GLAZED ORANGE COINTREAU QUICK BREAD

A BOOZY HOLIDAY SEASON

That first spritz of orange, the citrusy scent blended with the warm scent of cinnamon and the house finally smells like the holidays. As a Florida girl who grew up a stone’s throw, just a hop over the river from the orange groves, winter has always meant oranges, grapefruits and tangerines. Even in Europe. As soon as the summer’s berries and stone fruit disappear, leaving only faded imitations of themselves behind, when apples and pears pile up golden green just begging for my attention, I begin the impatient wait. To citrus.

The holiday spirit has invaded Nantes if ever so discreetly, so very French. The lights are already hung from lamppost to lamppost, shop windows have already begun adding to the display with shows of elves and polar bears, lush wreathes and bright garlands, trees green and beribboned or merely the suggestion of trees in white lights. I love the holidays yet how I miss the vibrant, exciting, overdone American version of Christmas. Homes weighed down under too many colored lights, Santa in his sleigh, drawn by reindeer prancing across front lawns or perched precariously on rooftops. Over-the-top gaudiness, ostentatious beauty infuse every observer, whether celebrant or not, with an energy and enthusiasm strictly reserved for December.

Although the French holiday spirit is one of understated elegance, I still feel the festive rush and make the best attempt possible to inject a little of that good old fashioned joviality and merriness into our home. In the best of times, we don’t really decorate, and now with the house still in moving/renovation limbo, I’ll be lucky if I can dig out my Hanukkah candles and set up the Menorah on our buffet.

But one thing is for sure, the holidays see bottles of Champagne cross our threshold; glasses of Champagne replace the usual wine at our festivities and elegant yet simple holiday smorgasbord. Splashes of Grand Marnier and Cointreau, a heady kick of rum or a vibrant infusion of Cognac feature in so many recipes. Chocolate and chestnut desserts put on a festive appearance infused as they now are with the joviality, the sophisticated charm of booze. And citrus. Ah, citrus, my winter fetish… goes oh-so adult with the joyful addition of Cointreau or Limoncello. Which is why Lora, Barb and I decided that December’s Twelve Loaves bread would be infused with booze.*

My choice? A quick bread. Orange, of course, a salute to the season. Orange blended with Cointreau, just enough to give the bright citrus flavor an underlying hint of warmth and earthiness. A beautiful cake, moist yet light, just that much less frivolous, a deep rich flavor lending gentleness to the perfect bread for breakfast, brunch or snack, a perfect holiday treat. Adapted from a recipe for Lemon Quick Bread from Taste of Home Baking, I knew that this simple yet luscious cake would look just perfect all dressed up in orange and Cointreau.

Now, you can bake along for Twelve Loaves December challenge. You know the rules, roll up your sleeves and start kneading or stirring… bake a bread from scratch, yeast or quick, muffins, scones, focaccia or anything similar, anything that can be called bread, and just add your favourite alcohol to the batter, the icing or the end result. Post on your blog linking back to our three blogs, mentioning Twelve Loaves and the December challenge (linking back to this post), then add your blog link to the linky tool at the end of one of our blogs to be included in our Boozy Holiday Roundup.

* If you do not want to add alcohol to your baked good, it can be replaced with extract or juice.

Want more delightful boozy treats for your holiday season?

Fouace Nantaise

Orange Cointreau Brownie Tiramisu

Christmas Cookie Tree with Mascarpone Limoncello Cream

Chocolate Orange Grand Marnier Madeleines

Chocolate Rum Bundt Cake



GLAZED ORANGE COINTREAU QUICK BREAD
Just a little bit boozy for the holidays!

½ cup (115 g) butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
1 Tbs Cointreau or Grand Marnier (or can be replaced by 1 Tbs more orange juice)
½ tsp Nielsen-Massey orange extract, optional
1 Tbs finely grated orange zest (from an untreated or organic orange)
1 ½ cups (about 200 g) flour, lightly spooned in measuring cup and levelled
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
½ cup (125 ml) milk (I used 2% fat/lowfat)

Glaze:
½ cup (62 g) confectioner’s/powdered sugar
1 Tbs freshly squeezed orange juice
1 Tbs Cointreau or Grand Marnier (or can be replaced with 1 Tbs more orange juice)

My beautiful new Edgeware zester! I'm in love!

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a loaf pan, either 8 x 4-inch or 9 x 5-inch) and either line the bottom with parchment paper or dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

In a large mixing bowl, cream the softened butter with the sugar until blended and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, just to blend. Beat in the orange juice, the Cointreau, the extract if using and the orange zest.

Stir together the flour, the baking powder and the salt in a small bowl; beat in the flour mixture to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with dry, beating well after each addition.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until the bread is risen, the top golden brown and the center set; a tester inserted near the center of the bread should come out clean. Remove the pan from the oven and place on a cooling rack.

Sift the confectioner’s sugar into a small bowl and add the juice and the Cointreau. Stir until you have a very smooth silky glaze. Slide along thin knife blade around the edges of the cake to loosen and spoon and spread the glaze evenly all over the hot cake, allowing some glaze to dribble down the sides.

Allow the cake to cool completely before turning out of the pan and serving.

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LEMON PECAN ALMOND QUICK BREAD

SOMETIMES YOU FEEL LIKE A NUT…. OR A SEED OR A GRAIN 

The entire population of Nantes must spend Saturdays at Ikea. We show up at 9:30 a.m. sharp as the doors open, and already we are pushing through a babbling, excited throng of young couples, pregnant women, retirees and families. They stroll through the aisles as they would an art museum, simply admiring and casually enjoying their day out, or so it seems; they gawk and point as if at the local zoo. We, on the other hand, are there for one reason, and one reason only: to buy a kitchen. And we mean business. Husband sprints ahead and I trail in his wake, jogging to keep up, weaving in and out of bins piled high with sheets and pillows, rows of beds and sofas just beckoning my shins, hoping to make contact, dangerous mountains of glassware and dishes. I skirt around screaming children who have dropped to the ground in a call for attention, bored and tired, as angry, insistent mothers grab them briskly by the arm and pull them up and along. Fathers and husbands push huge, unwieldy trolleys as wives pause to study potted plants, cutting boards and price tags. Couples discuss, debate, compromise, stopped dead in their tracks, oblivious to the rolling waves of humanity clogging the aisles, attempting to push past them, myself included. I spot my husband somewhere up ahead, his head bobbing up and down in a determined trot. What has brought this mass of mortals to leave their warm beds, their comfortable homes to come to this cold, harsh, crowded spot at this ungodly hour on a Saturday morning?

This will be the nième time, six or eight? that we have visited, perusing the demonstration kitchens, discussing, debating, deciding. We would arrive as a blitzkrieg, route mapped out, artillery at the ready to meet any challenge, face any confrontation as we barreled through the store, on the offensive and prepared for the onslaught of fellow clients and rubberneckers. We had no time or patience for sightseers; no, my husband’s credo, when it comes to Ikea, the supermarket or any other place of mass consumption where the hurly burly of society crowd together in droves, is in and out as quickly and efficiently as possible. Sadly, no schmoozing for me. So the kitchen was selected – under duress – in a minimum of time and number of visits. Then came the all-important working with the kitchen counselor. One stands in line, is given a number and is given an indication of the time one must wait for said appointment with counselor. They say one hour and in about two and a half as the store lights are dimmed, the crowd dramatically thins out and the other counselors begin bidding each other good night, we finally sit down at a computer to go over our design.

 Designs C. Dagneaux

The kitchen space in the new apartment is, to say the least, unusual, in that it doubles as the entry and foyer; one walks into the kitchen when entering the apartment. So son and husband put their very clever brains together and came up with the ideal design. Happily, husband and I agreed immediately on the color scheme and countertop. Then the flooring – the type and color – were debated and decided upon – and this took about four visits to Leroy Merlin, that incredible mecca of home improvement. Which, I will add, fills my husband with more joy than any visit to Ikea can inspire. We are rarely in a rush at Leroy Merlin unless, of course, I want to peruse the wallpaper or lighting fixtures. All deco-visiting is briskly nixed. Then paint is selected and we are pretty well on our way, at that humbling point of no return: the official purchase of a kitchen.

And this is what we did this weekend. List securely in hand, we tumbled into Ikea with the rest of Nantes and scurried directly to elbow our place in line to await the prized visit with the kitchen counselor. Of course, this would all be so much easier and less stressful if we had conferred the design, delivery and installation to a professional cuisinista, but no, architect son would have none of it. He had to design it, he had to select the elements and he had to build it. And he certainly created and executed a smashing design! He took care of the problem of kitchen/entryway with flying colors. He accompanied us repeatedly to oversee the choice of elements, arguing over our “taste” only occasionally. He sat with the counselor and went over the minutia of the design and the measurements until it was perfect. And he even found a charming muscleman with a truck to help us pick up, deliver and carry up four flights of stairs 800 kilos (1800 lbs) of boxes containing our precious kitchen!

And we went through all of that with only a few fights, a fistful of bruises, dozens of pizzas and take-away kabobs, and our marriage still intact.

And this morning, sun streaming into the chilly kitchen, we began….

I have actually found a few afternoons to bake. And as the first Monday of each and every month is the Twelve Loaves announcement, I had to slip out early, leaving the two men happily ensconced in construction. Happily, Simon ate the last four of the tiny Chocolate Cinnamon Bundts this afternoon, leaving me the freedom to create another homebaked goodie in its place. A Lemon Pecan Quick Bread with a Blueberry Swirl and topped with Almonds.

For our third Twelve Loaves challenge, Lora of Cake Duchess, Barb of Creative Culinary and I have decided that your homebaked bread – whether yeast bread, quick bread, pizza, scone or muffin or anything that can qualify as bread – must contain NUTS, SEEDS and GRAINS! That’s right, your bread must have either nuts, seeds or grains or a combination of 2 or all 3 involved in some form or another, one way or another.

I absolutely feel like a nut. My days, long and tiring, are spent renovating, building, painting and the little time I have left is usually dedicated to laundry, shopping, ironing and feeding my family. And walking my dog. Most days, my eyes are crossed from fatigue, my head is spinning, words tumble out of my mouth in a mishmash of nonsense and I can’t think straight. I have visions of hammers, paint cans and countertops dancing before my very eyes. So no yeast bread for me this month. Instead, I took a recipe from my Taste of Home Baking, a cookbook received as a Plate to Page workshop goodie bag treat from our wonderful sponsor Taste of Home, and twisted and turned it into what I have been craving, a luscious, lightly flavored Lemon Bread crunchy with chopped pecans, a swirl of wonderful Blueberry di Saronno jam from another fantastic Plate to Page sponsor, Sunchowder’s Emporia, and topped with slivered almonds. Dense, moist, lusciously lemon, the perfect little snack to get me going in the morning.

And as we wait for our new kitchen to be finished, as we watch it rise from the dust and cartons like a Phoenix rising from the ashes, I scratch and scrape together what I can, when I can and I simply hope that someone will eat it and enjoy it. But baking is in my soul, what soothes me and focuses me. And it is what I love offering my family. A little bit of myself.

So join Lora, Barb and I and make a bread from scratch for Twelve Loaves. This month’s theme is Nuts, Seeds and Grains!

All you have to do is follow the rules. It’s as easy as pie:

1. When you post your Twelve Loaves bread on your blog, make sure that you mention the Twelve Loaves challenge in your post and mention and link back to Lora, Barb and Jamie’s blogs (this post). Please make sure that your Bread is inspired by the theme NUTS, SEEDS AND GRAINS! This is obligatory if you would like your link to be included!

2. Please link your post to the linky tool at the bottom of Lora, Barb or Jamie’s blog. It must be a bread baked to the Twelve Loaves theme.

3. Feel free to promote the Twelve Loaves by proudly displaying the Twelve Loaves badge in your Twelve Loaves post as well as in your sidebar! It isn't mandatory but is a nice way to get the word out!

4. Have your Twelve Loaves bread posted on your blog and linked to ours by October 31, 2012.

Follow @TwelveLoaves on Twitter and #TwelveLoaves
Chat with your hostesses on Twitter: Jamie @lifesafeast Barb @CreativCulinary Lora @cakeduchess

LEMON PECAN BREAD with Blueberry Jam and Almonds
Adapted from Taste of Home Baking

½ cup (115 g) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup (200 g) sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups (about 280 g) flour, spooned lightly in the cup and leveled with a knife
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
¾ cup sour cream (I used 0% fat fromage blanc)
1 tsp vanilla
1 lemon, zested and juiced
½ - 1 cup coarsely chopped pecans, as desired
2 Tbs blueberry jam (cherry would also be fabulous)
2 Tbs slivered blanched almonds

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan generously. Line the bottom with parchment paper (this isn’t necessary but I find it makes turning out the bread much easier).

In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, adding the vanilla with the second egg. Finely grate the lemon zest and add the zest to the batter. Squeeze or add 2 tablespoons of the lemon juice to the batter.

Blend the flour, baking powder and salt together. Beat into the batter alternately with the sour cream, the flour in 3 additions and the sour cream in 2, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients.

Using a spatula, fold the pecans into the batter, scraping down the sides as needed, making sure the batter is well blended and smooth.

Pour/scrape the batter into the prepared pan and lightly spread to smooth. Spoon and dollop the jam or jelly in teaspoonfuls down the center of the cake batter. Gently swirl a long, thin knife blade back and forth through the jam, swirling it ever so slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the slivered almonds evenly over the top of the batter.

Bake the Lemon Pecan cake for 50 – 60 minutes or until puffed, golden brown and set in the center. A tester inserted in the center should come out clean. Remove the pan from the oven onto a cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 or 15 minutes before running a knife around the edges to loosen and turning out of the pan. Flip upright and allow to cool completely before slicing.

Nota bene: if you would like a sweeter, tangier bread, closer to a cake, simply stir ¼ cup (about 85 ml) lemon juice in a saucepan with ½ cup (100 g) granulated sugar and cook over medium-low heat until the sugar is dissolved. Spoon the lemon syrup over the cake while it is still in the loaf pan and allow to cool.

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Strawberry Muffins

So April was a really busy month for us here.

We had a 5K run that both the girls did...

We had BMX races...

Friends that we visited...

We went fishing...

And finally we went strawberry picking and that's what this post is about!  Strawberries...

And we picked a lot of strawberries.  I made cake (post to come on that one), strawberry puree for ice cream and finally I made strawberry muffins.

I made strawberry muffins many, many times.  You know why?  The recipe that I found was awesome.  Simple, no mixer and all ingredients that you have on hand...

Strawberry Muffins (Taste of Home)

preheat oven to 375°

Ingredients

• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 cup fat-free plain yogurt (I used papaya flavored yogurt because that's what I had on hand and it was delicious so use what you have...)
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1-1/4 cups coarsely chopped fresh or frozen unsweetened strawberries

Directions

• In a small bowl, combine the first four ingredients. In another bowl, whisk the eggs, yogurt, butter and vanilla. Stir into the dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in strawberries.
• Fill muffin cups coated with cooking spray or lined with paper liners two-thirds full. Bake for 15-18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack. Serve warm. Yield: 1 dozen.

These were good.  I mean really, really good.  So good that I made them for a friends birthday and I frosted them with cream cheese frosting.  Everyone liked them...

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Strawberry Lemon Quick Bread

I’ve said it before a million times that I am so blessed to live in Florida in the winter time…summer time not so much, and this year doubly so.  With our mild temperatures all of our food crops did amazingly well.  I found that I had an abundance of things that I love.  Two of them being lemons and strawberries.
This year the strawberry and lemon crops have been so plentiful that I had so many lemons and strawberries that I just had no way of getting them used up unless I made something with them.  I searched high and low for a recipe for that used both strawberries and lemons. Weird huh?  Not many out there.  So I adapted a strawberry bread recipe from Union Street Eats and it turned out perfect!

Strawberry and Lemon Quick Bread (adapted from Union Street Eats)
Preheat oven to 375F

Grease and flour a 9X5 inch bread pan

Ingredients:
2 Cups fresh strawberries, roughly chopped
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
zest of one lemon
3/4 Cup granulated sugar
1/4 Cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 Cup vegetable oil
1/4 Cup fresh squeezed lemon juice
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:

• Place chopped strawberries in a large strainer or colander and sprinkle with a couple of Tbsp of sugar.  Let sit for about 15 minutes
• In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, lemon zest, both sugars, cinnamon, baking soda and salt
• In a separate bowl whisk together eggs, vanilla, oil and lemon juice.
• Stir in the strawberries.
• Pour wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir until combined.  Do not over-mix.
• Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.  Bake for 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the loaf comes out clean.
• Remove from oven and let cool before removing from pan.

**This is a moist and delicious bread.  It was gone in no time and I’m looking for another sale on strawberries to make it again!
I also want to give a quick shout out to the folks at The Food Channel.  They featured my blog in “Thing We Love”  So honored…Head on over and check them out.  They have some great stuff on their site (besides me!! LOL)

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MOM’S CHOCOLATE CHIP NUT BREAD MY WAY

INSPIRATION SWEET AND NOSTALGIC

Do not go where the path may lead,

go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.

-- Ralph Waldo Emerson

We were a family with a serious sweet tooth. Breakfast, snacks, desserts or after dinners in front of the television, there were no limits on when, what or how much we could eat. We were sensible kids and good eaters, so we had no problem eating a balanced meal, fruits, vegetables and all, and when left on our own – which we often were – invariably fixed ourselves a fairly good lunch. We were active kids, too, and living in small town Florida meant playing outside, ball, biking, running, basketball, every day all year round. Burning more than our fair share of energy. So our parents worried little about our in-between-meal eating habits and let us make all of the decisions. Either that or this was just their “live and let live” parenting style.

Our home was filled with sweets in every shape and form, from breakfast cereals to cookies, ice cream by the gallon and candy scattered here and there, bagfuls tucked away into every cabinet. We all had the baking bug: dad’s marble sheet cakes, luscious Bundts, bowls of pudding and mom’s banana cream pies filled our home with the aroma of freshly baked goods and our young tummy’s with pleasure. Much of their baked goods came from a box, but each was always made from the heart. I loved nothing more than watching my father blend, stir and pour with the patience and passion of a great pastry chef. Mom did her duty by us as well, no matter she never liked to cook, and filled in when dad wasn’t baking with pies both creamy and fruity. Home Ec and Girl Scouts had me baking alongside my sister and brother, cranberry muffins, Apple Brown Betty, even spending a fun-filled afternoon pulling taffy across the kitchen. Yes, we were all happy eaters and happy bakers as well.


Although much of what my parents baked came from a box, a can or something frozen, they did bake from scratch as well! I have waxed eloquent on my dad’s wonderful choux puffs, light, ethereal, delicate pockets. He would make them the size of saucers and fill them with pudding and they were heaven. Large simmering pots of dried fruit compote, dark prunes, golden apricots plumped up in a vanilla- and cinnamon-scented sauce riddled the air with exotic odors and I would wait impatiently for the fruit to cool. My mother’s fruit pies and cream pies, well, I have vague memories, the strongest being the time that she carefully filled a homemade pie crust with creamy liquid, lifted it off the counter as gently and slowly as possible to carry it towards the oven as we kids stood and watched and the pie, as in some silly comedy film for kids, flipped up and out of her hands and landed upside down on the floor.

I recently posted about my current dark days of writer’s block. The good friends I have gathered around me and with whom I am in daily contact, talented each and every one of them, all seem to be going through the same dip in enthusiasm, accompanied by an overall depletion of energy. Maybe it is the change of seasons, the dark, sullen, leaden days of winter that still steal across our horizons and seep into our lives that leave us listless and uninspired. But there is comfort in numbers, misery loves company and all that, so maybe it isn’t anything personal, and maybe something will turn it all around and that proverbial light bulb will be switched on. Meanwhile, some of my baking inspiration has returned and I am finding the old joy and sizzle to pull out the flour, chocolate chips and eggs and whip up something sweet for my family.

Whatever you are, be a good one.
- Abraham Lincoln

Spontaneity comes in fits and bursts, yet happily it comes all the same. Carefully turning the pages of my mother’s collection of community and Temple Sisterhood cookbooks, from her own to that of my great-aunt up in Albany, New York to several she purchased from who knows where, have my imagination churning. My finger slides up and down the timeworn, well-stained pages, perusing each recipe both savory and sweet and I am taken aback by the lack of detailed instructions. Used to modern cookbooks where each and every step is marked down in black and white, specifics enumerated step by step, these old cookbooks featuring recipes from real housewives back in the good old days are written in such a sketchy way that one realizes they assume that every home cook is well-schooled in the basics, that we automatically understand the how-tos and are able to fill in the blanks. A home cook and baker who often doubts her own capacity to ad lib, who underestimates her own knowledge and talent, I have long avoided making any recipe from these books, simply afraid that none will turn out. I come across many dishes credited to my mother, her name typed underneath the recipes; some I remember fondly, others less so – leaving me in stitches, laughing at the poor bugger who will make this or that, a dish that invariably arrived at our own table dried out and flavorless - while some stir up delicious memories of a dish I loved so well. I have made, with some alterations, her wonderful Veal Scallopini and recently made and posted the recipe for Butter Horns, although not her recipe, from the same Sisterhood cookbook. And then I stumbled upon her Nut Bread.


With each recipe I recreate, the more I want to discover. Many of the names in her own Our Favorite Recipes from the Sisterhood of Temple Beth Sholom, where I grew up, are as familiar to me as my own mother’s: Mrs. Siskind, Mrs. Rosenberg (the best cook!), glamorous Mrs. Silver, this book full of goodness, filled with the foods of my youth, brings back my childhood in one fell swoop and I am back reliving those good old days in that tightly-knit, loving community. The particular recipe that I have baked today is from my mother, though for the life of me I don’t remember her ever making this. A simple sweet quick bread, dense and moist with tangy buttermilk, full of nuts and little more, is the ideal sweet treat for my own family, the perfect snack cake for breakfast. I took her rather plain Nut Bread recipe and added vanilla and a hint of cinnamon, the finely grated zest of one orange for a deep fruity sensation and loads of mini chocolate chips, everyone’s favorite.


Some people in this house actually found this cake a bit too dense and moist, more like a pudding than a quick bread, yet I found it delightfully and satisfyingly chewy to the point of being addictive. I found the balance of nuts to chocolate and the wonderful aroma brought into the game by the splash of vanilla and the bit of zest absolutely fantastic. Possibly the buttermilk gave it that pudding-like quality, and I personally found it wonderful. Oh, if my mother had only made this more often when I was a kid! Perfect with a glass of milk, dunked into café au lait or with a mug of tea… a bread quick, satisfying and delicious.


After my Chocolate Chip Pecan Butter Horns, I would like to share this wonderful Chocolate Chip Pecan Bread with my wonderful friend Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts & Line Drives for Bread Baking Day, a monthly bread event created by Zorra of 1x Umruhren Bitten. Lisa is hosting BBD #47 all about Bread & Chocolate! As you can tell, it is a favorite of mine!


CHOCOLATE CHIP PECAN BREAD scented with cinnamon and orange

2 cups (280 g) flour
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1 cup (200 g) granulated brown sugar (you can replace this with packed brown sugar but spooned loosely into the measuring cup)
Finely grated zest of 1 orange, preferably untreated *
½ tsp ground cinnamon *
½ tsp vanilla
1 large egg
1 cup (250 ml) buttermilk
1.8 oz (50 g, about scant ½ cup) coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts
3.5 oz (100 g, about heaping ½ cup) mini chocolate chips

* These flavorings are optional but highly recommended!

Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Grease a loaf pan and dust with flour, shaking out the excess.

Place the flour, baking powder and baking soda, sugar, cinnamon and grated orange zest in a large mixing bowl. Stir or whisk to blend.

Add the egg, the vanilla and the buttermilk and whisk or stir by hand until blended and smooth.

Add the chopped nuts and chocolate chips and stir until evenly distributed and well blended.

Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake in the preheated oven for 55 minutes to 1 hour until puffed, golden and a tester stuck into the center comes out mostly dry. Cover the cake with foil for the last 10 to 15 minutes if it seems to be browning too quickly.


Remove from the oven onto a metal cooling rack and allow to cool for 10 minutes. Run a sharp knife all around the edges and loosen the bread then turn out onto a cooling rack; allow to cool.

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Finally my computer is back to normal and “healthy” banana bread!

I have had some major issues going on with my computer and the bank for the past week.  My computer was attacked by a virus and then my bank account was compromised so they cancelled my access…been a fun week trying to get everything back to normal but at least my computer is up and working!!! 

Most of you know that I have been trying to eat healthier and lose some pounds that have been steadily creeping up. Well, I am proud to say that I am now down almost 20 lbs from what I was at the beginning of the year!!!  Feeling much better and liking the way that my body feels and looks!  One of the things I have been doing is not baking so much but when I do to substitute some of the fat for apple sauce, bananas or pumpkin puree.  So the other day when I had some oldish bananas I set to work…

Banana, Strawberry and Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

Ingredients:

1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
1/2 cup turbinado sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup banana, mashed (about 2 medium sized bananas)
1/4 cup milk
2 cups all purpose flour (next time I will try 1/2 of it whole wheat flour)
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup strawberries, hulled and diced
1/2 cup chocolate chips or chunks (I used semi-sweet but you can use what you like)

Directions: Preheat oven to 350F

• In a mixing bowl mix the apple sauce and sugar.
• Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each one.
• Add the banana and the milk.
• In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking soda and salt and add to the wet mixture until just blended.
• Using a spoon mix in the strawberries and chocolate chips
• Pour into a greased 9X5X3 inch loaf pan and bake in your preheated 350 degree over for about 1 hr and 10 minutes or until tester comes out clean.
• cool for 10 minutes in pan then remove to cool completely on a wire rack.

***Based on 16 slices from the loaf of quick bread this is 3 WW Points

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Quick and Easy Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Have you noticed that pretty much the only things I do right now are things that are quick and easy?  Sad but true.  I am busy…

I went searching yesterday for a quick and easy recipe to make some pumpkin muffins.  I wanted something that used no appliances and I could whip out in a matter of minutes with minimal mess.  These were perfect and fit my criteria flawlessly!

See the crunchy cinnamon/sugar coating on top?  It absolutely made these muffins!!!

Pumpkin Muffins (adapted from Smitten Kitchen)
Adapted from the American club, in Kohler, Wisconsin via Gourmet Magazine

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups White Whole Wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin (from a 15 ounce can)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pumpkin-pie spice
3/4 cups plus 1 tablespoon white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:

Makes 12 muffins

Put oven in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Put liners in muffin cups.

Whisk together pumpkin, oil, eggs, and brown sugar in a large bowl until smooth.  In another bowl whish together the flour, white sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and pumpkin pie spice.  Add the dry ingredients to the pumpkin mixture and whisk until until just combined.  Be careful to not over mix .

Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about three-fourths full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and wooden pick or skewer inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean, 25 to 30 minutes.

Cool in pan on a rack five minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

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