Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Bread

Whole Wheat Sweet Potato Bread

I made this bread, and my kids LOVED it. They helped me do the prep as well, as I'm trying to get them more involved as I make healthier foods. 

Ingredients

Bread
1 cup mashed sweet potato*
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp all spice
1/4 cup canola oil
2 eggs
1 cup honey
1 cup buttermilk**

Topping
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup toffee chips
1 tsp cinnamon

Directions ~ with my kids helping!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, adjust rack so that the top of the pan will be in the middle of the oven.  Grease and flour bottom of loaf pan.

Blend together dry ingredients: flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and all-spice.  Mix wet ingredients in seperate bowl: oil, eggs, vanilla, honey, mashed sweet potato and buttermilk.  Blend untill ingredients are moistened.  Pour into prepared pan.

Mix topping ingredients, sprinkle over top of batter.

Bake in oven for 90 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in pan 10 minutes, then cool completely on wire rack.  Slice and serve. 


* I peeled and cut the potatoes.  Then boiled until tender, drained and mashed.

** Several bread recipes that I use call for buttermilk.  But I never seemed to have it when I had I needed it.  And when I'd buy it, part of it would go bad.  Then I found this, and I LOVE it.  It's a powdered buttermilk, and it works fabulously!  I hope you can find it in a store near you.

Individual Coffee Cakes

A little note about this recipe.  I used honest-to-goodness REAL butter for this.  Not because I thought anything special about it, but because I had it and wanted to bake with it.  And OH HEAVENS!  It's good.  Now, I haven't made it without and taste-tested it with margarine.  But if you'd like to splurge and make it extra rich and buttery, try real butter!

Oh, and I've decided to make these as mini loaves for gifts. This may be one of my new signature breads!

Ingredients
1 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
3 eggs
4 cups flour
2 3.4 oz package instant vanilla pudding mix
2 T baking powder
1 t salt
3 - 3 1/2 cups milk

TOPPING
1 cup packed brown sugar
8 T melted butter
1 t cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts


Directions
Preheat oven to 375*. 

Cream together butter and sugar, beat in egg.  Add dry ingredients (flour, pudding, baking powder, salt) and mix.  Slowly add the milk until creamy. Place in paper-lined muffin tins 2/3 full (or I also used the Pampered Chef mini muffin pans and small scoop - as it gave me just the right amount).

Mix together the brown sugar, butter, cinnamon and nuts, place a small amount on top of each muffin.
*Note: The melted butter will create a more more glaze over the muffin than a streudel type topping.  Just use softened butter, and a little less of it and mix it w/ a fork for crumbles if you prefer.*

Bake regular sized muffins for 20-25 minutes, and mini muffins for 15-18 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.

Cool briefly, then remove from pan and place on wire rack and let them cool.  If you can wait that long...

Lemon Blueberry Nut Bread

Ingredients
1/3 cup softened stick butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3 Tablespoons lemon juice
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup milk
2 Tablespoons grated lemon peel
1/2 cup choped walnuts (or nut of choice)
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries (do not defrost frozen before adding to batter)
Glaze
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
1/4 cup sugar

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Mix in eggs one at a time, making sure they are well beaten.  Add lemon juice.  Combine flour, baking powder and salt in seperate bowl.  Add slowly to mix with milk (using a standing mixer, I slowly pour in both at the same time.)  Mix well.  Fold in the lemon peel, nuts and blueberries.

Pour into greased loaf pan and place on lowest rack in pre-heated oven at 350.  Bake for 60-70 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.

Cool for apx 10 minutes before removing from pan.  Place on wire rack and drizzle glaze over the bread.  This gives it a sweet finish and helps lock in the moisture.  You can also prick the bread with toothpicks for more of the glaze to soak into the bread.

Enjoy!

Bread Overload

Had to share my August picture for today.  I stayed up last night and did a bit of baking.  I had some poor planning and made some committments without knowing the dates and a few things all hit at the same time.  Luckily, you can get 4 mini loaves to each regular loaf recipe, and I have 2 Pampered Chef stoneware pans that make 4 mini loaves each.  (I love those pans!)

I love the fact that you can take one recipe and still make a variety of types of bread.  I made:

• Chocolate, Chocolate Chip Zucchini
• Chocolate Chip Zucchini
• Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini
• Banana Bread (with and without nuts)

Scones!

Occassionally I cater in the breakfast for our monthly company call at work.  Traditionally I do breakfast burritos, bacon-wrapped smokies and a baked good of some sort, and fruit.  This time, I wasn't sure what baked good to do, so I requested the opinion of a co-worker who asked for Scones.

I'm guessing they were good since they were all gone! :D

Scones with Variety

Ingredients
3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
6 Tablespoons cold butter
1 cup (8oz) vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup milk

Mix ins for Variety

• Cherry Chocolate Chip
• 1 1/2 cup dried cherries
• 2/3 cup mini chocolate or vanilla chips
• Orange Cranberry Chip
• 1 Tablespoon orange extract or orange juice concentrate
• 2/3 cup mini chocolate chips
• 1 1/2 cup cranberries
• Blueberry
• 2 cups fresh, frozen or dried blueberries

Directions

• In standing mixer combine dry ingredients.  Cut in the butter until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.
• Combine the wet ingredients (milk, yogurt and any extracts) and mix until just moist
• Grease baking sheet and pat the dough into a 8'' circle.  Cut into wedges and seperate.  Brush with milk to brown.
• Bake at 400 degrees for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Instead of the circle and pie-shape, I also will double the recipe and press it into a bar pan or large cookie sheet and cut into smaller square pieces to serve more people.

Enjoy!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

What goes better together than chocolate and peanut butter?  This twist of an old-fashioned favorite banana bread is a heavenly delight.  Very moist and rich and great for a treat, dessert bread anytime of year.  This recipe past the test of my kids, and everyone at work!

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups flour

2t baking powder

2t baking soda

1t salt

1 bag chocolate chips

5 medium bananas, mashed

1 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter

1 cup sugar

1 cup packed brown sugar

4 large eggs

3t vanilla

1 cup milk

1/2 cup cocoa powder

Directions

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease bottom of 2 9in loaf pans

In medium sized bowl, mix together flour, baking powder, baking soda, baking powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips.

In large bowl, mix together peanut butter and bananas until creamy.  On medium speed this takes about a minute.

Add in the egg and vanilla until just blended.

On low, slowly add the flour mixture and alternate with the milk until well blended.

Remove half of the batter from the mixing bowl.  Add the cocoa to the batter left in the bowl and mix.

Place batter in the pans in alternating spoonfuls, then swirl with a knife to marble.

Bake for a good 70-80 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. 

This is great for muffins, mini loaves or other treats!

Lemon Poppyseed Zucchini Bread

Ingredients
4 cups flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 3.4oz package instant lemon pudding mix
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1-1/4 cups milk
1 cup vegetable oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cups shredded zucchini
1/4 cup poppy seeds
2 teaspoons grated lemon peel

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease two greased 9x5 inch loaf pans.

Combine the flour, sugar, pudding mix, baking soda, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, whisk the eggs, milk, oil, lemon juice and extract.

Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in the zucchini, poppy seeds and lemon peel.

Pour into the prepared pans and bake on lowest rack in oven for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.  Cool for 15 minutes and then transfer to racks.

Cool completely before slicing.  ENJOY!