Quick: Make me some bread

Is there anything better than a fresh loaf of yeast bread out of the oven? Possibly not. But woman does not live by yeast bread alone, and quick bread is the great utility player that fills the gap between having enough time, ambition and oomph to make that perfect risen loaf that takes hours, and no time at all. Quick breads — for when you're just slightly motivated. (Or have too many zucchini or bananas.) There's a demotivational poster in there somewhere.

The quick part is generally referring to the relatively short mixing time; figure on an hour and a half in between when you fire up the oven and when you actually remove it from the pan. Also figure in time to cool before eating or storing, because most quick breads reward waiting for a full cool down before attempting to slice them. Less mangling that way. 

Almond apricot bread with lemon thyme

From "Quick Loaves," by Jean Anderson, a book that features recipes in a variety of loaf forms, from quick breads to meatloaves. This book takes a quick mix approach, with one variety for quick cake mix approach and one for quick breads. The premise is that you keep the mix on hand in the freezer (it contains butter) so it's ready to pull out when you need it. If you plan ahead, it's fairly speedy, but otherwise it's not going to be a time saver the until the second batch you make. But you might want to after the first batch. She also makes batches of spice mix by the apparent vat, which I probably wouldn't go through while it was at peak freshness, so I opted for Penzey's cake spice instead since I have it on hand, but you could approximate hers with a generous half teaspoon cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground ginger and a smidge of ground nutmeg.

Ingredients

2½ cups Quick Cake Mix (see below)
2 teaspoons fresh lemon thyme leaves or 1 teaspoon lemon zest (I used a mix of both)
1 teaspoon three-spice mix (see note)
½ cup chopped dried apricots
½ cup sliced almonds
¾ cup milk
1 extra large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Method

Preheat oven to 375. Grease and flour a loaf pan, or use the baking spray with flour in it.

Combine cake mix, thyme and or lemon zest and spice mix in a large bowl. Stir in apricots and almonds. Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients. Mix milk, egg and vanilla. Pour into dry ingredients and just barely combine. The recipe specifies leaving it lumpy with whiffs of flour showing to avoid overmixing Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 to 60 minutes. I had to bake this for much longer than the original range the recipe indicated to have a toothpick come out clean. Cool for 10 minutes in the pan and then remove it to cool.

Quick cake mix

4 cups sifted flour
2 cups sugar
4 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup (2 sticks) cold butter, chopped

Method

There are two ways to approach this one. 

The original recipe suggests mixing the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a food processor and then removing half of it to a bowl and adding half the butter to the food processor bowl and pulse until it looks like about the size of lentils. Then remove that bunch from the processor and repeat with the remaining half. Store in a gallon freezer bag, making sure to squeeze out all the air. You'll be using only portions of this for the various recipes, so you can refresh with more as you need, mixing any remaining mix together in the bag.

I get why she suggested that approach: There's definitely no way the processor is going to make consistent work out of that large a batch if you try to do it all at once. My take on that method was it would annoy me and get crumbs everywhere, so I instead just measured half the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter in separate batches and then combined the two in the freezer bag. Either works; I just figured all that transferring of crumbs was going to make a hot mess that would annoy me more than measuring twice.

Rating: A nice loaf to have on hand for breakfast slathered with butter. The almonds seem to disappear in there once it's baked, but I'm sure there's a background note in their somewhere, and the apricots and cake spice give it a nice flavor. It popped right out of the pan, so points for loaf release. As for how I feel about the mix approach, ask me after I make my second recipe using the mix, and then we'll see if I make a third, which would require me to augment the mix.

Oh, and if you don't speak Midwestern and need a rating decoder ring, "nice" is a perfectly good thing. "Fine" is an OK thing, and "just fine," well, it's not actively bad, but we're certainly not actually raving about it. If we hate it? "It doesn't speak to me."

 

Maple nut bread

From Country Living's "Country Mornings Cookbook"

Ingredients

1 cup flour
¾ cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup finely chopped walnuts
¼ cup butter
⅔ cup milk
⅓ cup maple syrup
1 large egg
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
3 tablespoons finely chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons sugar
¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.

Combine flours, baking powder, salt and ¼ teaspoon cinnamon in a large bowl. Stir in ¼ cup walnuts. In a small bowl, combine melted butter, milk and syrup. Stir in egg and vanilla. Add wet ingredients to dry, stirring just enough to combine. 

Pour batter into prepared baking pan. Combine topping ingredients and sprinkle on top of the batter. Bake for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Remove from pan and cool on a wire rack. 

Rating: Dave said nom nom, but I think that might mainly be because of the topping, which would make anything taste like breakfast. I found myself wondering if I put it on quinoa mixed with kale if it would taste inhalable. The loaf itself is more bread-like than some quick breads are. Carrot and zucchini bread, for instance, really seem more like moist cakes in loaf form, but the whole wheat in this one gives it a bit more solidity, which is not a bad thing when it comes to getting it out of the hot pan. About that: If like me you're used to automatically flipping a loaf upside down to remove it from the pan, be advised that the precious topping is going to try to scatter all over the counter. I just spooned it back on, but next time I might try levering the loaf out of the pan with a large metal spatula instead. 

Dark spices and coffee give this a darker color.

English honey loaf

From "Pillsbury's Best 1,000 Recipes: Best of the Bake-Off Collection." The winning baker was Mrs. Harry A. Winer of Kansas City, Mo., who was a winner in the senior category of whatever year that was.

Ingredients

2½ cups sifted flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
¾ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon ground ginger
⅓ cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
⅓  honey
1½ teaspoons lemon zest
½ cup cold strong coffee
½ cup chopped nuts
½ cup raisins

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a loaf pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and ginger in a small bowl and set aside.

Cream shortening and sugar. Add eggs, one at  time, beating well after each addition. Blend in honey and lemon zest. Add coffee and dry ingredients alternately, blending well after each addition. Stir in nuts and raisins. Pour into prepared baking pan and bake 55 to 65 minutes until it passes the toothpick test. (I found it took 65 minutes in my oven.) Let cool for a half hour before removing from pan and cooling fully on a baking rack. 

Rating: Reminiscent of ginger bread, only more breadlike than cakelike and not as sweet. Fine on its own, but better with a slather of butter to soften the spice. Decent texture, and it came out of the pan without a quibble or even the need to tack back a few bottom bits together.

Maxine's black walnut bread

From Midwest Living, August 1995. The recipe comes from Maxine Nelson of Indiana who made this winning recipe for the Elkhart County Fair. 

Ingredients

1 cup sugar
1 8-ounce carton sour cream
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1¾ cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup chopped black walnuts

Method

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour an 8-by-4 loaf pan.

Combine sugar, sour cream egg and vanilla in a large bowl. (It did not specify using a mixer and I didn't feel the need of one.)

In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Stir into creamed mixture. Fold in walnuts and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes before removing from pan to cool completely on a rack. 

Rating: This was the easiest to make out of all the recipes and the most pantry friendly. It also baked just exactly the amount of time specified and came out of the pan perfectly without resistance and without splitting the top. Decent texture and moisture thanks to the sour cream. Really needed no adornment, although I suppose one could apply butter if so desired. I can see why it passed muster with judges. Out of all of the recipes I tried, this one most nearly lives up to its "quick" name. A definite winner in the taste to effort ratio.

Golden raisin honey quick bread

This recipe was brought to you by freezing rain. I realized that we didn't have enough bread on hand for breakfast and had no wish to slip-slide my way down the hill to the bakery on foot or four wheels. Dave of course went out for a walk anyway, but at least this way I didn't feel responsible if he fell, which I would have if he'd fallen on the way there or back. He did admit to ice surfing in an attempt to stay upright while out for a walk. Always glad to find another likely what's-in-the-house quick bread recipe to meet such minor natural disasters.

Golden raisin honey loaf

From Country Living’s “Country Mornings Cookbook.” This 1989 tome is still available new.

Ingredients

2 ½ cups flour
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoons salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ cup vegetable shortening
1 cup golden raisins
2 large eggs
½ cup milk
½ cup honey
2 teaspoons grated lemon zest

Method

Preheat oven to 325. Flour and grease a loaf pan.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and baking soda. Cut in vegetable shortening with a pastry blender or two knives until it resembles coarse crumbs. Stir in raisins.

Beat together the eggs, milk, honey and lemon zest. Stir into dry ingredients until just combined. Spoon into loaf pan. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a cake tester like a toothpick comes out clean. (I would err on the side of longer if in doubt; it took all of an hour to get rid of the soggy center.) Cool in pan for 10 minutes and then completely on a rack before slicing.

Rating: Nice flavor, fast to mix up and pantry friendly. I could see making it with whatever dried fruit and fruit zest is in the house as needed.

2025 holiday cookie tray

 This year's cookie tray had a lot of usual suspects, some occasional entries to the rotation and a couple newish to me cookies. Whatever's on your plate this season, may it be tasty and manageable. 

Almond roshki 

These come from a recipe from a former co-worker whose grandmother brought her recipe with her from Russia. I'm not sure if I'm authorized to shared the recipe, but a search for roshki will give you several similar recipes. I didn't actually request the recipe; another co-worker requested it on my behalf because she figured I'd actually make it so she didn't have to. This recipe is one of those that takes some practice.

These cookies use Biscoff spread.

Biscoff cinnamon sandwich cookies 

These were a finalist in the 2020 Taste cookie contest. One of a few good things to come out of that problematic year other than remote/hybrid work options.

Cherry dots 

I think they're from a Pillsbury cookbook my sister got in the 1970s or so; I know it was from one of those usual suspect big-name cookbooks at any rate, but I make mine minus the bit about rolling the log of dough in walnuts, since they aren't universally appealing, especially to small children. They are pretty with the walnuts, though.

Ingredients
2½ cups flour
½ teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
1 cup butter
2 tablespoons milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
34 candied cherries
1 cup chopped walnuts, optional

Method
Combine flour and salt in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Add milk and vanilla until well combined. On slow speed, add in dry ingredients. Form into two logs. Press cherries into the center. (If you want the walnut edging, roll the logs in the chopped walnuts now.) Refrigerate or freeze until ready to bake. Taking them out of the freezer 15 or 20 minutes before baking is enough defrosting time; you want these cookies cold so they don't spread too much. Bake at 350 for 12 minutes.

Confetti cookies 

Colorful, and surprisingly tasty. Almond extract and cream cheese help. I opted for the recipe from Smitten Kitchen.

Triple chocolate thumbprint cookies 

I used the triple chocolate variation on the basic thumbprint cookie from BH&G, which calls for a chocolate dough rolled in chocolate sprinkles with a chocolate kiss in the middle, but subbed Nutella for the chocolate kiss. This was one of the newish ones I tried this year, but I think I'll stick to the Nutella thumbprint cookie recipe I got from the Washington Post, which is all around a better cookie.

Peanut butter M&M cookies 

The kid pleasers. All five batches of them.

Orange pistachio sandwich cookies 

Out of all the winners of the annual Taste cookie contest over the years, I think these are possibly my favorite. Only downside: If you've made them once, people inform you that they need to appear every year. Also, if you make a full batch, you may start questioning your life choices after baking four trays of them and seeing you've barely made a dent in the dough in the bowl.

Dutch letter bars

Reminiscent of the letter-shaped almond-paste filled version, only in bar form. This recipe from the Gingered Whisk showed up in my Pinterest feed several years ago. Remember Pinterest?

Almond triangles 

I've been making this since they were a Taste contest winner in 2009, and I always breathe a sigh of relief when a full pan of these are made for the season and stashed in the freezer. It turns out you can also fairly easily make an extra half batch in a 9-by-9 pan; just reduce baking time for the last bit.

Pecan sandies 

Or Mexican hat cookies, or whatever variation of this powdered sugar-laden pecan cookie you find familiar. This is the recipe my mother used:

Combine 1 cup butter and ¼ cup powdered sugar. Add 2 teaspoons vanilla and 1 tablespoon water. Add 2 cups flour. Mix well and add 1 cup chopped pecans. Form small rolls 1½ inches long and curve into a crescent. Bake for 20 minutes at 300. While hot, roll in more powdered sugar. (Personally, I find that dead annoying so I sprinkle it over the top while hot and then press the bottoms in later when cool; it helps avoid crumbles in your powdered sugar bowl.)

 

My brother always likes to joke, "What's pie?" So when he gave sufficient warning that he was contemplating riding up for a visit a few weeks ago, I decided it was high time it was pie time. 

Blueberry pie

From King Arthur Baker's Companion. It’s a variation on their bumbleberrypie, which uses a mix of blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons orange juice
2 tablespoons lemon juice
Zest of 1 lemon
6 cups blueberries
1 cup sugar, plus more for sprinkling on  top
¼ cup cornstarch (or quick cooking tapioca)
¼ teaspoon allspice
1 9-inch double  piecrust (see recipe below or use your favorite)

Method

Combine juices, zest, blueberries, sugar, cornstarch and allspice in a large pan and simmer until thickened. Cool to lukewarm.

Preheat oven to 425.

Roll out one pie crust into a 13-inch circle and set into a 9-inch pie pan. Spoon the filling into the shell. Roll out the other pie crust and place on top, crimping edges. Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake pie for 15 minutes at 425. Reduce heat to 350 and bake for an additional 35 to 50 minutes, until the top is evenly brown. Allow to cool several hours before slicing.

Rating: Really nice the second day. It was probably a few hours too warm for the best slicing the first day for lunch and would have been better baked either the day before or a few hours earlier than I had any interest in getting up, but set up nicely once fully cooled. Packed with blueberry flavor and a respectably crackly crust. Beats the heck out of canned filling. If you want filling to have on hand, try out Cathy Barrow's blueberry pie filling you can put up.

Julia Child’s Flaky Pie Dough

From “Baking with Julia.” This recipe is cut in half from her recipe; this yields two crusts for making one 9-inch pie with a top and bottom crust. I went this route because I know myself and the chances of me using the other two before they went off in the freezer seemed unlikely. But otherwise it would be a good time saver to make the double batch. And it makes for easier-to-measure amounts than the 2-crust version.

Ingredients

2⅝ cups pastry or all purpose flour
½ tablespoon kosher salt
3 ounces butter (6 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into small pieces (she specifies unsalted, but I didn't have any on hand and regular seemed fine)
5½ ounces (⅞ cup) chilled solid vegetable shortening (I used butter flavor Crisco)
½ cup ice water

Method

(Note: Julia gives three methods, one for a food processor, one for a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and by hand. I opted for by hand since it saves messing up an appliance and it makes it less likely that I’d overwork the dough.)

Mix flour and salt in a large bowl. Add the chopped butter and cut in using a pastry blender or two table knives. Mix until coarse and crumbly. Add shortening in small bits and work in until it’s in small clumps. Stir in ice water with a wooden spoon to blend it in. Turn out onto a board and fold it over just a few times. It will be a soft dough until chilled. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill. The recipe calls for at least 2 hours, but in my refrigerator I’ve found overnight yields a happier outcome. Once when making this the morning of for use in a quiche that evening for guests, there was some panic time in the freezer to get it to the right consistency to work with. (It can be stored for up to 5 days in the refrigerator or frozen for a month. Defrost first  if using frozen pie dough.) Divide in half and roll out as directed in the recipe.

Rating: A really good, reliable crust providing you've got the chilling time. Good for both sweet and savory pies.

All-butter crust purist? Lard fan? Swear the store-bought ones are just fine in a pinch? I won't say you're wrong. I spelled out my open-minded approach to pie crusts here. 

In search of Irish soda bread worth making more than once a year

Lots of food that started life as food for peasants has become a beloved comfort food staple, things slow-cooked to make the most of inexpensive, readily available ingredients. Take Boeuf Bourguignon for instance. 

But not all peasant food is so pleasant, and I used to lump Irish soda bread in that category. I had no Irish grandmother to make it a cherished staple, and most of the examples someone would bring into work just reinforced in my head that it was a cheap food probably best served warm with butter and otherwise best skipped. Most were second-day efforts and dry and tasteless.

But having been on a quick-bread phase lately, I was moved to give it a try in the name of having a good, fast-ish fix for when I'm too tired/it's too cold to go down the hill to the bakery.

I have no idea if this is in any way authentic, but I figured that much butter and honey gave it a fighting chance.

Irish soda bread

From Garden Way Publishing’s “Bread Book: A Baker’s Almanac,” by Ellen Foscue Johnson.

Ingredients
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks
2 cups raisins, preferably golden*
1 egg
½ cup honey
1 cup buttermilk

Method
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 10-inch casserole or skillet with deep sides.

Combine flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Cut in butter with a pastry blender or two knives until you’ve reached the coarse crumb stage. Mix in raisins.

Beat egg until frothy. Mix in honey and combine well. Blend in buttermilk.

Stir wet ingredients into dry using a fork just until a shaggy dough comes together. Transfer to prepared baking dish, soothing the top just a bit. Bake for 1 hour or until golden brown. Remove from pan and serve warm but into wedges.

*If your raisins are a tad on the dried-out side, like mine, a brief soak with 1 tablespoon of Irish whiskey seemed to do the trick.

Rating: Very sustaining, as you would expect for sturdy food. A craggy exterior and moist, crumby interior. Dave thought it nummy. I was initially a little more reserved, but do think it's a better example than most I've been exposed to. Maybe the Jameson splash helped. Realistically, it's the honey. Given the price of honey and butter, this may no longer be the cheapest approach to bread, but it might turn out to be what's in the house bread.

And a follow-up opinion: This actually worked better as a tasty butter delivery device the next day, when one can successfully slice it like a regular loaf and serve it lightly toasted. The flavor and crumbliness had time to settle a bit and it was a perfectly fine breakfast. Maybe this can serve as a decent bail-out bread.

And a further follow-up: I've since made this a few more times, and it indeed makes a decent bail-out bread.

Orange quick bread because it's freaking cold

This evening when Dave liberated me from the downtown office, it was 10 degrees, nearly 30 degrees warmer than when he first deposited me there in the morning because the car wisely would not start and it was left to the mighty DaveMobile to come vrooming through since I was on the hook to teach an in-person only class.

How does that relate to orange quick bread? Yesterday, and the two previous days, it was also dangerously cold, too cold for sensible humans to walk down the hill to the bakery to replenish the supply of bread for breakfast. So last night, spurred by the orange zest I had taken off an orange for lunch, the internet came through with a fast solution.

Orange quick bread

This recipe comes from Pastry & Beyond. which focuses on fairly simple scratch baking. Nothing wrong with that.

Ingredients

½ cup butter
 1 ½ cup flour
 2½ teaspoons baking powder
 ½  cup sugar
 2 tablespoons orange zest
 2 eggs
 ¾ cup fresh orange juice

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a bread pan. Line with parchment overhanging by a couple of inches on each side.

Melt butter, set aside.

Combine flour and baking powder in a large bowl.

In a medium bowl, mix sugar and orange zest using your fingers to knead it together. Add butter and mix well. Add eggs and juice and mix well. Add wet ingredient and stir just until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The original recipe suggested 35 to.38 minutes. I found it was more like 50 minutes, so be prepared to allot more time.

Remove from oven and let cool in pan for 20 minutes. Then lift onto a rack to cool completely.

Devour at your leisure.

Rating: Perfectly fine quick bread. Reasonable amount of orange flavor coming through. After cooking it way longer than called for, it had a quite moist texture. Good slicer. Doesn't really need a topping, but I suppose a marmalade would not go amiss. Would make again in any severe cold snap with oranges in the house.

But it could warm up any time. And it's a damn good thing a trainee showed up for the in-person training session, which is the only reason I drug myself in today.

Apricot, almond and coconut scones

 

Happy New Year! 

Every year after Christmas I find myself with leftover bits of baking ingredients that I really only use at Christmas. Depending on which cookies I made from my rotating roster, that could be almond paste, Heath bar bits or sweetened coconut.

This year it's an overly large vat of sweetened coconut, so this recipe lets me get the year off to a good start on one of my resolutions: Use up leftover holiday baking bits before the next baking holiday.

Apricot, almond and coconut scones

From “Farmhouse Weekends” by Melissa Bahen. Having grown up in a farmhouse, I'm not sure exactly what is supposed to be relaxing about meals prepared there, but I get the beguiling allure of the concept that somehow if you escape to a remote rustic location your life will be simpler and you'll magically have more time to cook. I will turn a blind eye to the fact that unless you move there it simply means you have two kitchens to maintain and clean, and how that frees up your time is apparently advanced math. But there are many appealing recipes in the book for when you actually do find time, regardless of kitchen location. (Hers is scenic.)

Ingredients

2 cups flour

⅓ cup sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

5 ounces cold cream cheese, cut into chunks

6 tablespoons cold butter, cut into chunks

½ cup chopped dried apricots

½ cup sweetened coconut flakes

¼ cup sliced almonds, slightly broken up with your fingers

4 tablespoons whole milk, divided

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 tablespoon coarse sugar (I used Demerara)

Toasted sliced almonds and/or toasted coconut for optional garnish

Glaze ingredients

1 ounce cream cheese, softened

1 tablespoon cream cheese, softened

¼ cup powdered sugar

¼ teaspoon almond extract

1 teaspoon whole milk

Method

If baking immediately, preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Place flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the work bowl of a food processor. Pulse briefly to combine. Add cream cheese and butter and pulse until the mixture resembles very coarse crumbs.

Turn mixture into a mixing bowl. Stir in ½ cup dried apricots, ½ cup coconut flakes and ¼ cup sliced almonds.

Combine 3 tablespoons milk, egg, vanilla and ¼ teaspoon almond extract in a small bowl. Add to dry ingredients and fold to bring together. You may need to knead it for a turn or two. Turn out onto a lightly floured board or sheet of parchment paper. And pat into a circle about ¾-inch thick. Cut into 8 wedges. If baking immediately, transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet; I just use the sheet I used to roll out the dough on. Refrigerate pan of scones for 15 minutes.

Make-ahead tip: To bake these scones later, transfer the cut scones to a freezer storage box along with the parchment sheet and freeze until ready to use. Add 5 more minutes to the baking time and back from frozen; do not thaw them first. Best to bake these off within a month.

Brush scones with remaining 1 tablespoon milk and sprinkle with coarse sugar. Bake for 17-20 minutes if fresh, 22-25 minutes if baking from frozen. Check sooner rather than later, since any protruding bits of apricot are likely to pick up color quickly and it’s easy for them to get too dark for optimum appearance.

While scones bake, mix together 1 tablespoon cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar and almond extract. Add milk as needed to make desired glaze consistency. Spread over scones and top with additional toasted almonds and coconut if desired. Note: It’s a small amount, so you may not need a mixer for this glaze, but if you’re operating in a cold kitchen in Minnesota in January, you might be at it awhile, because room temperature does not mean softened.

Rating: Worth waking up to when made in advance. Decent texture. Not sure that I detect the coconut flavor at all, oddly, but any apricot almond baked combo works for me. Also not sure that it absolutely requires the glaze, so if you're pressed for time in your farmhouse retreat, I think you can skip that bit unless you prefer more sweetness.

Now maybe if I had made my life choices differently and could spring for this Two Harbors retreat as a family compound, I would magically slow down time in the kitchen. 

Almond zucchini bread, with a side of statistics

The right to vote is something many of us take for granted, to the point that many simply don't bother. In a heavy turnout year, easily a third of eligible voters don't, according to the Pew Research Center. 

Women got the right to vote several decades before I was born, so that has been my normal. But sometimes I think of my grandmother, who would have already attended college, taught school and staked a homestead claim in Wyoming before she would have become eligible to vote in 1920. 

I've no idea if she voted in the 1920 election, given her remote homestead location, or if she did, whether she would have voted for Harding or Cox. But you can damn well bet she had an opinion. A woman so famed for her bluntness that it was mentioned from the pulpit at her funeral would not have been reticent.

Before 1980, the rate of voter turnout for women in presidential elections was lower than for that of men, according to the Center for American Women and Politics at Rutgers, but that's been flipped since. This year the media reports a gender gap in early voting, with women leading the way. Best not to make any assumptions about what that means for the outcome; it would be a patronizing mistake to think women vote as a bloc.

Whatever your political persuasion or gender, if you're legally eligible to vote, consider giving it a go this year. Even if the election doesn't go your way, it's surprisingly cathartic. 

And if it doesn't turn out as you had hoped, there's always baking.

Zucchini-almond bread

From “Rage Baking: The Transformative Power of Flour, Fury and Women’s Voices,” by Kathy Gunst and Katherine Alford (Tiller Press). It’s a collection of solicited submissions from many women. In that regard, you could say it’s a bit like a community cookbook, but this one is set in the context of post-2016 political climate. It includes section headings like “The Revolution Will Be Catered,” so that gives you an idea of the ideological bent. 

Baking may not heal the contributors’ rage, but it does help focus attention on something else beyond the news. And it yields tasty things, which also help.

This particular contribution is from Rebecca Traister, author of “Good and Mad.”

Ingredients

1 cup almonds
3 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1¼ teaspoons fine salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla)

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9- by 5-inch loaf pan if you’ve got one. Or if you’re like me and your standard loaf pan is more like 8½  by 4, grease that plus one mini loaf pan.

Grind almonds in a food processor until almost fine.

In medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

In a large bowl of either a stand mixer or handheld mixer, beat sugar, oil and eggs for 3 minutes. They should be slightly thickened. With motor running on low speed, blend in flour mixture. Then add zucchini, ground almonds and almond extract.

Pour into prepared pan (or pans; I’m really glad I didn’t try to cram that all into the slightly smaller size). Bake for 75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest for 5 to 10 minutes before trying to remove it from the pan.

Rating: A decent zucchini bread. Nice texture, and almond brings a bit to the party.

Somehow or another I had never made rhubarb bread. It seems an odd omission that needed to be rectified. I suspect it's because I usually use rhubarb in baked goods, and I have a preference for warm baked goods straight out of the oven on a Sunday morning, so I skew toward scones and muffins over quick breads, which generally should be allowed to cool.

This recipe comes from a 1979 tome on baking, written in calendar format. It smacks of its hippy-dippy era, with a noticeable bent toward honey, bran and whole grains, and rustic line drawing illustrations. This clearly is not written in the era of relentlessly photographed recipes. The receipt that has been bookmarking the rhubarb recipe all this time dates to 1992 from the Hungry Mind Bookstore in St. Paul, so clearly a vacation souvenir.

The cookbook is also sometimes a tad loose on the recipe end. This one says to divide the dough between two "small to medium size loaf pans." Um?? I've got three bread pan sizes in my house, but it seemed fairly clear from the baking time that they weren't necessarily thinking of the standard size loaf pans. Also not thinking of the miniest of loaf pan sizes. I opted for three of the regular minis but should have gone for four since it overflowed a bit so now I've got a mess on the oven floor. They must have had something else in mind entirely that's lost to the ages and 1970s Vermont.  

Rhubarb bread

From Garden Way Publishing’s “Bread Book: A Baker’s Almanac,” by Ellen Foscue Johnson. Now I just want time off to cook my way through the rest of the year. 

Ingredients

2½ cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon ginger
½ cup melted butter, slightly cooled
1 cup honey
½ cup orange juice (or pineapple)
1 beaten egg
1½ cups chopped raw rhubarb
¾ cup chopped nuts

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease four mini bread pans. (See discussion above about size.)

Whisk together flour, baking powder, soda, salt and ginger in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Combine butter, honey, orange juice and egg in a large bowl. Stir in rhubarb and nuts. Stir in dry ingredients until just wet through. Divide among pans and bake. I found the small loaf pans took about 30 minutes until top is springy.

Rating: Delightful. Wonderful flavor and texture; perfectly moist. It comes together quite quickly, so it's a fast fix if you don't count cleaning up the oven if you guess wrong on pan size. Works fine served at room temperature. And now I don't have to go down the hill to get bread for breakfast.

Yet another rhubarb scone recipe

Did I need another rhubarb scone recipe? Heck, no. I've already tried several, including revisiting a favorite during our recent cabin week. But was I rewarded for trying another rhubarb scone recipe? Hell, yeah.

Rhubarb scones

Adapted from theviewfromgreatisland.com. I ran across this one in my rhubarb Pinterest feed (is it peak Minnesotan to have a rhubarb feed?), but this site has lots of other lovely looking prospects to try as well.

Ingredients

½ cup sugar
2¼ cups flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons cold butter (1 stick), cut into pieces
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup buttermilk or half and half
1 cup chopped rhubarb

Method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In the work bowl of a food processor, combine sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Add butter and pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. (Alternatively, if you don’t have a food processor, you can use a pastry blender or two knives to achieve the same result.) Add vanilla and buttermilk and process briefly until dough just comes together.

Remove to a lightly floured board and knead a few times to fold in rhubarb. Pat out into a circle and cut into 8 triangles or pat into a rectangle and cut into squares. (Or use a fluted biscuit cutter to cut rounds, as the original recipe called for.) Place two inches apart on a baking sheet (they spread quite a bit) and bake for about 20 minutes until just turning golden.

Rating: These are superb. Moist with excellent texture, not overly sweet or overly rhubarby, if that's a thing. They also reheated well. OK, so maybe I didn't need another rhubarb scone recipe, but I may have found a new favorite. It's possibly tied for first. It would be worth trying with the biscuit cut-out method, since it was the prettiness in the picture that led me to try this one in the first place only when it came time to make them I was in a hurry.

Triple orange scones

 

Every year I have to try at least one new recipe from the Taste holiday cookie contest. This year I tried the Aperol sparklers, which called for sweetened dehydrated oranges. I had a lot left over after baking the cookies and was looking for a way to use them up. This was my second attempt at making a scone recipe with them; the first turned out a tad dry and not worth sharing, but these have merit.

Triple orange scones

Adapted from a recipe for lemon poppy seed scones found on Epicurious that's been in my recipe collection long enough that it predates this blog. But I remember they were tasty. No sign that the Ledbetter's restaurant referenced as the source still exists in Monroe, Conn. But the recipe lives on, and it made a good base to riff on.

Ingredients

3 cups flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Zest of 1 orange
10 tablespoons cold butter
1 egg, beaten
2 tablespoons orange juice
A scant ⅓ cup milk
⅓ cup chopped dried, sweetened oranges (I used Trader Joe's)

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. 

In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, 1 cup sugar, baking powder, salt and orange zest. Cut butter into small chunks and add to bowl. Pulse to combine until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Mix egg and orange juice and add to bowl. Pulse briefly. Add milk in thirds, adding enough so mixture just comes together. 

Remove to a floured board. Press into an 8-inch circle. Sprinkle with chopped oranges and press into the dough. Cut into 8 wedges and transfer to prepared baking sheet, placing well apart, because they will spread. Sprinkle with remaining 1 tablespoon of sugar.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until light golden brown and firm to the touch. 

Rating: Definitely tasty, and reasonably moist. I'm considering buying more of the dried oranges just to make them again because that flavor really comes through. Maybe near next Christmas.

In the meantime, I clearly need to make the lemon poppy seed scone recipe again to refresh my memory.

Blueberry sour cream muffins

 

I tried this recipe because I wasn't sure of the viability of the milk supply in the house, so I googled sour cream blueberry muffins. Turns out I didn't have as much viable sour cream as I thought either. So I made this with ½ cup low-fat sour cream and 1 cup of plain yogurt and it turned out just dandy. I'll have to try it again with all sour cream to see if I think that's superior, but it's nice to have a recipe that's flexible and still holds up when your dairy supplies don't.

I had to laugh, though, when I saw that this was billed as the only blueberry muffin recipe you'll ever need. While that may be true, if you were around for the previous year's roundups, clearly I need ALL the recipes. OK, so maybe just 10 so far, but many of them are keepers.

Sour cream blueberry muffins
Adapted from the Seasoned Mom by Blair Longerman

Ingredients
4 tablespoons butter
3 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups sour cream or a mix of sour cream and plain yogurt
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries (don’t thaw)
Coarse sugar for topping (slightly more than 5 tablespoons)

Method
Preheat oven to 375. Line or grease 16 muffin cups.

Melt butter and let cool.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, soda and salt in a large bowl. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Gently mix into flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the butter and oil, avoiding overmixing. Fold in the blueberries.

Divide batter among prepared muffin cups. A ¼-cup measuring spoon filled the cups. Sprinkle 1 teaspoon of coarse sugar on top of each muffin. Bake for about 20 minutes until the muffins pass the toothpick test. Remove from oven and let rest for at least 5 minutes before removing them from the pan.

Rating: These are quite nice. If you're the kind of person who just wants/needs one recipe that's your go-to for a particular thing, you could certainly do much worse than settling on this one. Lots of nice juicy market blueberries for flavor and the sugar topping gives it that sort of crunchy bit at the top. Plus, you don't have to worry about whether you've got milk on hand that's still any good.