Quick Breads are quite a treat
Regina Murphy
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Last Saturday was the first Murphy’s Menu Cook-Off of the year!
It was great to see everyone down at the Farmer’s Market with their delightful baked treats.
If you haven’t been to the market yet you’re missing out on some great beets and turnips, not to mention onions and early tomatoes. There are also jellies, baked breads, barbecue and even flowers.
Jim Wallace is a vendor at the market selling fresh eggs and all kinds of meat: elk, buffalo, goat, etc. He and his wife Marilyn run the Heritage Hill Homestead (www.heritagehillranch.homestead.com). Jim carried in a Pineapple Carrot Quick Bread from Lebo, and it won! I e-mailed Marilyn to get her recipe and she said “I am glad the bread was a hit, it is really good. I met Jim at the door looking for the prize.”
Congratulations to Marilyn, the first Murphy’s Menu Cook-Off winner of the year! MARILYN’S PINEAPPLE CARROT BREAD
3 cups flour
1 tsp. soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3 eggs, beaten
3 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups grated carrots
1 small can crushed pineapple, drained
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped nuts
Sift flour, soda, salt and cinnamon together. Beat eggs and sugar with electric mixer. Gradually add oil while beating. Stir in flour mixture, carrots, pineapple, vanilla and nuts. Pour into two greased loaf pans. Bake at 350º F. for one hour or until done. This quick bread is a lovely medium brown color, with little flecks of bright orange. And moist!
Tracey Graham had a day full of the Emporia Garden Tour, but she wasn’t too busy to come down and enter the contest. Her Cranberry Orange Pecan bread was a beautiful blonde color with shots of deep burgundy cranberries. The buttermilk made it extra moist and rich. She got this recipe from “Baking Illustrated.”
The authors wrote that using fresh-squeezed orange juice is the best possible choice for flavor. The orange zest also adds spots of color to the bread as well as, well, “zest!” Tracey sprinkled the top of the loaf with a little granulated sugar to give it a nice glaze. Very tasty!
TRACEY’S CRANBERRY ORANGE PECAN BREAD
1/2 cup pecans, chopped
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest
1/3 cup fresh orange juice
2/3 cup buttermilk
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1 1/2 cups cranberries, coarsely chopped
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease and flour a 9-x-5-inch loaf pan. Spread the pecans on a baking sheet and lightly toast them for 5 to 7 minutes.
Stir together the orange zest, orange juice, buttermilk, melted butter and egg in a small bowl. Whisk together the next five ingredients in a large bowl. Gently stir the wet into the dry just until incorporated.
Gently fold in the cranberries and pecans. Do not over mix. Scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the surface, then sprinkle lightly with sugar.
Bake 20 minutes at 375º F., then reduce the temperature to 350º F. Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 45 minutes). Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. The bread will slice more smoothly if it’s cool. Store, wrapped, at room temperature for up to 3 days. If you refrigerate it, toast it slightly for breakfast and (ahem) smear with butter.
The other entry for the Cook-Off was from Jan Borst. She made a wonderful banana nut bread! I called her up for the recipe and she said she had gotten it from her former mother-in-law. She said, “the marriage didn’t last, but that recipe is still going after 40 years!” Hurrah!
JAN’S BANANA
NUT BREAD
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup shortening
2 eggs
3 medium bananas, very ripe
3/4 cup walnuts or pecans, optional
Mix everything together, put it in a prepared loaf pan and bake at 350º F. for about an hour and ten minutes. Jan says you can use a nonstick spray instead of doing the “grease and flour” bit. She also gets her bananas to ripen by putting them in the freezer for a couple of hours. If you’re not sure about the size of your bananas, measure out one cup of banana puree.
Jan very lightly chopped the walnuts in her quick bread, so when tasting it you got a big bite of nut — that was really nice for the texture (and taste).
It’s a keeper!
Congratulations to all of you for entering — you’re all winners! The next Cook-Off will be for salsa and held August 8 at the Learning Connection Farmer’s Market.
My friend Andrea Garritano-Freeze is a fabulous cook (and musician), and the last time we ate together she had baked a lovely loaf of soda bread. I started playing around with my recipe to see if I could recreate hers, and came up with this spiced loaf that is very tasty — especially when smeared with soft sweet cream butter. It makes TWO loaves so there’s one to share!
SPICED SODA BREAD
3 cups raisins
2 cups water
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. allspice
1/2 cup butter
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 eggs, beaten
1 cup liquid from soaking raisins
In a saucepan, combine raisins and water; bring to a boil. Cover and simmer over low heat for 15 minutes; drain and reserve 1 cup of liquid (if not enough liquid left, add a little water to make 1 cup). Set raisins and reserved liquid aside.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt, and allspice. In a mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar; add eggs and the raisin liquid and mix until well blended. Stir in dry ingredients until blended; add raisins. Pour batter into 2 greased and floured loaf pans. Bake at 350° F. for 35 to 40 minutes. Cool soda bread in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely.
We’re not publishing on July 4, so the food page gets a holiday. Our challenge, though, for July 11, is something really neat. If you’ve ever been up close to one, you have to wonder how the Native Americans managed to bring them down without an elephant gun: the BISON! They’re a Kansas native species, and, July being National Bison Month, I’d like to see what recipes you have for preparing buffalo meat. From jerky to burgers, how do you like your bison?
Send that recipe to Murphy’s Menu, The Emporia Gazette, PO Drawer C, Emporia or e-mail to murphysmenu@yahoo.com. The deadline is 5 p.m. July 2. Let’s get cooking!