Cranberry Bread

Cranberry Bread 

Its like thanksgiving in August. This bread is good anytime of the day. Since this recipe makes 4 small loafs I got to enjoy it for breakfast... until someone else ate it all when I wasn't looking. 

This is not a sweet bread. The cranberries add a tart flavor. Personally I think this bread tastes better the second or third day, after the flavors have had time to sit and blend together. 

Like many breakfasts breads, it is very filling. However it doesn't leave you with that too full feeling afterwards. It tastes good toasted or cold out of the refrigerator. 

My mother had no problem polishing off a mini loaf to herself in one sitting. 

Ingredients

4 Tablespoons Butter Melted
3/4 Cup of Nonfat Milk
1 Egg
2 Cups of Flour
1 Cup of Dark Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Teaspoons Baking Powder
1/2 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1 Teaspoon Salt
10 Ounces of Cranberries

Directions:

1.Preheat over to 350.
2.Mix together butter, milk and egg.
3.Add in flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and soda.
4.Fold in cranberries. Pour into 4 greased mini loaf pans or one 9x5 bread pan.
5. Bake for 40 minutes
Fills 4 mini loaves or one 9x5 bread pan. 

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Cinnamon Banana Bread (dairy free)

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

It was my moms best friends moms birthday two weeks ago. She can't eat any dairy products so I made her dairy free bread and cookies. Unlike a lot of dairy free recipes, this one doesn't even call for margarine.

I can't even count how many banana bread recipes I've tried. Any ranging from adding peanut butter to nutella, to even coconut. My favorites have to be either cinnamon banana bread or chocolate chip banana bread.

To get away with not including butter or margarine in the recipe, I used apple sauce. Oil would also work too if you don't have apple sauce. Butter can always be substituted out to make a healthier recipe.

This bread smells amazing when it comes out of the oven. Kitchens that are filled with hot out of the oven cookies or bread always smell the best. Try and make sure it is completely cool before you cut into it, otherwise the top will sink down. I know how hard it is to resist the temptation to cut into fresh bread.

Ingredients:

3 bananas
1/3 C apple sauce  

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

1 C sugar

1/4 tsp salt 

1 1/2 C flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon

For the cinnamon swirl: 1 tablespoon granulated sugar, 2 tsp cinnamon

Directions: 

1. Preheat oven to 350. Spray a 9x5 pan with nonstick spray

2. Mash your bananas. Add in the apple sauce, bananas, egg, and vanilla. 

3. Add in the sugar.

4. Add in the flour, salt, and baking soda. Mix until just combined. 

5. In a separate dish mix the cinnamon and sugar for the swirl

6. Pour half of the batter in the pan. Layer half of the cinnamon sugar swirl. 

7. Pour the remaining batter on top. Sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon sugar swirl on top of the batter. 

8. Bake for 40-50 minutes. 

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Pluot Bread

Pluot Bread

This is for those days when you have too many fruit trees and too much fresh fruit. This is a sweet bread that tastes almost like a pound cake but is still considered bread. It has a light and fluffy texture.

You can use this basic recipe and add in different kinds of fruit. More layers of fruit can also be added, the cooking time would just vary slightly.

The baked fruit keeps some of its juiciness which is a pleasant surprise when you take your first bite.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsalted butter melted
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 eggs
3/4 cup milk
Pluots, pitted and cut into small chunks

Directions:

1) Melt the butter. Cream with sugar.
2) Add the cinnamon, vanilla, salt and baking powder.
3) Mix in 1 cup of flour.
4) Add the eggs and milk.
5) Add the last cup of flour. This makes it much easier to stir by dividing!
6) Prepare a 9x4 bread pan. Place half the batter in the pan.
7) Put a layer of pluots.
8) Add the rest of the batter.
9) Place a layer of pluots on top.

Feel free to add in more layers of pluots! We left ours with the skin and varying sizes.

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Gluten Free Banana Bread

Gluten Free Banana Bread

I've never baked with rice flour before, actually I've never baked with any other flour besides all purpose flour. It was on sale at the market so I bought a bag of brown and white rice flour. I was a little skeptical about how this bread would turn out. I tried to find a sugar free gluten free banana bread, but my search turned up empty. So I decided to create my own. I used a equal ration of brown to white rice flour. I also used every baking substitute I know, meaning greek yogurt and apple sauce were utilized. This kept the bread moist and surprisingly sweet.

After hearing horror stories about how gluten free breads came out like hockey pucks, I was very happy with the end product.

At first bite the bread was soft and moist. The added chocolate chunks were a nice surprise and complimented the not over bearing banana flavor. It was sweet due to the natural sweetness of bananas. The bread also stayed light and fluffy. It rose considerable well. The texture of the bread was actually better then that made with all-purpose flour. The fluffiness was comparable to that of a yeast based dinner role. This is not like the normal dense banana breads.

Overall, I liked this banana bread recipe better then the other recipes I have tried using all purpose flour.  Once I combined all of the ingredients I sampled the batter. Since I'm not used to the different texture of the batter provided by the  rice flour, I was afraid it wasn't sweet enough. I added in some sugar, however this can easily be omitted to make the recipe diabetic friendly. If you need a dairy free recipe simply substitute the greek yogurt for oil or margarine.

After sitting for a day the bread will have the same texture as a sponge cake.

Ingredients

2 eggs

2 tsp vanilla

3 bananas

1/3 C unsweetened apple sauce 

6 oz greek yogurt (I used a container of vanilla greek yogurt 5.3 oz)

1 C white rice flour

1 C brown rice flour
3 tablespoons of sugar (optional, add if want a sweeter flavor)

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon 

1 C dark chocolate chunks 

Directions

Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9x5 pan. 

1. Mix together the eggs, smashed bananas, apple sauce, and greek yogurt

2. In a separate bowl mix together the flours, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon 

3. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients. 

4. Fold in the chocolate chunks. 

5. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

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Chocolate Banana Bread

Chocolate Banana Bread

This past weekend, I took a weekend trip to visit Gina and my mom. On Sunday, Gina and I ran the Rock and Roll San Diego 1/2 marathon. After we got home, Gina made me bread to take back to school. It is amazing. I've never had banana bread that stayed this moist or was this delicious. I've tried countless banana bread recipes ranging from some to yogurt in the batter, to other various substiutions. Nothing compares to how good this bread is was. 

This is my new favorite banana bread recipe. I was so surprised by how good this bread came out. It has just the right amount of sweetness to make for a perfect breakfast. I will be adding cocoa powder to all of my banana breads from now on. 

Gina divided and doubled the batter to make a loaf of bread for me, and muffins for my mom to take to her Monday morning meeting. 

The batter was large enough to make 24 muffins as well as a loaf of bread. 

I can't say personally how good the muffins came out, but the bread was amazing.
One trick to making amazing bread is to not over mix the batter. You want all of the ingredients just combined without any lumps.

If you have bananas and you like chocolate and bread, then go and make this. You will be in love. I can't promise how long the bread will last in your home. But it will stay fresh for up to a week in a air tight container. Maybe longer, but the bread in my house was gone before then.

Ingredients:

1/2 Cup Unsalted Butter
3 Bananas
1 Cup White Sugar
1 3/4 Cup Flour
1/4 Cup Cocoa Powder
2 Eggs
1 Teaspoon Baking Powder
1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda
1/4 Teaspoon Salt
1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract
1/2 Cup Mini Chocolate Chips

Directions:

1) Preheat Oven to 350.
2) Melt the butter. Mash the bananas. Cream with sugar.
3) Add flour, cocoa powder and eggs. Stir.
4) Add rest of the ingredients (until the chips) and mix.
5) Fold in the chips. Feel free to try white chocolate or peanut butter chips! Can also mix in walnuts or dried fruit.
6) Pour into a 9x5 pan. Bake for roughly one hour.

We doubled the recipe in one bowl (but with only 5 bananas). This was plenty for 24 muffins and a loaf of bread. We definitely could have made a few more muffins with in but the batter was too delicious (and we were too lazy to dirty another pan). The muffins needed about 20 minutes to cook.

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Banana Orange Bread

Banana Orange Bread

I came home for memorial day weekend. For some reason there was orange juice in the fridge. Which is rare. Especially considering I have to remind my dad to go out and buy milk for when I come home.

There was also some old bananas sitting on the counter. Being resourceful, I knew I must combine them to form something. We were missing some other important ingredients in the house so I had to substitute. Thus banana orange bread was born. A perfect way to use whatever fruit juice/fruit you may have laying around.

I didn't want this bread to be too sweet. So if you want a more dessert like bread go ahead and add more sugar. This one is breakfast approved. I brought it back to school with me and it became my breakfast for the week. 

Recipe:

1 C orange juice 

1 egg

2 bananas (smashed)

1 1/4 C sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 1/2 C flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1 C slivered almonds

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 bread pan. 

1. Combine the banana, sugar, oil, eggs, and orange juice

2. Add in the baking powder, salt, baking soda, flour and cinnamon. 

3. Add in the chopped almonds

4. Pour into 9x5 pan

5. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until toothpick inserted comes out clean. 

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Amish Cinnamon Bread

Amish Cinnamon Bread

Gina was making this bread for me when I came back from a morning run on Sunday. 

Its not too sweet and not too bland. Its the perfect breakfast bread. The cinnamon mixture is a great addition to the soft texture of the bread. Biting into it, it has the thickness of a loaf cake.  

You can even see the cinnamon swirl on top!

Batter:

1 cup unsalted butter, melted

1 3/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

2 cups milk plus 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

Cinnamon/sugar mixture:

3/4 cups sugar

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

This prepared one loaf of bread in a 9x4 pan and a dozen and a half muffins.

After melting the butter, mix with the sugar. Add 2 eggs. Next add flour, milk, lemon juice and baking soda. Do not start stirring until after adding the milk! Trust me- I started stirring before adding the flour and it was very, very difficult to get the milk to blend in! 

In a separate bowl (choose a small one!) gently stir together sugar and cinnamon. 

In the greased bread pan, pour 1/4 of the mixture. Sprinkle the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top. Add the remainder 1/4 of the mixture. Again add the cinnamon-sugar mixture on top. Take a utensil and swirl the mixture.

For the muffins, fill each muffin with the desired amount of batter then add some of the cinnamon sugar mixture on top. Again take a utensil and swirl.

The muffins took about 20 minutes @ 350 degrees, the bread about 45 minutes.

Note: this batter is super super good!

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Naan

Naan

Im sure I speak for many when I say one of the best parts of going to a Indian restaurant is the naan. Well, now you have no reason to go because this is some of the best naan I've ever had. Im comparing this to countless Indian places in LA so it holds some truth. 

It is so easy and surprisingly quick to make. For a bread that contains yeast, it can still be made within a hour. This recipe turned out beautifully. The naan was perfectly puffed up and thick. It was delicious. The use of vanilla greek yogurt gave it a nice sweet taste. It would also work nicely by adding garlic or any other variation of naan flavors you can think off. I just live with picky eaters so I have to keep everything as plain as possible. 

For some reason this picture didn't want to load all of the way from the camera... technology these days. 

Recipe:

2 tsp dry active yeast

1 tsp sugar

1/2 C water

2 1/2 - 3 1/2 C flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 C vegetable oil

1/3 C greek yogurt (I used vanilla)

1 egg

Directions:

1. Combine the yeast, sugar, and water. Let it sit for a few minutes or until it is frothy on top.
2. Stir in the oil, yogurt, and egg until combined
3. Add in the salt and flour. Start with 2 cups of flour then gradually add in more until you can no longer stir it.
4. Turn the dough onto a well floured surface. Knead the dough for 3 minutes. Add more flour if needed to keep the dough from sticking. I just put the dough in my kitchen aid mixer with a dough hook and left it on for three minutes, adding more flour so that if I poked the dough it wouldn't stick to my hands.
5. Loosely cover the dough and let it rise until it is doubled in size. I left it for about 30 minutes.
6. Then flatten the dough and cut it into 8 equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball then flatten until it is 1/4 inch thick.
7. Heat a large skillet over medium heat and spray with non stick spray. One flattened ball at a time, lay the dough on the skillet. Cook until the under side is golden brown and bubbles have formed. Then flip the dough and cook the other side until it is golden brown as well.
8. Brush with melted butter or herbs or enjoy it plain! 

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