Create: Quick Breads
Cheese Biscuit Bread with Fresh Herbs
photography by Janet Warlick
My oldest cookbooks — The New McCall’s Cookbook (1973), The Fannie Farmer Cookbook (1965), The Helen Corbitt Collection (1981), Marion Cunningham’s Breakfast Book (1987), The New York Times Cookbook (1961) — all have sections on quick breads. Quick breads are quick compared to yeast breads and would have been a welcome alternative for weary bakers in a time when bread required rising and was made at home.
Fruit nut breads were popular in mid-last century, and according to my 1973 New McCalls Cookbook, “It’s hard to buy these sweet breads, so if you want to serve them, you’ll have to make them …” My, how times have changed! In the ‘70s, zucchini bread and carrot bread — the original “hide the vegetables” recipes — become quite popular, especially as gifts. And then, sometime in the ‘80s, quick breads were no longer quick enough for our quick lives and their recipes morphed into muffins, which are quicker. Muffins hit the charts, climbed to the top and have remained.
Of course, quick bread recipes are also some of the most cherished family recipes, which explains why three of this month’s recipes are named for the people who made them.
Quick bread recipes generally follow the same three-step pattern: combine the dry ingredients in one bowl; combine the wet ingredients in another bowl; combine the wet and dry ingredients.
Cheese Biscuit Bread with Fresh Herbs
Use a food processor to chop the herbs. Although any all -purpose flour works, I like to use a Southern flour, like White Lily, for this recipe.
2 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons cold butter, cut into small pieces
1 ½ cups coarsely-grated sharp Cheddar
1 tablespoon finely-chopped fresh herbs, like parsley, rosemary, thyme
2 eggs, lightly beaten
2/3 cup milk
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 9-by-5-by-2 inch loaf pan. In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender until consistency of coarse crumbs; stir in cheese and herbs.
Combine milk and eggs; add to flour mixture, and stir until just combined — lumps are OK. Do not over mix.
Spoon into prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Remove from pan and serve warm. You can also make 12 muffins. Bake muffins for 18 minutes.
Variation: Add a handful of fresh spinach that has been wilted and squeezed.
Hope’s Apricot Nut Bread
From my mother’s recipe box, handwritten on the back of an envelope.
1 ½ cups apricot nectar, divided
¾ cup snipped dried apricots
½ cup golden raisins
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg, well beaten
2 tablespoons canola oil
½ cup sliced almonds
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a loaf pan, approximately 9-by-5-by-2 inches.
Combine 1 cup nectar, apricots and raisins in a medium saucepan, and heat to boiling. Simmer gently for 3 to 5 minutes, remove from the heat and cool.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large mixing bowl. Whisk together the remaining ½ cup apricot nectar, egg and canola oil; stir into the dry ingredients. Strain the liquid from the apricots and raisins, reserving 2 tablespoons. Fold the apricots, raisins and almonds into the batter; stir in the reserved 2 tablespoons of liquid. Pour into prepared loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 55 minutes. Edges will brown; toothpick should come out of the center clean.
Source: Hope Anaya, Somerset, NJ
Denise’s Banana Nut Bread
Personally, my favorite fat is butter, and butter is why this is the best banana bread I have ever had.
¾ cup butter
1 ½ cups sugar
1 ½ cups mashed banana, about 3 medium
2 large eggs, well beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon salt
½ cup buttermilk
¾ cup chopped walnuts
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-by-5-by-2 inch loaf pan.
Cream butter and sugar well. Blend in bananas, eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, alternating with the buttermilk and mixing well after each addition. Add the nuts, and mix just to combine. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake at 325 for 1 ¼ hours or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the center of the loaf.
Submitted by Denise Gilliam, Little Rock, AR
Crescent Dragonwagon’s Carrot Bread
The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook is a treasure trove of doable and interesting recipes. Crescent’s tips are what make it a usable at-home book. Here is an example: “A quick bread is done when the edges are deeply browned and the center, which will be cracked in most cases, is a lighter golden brown and firm to the touch. A tooth pick inserted in the crack will come out clean.”
Sift together:
4 cups unbleached white flour
1 ½ teaspoon each baking powder and baking soda
1 teaspoon each salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
Beat together:
2 cups mild vegetable oil
6 eggs
2 ¼ cups brown sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
Combine wet and dry ingredients together with:
1 ½ cup chopped walnuts
4 cups grated carrots, about 1 pound
½ cup chopped dates or diced dried pineapple
½ cup flaked coconut
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Turn the mixture into pans sprayed with Pam Cooking Spray. Bake for about 30 minutes for small pans, 40 to 45 minutes for large pans. Yield: four small or two large loaves. Recipe can be halved.
Source: The Dairy Hollow House Cookbook by Crescent Dragonwagon
Whole Wheat Zucchini Nut Bread
Never thought of using whole wheat flour for a quick bread? Try it for the sweet nuttiness of the flavor. King Arthur Flour is a comprehensive baking source — you can call them and talk with a person about baking questions.
2 large eggs
¼ cup molasses
½ cup vegetable oil
½ cup granulated or brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup King Arthur whole wheat flour
¾ cup King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup shredded, unpeeled zucchini (1 small to medium)
¾ cup raisins (golden are nice)
¾ cup chopped walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a standard 9-by-5 inch loaf pan, or line it with parchment. In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs, oil, molasses, sugar and vanilla until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture. Stir in the zucchini, raisins and walnuts. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes until the loaf tests done (a wooden tester inserted in the center will come out clean). Remove the bread from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 20 minutes before removing from the pan and returning to the rack to cool completely.
Source: kingarthurflour.com
Faith Anaya runs cooking programs for kids in central Arkansas. Questions? Recipe to share? She can be reached at info@kidscookarkansas.com.
