Quick Bread Tips
- You don’t always need to make your quick breads into loaves. I use my banana bread recipe to make muffins. I also frost them with vanilla or cream cheese frosting to make cupcakes. These don’t dry out quite as quickly as a slice of bread, are easier to serve and kids will almost always eat a cupcake with frosting where they might turn up their noses at a slice of bread.
- Turn your regular banana bread into a Christmas bread by adding candied fruit to it like red and green cherries.
- Add butterscotch chips to your pumpkin bread for a different twist.
- When making quick breads, sprinkle your greased pan with sugar instead of flour to prevent sticking. This prevents that gooey white on the bottom of the loaf.
- Make your quick breads the day before you need them. Wrap them well and put them in the fridge. They will slice easier and leaving them in the fridge gives the spices and flavors a chance to meld together.
- If your bread happens to last long enough to dry out, try toasting it in the toaster for breakfast or for a late night snack with hot chocolate or coffee. Be sure to slather it in butter, honey butter* or cream cheese while it is still warm!
- Sometimes we would love to have homemade biscuits but don’t have the time to roll them out. You can get that same great taste with less work by making drop biscuits. Mix baking mix biscuits as if making regular biscuits but, instead of rolling them, take a large spoon and drop on a greased cookie sheet. Bake as you would regular biscuits.
If you don’t have a biscuit cutter, remember you can use a glass (flour the edge before cutting) or just gently roll the dough into a rectangle and cut with a knife into squares.
- Make quick breads in the waffle maker just like you would waffles! Serve with honey butter.
Hi mom!! Here is the test. Love, your most beautifulist daughter. :-)
right back at ya from your most beautifulist mum.
Love these tips. I have gotten into the habit of making 1-2 quick breads on Sundays (either as muffins or just a loaf pan). Then we use them for breakfasts during the week. They are pretty economical as you can use up stuff on hand (old bananas, a last few carrots, whatever you have!) and they are great for getting in some fruit/veggies. And so easy.
I love the idea of making cupcakes with quick breads and added frosting. I will try that. Also, I like the idea of adding candied fruit for Christmas. Great idea! Jill, I want to tell you that the Pumpkin Bread recipe is fantastic, and with the Honey Butter, it is out of this world. Also, yesterday I was shopping and passed a candy counter in a Dept store and they were selling squares of Rice Crispy treats that were about 4 inches by 5 inches, covered with some chocolate on one side, with sprinkles for $3.99 a slice. Are they nuts or what? I was thinking of all the money I will save by making my own goodies for Christmas gifts, thanks to your cookbook.
Hi Jill, I love bread myself, all kinds. But we do not eat a lot of it at our house. However, I am becoming more and more concerned about preservatives in our food. Do you have a recipe for one loaf of a bread we could use for sandwiches and toast, sort of a yeast bread?
Here is the recipe for homemade bread. Also, check out Dining On A Dime we have everything in there from banana bread to wheat bread to english muffin bread.
Like Tawra said if any one is needing more recipes on bread baking we have tips in Dining on how to make it and things like cinnamon bread and rolls, popovers, french bread,starter bread. hamburger buns,soft prezels, zwieback and the list goes on.
Great tips! I especially liked the one about making muffins and adding some icing. I bake shortcut biscuits all the time. Instead of dropping them, I oil my hands and pat them into the pan. Then if you want them to pull apart, simply cut the dough into squares using a butter knife. Bake as usual. Also, if your family are fans of the pre- buttered biscuits, you can make your own. Pat half the dough into your baking pan. Spread with melted butter. Then cover with the remainder of the dough. Bake as above and they’ll not only pull apart, but will open easily to an already buttered center.
We love banana nut bread in this house…and I use unsweetened apple sauce instead of shortening,butter, or margarine…you can’t even tell the difference…and this is cost effective as well…due to the price of butter and shortening here in Canada…1lb of shortening is about 2.50 and 1lb of butter is 2.99…a 500mL can of unsweetened apple sauce is 1.48. Also tried this with choclate chip cookies last night…amazing! Very moist cookies…and not all the fat.
A nice Fall recipe for you:
Pumpkin Coconut Bread (makes 2 loaves)
3-1/2 cups flour
2 cups packed dark brown sugar
2/3 cup white sugar
2 cups pumpkin puree
1 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup coconut milk
2/3 cup flaked coconut
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 tsp ginger
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.
In a large bowl combine the flour, brown sugar, white sugar, pumpkin puree, oil, coconut milk, baking soda, salt, nutmeg, ginger, and cinnamon. Mix. Fold in flaked coconut. Pour into prepared pans. Bake at 350 for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cover with foil to steam for 10 minutes. Remove foil and allow to cool.
This is a yummy recipe for people that like peanut butter. It’s simple and no eggs.
Peanut Butter Bread
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-3/4 cups milk
2-1/4 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
Cream together sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla. Add milk and mix well. Combine flour, baking powder and salt. Add to creamed mixture and beat well. Place in a greased loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.
Bea I thought I had heard of peanut butter in everything but didn’t know about peanut butter bread. : )
I know Jill. It doesn’t seem to be a well-known recipe, but if you like peanut butter you will like this bread. It even can be frosted with chocolate. Real yummy. I’ve been thinking of the upcoming holidays and deciding what to make. SO many wonderful possibilites to give as gifts.
Bea, sounds great! I think I’d be adding some chopped up leftover Halloween chocolate to this one. I love peanut butter cups and this sounds right up my alley,
thanks so much!
You’re welcome Donna. It really is a good and tasty bread. Great a little warmed in a toaster or oven with jam or jelly too. Adding chocolate would be great. Chocolate chips or chunks of leftover chopped chocolate or iced with chocolate frosting.
I made the pumpkin bread! It was a winner! It lasted 2 days.
Thank you Jill and Tawra. I have been wanting a pumpkin bread recipe to use my pumpkin in that I grew in my garden and processed myself! I will try this one. I like using your recipes because they have been tried and are always good!
Oh you are welcome Jeanie. I hope this recipe works for you too. Don’t forget you can use it for muffins too that you can freeze.