Caprese Quick Bread

The other weekend I wanted to make bread, but didn’t have the time to be at home for all the kneading, proofing and time for the dough to rise.  So I did a quick search and I stumbled upon this quick bread.  It was perfect!!  I already had all of the ingredients at home so I was ready to get cooking. 

This bread is seriously so yummy, I literally had to text my friend to ask her if it was gluttonous to have 4 slices of bread in one afternoon.  Warm out of the oven with a little pat of butter this bread was a dream.  I literally had to put the bread away and hide it from myself before I ate the whole loaf.  That same friend that I had to text reminded me that I hadn’t posted the recipe for the Caprese bread yet, so here it is! 

Caprese Quick Bread
adapted from Cookin Canuk

2 1/2 cup flour
2 tsp. baking powder
2 eggs
3/4 tsp. salt
3/4 cup non fat milk
2/3 cup olive oil
3/4 cup sun dried tomatoes, cut into small pieces
4 oz. mini mozzarella balls
1/4 cup basil, thinly sliced
1 clove garlic, finely minced

1.  Pre-heat the oven to 350 degrees.  In a bowl combine flour, baking powder and salt.  In a larger bowl whisk together milk, oil, and eggs until well combined. 

2.  Combine the wet and dry mixtures and stir until evenly combined.  Mix in sun dried tomatoes, basil and mozzarella.  *Don’t over mix or the bread can get tough.*

3.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and pour the batter into the pan.  Smooth out the top and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes.  *Look to see that the bread is a light golden brown and test with a knife to make sure bread is cooked through.*

Let the bread cool in the pan for 15 minutes and remove, slice and serve!  This bread is awesome warm right out of the oven or toasted the next day.  I will definitely be making this again, instead of basil I might mix in some pesto instead since I think it would add some added depth of flavor. 

This quick bread is a great base, the possibilities of combinations of add ins are endless!  I totally want to do a green chile, cheddar cheese and maybe bacon. 

Banana Bread, an Ode to Flour Bakery!

I fell in love with Flour Bakery during my trip to Boston.  The hype around Joanne Chang and her lovely bakeries, was much deserved.  As soon as I got home I had to look up more of her great recipes.  As luck would have it, I had some over ripe bananas so I was able to make Flour Bakery’s banana bread! 

Let me tell you that this banana bread is so moist and so good!  Five days later people were still raving about how moist it was.  (I had forgotten to take it over to a friends house so I had brought it into work).  I didn’t even think it needed a little pat of butter on it either since the bread is infused with great banana flavor.  (Super awesome considering I made some changes to lighten up the recipe.)

 

Banana Bread
adapted from Flour Bakery

1 2/3 cup flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
3 1/2 bananas
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 Tbsp. non fat vanilla yogurt
2/3 cup toasted macadamia nuts, chopped

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Sift flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. 

2.  Combine eggs and sugar in a separate bowl and whisk for 10 minutes until it turns light and fluffy.  Add in mashed bananas, vanilla extract, non fat yogurt and applesauce. 

3.  Fold in wet and dry ingredients.  Stir in chopped macadamia nuts and mix well.  Pour into a parchment lined loaf pan or butter and flour pan.  Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour.   

Herby No Knead Bread

I have a love hate relationship with bread.  I love it fresh out of the oven, with a pat of melted butter on it.  Is anything better?  Now that I am no longer 16, bread goes straight to my belly and thighs.  I had been wanting to make this No Knead Bread for months!  You know the recipe that went around the web 3 times and came back again.  I didn’t want to get too crazy, since I have been known to bomb on yeast recipes.  So I simply cut up some fresh herbs and tossed into this famous No Knead Bread recipe.  Can I tell you that the scent of it baking in the oven was almost more than I could bear.  The bread was perfect.  The crust was nice and crunch and the middle was soft, dense and chewy all at the same time.  I won’t bother reposting since you can find it in the NY Times and on hundreds of blogs.  I found the extra directions and cute pics at Steamy Kitchen to be super helpful! 

Success!  Can I tell you that the most exciting sound is to take this bread out of the oven and hear it crackling.  Sorry if you’ve seen this dozens of times, but I was super excited and had to document it!  =)   

With my many mishaps with yeast, I’ve learned that bubbles are a good thing.  I also learned the hard way you can kill yeast with too hot water! 

After 12 hours this was the transformation, I was so happy to see it looking that way in the morning.  Nothing is worse than seeing an un-risen blob….

Yipee!  It looks perfect.  I can’t wait to try this with other add ins, wheat flour, maybe some oats or honey as well.  I knew I was going to bake this up so I had bought an amazing container of roasted red bell pepper shallot goat cheese to spread on it.  So if you are afraid of yeast or making bread, take comfort in knowing that even I could do it- so you can too!  (Trust me it’s worth it!)