Tag Archives: Quick bread

Rhubarb Pistachio Loaf with Strawberry Glaze

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I suspect that toilet paper is not the only thing people are hoarding during the pandemic. Anyone else notice the glut of banana bread recipes floating around the web these days? It seems we have an excess of rotting bananas on our counters.

But, I’m here to change all that. Move over banana bread. There’s a new loaf in town. It’s rhubarb season and I couldn’t be more excited. We live in an age of instant gratification, where we can get practically anything we want, at any time. But not rhubarb! We must patiently wait for rhubarb season. But it’s so worth it. I adore that tart, sour flavour.

It’s rare to find rhubarb at the market with the leaves still attached. Most stores cut the leaves off before selling them because they’re poisonous. So when I find some with the leaves, I really geek out. Local rhubarb is just starting to arrive in Ottawa. This bunch is forced, which results in rosier coloured stalks.

I have made many loaves over the past few weeks, turning my husband, a former rhubarb hater, into a lover. My first version featured pecans. I switched to pistachios when I ran out of pecans, and I was thrilled with the results, both in taste and in looks.

This loaf comes together very quickly. Only one bowl and no mixer required. Check out the video.

The glaze is made with icing sugar, lemon juice and about a half an ounce of freeze-dried strawberries, which I ground into a powder. One ounce of freeze dried strawberries contains almost a pound of fresh strawberries, so this glaze really packs a punch of flavour.
Freeze dried fruit is not the same as dried fruit. Dried fruit is dehydrated and only about 75% of the water is removed. With freeze-drying, the fruit is placed into a vacuum chamber where the temperature is well-below freezing and 99% of the moisture can be removed from the fruit.

After glazing, I decorated the top of the top of the loaf with more pistachios and some freeze dried strawberry dust.

This is sure to become a new favourite in your house. This is a super moist loaf. I love it because it’s not too sweet. The tangy rhubarb flavour really shines through.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb -Pistachio-Loaf-with-Strawberry-Glaze-Download

Strawberry, Banana, Coconut and Chia Bread

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skiced 3 625 sqI am now an empty nester and over a week can go by without a word from my two oldest children. I have friends whose kids call them several times a day. When I ask them what their kids call about, they say it could be for help editing their essays, choosing a brand of canned tuna to buy or even just advice about laundry. Huh?

I waver between two alternative thoughts regarding how well I did raising my own children. Either:

1. I failed miserably in creating the bond or attachment that these other mothers have done so astonishingly well with. OR:

2. I have been wildly successful in raising my children to be independent thinkers and problem solvers.

Of course the truth, as always. lies somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum.

When my first born moved out, we only heard from him when he needed money. Now he keeps in touch with us by Spot Connect, a GPS device that sends us a message showing us where he is and that he is ok. Sort of like “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.” To be fair, he is an outdoor educator and is often in remote spots without cell service. It gives us great peace of mind. And lately he has been calling just to say hi and catch up on the latest news.

When my second born moved out I would only hear from her if she was sick, needed money or some other horrible disaster had befallen her. However, in the past year she now calls me with cooking questions and texts me with links to great blogs, and photos of something delicious she has cooked or baked. It makes me so happy.

When the third born moved out, I moved in with him for the first week! But that’s a story for another time.

Last week my daughter called for advice on baking times. She had a recipe for a loaf that she was making as muffins instead. She needed to know how much to reduce the cooking time by. She excitedly burbled about this amazing recipe for Strawberry Banana Coconut Bread  created by the charming Monique of ambitiouskitchen.com. When she was done she texted this picture.J's muffinsWe texted back and forth about the muffins. She said they had chia seeds in them and wanted to know if I had ever heard about them. Have I heard about them?? Can you say “Ch-ch-ch-chia?” They were my very first pet!  I grew up growing my own chia seeds! If you are of a certain vintage, you will fondly remember this commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M

Apparently, chia seeds are this year’s new “superfood”.  According to The Huffington Post there are 11 reasons to include Chia seeds in your diet. High in fibre, omega-3, calcium, manganese, phosphorous, iron and calcium, these little seeds help fight diabetes, belly fat and heart disease and are excellent at regulating your appetite.

Truthfully the strawberry banana combo didn’t really appeal to me. It is a duo found commonly in smoothies and I am not a huge smoothie fan. I would rather eat the fruit than drink it.  But her muffins and Monique’s loaf looked so pretty and I was curious to revisit Chia seeds!

chia seeds

strawberriesThe raw loaf just looks so pretty before it goes into the oven. I slightly adapted the original recipe. I substituted about 1/3 whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour. I also boosted the fat from 1 tablespoon coconut oil to 3 tablespoons coconut oil, as I found the first loaf I made a bit dry.ready for ovenIt bakes up high and golden brown.cooling

Click here to print the recipe for Strawberry Banana Coconut and Chia Bread.

sliced 2 625 sq

 

 

 

#10. Girl’s Week Cornbread

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slice

I have to admit, I didn’t go into this week’s challenge with high expectations.  I have been making the same cornbread recipe since 1987, when my friend Pam shared her recipe with me.  I love her cornbread.  It combines cornmeal and corn flour and makes for a very tender cornbread.  I add canned corn to it which enhances the sweetness and finely diced jalapeno which helps to temper the sweetness.  All in all a wonderful recipe.  I was never tempted to stray from this perfection.  However, the Bread Bakers Apprentice Challenge called for making Peter Reinhart’s cornbread recipe this week.

This is the only bread recipe in the book that does not call for yeast.  In baking terminology, it’s what is known as a “quick bread” which relies on chemical leavening, typically baking soda and/or baking powder.  While classified as  a quick bread, this version of cornbread takes 2 days to make.  However, day 1 just consists of 5 minutes of time to make the cornmeal soaker.  Coarse cornmeal (also known as polenta) is given an overnight bath in buttermilk.  I did not have any buttermilk, and as I am at the lake at my cottage, I did not feel like driving 20 minutes to the store, so I just added a bit of lemon juice to the milk to sour it.

The next day assembling the rest of the bread is simple.  Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a mixing bowl.  Stir in brown and white sugar.  In a separate bowl, the eggs are beaten and honey and melted butter are mixed into the eggs.  This whole mixture then gets combined with the buttermilk soaked polenta.  Dry and wet ingredients are combined and some frozen corn is mixed in.  I also added a finely diced jalapeno.

The cornbread is baked in a 10 inch pan.  I only had a 9 inch pan so I also used some mini loaf pans.  The baking dishes are coated in bacon grease and heated in the oven for 5 minutes before the cornbread batter is added.  This gives the cornbread a crisp crust.  I was not using bacon so I just brushed the pans with vegetable oil and heated them.

I was a bit distracted as I baked the cornbread and did not take my usual step by step photos.  For this you can blame my friends Lynnie and Paula.  They came up to my cottage to spend a few days with me and we were very busy laughing and drinking wine while I made this.  Lest you think I totally slacked off, I did make them cheddar jalapeno bagels on day two of their visit, cornbread on day three and for a final send off on day four I rolled them out the door with tummies full of sticky buns.  We also collaborated on an amazing spinach, watermelon, strawberry and halloumi cheese salad.  Halloumi cheese is a delicious cheese from Cyprus, somewhat like feta but it is served fried.

The finished cornbread was delicious.  I was surprised at how much I loved it.  It had a coarse crumb and crunchy crust and was denser than the cornbread I usually make.  I will be revisiting this cornbread again, but not too soon.  I’m still coming down from my carb loading week with my friends.

cornbread-in-pans

I won’t be publishing the cornbread recipe from the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Cookbook as all the challengers have agreed that out of respect to Peter Reinhart, we will only promote his wonderful book and not give away his recipes for free.  For an equally delicious cornbread, try my friend Pam’s recipe.