Cranberry Walnut Bread

First, a caveat. I made this loaf in David Howard’s Handmade Stoneware Pottery, which I ordered from his Gatlinburg, TN, store.

You can find him online at http://www.dhowardpottery.net/ or call him at (865) 430-3387. Or, if you want to go the old-fashioned snail mail route, write him at 170 Gatlinburg, TN 37738.

You’ll get it in about a month (Hey! It’s handmade, y’know).

Instead of sifting the flour, I whisked vigorously with a wire whisk. The object of whisking is to loosen, aerate and separate the flour; since I was going to use a whisk anyway, why use a sifter or sieve and have another implement to wash later?

I couldn’t find the recommended Cran-Fruit© at the supermarket, so I substituted dried cranberries and soaked them in sherry to rehydrate them. HINT: Use good sherry, and don’t throw it away after you’ve soaked the cranberries. Save it to use in other dishes, if you can resist drinking it. I drank mine while waiting for the bread to bake. Little sips … it’s delicious!

I put the bread maker on a wire cooking rack on top of a cookie sheet to make sliding into the oven easier. Make sure to lower the oven backing rack so the top won’t brown too quickly.

Ingredients 

• SELF-RISING FLOUR, 2 cups sifted
• LEMON ZEST, 1 lemon
• SUGAR, 2/3 cup
• EGGS, 2, slightly beaten
• CRAN-FRUIT©, cranberry-orange, 1 container
• (Substitution: DRIED CRANBERRIES, 2 small 1-counce boxes, soaked in sherry and roughly chopped)
• CHOPPED WALNUTS, 1 cup
• BUTTER, ½ cup (1 stick), melted
• MILK, ¼ cup

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
2. Lower the oven baking rack so the bread top won’t brown too quickly.
3. Combine the dry ingredients (flour, zest and sugar).
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix thoroughly until blended.
5. Spray the inside of a bread maker (or loaf pan) with non-stick cooking spray.
6. Pour the batter into the bread maker.
7. Bake for 60 minutes.
8. Remove from bread maker and cool on a wire cooking rack.

BLT Steak's Popover Recipe

On a recent trip to Las Vegas, I ate at BLT Steakhouse in the Red River Resort. They are supposedly noted for their popovers, and even include their recipe with the bread.

It's rather tasty, and they serve it with some herbed butter on the side. So here you go, I'm sharing the recipe with you.

Banana Nut Bread

This recipe is very easy to make. No mixing appliance is required, just a spatula, along with a 4x8 loaf pan, and a large mixing bowl. The result is a very tasty banana bread that’s a little on the dense side, just the way I like it, especially when slathered with lots of creamy butter.

The riper the bananas, the better. I use bananas that are so ripe their skins are black.

Ingredients

• BANANAS, 3 ripe, mashed
• BUTTER, 1/3 cup softened
• SUGAR, ¾ cup
• EGGS, 2 beaten
• VANILLA, 1 teaspoon
• WALNUTS, ½ cup, chopped
• BAKING SODA, 1 teaspoon
• SALT, 1 pinch
• FLOUR, all-purpose, 1½ cups

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350˚.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together, add into the mashed bananas, in a large mixing bowl.
3. Mix in the eggs, vanilla and walnuts.
4. Mix in the baking soda and salt.
5. Mix in the flour.
6. Butter the inside of the loaf pan, fill with the banana batter and bake in the oven for 1 hour.
7. Allow to cool on a rack before removing from the loaf pan and slicing. Serve with lots of creamery butter.

Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread

Last October, when the wife and I were browsing in the Ala Moana Center’s Williams-Sonoma store, I picked up a package of their Spiced Pecan Pumpkin Quick Bread mix, fully intending to put it together during the Fall holiday season.

Well, things being the way they are, I put it away in the cupboard and didn’t get to it until a month or so ago.

It's a snap to make. All you do is mix the contents of the package with a cup of water, two eggs and a stick of melted butter. Pour the batter into a greased muffin pan (or use paper muffin cups) and bake 20 to 30 minutes in a preheated 350-degree oven until a toothpick comes out clean and dry.

Make sure to rotate the pan so all the tops brown evenly.

Then, after removing them from the pan and cooling them off on a rack, slather cream-cheese frosting all over the top and decorated with some cute candy sprinkles.

The frosting consists of a stick of soft butter, a cup of soft cream cheese, a cup of powdered sugar, and a teaspoon of vanilla. Combine the ingredients until smooth, and then ice the muffin tops with a butter knife or any other flat utensil.

 

I made 16 muffins with the mix, but you can make it as a loaf in a bread pan. Or, I guess, you can make cookies out of the mix.

Delicious!

 

Apple-Pinoli Bread Pudding

Pinoli are shelled pine nuts with a very distinctive and mild nutty flavor all their own. This recipe is a “tinkered-with” recipe of one I have used for a while, this time adding in some chopped apples and toasted pinoli instead of my usual raisins.

Use a stale French baguette (the skinny, long loaf); the staler and drier the bread is, the better it will soak in the custard liquid. If your bread is fresh, dry it in the refrigerator overnight. That’ll do the trick.

If you bake it for 45 minutes, the top will be nice and crusty, and the inside pretty moist. If you prefer a drier bread pudding, then leave it longer in the oven.

Ingredients

• BREAD, 1 French baguette
• BUTTER, 4 tablespoons, melted
• EGGS, 8 beaten
• MILK or HALF AND HALF, 4 cups
• SUGAR, 1½ cups
• CINNAMON POWDER, 2 teaspoons
• NUTMEG, ½ teaspoon
• VANILLA EXTRACT, 4 teaspoons
• PINE NUTS, ¼ to ½ cups, shelled and lightly stove-top toasted
• APPLE, 1 large, ½-inch diced

Directions

1. Using a serrated bread knife, cut the French baguette bread in half lengthwise, then cut each half in half the same way. Cut crosswise into 1-inch cubes (see the introduction, re drying the bread overnight if necessary).
2. Prepare the pine nuts and apple; combine them with the rest of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl and add the bread cubes.
3. Let it soak for a while (15 minutes should be okay, as long as the bread becomes wet throughout.
4. Pour the bread mixture into an 11x9 pan and spread evenly.
5. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour in a 350˚ oven.
6. Remove from oven and let stand for a half-hour before serving.

Date Nut Bread

It’s been a while since I’ve had date nut bread. Back in the ‘60s and ‘70s, I used to see loaves of date nut bread sold in stores, bakeries and farmer’s markets. Not so much today. I wonder why that is.

Anyway, I found a recipe and played with it a bit, until I got it the way I wanted it. One discovery: When it comes to the stirring together of the flour, sugar and date mixtures, it’s hard work. And perhaps that’s why you don’t see it being offered a lot.

It’s exhausting! Good, but tiring.

Ingredients

·         BOILING WATER, 1 cup

·         DATES, chopped, 8 ounces

·         BUTTER, 2 tablespoons

·         GRANULATED SUGAR, 1/2 cup

·         BROWN SUGAR, ¼ cup

·         EGG, 1 large

·         FLOUR, 2¼ cups, stir before measuring

·         BAKING POWDER, 1 tablespoon

·         SALT, ½ teaspoon

·         WALNUTS or PECANS, chopped, ½ cup

Directions

1.       Line the bottom and sides of a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan with parchment paper, cutting to fit.

2.       Pour boiling water over dates in a medium bowl; add butter and set aside.

3.       With an electric mixer, beat sugars and egg until light.

4.       In another bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the sugar mixture, alternating with the date and water mixture.

5.       Stir in the chopped nuts.

6.       Bake at 325° for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

7.       Remove from the bread pan and let cool before slicing.