Spotlight On: Quick Breads

One of my favorite things to bake (besides cookies) is bread. And while I LOVE the smell and taste of a yeast bread, I also really appreciate the flavor and versatility of quick breads. Quick breads are just those made without active yeast and that don't require manipulation (kneading) or a rise period.

For our Halloween get together before trick-or-treating, I wanted to have some snacks out for our guests. I decided for sure that I would serve homemade caramel fondue with apple slices... and then read some suggestions while hunting for the fondue recipe to use pumpkin bread cubes and banana bread cubes for dippers. Mmm! That sounded awesome, so I made both.

First, I baked another one of our pie pumpkins to use the fresh puree for my bread. Remember how I said there is such a difference in color between canned and fresh?

Check it out:
Ick. The canned stuff was leftover from our pumpkin waffles awhile back and now it just looks totally unappetizing and fake.

I used this recipe for pumpkin chocolate chip bread from The Fresh Loaf and it turned out amazing!

Instead of 2 cups of chocolate chips OR walnuts as the recipe says, I just used one cup of each.

I also made a loaf of my Aunt Lori's Banana Tea Bread.

The recipe comes from Aunt Lori's grandmother.

Banana Tea Bread

1 3/4 cups flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt
1/3 cup shortening

2/3 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed bananas

1/2 cup chopped nuts

Combine first four ingredients in a bowl. Cream sugar and shortening in another bowl until well combined. Add eggs to sugar mixture and blend well. Add dry ingredients alternately with mashed banana. Stir in chopped nuts. (I used pecans.) Bake at 350 for 1 hour or until top is firm to touch.

Some of the caramel fondue recipes I found directed to use a candy thermometer to cook at certain temperatures for a given period of time. But this one just gave directions for time and appearance. It was kind of like a science experiment waiting for the sugar to caramelize and then adding the cream slowly while it bubbled up and boiled. The color was darker than you'd expect, but the flavor was fantastic. And it kept smooth and silky at room temperature and even right out of the fridge the next day.

This picture was taken after guests had been snacking for a bit. I cut the bread into about 1" cubes and the apples into medium thickness slices. Another favorite quick bread that's probably my most frequently made is zucchini bread. I don't have a picture at the moment because it wasn't one I made this weekend. But it IS delicious and I love it year round.

Zucchini Bread

3 eggs

2 cups shredded zucchini

1 cup oil

2 cups sugar

3 tsp vanilla

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp baking powder

3 tsp cinnamon

1 cup chopped nuts

Oven to 350. Beat eggs well. Add zucchini, oil, sugar and vanilla. Combine dry ingredients and add to wet ingredients slowly. Fold in nuts. Bake 1 hour or until knife inserted comes clean.

I'm not sure where I got that recipe but it's very good, though loaded with sugar and oil. Sometime soon, I'd like to try this Weelicious version using some whole wheat flour, less oil and agave nectar in place of the sugar. Come to think of it, there are LOTS of Weelicious recipes I want to try in the near future...