Pear Bread

Wow, I've really been seriously slacking on updating this blog! I have a considerable amount of recipes to post from the past few months. Hopefully I'll get a few done today. Here is a pear bread - courtesy of our "Free Fruit Tuesdays" at work. For some reason, there was a lot of fruit leftover at the end of the day (after I took my normal share!). I never grab a pear, but remembered wanting to try this recipe. So I grabbed a couple and got to baking over the weekend! Perfect for the start of fall. :)

Adapted from: www. bakeorbreak.com

INGREDIENTS
(I used half of the ingredients listed below and made one loaf, below yields 2 loaves)
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 cup chopped pecans (original recipe uses walnuts)
3/4 cup butter, softened (may substitute 3/4 cup vegetable oil)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups granulated sugar
2 cups peeled and finely grated ripe, firm pears
2 teaspoons vanilla extract

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350°. Lightly grease and flour a 10-inch tube pan or two 9″x 5″loaf pans.
Combine flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon. Scoop out about 1/4 cup of this mixture and combine it with nuts to coat. Stir back into the flour mixture.
In a separate bowl, combine butter, eggs, sugar, pears, and vanilla. Add the pear mixture to the flour mixture, stirring just until flour disappears and batter is evenly moistened.
Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until bread is browned and firm on top. A pick inserted into the center should come out clean.
Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Then, remove from pan and place top side up on a plate or wire rack to cool completely.

Overnight Monkey Bread

Well, this turned out much better than expected! I have never made any bread besides a quick bread. When I got to kneading the dough....well, I don't think I "kneaded" it correctly. The dough is supposed to become shiny after 6-7 minutes of kneading and mine didn't change texture or appearance at all. I almost threw it out. However, I thought I made it this far, so what was the difference if I finished the recipe and it turned out awful? THEN I could throw it out. This tasted like any other monkey bread I've had - delicious!

Adapted from: http://www.barbarabakes.com/ (originally from Cook's Illustrated

INGREDIENTS

DOUGH

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted1

1/3 cup milk, warm (about 120 degrees)

1/3 cup water, warm (about 120 degrees)

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons table salt

1 package rapid-rise yeast (or instant)

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour , plus extra for work surface

BROWN SUGAR COATING

1 cup packed light brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

8 tablespoons unsalted butter (1 stick), melted

GLAZE

1 cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons milk

DIRECTIONS

Butter a 12-cup Bundt pan generously with softened butter. Set aside.
In large measuring cup, mix together melted butter, milk, water, sugar, and salt. Stir to dissolve.
Mix 2 1/2 cups flour and yeast in stand mixer fitted with a beater blade. Turn machine to low and slowly add the milk mixture. After the liquids are incorporated, switch to the dough hook, increase the speed to medium and gradually add the remaining flour (add more or less as necessary) until dough clings to the hook and almost cleans the sides. Knead until the dough is shiny and smooth, 6 to 7 minutes. Turn dough onto lightly floured counter and knead briefly to form smooth, round ball. Coat large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Place dough in bowl and coat surface of dough with cooking spray. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rise in a warm, draft free place until dough doubles in size, 50 to 60 minutes. While dough is rising, mix brown sugar and cinnamon together in bowl. Place melted butter in second bowl. Set aside for the sugar coating. Remove dough from bowl, and pat into rough 8-inch square. Using bench scraper or knife, cut dough into 64 pieces. Roll each dough piece into a ball. Working one at a time, dip balls in melted butter, allowing excess butter to drip back into bowl. Roll in brown sugar mixture, then layer balls in Bundt pan, staggering seams where dough balls meet as you build layers. Cover Bundt pan tightly with plastic wrap and place in refrigerator overnight.
Approximately one hour before you want to bake your Monkey Bread, remove it from the refrigerator and let the dough come to room temperature and the dough will begin to rise. (It should have risen some in the refrigerator overnight.)
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Unwrap pan and bake until top is deep brown and caramel begins to bubble around edges, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool in pan for 5 minutes, then turn out on platter and allow to cool slightly, about 10 minutes.
FOR THE GLAZE: While bread cools, whisk confectioners’ sugar and milk in small bowl until lumps are gone. Using whisk, drizzle glaze over warm monkey bread, letting it run over top and sides of bread. Serve warm.

Banana Gingerbread

Holiday baking, gotta love it! It seems like I spent all weekend baking and still have more to do on Christmas Eve. I found this recipe for banana gingerbread, which seemed perfect for the season. I altered the recipe a bit since I didn't have whole wheat flour on hand and did not have the spice cardamom. There seems to be no substitution for it, so I did without it. I actually didn't get to try a slice of this bread since I'm putting this in a gift basket, but poured some batter in a couple of mini-muffin tins so that I could taste it. Pretty good! :)

Adapted from: http://www.bakingbites.com/

INGREDIENTS

1 cup whole wheat flour (I used 2 cups all purpose since I didn't have whole wheat flour)
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (I didn't have this so I omitted)
pinch freshly ground nutmeg
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup banana, mashed (about 2 large)
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 tbsp vegetable oil


DIRECTIONS

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.In a large bowl, whisk together flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices.In a medium bowl, whisk together brown sugar, banana, molasses, buttermilk and vegetable oil. Pour into dry ingredients and stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired. Bake for about 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Makes 1 loaf, 8-10 slices.

Cinnamon Swirl Bread

This bread was so good! I think it may have been because I used almond milk instead of regular milk. I've gotten in the habit of buying almond milk since I decided to try it a few months ago and it is so good! I also think I undercooked the bread since the timing provided was 40 - 50 minutes....it looked done after about 40 minutes so I took it out. It probably could've stayed in another 5, but I always prefer undercooked baking to overcooked. I also misjudged splitting up the batter when adding the swirl. I put much more than half of the batter in the pan before sprinkling it with the cinnamon sugar (see my picture!). Next time I'll measure it out. :)

Adapted from: http://www.bakeorbreak.com/

INGREDIENTS

1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans, toasted (I omitted)
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk (I used almond milk)
1/3 cup cooking oil

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease/flour/spray the bottom and sides of a 9″x5″x3″ loaf pan.Combine 1/3 cup of sugar, pecans, and cinnamon. Set aside.
Combine 1 cup of sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat egg. Then, stir in milk and oil. Make a well in the flour mixture and add the egg mixture. Stir just until mixed. Do not overmix.
Pour half of the batter into loaf pan. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon mixture. Repeat. With a wide rubber scraper or spatula, swirl mixtures together with a down and up circular motion.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until done. Cool in pan for about 10 minutes. Then, cool completely on a wire rack.

Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

With the upcoming holiday season, I keep coming across recipes for pumpkin and chocolate, which seems like an odd combination to me. (I'm not sure why I would think that anything is odd with chocolate though!) I decided to try baking a Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread. I found this recipe from Magnanimity's blog (http://5purposedriven.wordpress.com/2006/10/20/1051/). She says it can make bread or cookies but I found the consistency too watery to form cookies. I also added more chocolate chips than the recipe called for. The bread was excellent! I plan to try more recipes with this combination.

Makes 3 (9×5″) loaves

3 cups sugar
1 T ground nutmeg
1–15 oz can pumpkin puree
2 tsp baking soda
1 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 tsp salt
2/3 cup water
1 cup miniature semi-sweet chips (I used regular semi-sweet chips and added about 1.5 cups)
4 eggs
1/2 cup walnuts, optional (I omitted)
3 1/2 cups flour
1 T ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour three 9×5″ loaf pans. (I only made one loaf and cut the recipe in thirds.) Combine all dry ingredients in large bowl; set aside. In large bowl, combine sugar, pumpkin, oil,water, and eggs. Beat until smooth. Blend in the dry ingredients. Fold in chocolate chips, and nuts (I omitted, not a fan of nuts in bread), if desired. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake for 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks before removing from pans.
*Note: This bread should freeze well, half of it is actually in my freezer and I'll let you know how that is after Thanksgiving!