Tasty Tuesday: Pumpkin Bread

Have I mentioned how much I love quick breads? Oh, I have? Well, I really do. Not just because they're quick and easy, but because they taste soooo yummy!

We showed how Jake made banana bread all by himself. 

And in our chocolate chai bread post, Alyssa used the hand-mixer by herself for the first time!

Here, you'll see Alyssa has improved much in the kitchen during the last 10 months.

She cracked the eggs all by herself.

Better yet - she dropped NO pieces of shell!

Eating a marshmallow while making the bread? Multitasking already. Girl after my own heart. She's come a long way from the first time she used the mixer.

The kids just love grating the nutmeg. She wanted to turn the entire seed to powder. It's a good thing it's the season of spice baking.

And since when did she learn to dump a bowl of something into another bowl without pouring it on the counter in the process???

I'm amazed while watching my children in the kitchen. They've learned so much and truly enjoy creating delicious foods. 

I'd better be careful though - pretty soon they just might kick me out of the kitchen and take over for good!

We made a simple glaze (1 1/4 cup powdered sugar & 3 tablespoons milk) and drizzled it on top of one loaf after it (mostly) cooled.

For the second loaf, we swirled 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips into the batter before baking.

Which one is better? You be the judge! Try this recipe yourself and see. You really can't go wrong with this one. Try adding walnuts, cranberries, white chocolate chips, or caramel. No matter how we've made it, we always love it! Even plain, it still ranks up at the top of my list for quick breads - and that's saying something!

Pumpkin Bread

Ingredients:
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin puree                           
4 eggs                                                               
1 c vegetable oil                                               
2/3 c water                                                         

2 c white sugar                                                   

1 c brown sugar                                                 
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour   
2 ts baking soda
1 1/2 ts salt
1 ts ground cinnamon   
1 ts ground nutmeg
1/2 ts ground cloves
1/4 ts ground ginger
                                                               
Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour two 9x5 inch loaf pans.

2. In a large bowl, mix together pumpkin puree, eggs, oil, water and sugar until well blended. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and ginger. Stir the dry ingredients into the pumpkin mixture until just blended. Pour into the prepared pans.

3. Bake for about 60 minutes in the preheated oven. Loaves are done when toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Tasty Tuesday: Banana Bread

It's no secret that Jacob and Alyssa love to help in the kitchen. They've made cupcakes by themselves (like these rainbow cupcakes and George Washington cupcakes) a few times before. This week, I had some bananas that I had been hiding from Zac (Hey, don't judge. That kid's addicted to bananas!) so we could make bread. I measured the ingredients and then invited Jacob over to whip up a delectable treat.

One man's trash is another man's treasure.

Ingredients: 

2 cups all-purpose flour                              1/2 cup butter
1 teaspoon baking soda                              3/4 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon                                  2 eggs, beaten
1/4 teaspoon salt                                         2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 60 to 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Jake was busy peeling . . .

Mashing

Cracking

Beating

Pouring

Dumping

Mixing

Portioning

Posing

He did such a great job making the bread! I helped scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl to make sure he incorporated all the flour. Other than that, he did it all by himself. He insists I helped though since I put it in the oven. Hey, the kid's got a point. I should take some credit, right?

While Jake was mixing he asked, "Do I have to - What's that called again? - fold! Do I have to practice folding?" Remember, I taught the kids about that while making Boston cream pie. See, he was paying attention! He did a mighty fine job of it too. Maybe I'll let him try a meringue next time.

We (or should I say he) also topped the loaves with a flour/sugar/cinnamon mixture to give it a little crunch. The mini loaves were done in roughly 45 minutes. I could barely get them out of the pan before the kids were shoveling hot bread into their mouths. Zac took a bite, said "mmm," stuffed the rest in his mouth, and asked for "mo!" I think he may have enjoyed it.

 

So, whether you have forgotten bananas or hidden rotten bananas, be sure to make a batch of this yourself. 

Or allow your 5-and-a-half year old son to make it for you.

Tasty Tuesday: Chocolate Chai Bread

I am a big fan of quick breads: banana, pumpkin, zucchini, chocolate chip,  blueberry, lemon poppy seed . . . the list goes on. My absolute favorite is chai. I had never even heard of chai bread until a few years ago. After I had made the chai tea mix the first time, I came across a recipe for the bread. It's been my favorite ever since. One would think though, that since it's near and dear to my heart, I would keep track of the recipe. Unfortunately, that's not the case. I thought I had a copy of it in my recipe folder. Not there. Not a problem, I thought. I'll just get it from allrecipes.com, where I often find recipes, and where I originally got it. Hmm, not there anymore either. I searched all over the internet, but could not find my beloved recipe. I settled on the one below.

My Happy Helper

He sat like a little puppy, waiting for Alyssa to drop him chocolate chips.

 Ingredients:

2 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped             1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup water                                                         3 tablespoons chai tea mix

1/2 cup butter, softened                                         1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup packed brown sugar                                     1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs                                                                     1/2 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Frosting:

1 cup confectioners' sugar                                     1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter, softened                                 4 to 5 teaspoons milk

1 tablespoon chai tea latte mix

Directions:

1. In a microwave, melt chocolate with the water; stir until smooth. Cool slightly. In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in vanilla, then chocolate mixture.

2. Combine the flour, latte mix, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture alternately with sour cream.

3. Transfer to three greased 5-3/4-in. x 3-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. Bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pans to a wire rack to cool completely.

4. For frosting, combine the confectioners' sugar, butter, latte mix, vanilla and enough milk to achieve desired consistency. Frost tops of loaves.

This was her first time mixing all by herself.

Taken before she spilled chai tea mix all over the counter.

Ready to alternate mixing.

Pro-Mixer

I called. He saw. He ran.

Ready for the oven.

Jake said, "Mmm, I could smell them while I was brushing my teeth!"

Psst . . you can see on the left where someone stole a piece before the picture was taken. I won't tell you who, but it starts with an M and ends with and E.

This recipe was a little different from the other one, (I don't think it had chocolate.) but it was delicious. Both loaves were gone within 2 days. The boys would have eaten it completely by themselves if I would have let them. Yeah, it's that good. Also, I learned a new trick this time. Make the baked goods at night so the kids are getting in bed when it's coming out of the oven. I actually got to lick the frosting beaters!

If you don't want to take the time to make the chai tea mix, (as we showed here) you can buy a latte mix at the grocery store. I recommend making the mix and definitely making this bread. You will not be disappointed!