Quick Breads and Snack Cakes
Yummy home-baked snacks
Even if you didn't think so - you do know about Quick Breads! Everybody's favorite, Banana Bread, is a Quick Bread. Every family has its own favorite recipe for Banana Bread - I wouldn't presume to call mine the "best" - even though it is!
I'm sure that Banana Bread developed as a way to use up those black, spotty bananas no one wanted to eat - frugal minds can't let them go to waste!
Quick Breads and Tea Breads are either sweet or savory, loaf-shaped cakes that don't require yeast, so have no rising time - thus are "quick" to make and bake.
I've also doubled recipes and baked the batter in a bundt or tube pan, which works well - as long as you grease the pan generously.
Easy and elegant for entertaining
Slices of a couple different Quick Breads, arranged on a platter, with butter and jam is a perfect "little something" for any gathering
Totally Teabreads
Make an amazing array of Quick Breads!
For a potluck dinner, one of my favorite things to do is make four or five Quick Breads, slice them, and arrange them on a platter. I usually make little "flags" identifying each variety. For the last get-together I made Banana Bread, Apple Walnut Bread, Cranberry/Chocolate Chip Bread, and a Lemon Poppyseed Bread. The Apple/Walnut was the first to disappear.
You can also make flavored butters or spreads to serve with the Quick Breads - although it's not strictly necessary. I find that most Quick Breads are moist enough to be delicious all by themselves!
Banana Bread
This is my favorite version of the classic banana bread - easy to make, turns out perfectly every time! Of course, it was my mother's recipe, so it's the one I'll always associate with home and love.
Ingredients
- 3 or 4 ripe, mashed bananas
- 1/3 cup melted butter
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1 beaten egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 cups flour
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix melted butter into the mashed bananas. Mix in the sugar, egg and vanilla. Add baking soda and salt, mix. Add flour, mix. Pour batter into a greased loaf pan. Bake for 1 hour.
My Quick-Bread baking essentials
These are the kitchen items I have on hand before starting any baking project. It's become automatic - even if I'm distracted when I get started, these things are on the counter without me remembering I put them there!
- Loaf Pan
- Parchment Paper (I always line the pan with parchment, even if the recipe doesn't call for it. Leave a little extra sticking out over the long ends of the pan - you can use them to lift the Quick Bread out of the pan after baking, like a sling.
- Measuring Cups
- Measuring Spoons
- Mixer (I rely on my decades-old KitchenAid Mixer - still love it, after all these years.)
- Chopstick (used for leveling off the flour and sugar measurements)
- Cooling rack
