Cheddar, Chive and Sundried Tomato Bread

I love bread.  I have always loved bread, especially the fresh baked kind.  (Hint hint, Mom if you are reading!)  Having said that, I have never made traditional homemade bread before.  It's on my to-do list, just not quite yet.  In the meantime, I decided to experiment with a quick bread to go with a recent Sunday dinner.  And I loved it.  Of course, it WAS bread!

Here is the recipe:

Cheddar, Chive and Sun-Dried Tomato Buttermilk Bread (Source: Mix & Bake)

Ingredients:

2 1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dry mustard powder

60g freshly grated parmesan
60g grated cheddar cheese
8 pieces sun-dried tomatoes, sliced thinly
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup mixture of fresh chives and parsley
1 teaspoon dried thyme
2 eggs
2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1 1/4 cup buttermilk

Egg wash (optional) made from 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 tsp water

Sea salt, for topping

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Generously butter a loaf pan and dust with flour. Set pan aside.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, pepper and dry mustard powder into a large bowl. Add both cheeses, sun-dried tomatoes, chives, parsley and thyme.  Mix well.

In a separate bowl, whisk the eggs, then add in the oil and buttermilk.  Mix until well combined.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Stir together to form a thick, sticky batter. Scrape the batter and spread evenly into the prepared tin.

Brush the top of the bread with the egg wash and then sprinkle sea salt on

top of the loaf.

Bake for 40 - 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean. When done, remove from oven and let stand for 5-10 minutes before turning onto a wire rack.  Serve, and enjoy!

VERDICT:
Fresh bread is almost always so freakin' good, and this bread was no exception.  The original recipe calls for olives, but the majority of us in my house don't care for olives, so I skipped those.  I suspect that they would be a nice addition if you like olives :-)  The loaf of bread last 2 days in our house, and even on day 2, it was still so very good.  Will be making this again!

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Scrumptious Sunday #33 - Features

Has it been a crazy week for you? Yes, here too!  The cold bug has hit our house again, this time it's my hubby who has it.  But the trooper that he is (yes, there are moments of whininess...but that's normal for all of us!), he was still up at 5 am to get our oldest ready and take him to his hockey game, which started at 6:30 am.  It was a professional development day at school yesterday, so our oldest had the day off.  Hubs took the day off to hang with him...and take him to hockey.  Are you seeing a trend here?  There was hockey on Thursday after school, Friday morning, this morning at 6:30 and again tomorrow morning at 10:15.  And this is first year hockey...I can only imagine what it will be like in a few years!  BUT...our son is loving it, and that is the most important thing!

Outside of hockey, we've also been to swimming lessons, I've been doing some cooking for the blog, took the oldest for a hair cut as picture retakes are this week.  That's a story too.  Oh man...so the photography company sends home the form to select your poses and background for school pitcures.  I picked a neutral grey, and chose a red and grey shirt for our oldest to wear for the photos.  Well, somehow, our 5 year old convinced the photographer that because his shirt was red, the background should be red too.  He told me about it after the pictures, but I thought he was kidding.  Turns out, he wasn't.  And talk about hideous pictures!  I can't believe it! How on earth did he convince them? Man oh man!

Alrighty, onto this week's features!  I'm just loving all the fall recipes!

If you are featured, please grab a BUTTON! You've earned it!

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Congratulations to everyone!  Here are this week's features:

No Bake Healthy Energy Pops from A Little Inspiration

Bread Making for Beginners from Aunt B on a Budget

Creamy Chicken Corn Chowder from Galley Kitchen/Bake Up Little Suzy

Pumpkin Cheesecake Brownie Pie from Inside BruCrew Life

All of these recipes will be pinned to my Pinterest account, posted on Twitter, and shared on Facebook!

Just a reminder, this week's Scrumptious Sunday Link Party goes live Saturday - at 8 pm PST. Can't wait to see what you bring to the party!

Peach Shortcake Muffins

Oh how I LOVE peaches.  Just love love LOVE them.  They are one of my most favourite fruits.  I am so lucky that we live in a beautiful peach producing region.  Each summer we are able to purchase wonderful, juicy peaches from the orchards that surround our city.  So so lucky!

Last summer, I totally did not get my fill of peaches. I'm not into canning (plus, last summer I had a newborn...my hands were full!) - I prefer peaches when they are fresh.  We bought what seemed like tonnes last summer, but alas, it wasn't enough as I have been craving peach season ever since.

My parents were away earlier this summer, they were camping south of our city, and did me the ever so kind favour of bringing us back a case of the early peaches, as the fruit is always ready earlier a few hours south of us. That first case was so very good, and I am just waiting for the signs to go up at the local orchards letting me know I can get more peaches.

I had just a few peaches left from the first case, so I decided to bake some muffins.  I didn't have enough for a pie, otherwise peach pie it would have been. Instead, I went with Peach Shortcake Muffins, from the Robin Hood Baking Festival baking brochure from 1996.  Yes, 1996.  No, I am not a hoarder.  I collect recipes!!  Here is the recipe:

MUFFIN:
1 2/3 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ginger
6 tablespoons butter or margarine (softened)
1 cup milk
1 2/3 cups coarsely chopped peaches

TOPPING:
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and ginger.  Cut in the butter or margarine with a pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly.  Add in the milk and peaches.  Stir to combine, but do not overstir.  Spoon into prepared muffin cups (greased or lined).  Sprinkle with topping.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until set and golden.

Note - Canned peaches may also be used.  And, try substituting other fresh fruits for the peaches, such as strawberries!

VERDICT:
So delicious!  I just love these muffins!  So does our 1 year old, he's a big "bread" kid, and these were a hit with even the littlest man in our family!

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Strawberry Banana Loaf

Many of you will notice that I've commented about this before, and I will probably comment about it again...we love banana bread in our house.  So much so that our oldest son knows that it takes 3 bananas to make banana bread, so when we get down to three in the banana bowl, he often asks if we can save them to make banana bread.
 
Over the weekend we had company and the bananas didn't get eaten.  We were so busy, we just seemed to forget they were there.  Imagine how pleased my son was to discover over breakfast today that there were 3 very ripe bananas sitting in the banana bowl (it sits on our kitchen table).  "Mommy, can we make banana bread today?"  "You bet!" was my happy answer.  I love baking with my son, it's great bonding time :-)

Well, for whatever reason, I started flipping through one of my cookbooks, looking at banana recipes.  I came across one for Strawberry Banana Loaf, so I asked my son if he would be interested in trying a new kind of banana bread, and his response was quite positive...with one request, that we add some chocolate to the bread too, so away we went, making our Strawberry Banana Loaf!

Here is the recipe: (Adapted from Company's Coming: Muffins & More)

2 eggs
1/4 cup cooking oil
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup strawberries, sliced
2 ripe bananas, mashed

1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350F.

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs until frothy.  Mix in oil, sugar, bananas and strawberries.  I added the strawberries last to make sure they didn't get too mashed up in the mixer.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Mix thoroughly.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stirring only to moisten.  Pour into a greased loaf pan (9x5x3).

Bake for approximately 55 minutes or until toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean.  Cool slightly then remove from pan to a wire rack.

The original recipe stated to wrap well and allow to ripen for one day.  We couldn't wait that long, we waited a few hours until after dinner.  So we'll have to see tomorrow how the flavour changes!

VERDICT:
We all agreed that this was a nice change to banana bread.  A nice blend of complementary flavours (strawberry and banana - yum!) and I love the addition of the oats.  I did add some chocolate chips along to top on 1/4 of the loaf for our oldest son, and he was a big fan of that addition too.  This one is a keeper, we will be making it again, especially with strawberry season upon us!

Banana Peanut Butter Chocolate Crunch Bread

Banana bread is a hot commodity in our house.  We all love it, we all fight over that first slice (the chef gets the first slice)...and one of the submissions to this week`s Scrumptious Sunday left me inspired to try something new with our banana bread.  Thanks Like Mother, Like Daughter for inspiring me to try something new!  I probably would have tried their banana blueberry bread if blueberries were in season (I will try the recipe later this year!), but instead I went to my trusty piles of recipes to see what I could find.  I found one that is full of all sorts of goodness - bananas (of course!), coconut, chocolate, and then I added in some extra goodness, peanut butter chips and walnuts.  Here is my recipe:

Topping:
1/2 cup flaked unsweetened coconut
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon flour

Combine all the topping ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

Bread:
1/3 cup oil (vegetable, coconut, etc)
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs
3 ripe, mashed bananas
1 3/4 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup walnuts
3/4 cup mixed white chocolate chips, peanut butter chips and chocolate chips (use whatever ratio you wish -  I used mostly white chocolate and peanut butter chips)

Preheat oven to 325F.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix together oil, sugar, vanilla and eggs.  Add in bananas and stir until well mixed.  Add flour mixture.  Add 1/2 cup of the white chocolate/peanut butter/chocolate chips.  Pour intogreased bread pan (8" x 4"). Top with remaining 1/4 cup of chips and cover with coconut topping.

Bake in centre of oven for about 70 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean.  Cool in the pan, on a rack.  Enjoy!

VERDICT:
Everyone enjoyed this bread, it was a nice change to our usual, everyday banana bread.  Though my husband said there could be less chocolate (my chip ratio was about 1/2 peanut butter chips, 1/4 white/chocolate chips)...but then again, he claims to not like chocolate ;-)  My oldest son said that he didn't like the walnuts.  But they both keep eating the bread, so I'm taking that sign as one that they do like it!  I found the coconut topping too messy for my preference, and will probably reduce the coconut to 1/4 cup for the topping and would consider mixing some coconut into the bread to see how that tastes!  Next time!

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