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Sour Cream Tea Bread

I have decided that loaves are very difficult to take photos of and still have the bread look attractive. This was the best that I could do with limited resources (baking and photography, surprisingly, don’t always work out), but I am not doing justice to the beauty of this quick bread.

I made this as a thank you/holiday gift for a professor friend of mine. – as though I need a reason! It would probably take a force of nature to stop me once I have my mind set on baking something.
This bread is more of a cake, really. It has a nice, even crumb and a melt-in-your-mouth moistness without being heavy or greasy. Fabulous light flavor – just the right amount of sweetness! The best thing about it is that it is incredibly versatile, so you could add just about anything and have it turn out. I actually really like the fact that it is plain. As much as I like things like banana bread, it’s nice not to feel to reliant on fruit occasionally. As it is meant as a gift (to be delivered tomorrow morning), I feel pretty lucky – not to mention full – that there was some overflow batter and I was able to make a couple of muffins in addition to the loaf.
The recipe is originally from Better Homes and Gardens, I believe. Easy ingredients, easy directions. I love it!

Sour Cream Tea Bread

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

8 ounces sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan and preheat the oven to 350F.

Sift together flour and other dry ingredients.

Beat butter in a bowl until smooth. Add sugar and beat again.

Add eggs one at a time, then add vanilla. Beat until fluffy.

Alternately add sour cream and flour, starting with sour cream, in two or three additions.

Pour into pan, smooth top and bake for 1 hour 5 minutes, or until tester comes out clean.

Notes: I added about 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract with the vanilla and added 1 cup of dried cranberries to the batter just before I put it into the pan. The original recipe suggests other variations, which basically involve adding a cup of fruit or nuts and a teaspoon or two of spices, if you wish. I would try it again with nonfat sour cream or yogurt, just to feel a tiny bit less guilty about loving it so much.

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1 Comment
  • caryn
    December 16, 2005

    Here we are a year later and I’m going to use this recipe for my bread baskets that I make for Christmas presents. Looks great! Thanks, Nic.

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