When I was in sales I spent two months making quick breads in a variety of flavors and froze them. When the holidays rolled around I'd fill a cooler full of breads and hand them out to all my accounts. It's easy to make them a pretty package with aluminum foil and ribbon. Here's my quick bread recipes. The originals are in the Joy of Cooking
, second edition. That link, by the way, is to the 75th anniversary edition; if you enjoy history the page includes the publishing history of the Joy of Cooking, which is kinda neat.I increase these recipes to make four loaves at a time when I'm doing holiday baking. These also make great mini-loaves and muffins, just reduce the cooking time (about 18-20 minutes for muffins, a little longer for mini-loaves). Oh, the "quick" in quick bread indicates that it is not a yeast bread.
Banana Bread
I've taken blue ribbons at the fair with this recipe. The trick: use bananas that are completely black and totally mushy. They have the most flavor and add moisture.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Sift together:
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Blend until creamy:
1/3 cup shortening
2/3 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon grated lemon rind or lemon zest
1 beaten egg
1-2 cups ripe banana pulp (I never measure this. I use two average sized bananas or one really large one)
Add the dry ingredients to the wet gradually, beating until smooth after each addition. Fold in 1/2 cup chopped nuts or dates (Joy of Cooking also recommends dried apricots), if desired. Place in a greased bread pan. Bake for about one hour, or until done.
Banana Blueberry Bread:
Add 1/2 cup dried or frozen blueberries at the last step. If you use frozen, mix them in quickly; over mixing will cause them to 'bleed' and you get blue bread.
Quick Add-Anything Bread
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup white or 1/2 cup brown sugar
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Beat together:
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 egg
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla or other flavoring
Add the moist ingredients to the dry. Fold in
3/4 cup copped nuts, dates, dried berries, or another combination.
Place in a greased bread pan and bake about 40 minutes
List of additions:
Orange Cranberry Bread:
3/4 cup dried cranberries - reduce sugar to 1/4c white sugar and milk to 1/2 cup, and add 1/2 cup orange juice. Vanilla may be omitted.
Lemon Poppy-Seed Bread:
1/4-1/3 cup poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon lemon zest. Vanilla is optional. Don't use lemon juice, but you can substitute some lemonade as in the Cranberry bread.
Date-Nut Bread:
3/4 cup total chopped nuts and chopped dates
Fruit-Nut Bread:
3/4 cup total any combination of dried fruit and nuts. When making this for the holidays, I tend to use slivered almonds, not just for their toasty-creamy taste but because people with nut allergies often don't react to almonds.
Easy Fruity Bread:
This differs from the Add-Anything Bread in that the bread will have fruit pulp baked in instead of dried fruit added, although you can also add dried fruit. A great use for applesauce!
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Sift together:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
Blend until creamy:
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
Add:
3/4 cup unsweetened, cooked, mashed prune, apricot, cranberry pulp or applesauce
1/4 cup prune, apricot, cranberry or apple juice
Add the sifted ingredients alternately to the fruit mixture with:
1 cup buttermilk (you can make your own buttermilk by adding 1 Tbsp vinegar to a cup of milk)
Fold in:
1 cup chopped nuts
1 tablespoon orange zest (optional)
Place the dough in a greased loaf pan. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours, and let it cool in the pan.
Again, you can get creative with the nuts, substituting dried fruit or something else yummy.
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