Archive for the ‘Breads – Quick Breads’ Category
Fresh cranberries can be a great ingredient to work with, and not just when you want to make cranberry sauce for Thanksgiving dinner. The berries have a vivid red color and a bright, tart flavor that goes well with all kinds of different flavors, from chocolate to toasted coconut. People don’t seem to reach for cranberries as often as blueberries, raspberries and other popular berries, but I definitely try to take advantage of fresh cranberries in the fall and winter when they’re widely available.
Double Chocolate Chip Cranberry Bread is a great recipe for fans of chocolate and cranberries. The bread has a good chocolate flavor, a soft and slightly cake-like crumb, and plenty of zesty cranberries scattered throughout to liven up each bite. There are also a generous number of chocolate chips in this bread, so you get a double dose of chocolate. This is a great bread to serve at a brunch with coffee, but it is so simple to put together that it is a good recipe to make without a special occasion just to enjoy at home.
This bread keeps well for several days when stored in an airtight container. It is very good served at room temperature, but becomes quite decadent when you warm up a slice slightly (10 seconds or so in the microwave is usually enough) because the chocolate chips become melted and the bread turns into a rich dessert! I prefer using fresh cranberries in this bread when I have them, but frozen berries will work too. Frozen berries should not be defrosted before adding them into the recipe and the bread may need an extra minute or two in the oven.
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Lemon is often paired with gingerbread because the bright, sharp flavor of the citrus is a good contrast for the dark, molassey flavor of gingerbread. Typically the lemon accent takes the form of a glaze or is served on the side as lemon curd. In this Meyer Lemon Gingerbread, I incorporated fresh Meyer lemon juice and plenty of lemon zest right into the gingerbread, making it sweet, spicy, bright and tangy all at the same time!
The gingerbread is moist, with a sturdy but tender crumb. It tastes like a cross between gingerbread and lemon bread, since you get notes from all the spices that contribute to the gingerbread, but it is all tied together with that zesty Meyer lemon flavor. I like using the not-too-tart Meyer lemons in baking because they add a lot of lemon flavor without adding a strong sour note that might overpower the other ingredients. In this recipe, you can definitely substitute regular lemon juice if you don’t have Meyer lemons. I highly recommend using fresh lemon juice – regardless of which type of lemon you choose – in this recipe to ensure that you get the brightest flavor and the best results.
This bread comes together very easily and can be sliced and served without any special glazes or garnishes. It is a good choices for a holiday dessert or a holiday gift because, like many other types of gingerbread, the flavor of this loaf improves over the course of a couple of days so it can be savored at home or shipped off to friends.
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Banana bread is one of the things that I bake most often, as not only do I like it, but I almost always have some bananas around the kitchen that need a little more direction in life. The same could be said for pumpkin bread during the fall and winter months. I stock up on canned pumpkin puree in the fall, so I always have it on hand, and pumpkin bread is an easy, all-purpose treat to bake with it. Pumpkin bread is spicy and satisfying, a nice change of pace from banana bread (although similar in concept) and the perfect thing to have with coffee on a chilly winter day.
Like banana bread, I have one pumpkin bread recipe that I turn to over and over again, adding different twists to it here and there depending on what I’m in the mood for. This is that Basic Pumpkin Bread recipe. It’s a very moist loaf that is tender but filling at the same time. There is a good amount of pumpkin puree in the recipe (you can use homemade or store bought), along with a generous dose of pumpkin pie spices like cinnamon, ginger, cloves and nutmeg.
The pumpkin bread is very tasty on its own, spread with butter or even topped with cream cheese. It also opens the door to all kinds of variations depending on what ingredients you have in your kitchen. Nuts, chocolate chips and dried fruits are just a few add-ins that can completely change your pumpkin bread. Candied ginger can really spice it up, as can playing with the existing spices in the bread for different flavor profiles. I’ve listed a few suggestions beneath the recipe, so use them as a jumping off point for your own pumpkin bread and then come up with your own combinations!
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Homemade apple butter is a delicious topping for all kinds of things, such as toast, muffins and even yogurt and oatmeal. Since I make it in the fall, I tend to serve it with biscuits and dinner rolls during big holiday dinners, too. This year I wanted a change of pace and decided to stuff my biscuits with the apple butter instead of serving it on the side.
These Apple Butter-Stuffed Buttermilk Biscuits are buttery, flaky biscuits that have a small pocket of apple butter baked inside of them. The apple butter adds a nice sweetness to the biscuits, and makes these a tasty snack, in addition to being a tasty side dish. I roll my biscuit dough out in a much thinner layer than I usually do and cut out twice as many rounds. I add the apple butter to the center of half of the rounds, just as I would do if I were making sandwich cookies, and place another biscuit round on top. The warm apple butter is a great treat when you’re biting into a freshly baked biscuit.
Usually I work biscuit dough on a well-floured surface. Since I was planning to stuff these, I wanted the dough to be a little on the sticky side so that I would get a good seal around the filling with my dough. Use flour sparingly and use a bench scraper if necessary to get the cut biscuits off your work surface. If you do find that your biscuit dough isn’t sticky enough to form a tight seal, simply wet the edges of the dough with a little water and pinch to close. Even if some of the apple butter escapes during baking, it’ll still create a sweet center in each of the biscuits and they will still be delicious – you just might want to serve them with a little extra apple butter on the side.
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When I’m working with a shaped pan, like the Wilton Doughnut Twist Pan, I will often start out working with the recipe that comes on the packaging. These recipes are usually tasty and are always formulated to fit the pan, so there is no guesswork involved in trying out the recipe. The recipes are also a good jumping off point for making changes to a recipe easily because it gives you a basic formula that you know will work with the pan without making too much (or too little batter). This is exactly what I did with the Donut Twist Pan: I took the recipe on the back of the box, tried it and tried my own twist on it.
The recipe for baked crullers is simple, muffin-type recipe that is enriched with buttermilk to ensure that the crullers have a tender crumb and a moist interior. The original recipe has a few hints of spice added to it, but after playing around with it a little bit, I decided to make mine all vanilla. I omitted all of the spices, added additional vanilla extract and used homemade vanilla sugar to finish off my donuts. You can glaze the crullers with a glaze made with confectioners sugar and milk (or water), but since I like real donuts that are rolled in sugar, I rolled my baked crullers in sugar, too. This gives the crullers a crisp, sweet outer layer that is surprisingly similar to that of a fried donut.
This recipe is designed to work with Wilton’s Doughnut Twist Pan. If you don’t have one, you could use another type of baked donut pan or even a muffin pan, filling each cavity up about 2/3 full with batter. Brush your baked goods with a little butter, roll them in sugar and you’ll definitely be happy with the results of the baked donuts.
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