Reg's Zucchini Bread

This fresh baked zucchini bread is moist from the oil and zucchini, making a sweet, dense loaf. 

Fresh loaves of Banana and Zucchini Bread

This is one of those recipes that comes out of the family cook book, one that I remember eating a lot as a kid.   My dad is a pretty picky eater and flat out refuses to eat most vegetables.  I don't know what happened, his parents scarred him as a kid or something.  I hear stories about a vegetable garden grown out of control paired with the depression-era mindset of "eat everything on your plate" and I can imagine my father as a child, sitting at the table pushing a plate full of zucchini around with his fork.  Not a happy child.   Over the years my mom grew fairly adept at compensating for his fruit and vegetable aversion, making sure he got his daily servings by hiding them in food he would actually eat.  I remember once as a kid she made this zucchini bread, my dad got halfway through the loaf before he noticed the green flecks and realized OH GOD THIS HAS VEGETABLES IN IT.  My little brother and I made fun of him for years about that one.  

During the 1960's people got this idea that anything that had a vegetable in it was good for you, leading to the rise in popularity of quick breads like banana bread, zucchini bread and carrot cakes.  This recipe is straight out of that time period, from the kitchen of Regina Maynard, one of my grandmothers friends.   I've never met Regina Maynard, but man I am glad her recipe made it into Grandma's cookbook.   The sad thing is it is no longer the 60's and it's hard to pretend something with this much processed flour and sugar is good for you.  To attempt to make it a bit healthier I used 2/3rds of the recommended amount of sugar, and instead of white sugar I used whole cane sugar.   I also replaced the vegetable oil with coconut oil.    The recipe below is the original measurements. 


Some people say zucchini has a "delicate" flavor, but this is just a nice way of saying it is basically flavorless.  What it really adds to this recipe is moisture, and the pretty green flecks running through the bread.  When you shred your zucchini make sure to do it on the largest sized holes, and leave the skins on.  The pieces will cook down significantly and won't be chunky in the bread. 

Ingredients (makes 1 loaf):

• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups of sugar
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups grated zucchini
• 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 cups sifted flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup walnuts (Optional ingredient, I only used about a half cup)

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 350F and prepare a greased and floured loaf pan.
• Beat eggs and sugar together.
• Add oil, zucchini and vanilla to the egg and sugar mixture.  Mix well. 
• Mix in dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg).
• Stir in nuts and mix well.  
• Pour into the greased and floured loaf pan
• Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.   I needed to bake mine for 1.5 hours. 

MMMMM, now the challenge is to not eat it all in one day.  Some people enjoy this bread with a little butter, but because it is already so sweet and moist I normally skip the butter and just eat it plain.    Notice the pretty little green flecks?

Bread Bowls

Bread bowls are very popular in the United States (we Americans love our carbs).  They are normally used to serve thick cream based soups and stews like New England clam chowder or chili.    This recipe makes a tasty, springy dough and because of the relatively large amount of yeast used it takes slightly less time to rise than the average bread dough.   The egg wash gives a lovely shiny exterior, making a beautiful vessel for your favorite soup or stew.  

I started living with my boyfriend a little more than a year ago and its been a wonderful experience to see him learn how to cook and plan meals.   When we met pretty much everything he consumed came out of a fast food bag and his best dish was buttered toast.   Now he plans the weeks meals, does the grocery shopping and cooks healthful dinners for us almost every night (I know, I'm the luckiest girl ever).   One of his favorite tricks is to cook a whole chicken one night, make chicken stock with the carcass and then  make soup with the chicken stock the next day.   He also saves our vegetable scraps and regularly makes veggie stock as well.   Believe me, homemade stock is the bee's knees.    There could probably be a whole other blog dedicated to his culinary adventures.  Last night he made cream of broccoli soup and I made these sweet bread bowls to go with it.   

Bread Bowls
Recipe adapted from Allrecipes.com
Makes 6 bowls (or 8 if you want small ones)


Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 Tablespoons active dry yeast
• 2 1/2 cups warm water
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 6-7 cups all purpose flour

• cornmeal
• 1 egg
• 1 Tablespoon water

Preparation: 

• In a large bowl proof the yeast by dissolving it in the warm water for about 10 minutes or until it becomes bubbly and frothy.  
• Add 4 cups of flour, the vegetable oil and salt and mix well. 
• Add the remaining flour a 1/2 cup at a time until a firm dough is formed.  You may not need the entire 7 cups of flour.  You will want a stiff dough so it will hold the round shape of the bread bowl.  
• Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for about 6 minutes until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil.  Cover with a damp cloth and allow the dough to rise until doubled (approx. 40 minutes).  
• Punch down the dough and divide it into 6 equal parts.  The best way to divide dough is to weigh it, but if you don't have a scale you can always eyeball it.  I find the easiest way is to divide the dough in half, and then divide each half into 3 or 4 parts (depending on if you want 6 large bowls or 8 small ones).  Place the balls of dough onto a greased cookie sheet that has been sprinkled with cornmeal and allow them to double in size once more (approx 35 minutes).  
• Preheat your oven to 400F.   In a small bowl beat together the egg and water to make an egg wash.  Brush half of the wash over the bread bowls and slash the tops.  
• Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 minutes, then give them another coating of egg wash.  Cook for another 10-15 minutes until the bread is golden brown and cooked through.  Larger bread bowls will require slightly longer cooking times. 
• To make bowls, cut off the top and scoop out the centers, leaving at least 3/4 of an inch on all sides.  Fill with hot soup and serve immediately.  

Irish Potato Bread

St. Patrick's day is approaching so I'm working on my Irish recipes.   Irish beer bread is my favorite, but I already did a post on it so I decided to try another popular Irish bread - potato bread!  I found this recipe at one of my favorite sites, The Fresh Loaf.  It was originally a "baked potato bread" because it included traditional baked potato ingredients - chives, bacon, sour cream.   I was lacking all three of those ingredients (classic) so I left out the chives and bacon, and used yogurt with a little bit of baking soda as a substitute for the sour cream.   I used non-fat yogurt and it came out just fine (and even made it a bit healthier..)

Instead of using potato flakes or starch, this recipe calls for mashed potatoes.  It is a great use for leftovers, even if they have milk and butter in them.   Next time I make this recipe I am going to save the water I boiled the potatoes in for use in the bread batter.  Oh yeah, and I'm going to put bacon in.  

Ingredients (makes 2 1lb loaves, or 1 large loaf):

• 1/2 cup mashed potatoes
• 3 to 4 cups all-purpose unbleached flour 
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 teaspoons instant yeast
• 1 teaspoon salt
• optional: 1/4 cup cooked bacon, 1/2 cup chopped chives, or any other add-ins you can think of

Preparation: 

• Mix the potatoes, yeast, salt, and two cups of flour in a large mixing bowl.  If you are using active dry yeast instead of instant yeast you will need to proof it before adding.  Use the 3/4 cups water from the recipe to proof your yeast.  Check out my old post on yeast for details on how to properly proof your active dry yeast. 
• Add the water, sour cream and any add-ins you want to include.  If you add bacon feel free to include the grease for added flavor.   Mix this all together well.
• At this point your dough will be soupy, add flour by the handful until it starts to come together, turn out onto a well floured surface and continue to knead in handfuls of flour until your dough is solid enough to form into a ball, but still very damp.  A wetter dough is harder to work with but will ultimately have a better end result.  
• Let your dough rise until doubled (about 90 minutes) in a oiled bowl covered with plastic wrap.  
• Once risen, shape your loaves (or loaf if you are going for one big one) and let rise until doubled again (about 45 minutes).  I chose to make mine a bit oblong, but the shape of your loaf is up to you.  
• Preheat your oven to 425 degrees F.  Once my loaves were fully risen, I dusted them with flour and slashed the top.   Bake for 5 minutes at 425, then turn your oven down to 350 and bake for approximately 35 minutes or until they are brown on the outside and sound hollow when tapped. 

Beautiful! Even though there was no bacon, and I had to make some substitutions (yogurt instead of sour cream, and active dry yeast instead of instant) this recipe still came out great!

Bev's Banana Bread

My grandma was a better baker than yours.  There, I said it.

Actually, I didn't know my grandmother that well.  I hear that she was a semi-professional baker and quite talented in the kitchen, but she died when I was pretty young.  Thankfully, I was blessed with a piece of family heritage, a cookbook that used to belong to my mother that includes many of my grandma's recipes.   I feel close to my grandmother while I'm baking, even though I didn't know her for very long.  

Banana bread is the most searched for baking recipe on the web.  I have never had to search for  a good recipe though, because I've always had the old family recipe from my childhood.  This is hands down one of my favorite recipes ever.  Part of it is nostalgia - everyone has those special childhood flavors - but a lot of it is the fact that this recipe is GOOD!  The boyfriend and I actually love this recipe so much that I made two batches - one to eat immediately, and one for you lovely people. 

 here's the original recipe, in my Grandma's handwriting 

Ingredients:

• 1 3/4 cups flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 2/4 tsp. salt
• 2 large eggs
• 2 or 3 ripe bananas (I normally use 2 big ones)
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/2 cups walnuts (optional but recommended)
• 1/3 cup shortening

Preparation: 

• In one bowl combine your dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt)
• In another bowl, cream together your shortening and sugar.  (See this post for info on creaming)
• Add your eggs to the creamed shortening and sugar and beat until smooth, then add the dry ingredients and mix. 
• Add chopped walnuts and mashed bananas and mix until smooth. 
• Pour the mixture into a greased and floured loaf pan. I highly recommend Pam's non-stick spray for baking.  It has a slightly sweet flavor that is not good for savory baked goods, but it works really well for cakes, cupcakes, muffins, cookies and sweet breads. 
• Bake at 350 degrees (F) until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (about 45-55 minutes, start with a shorter amount of time and monitor) 

Rye Bread

First, I must say that it's sad that there hasn't been a new post on pete bakes! since mid 2010, because damn that guy had a lot of good recipes on there.  But, I can't really hate to much on him for blog abandonment....(sorry I haven't posted, guys.  It's been dark and cold here.) Pete seems to do a lot of other stuff, so you're forgiven Pete, thanks for the recipes.   

When my boyfriend first tried this bread he exclaimed that it was as good as deli bread you'd pay like $7 a loaf for.  Damn straight! That's why it's called 

deli-style rye bread

Ingredients (makes 4 small loaves):

3 cups warm water

1 1/2 Tbsp yeast

1 1/2 Tbsp salt

1 1/2 Tbsp caraway seeds, plus more for sprinkling on the top 

1 cup rye flour

5 1/2 cups all purpose flour

cornmeal (for sprinkling on baking surface)

cornstarch (for cornstarch wash)

1. Mix the first 4 ingredients in a large bowl.  Add in the remaining dry ingredients and mix, without kneading. The dough will be sticky. Cover with a towel and allow to rest for approx. 2 hours.  (From here you can store the dough in the fridge for up to 2 weeks before shaping and doing your second rise.  The longer you store the dough the more sour the dough will get.  mmmmm sourdough.)

2.  Dust the surface of the dough with flour and divide into 4 equal parts.  Quickly shape the dough into a ball and elongate into and oval loaf shape. After shaping, leave the dough on a cornmeal covered surface (I used the baking sheet I baked the bread on) and let it rise for another 40 minutes.  (If you kept your dough in the fridge, you will want to wait longer to allow it to come closer to room temperature, wait until the loaves have approx. doubled in size).

3. preheat the oven to 450 F with an empty broiler tray on the shelf underneath.  If you are using a baking stone head that up in the oven too. 

4. Make a cornstarch wash by combining 1/2 tsp cornstarch with a small amount of water to make a paste, then add 1/2 cup of water and mix.  Microwave this mix for about a minute then brush on top of the loaves. Sprinkle with caraway seeds and slash the top of the loaves.  

5. Bake the loaves for about 30 minutes, until they are a deep golden brown.  As you put the bread in the oven to bake, pour 1 cup of HOT tap water into the broiler tray and quickly close the oven door.  Avoid opening the oven during baking.   Allow the loaves to fully cool before slicing. 

 You can find this recipe in Artisan Bread In Five Minutes a Day. I don't have the book, but they seem to have a lot of awesome recipes (and a very misleading title.  Just sayin')

Irish Beer Bread

Don't be like me - wait until the bread cools to slice it!

For St. Patty's day I considered doing something more fancy, perhaps those chocolate Guinness cupcakes that everyone is so fond of. I decided there are probably enough of those on the internet already, and also enough chocolate in my house from No-Bake Monday's fudge that I could do without cupcakes. Instead I turned to a classic recipe from the Irish side of my family, straight out of Grandma Robinson's cook book (although it's in my Mom's handwriting so it may be more fairly attributed to her). I make this bread all the time because it is so good and the boyfriend loves it. He's even willing to give up a beer for it. Also, because the beer and baking powder provide the leavening action (not yeast) you don't have to wait for this bread to rise, which makes the whole baking process much shorter.


Ingredients:
- 3 c flour
- 3 3/5 t baking powder
- 1 1/2 t salt
- 1/3 c sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 can (12oz) beer (I used Pabst Blue Ribbon)

My dry ingredients - the brown stuff is raw sugar in case you were wondering

Directions:
- Combine the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) in a large mixing bowl and blend together.
- Combine 1 slightly beaten egg and 12 oz of beer, pour into dry ingredients and mix well. The batter may be a little lumpy.
- Pour the batter into a greased loaf pan and bake at 350°F for about an hour.

I tried to cut it when it was still hot because I wanted to eat it so bad...



Wow, that was really easy, right?
-

Sundried Tomato Cheddar Bread

I adapted this recipe from Peter Ryan's Roasted Tomato Cheddar Bread. It has tomatoes, it has cheese- how could you not want it? Next time I have tomatoes I will definitely make it with roasted tomatoes instead of the sun-dried tomatoes. The sundried give a nice sweet flavor but I'm sure the roasted tomatoes would give a much richer, tomato flavor. I fudged a few other things on this recipe - I don't have a baking stone, and my crappy oven gave up halfway through baking and got down to 250 degrees before I noticed and turned it on again. I am also pretty sure I did not add enough cheese. But it still came out beautiful and tasty.



I halved Peter's recipe to make 2 1lb loaves.

Sundried Tomato Cheddar Bread
1.5 c lukewarm water
3/4 Tbsp yeast
3/4 Tbsp salt
3/4Tbsp sugar
3.5 c flour (unbleached all-purpose)
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese (I used Tillamook smoked extra-sharp)
about 10 slices sundried tomato (or more to taste) – see recipe below

1. mix the yeast, salt, and sugar with the water in a large bowl (or the bowl of a stand mixer). mix in the dry ingredients and the cheese without kneading, using a spoon or stand mixer. I would say that the amount of cheese and tomato you use can be varied according to your taste. I would have liked mine to be cheesier, so next time I plan on adding another half cup of cheese cut into cubes so there will be nice cheesy bits in the bread. Cover, not airtight, and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses (or flattens on top), approximately 2 hours.

* the dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. refrigerate in a lidded, but not airtight, container and use over the next 7 days.*

2. On baking day, dust the surface of the dough with flour and cut off a 1 pound (grapefruit-sized) piece. dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom on all four sides, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. allow to rest and rise on a cornmeal-covered pizza peel for 1 hour.

3. twenty minutes before baking time, preheat the oven to 450F, with a baking stone (or unglazed quarry tiles) on the lowest rack. place an empty broiler tray on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread. sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and slash across the top, using a serrated bread knife. leave the flour in place for baking; tap some of it off before eating.

4. slide the loaf directly on the hot stone. pour 1 cup of hot tap water into the broiler tray, and quickly close the oven door. bake for about 25 minutes, or until deeply browned and firm. small or larger loaves may require adjustments in baking time. allow loaves to cool before slicing and eating.



I will have to try this recipe again with more cheese and roasted tomatoes (and an oven that works properly.) My favorite way to eat this bread is with MORE cheese on top. Like I said, I wanted it it cheesier.

Rosemary Bread

MMMMM rosemary bread. I chose this recipe because I was looking for one that didn't involve wheat flour. Not that I have anything against wheat flour, I just didn't have any and wanted to make rosemary bread. This recipe came out great! The bread developed a beautiful crunchy crust and the rosemary flavor was awesome. You could use whatever herb you wanted in this bread instead of rosemary. Be creative with what you add in!

Rosemary Bread Recipe

Ingredients:
1 teaspoons dried yeast
3/4 pint (425ml)hand hot milk and water mixed half and half
1 tspn white sugar
1 1/2lb (750g) strong white flour
1 tspn salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
small handful of fresh rosemary
extra flour for kneading

Instructions:
Pour 1/4 pint of the milk and water into a bowl. Stir in the sugar and then the yeast. Whisk it together so that the yeast dissolves.

Set it to one side to froth - takes around 5 minutes.

Sift the flour and salt into a bowl. Stir in the rosemary (or herb of your choice).

Make a well in the centre of the flour and pour in the yeast mixture.

Pour in the rest of the milk and water and the oil.

Start mixing with a wooden spoon and then use your hands to mix to finish off.

Lightly flour the work surface or a board. Turn the dough out and knead for about 10 minutes. It should develop a shine and be springy and elastic.

Leave it covered for between an hour and 2 hours (depends on the temperature) until it's doubled in size. In colder temperatures it will take longer to rise.

Knock the air out and knead again for 5 minutes.

Divide the dough into half and make each a round - place on an oiled baking sheet and brush oil over.

Slash the top with a knife.

Sprinkle with a little crushed sea salt.

Leave to prove for 30 minutes to an hour until they double in size again.

Pre-heat the oven to Mark 8, 450F, 230C and bake for about 35 to 40 minutes -

They should sound hollow when you tap the bottoms.


Thanks go out to http://www.the-herb-guide.com/ for this one.Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: The Discovery That Revolutionizes Home Baking