Don’t bother to preheat the oven for this recipe. The bread is baked, of course, but this is a sort of old-fashioned recipe that starts out in a cold oven and the baking time includes preheating. This is the kind of baking that some older person - we’ll ballpark it at 80 or over - might have once told you leads to moister baked goods because the slow cooking somehow protects the loaf. I can’t guarantee that it will work with other recipes (obviously anything with a short cooking time or high cooking temperature is out), but I can say that it is very true for this particular loaf.

This is a quick bread that is primarily flavored with applesauce, spices and chopped up pecans. Applesauce often enters into recipes as a fat replacer because it adds much-needed moisture to a recipe that has had moisturizing butter or oil removed from it. Unfortunately, it doesn’t replace the texture provided by fat and, as a result, it has gotten kind of a bad reputation for causing toughness or gumminess in baked goods. Rest assured that this isn’t the case here! The applesauce adds flavor and moisture in this loaf, but it doesn’t replace anything else in the recipe.

The result is a delicious loaf that is perfect to slice for a quick breakfast snack. It is very moist and, while sturdy enough to hold up to a good toasting, it is not dense or gummy. In fact, the loaf is quite tender. You can really taste the flavor of the applesauce because the spicing in the loaf is fairly subtle. If you want to further increase the apple flavor, try to use a “chunky” or natural-style applesauce, instead of a smooth one. Pecans or walnuts, or a mixture of the two, are included in the bread to add another level of flavor and to provide some contrasting texture. Toasting the chopped nuts in a skillet over medium heat until golden will deepen their flavor and intensify their crunchy texture. If you prefer not to use nuts, you can substitute in raisins or other dried fruits.

I’ve noticed that some newer ovens preheat much, much faster than older models. You probably know how your oven works by now, but be sure to check your loaf with a toothpick before taking it out of the oven to be sure it is done all the way through. Some ovens might cook 5 minutes faster, and some might be a bit slower.

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Raspberries may not really be in season at the moment, but they’re always in season in my kitchen because I keep several bags of them in the freezer at all times. You never know when you’re going to want to make a raspberry sauce, defrost them and stir them into yogurt or oatmeal, or bake them into a quick bread for a tasty snack. Clearly, I’ve taken the third option here and added my raspberries - frozen black raspberries, if you want to be specific - into this loaf.

The bread is moist and sturdy, as are so many quick breads, but manages to be both soft and tender in spite of that. It has quite an array of flavors, with the sweet-tart raspberries, bright orange juice and the buttery pecans. Since I opted to toast and chop the pecans, they lent a nice hint of crunch to the bread. I definitely prefer using smaller (i.e. chopped) nuts in place of whole or half pecans for ease of eating and even distribution in the bread. I used fresh blood oranges for the juice and zest, but any type of oranges will work well. As usual, I highly recommend using freshly squeezed juice if at all possible to get the very best flavor into your loaf. Serve it with coffee or tea, as breakfast or as a casual dessert/snack.

It is also worth noting that this bread keeps very well when stored in an airtight container or when very tightly wrapped in plastic wrap. I shipped loaves of it over the holidays (using 2 day air, mostly) and they arrived perfectly moist and stayed that way for several days afterwards.

If the raspberry pecan combination isn’t your cup of tea, you can always vary the add-ins with this recipe. In fact, it is just about the same one that I use for my Orange Cranberry Bread, so feel free to mix and match fruits, dried fruits and nuts until you come up with something you like.

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 A scone is a quickly made pastry, a mix of flour and butter that is baked in a hot oven until flaky and golden. Scones, at least here in the US, are rarely served plain. Instead of the basic perfect-with-jam-and-clotted-cream scone that you might find served at an afternoon tea, we’re a lot more likely to see them augmented with dried fruits, sugar or other flavorings and served with coffee for breakfast. Not that there is anything wrong with that - I personally like scones in just about any form they take (as long as it’s a good scone, of course) and am just as partial to traditional ones as some of the more creative varieties. These scones, for instance, are a take on a traditional pumpkin scone.

Pumpkin scones are pretty popular in Australia, where they are paired with savory dishes (like a biscuit) a bit more often than with sweet. I always enjoyed them when I had them there, so when I finally came across a good recipe for pumpkin scones, I couldn’t wait to try it. Unfortunately, I used up all my pumpkin making chocolate pumpkin pies for friends and family over the past couple of weeks and my desire to make the scones immediately was at odds with the ingredients in my cabinet.

Immediacy won out in the end and I opted to use sweet potatoes in place of the pumpkin. Cooked, mashed sweet potatoes (baked, then cooled) have almost the exact same consistency as cooked, mashed pumpkin, and they have the same appealing natural sweetness. The finished scones are both sweet and savory. As you might expect with such a lean dough, they are a bit denser than a very butter-rich scone, but that doesn’t detract from the overall taste or texture. You can serve these with butter and jam (I like pumpkin butter, personally), but they really work well when served in place of a more traditional biscuit with soup or a savory meal.

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In the mood for something to pair with that gingerbread latte? Almost any sweet cake, bread or cookie can go with the coffee drink, but with the Christmas season approaching, this seems like as good a time as any to play up the gingerbread flavor by matching the drink with an equally seasonal treat. In this case, I’m talking about banana gingerbread.

Banana gingerbread, as you might expect, is a hybrid between gingerbread and banana bread. It has a sweet banana-y flavor and a richer molasses-y one, all rolled into the same delicious quickbread. While there is a lot going on in the bread, the overall effect of this combination is pretty mild, so this bread will probably appeal to fans of both gingerbread and banana bread, even if s/he isn’t normally a fan of one of the two products. If you are a fan of both, of course, so much the better.

Like most banana breads, this one is moist and a bit on the dense side, thanks to the generous amount of banana puree in the batter. The bread isn’t heavy, fortunately, so the denseness makes it hold up exceptionally well to being served with strong coffee or tea, and makes it sturdy enough that you can easily spread a slice (toasted or plain) with butter or cream cheese. The recipe calls for quite a few different spices, but it is not crucial to use the same amounts of those ingredients that I did. If you like more cinnamon or less allspice, feel free to modify the amounts to suit your own tastes. That said, I would still recommend including a pinch of cardamom and at least a pinch of allspice in addition to whatever else you decide to use.

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Sweet or savory, I like cornbread in just about any form it comes in. But if I have to choose between the two, I’ll opt for slightly sweet over savory almost every time. This is simply because I feel that sweet cornbread is slightly more versatile. It goes well with chilis, meats and other savory/spicy foods and can also be eaten with jam for breakfast. A cornbread packed with chili peppers can be eaten with jam, but it’s not quite the same with a latte.

This cornbread is on the sweet side, made with the addition of maple syrup in place of sugar. The syrup does not have a strong presence in the finished cornbread, largely because there is also plenty of sweet corn mixed in, but does give it a unique and subtle flavor. I like to serve this with butter and more maple syrup, or with maple butter (soften butter and mix in maple syrup, the chill), but you can do just about anything with a batch. It makes a great side dish with a hearty meal if there is a sauce or gravy that will need mopping up and is equally good for breakfast. You can even use it to make dressing/stuffing for a turkey.

I used my Baker’s Edge pan for this batch of cornbread so each piece has a nice edge and it was very easy to slice up. If you don’t have one, you can use a 9×9″ square pan, although it might take a couple extra minutes in the oven to ensure that the center is completely cooked through.

Oh - and if you want to get nice littler butter balls for your cornbread like the one pictured above (not healthy, but makes for an attractive presentation), simply soften your butter and use a small ice cream scoop or melon baller to form each ball. Whipped butter tends to look slightly better when balled, in my opinion, but use any kind you like. The balls can be stored in the fridge to ensure that they don’t melt together while you’re waiting to serve them.

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With a half-dozen limes freshly picked from a heavy-with-early-season-fruit lime tree and a large basket of organic, super sweet, nearly black raspberries in my kitchen, I knew that I had to find a way to combined them. Tempted as I was to just eat all the berries unadorned), the combination of zesty lime and rich berries just seemed too good to pass up.

And I’ll tell you right now that I’m glad I decided to go for it because this loaf turned out to be more than I had hoped for. It was easy to put together and baked up to look stunning, with a light gold crust on top and a white interior studded with vibrant red raspberries beneath. It was also very moist and light in texture, nearing a cake-like consistency that made me think this bread could be served on special occasions with tea or coffee, as well as just whipped up for personal enjoyment.

The flavor is excellent - very bright and zesty from all the lime juice. With my 6 large limes, I was able to get 3/4 cup of juice. It’s hard for me to predict how many you might need without seeing your limes, but I would think that 6-8 limes should be plenty for this recipe. And don’t worry if, after you juice your limes, you find that you’re short by a tablespoon or three of juice. If you come close to the 3/4 cup called for, just make up the last few tablespoons (2-3) of juice with water. As long as you have enough liquid, the loaf will turn out just fine, and because there is quite a bit of lime zest (and a little extra never hurt, either), the loaf should still have tons of flavor.

 You can use fresh or frozen raspberries for this loaf. I, as previously mentioned, used fresh berries and my only caution with them is to fold them into the batter gently, so that they don’t get entirely crushed and dye the batter pink. If you’re going to use frozen, don’t defrost them ahead of time. Just dust them with 2 tsp or so of all purpose flour (to help prevent their juices from bleeding) and stir them in.
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