your dry ingredients. Then, pour in the beer. It will foam because of the baking powder. That’s science.

Stir until a stiff batter is formed. King Arthur said I might need my hands. I got through it with a wooden spoon.

Scape batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. Like other batter breads, you can test this by inserting a toothpick into the center of the loaf and checking to see if it comes out clean.

King Arthur also told me to let it cool before slicing. Yeah right.

*Jason rightfully pointed out that he has since fixed the back-window issue on my car. He fixes things for me and reads my blog. I’m thinking about keeping him.