Daily Unadventures in Cooking » Quick Bread

Fully Loaded Cornbread Recipe

katerina — Thu, 19 May 2011 14:12:16 +0000

Wondering what makes a cornbread fully loaded? Good thing you have me here to tell you.

I bet you were worried.

For this cornbread recipe to be totally macked out, you will need to add pickled jalapenos, bacon, fresh corn off the cob and two kinds of cornmeal.

Oh, you can grease the pan with bacon fat if you are so inclined. Not a meat-eater? Try substituting grated cheddar for the bacon – it will still be just as rich.

Whole Wheat Zucchini, Rhubarb and Ginger Bread Recipe

katerina — Fri, 30 Apr 2010 12:47:40 +0000

Sometimes when I am lying in bed at night I compose recipes. Lately, I seem not to be counting sheep as much as rhubarb. Rhubarb and ginger persists to keep me awake at night and much like trying to rid your brain of an Abba song, I am inclined to put the song on repeat. So here is another rhubarb and ginger recipe.

I suppose it isn’t all bad. Rhubarb is finally in season after all, and since I was burdened with an armful of it from my in-laws I am following up my pumpkin, rhubarb and ginger muffins with another healthy baked good. This time it is based on my whole wheat zucchini and cherry bread and my rhubarb and ginger compote recipes.

When I envisioned this the batter baked up pink, but sadly the powers of positive thinking don’t reach quite that far.

The key to getting this recipe right is to make sure you have a fairly dry compote; if it is liquidy strain some of the syrup out first. Don’t toss the syrup out. It makes a great mocktail when mixed with soda water, and while you are at it add some gin. If I can’t sleep someone should.

Rhubarb is still stuck in my head. I am sorry if I put it in yours as well, but I am likely to keep humming this tune for a few more weeks. I do have a big bag of it in my fridge after all.

Whole Wheat Zucchini, Rhubarb and Ginger Bread Recipe
(makes 2 loaves or 24 muffins)

2 1/4 cups zucchini, grated
3 eggs
1/2 cup oil
a scant cup sugar
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 cups rhubarb and ginger compote
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoons salt

Preheat oven to 350F. Prep zucchini by grating it on the thickest setting on a cheese grater. Set aside. In a mixing bowl beat eggs until light and foamy. Add oil, sugar and vanilla and beat to combine. Stir in zucchini and rhubarb and ginger compote. In a separate bowl stir together dry ingredients. Stir dry into wet gently don’t over mix.

Spray two loaf pans with cooking spray or rub with oil. (If you would prefer to make muffins line your muffin tins with papers.) I made one loaf and a dozen muffins with this recipe. Divide batter between loaf pans or into muffin cups. Bake loafs for approximately one hour or muffins for 25 minutes. Until a toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack.

This freezes well, wrap in plastic wrap and then aluminum foil and make sure it is completely cool before freezing.

Rosemary and Pepper Soda Bread Recipe

katerina — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 12:15:04 +0000

Every time I make soda bread I wonder why I don’t make it more often. Any bread that you can prepare without rising, or in this case even kneading, is worth making any night of the week.

This particular irish soda bread recipe is made with browned butter, black pepper, and rosemary. Personally I didn’t find that the browned butter came through very well to the finished product but the other flavours were divine. Next time I will make sure to brown the butter more.

This is a rustic bread, best broken directly with your hands and dipped in Guinness and Beef Pie or apricot preserves.

Rosemary and Pepper Soda Bread
(makes 2 small loaves)
Adapted from Epicurious

3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup oats
1 tablespoon fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon black pepper + topping
1/4 cup butter
1 3/4 cups buttermilk (I used milk + 3 teaspoons vinegar for 5 minutes at room temp)

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine dry ingredients (flour, sugar, oats, rosemary, baking powder, baking soda & pepper) in a bowl and whisk together. In a large saucepan melt butter on medium heat, stir regularly until butter is browned. Stir into dry mixture along with buttermilk.

Turn out onto a well floured surface. Divide dough in half and form into balls. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Great broken apart and dipped in stew.

Whole Wheat Zucchini and Cherry Bread Recipe

katerina — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 21:35:00 +0000

Farmers markets are a great test to my self control, a test which I generally fail. Two weeks ago I hit up the Kitsilano Farmers Market and came out with peas, kale, 2lbs of cherries, zucchini, strawberries, raspberries, garlic scapes and one lone bay plant. Realizing how much fruit I had I was determined to make something with cherries to help reduce the bounty.

Since zucchini bread was a favorite of mine as a kid I decided to make a twist on that. We used to add chocolate chips to zucchini bread, but this time I made it a little healthier by reducing the sugar, substituting some whole wheat flour and adding cherries instead of chocolate chips.

The cherries give the zucchini bread a bit of tartness and a lovely colour. Between the vibrant green of the zucchini and the bright red of the cherries it almost seems like something to make at Christmas time rather then the middle of summer. But this time of year is when everyone seems to have too much zucchini and is looking for zucchini recipe ideas. If only zucchini and cherries were in season all year round.

Oh, and umm… I made it all in my new toy, my vita-mix. You see, I can totally justify my expensive new toy, I can make freaking everything in this thing. My blender broke down a few weeks ago and it was the second high end blender that we had gone through in 3 years. At $200ish a pop the Waring blender kept getting part of it’s screws stripped and therefore stopped blending. I have been interested in the vita-mix’s for awhile and it just seemed like a worthy choice since I found such good testaments to them online. Plus I found a local business selling them at a great price. So yeah… I made this in my vita mix, and it worked great, plus it is just so easy to clean.

Cranberry Banana Walnut Bread Recipe

katerina — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:45:00 +0000

I love all my fellow bloggers out there. However, some days when I am attempting to eat healthy and I am reading through my feeds, all the cream based pastas and soups, cookies, brownies, pies and other delicious snacks are… distracting.

So I have been reading all these fabulous healthy blogs along with my usual reading list and it has been giving me good healthy cooking ideas. It has also introduced me to a new blogger event – the Blogger Secret Ingredient. Since this week it is cranberries and I had like a dozen bananas in my freezer I decided to try this recipe from The Bread Bible. However I tried to make it a little healthier with a few additions and substitutions.

It came out really, really well, next time I might even add a bit more whole wheat flour and less butter, but you really don’t need to change a thing. It certainly didn’t taste “healthy”.

Cranberry Banana Walnut Bread
(makes 2 loafs)

400 grams all purpose flour
50 grams oatmeal
85 grams whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons salt
225 grams butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 egg, lightly beaten
4 bananas, mashed (I used frozen)
3 tablespoons yogourt
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 cups cranberries, cut in half
225 grams walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl cream butter and sugar using a mixer. Then add eggs, vanilla, banana and yogourt and beat until combined.
Add flour mixture and beat *just* until combined. Then add cranberries and walnuts and mix in.

Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake for 20 minutes then cover lightly with aluminum foil and bake for another 30 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool for a few minutes then remove from pans and cool completely on cooling racks.

Cornbread Experiment

katerina — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 15:14:00 +0000

I made this awhile ago and just never got the chance to post. It is a Jalapeno Cheddar cornbread recipe from Ina Garten available here. This is the first time I had ever made cornbread and it worked pretty well, the only concern was that it was a little crumbly compared to those I have had out. Any suggestions there?