absolutely hearty breakfast quick bread

This is one easy to put together, time efficient, delicious, flexible and absolutely hearty quick bread recipe. I have repeatedly tried a few variations (depending on ingredients I have at that point of time), baked them in loft tin or muffin pan (with some time adjustment), and each time, it turned out well.

So nowadays, whenever I feel like incorporating more fibre into my breakfast, this is one recipe I can always fall back on :).

Absolutely Hearty Breakfast Quick Bread

1 and 1/2 cup of all purpose flour (I tried with cake flour, fine too)

3/4 cup of flax seed

3/4 oat bran (I usually use quick cooking oat)

1/2 cup brown sugar (original recipe called for 1 cup)

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

2 tsp ground cinnamon

3/4 cup low fat milk

2 eggs, beaten

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 tbsp vegetable oil (I usually use olive oil)

2 cups shredded carrots

2 cups apples, peeled, shredded

1/2 cup raisin

1 cup chopped mixed nuts

1. Preheat oven to 175 degree C. Line muffin pan with paper or grease loft tin.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, flax seed, oat bran, brown sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon. Add the milk, eggs, vanilla and oil; mix until just blended. Stir in the carrots, apples, raisins and nuts. Pour batter into pan or tin.

3. Bake for 15 to 20 mins, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

This recipe is adapted from allrecipes app titled Bran Flax Muffins submitted by Jane Massey.

I have tried substituting 1/2 cup honey in place of the brown sugar and wholemeal flour in place of flax seed but I still prefer the original recipe.

The last flour ingredients are the really flexible ones. I have tried omitting, replacing, doubling 1 of the items and even adding others and every time I was rewarded with yummy treats. It is definitely a recipe that allows the baker to be creative. And best of all, the recipe is low fat -mere 2 tbsp of oil and you get really moist, flavourful result, amazing!

low fat banana chocolate chip quick bread

I simply just looove this recipe.. it is so easy to put together, smells so aromatic while baking, tastes so yummilicious and best of all, absolutely healthy for a sweet treat... all the qualities I look for for a home-baked recipe :)

Low Fat Banana Chocolate Chip Quick Bread

1 large very ripe banana (mashed)

85 ml honey (I used clover honey)

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup plain flour

1/2 cup wholemeal flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon powder

1/4 cup flaxseed (optional)

1/4 cup chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven at 180 degree C.

2. In a bowl, whisk together banana, honey and olive oil.

3. In another bowl, sift all dry ingredients.

4. Gently whisk in the flour mixture into the banana mix, until just combined.

5. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for approx 30 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

6. Cool in the baking tin for 10 mins, then turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

This recipe is adapted from the food coach.

This quick bread is really moist and soft, without being too dense (like those commercial banana bread or cake) and the flaxseeds add a nice contrasting crunch to it. It is definitely a good option for breakfast over a cup of nice coffee.. or to have with tea in the afternoon. Add a scope of vanilla ice cream, and you have a fabulous dessert ready instantly. Now, that's versatile for me :)

No milk? Got yogurt

NO MILK?

That was my ultimate cry of despair a few days ago, when I made a last minute decision to do a tested recipe of quick bread just after baby drifted into dreamland, and realised we were out of milk in the house.

2 months ago, if someone was to say 'no milk?' to me, I probably would have thrown my breast pump at her. I was struggling with breastfeeding then. Not that my supply has increased dramatically, but at least baby and I have kind of settled into a comfortable routine now.

Ok, I have strayed from the main topic, back to the latest no milk issue.. A thorough check through the whole fridge confirmed that yogurt was the closest I can find for milk substitute. I thought, why not?

After a fast 15 mins of putting together everything, including a generous portion of nice dried apricots and cranberries and 1 to 1 replacement of yogurt for the milk, the dough mix was sitting in the oven, baking away. My dear little baby didn't even stir a single bit, phew... Oh, btw, I also ran out of plain flour, so I substituted 2/3 of the required flour portion with wholemeal flour.

Based on the previous experience of the quick bread coming out a bit dry, I set the timer to 45 mins. Good decision, the bread came out just nice. I cannot tell the difference for substituting the milk with yogurt, other than the quick bread is more moist and supple this time round. Maybe it is due to the yogurt, maybe it is due to the cutting down of baking time, I am not too sure.

I have only one complain - the quick bread drops crumbs easily, due to the high portion of wholemeal flour used. I really think that the Prima brand of wholemeal flour is very grainy and given a choice, I will try to keep it to 1/4 of the total portion of flour required at maximum. That will lend a nice texture to the bake goods without making it too crumbly.

fruits & nuts quick bread

While checking thru our kitchen cabinet, I found a half-consumed pack of mixed fruits & nuts we bought in Turkey during our trip there couple of months ago. Immediately I thought I could make good use of it to bake some cakes or muffins.

Surfing through recipes online, I found some quick bread recipes on Joy of Baking, and decided it would be a good idea to improvise the cranberry quick bread recipe to make fruits & nuts quick bread instead.

Fruits & Nuts Quick Bread

4 cups sifted plain flour

1 cup sugar

4 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

zest of 1 lemon (optional)

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/4 cup (4 tbsp) melted butter

1 tsp vanilla essence

1 1/2 cups milk

2 cups of mixed fruits & nuts

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree C (160 degree C if using dark coloured pan)

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the sifted flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and lemon zest.

3. Whisk together egg, butter, vanilla essence and milk.

4. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Mix in the mixed fruits & nuts. Mix well.

5. Pour the batter into pre-greased pan and bake for 70 mins or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

I separated the nuts from the fruits, pounded them with mortar until they were of course medium grain texture and toasted them for 5 mins in the toaster to bring out the fragrant before starting the make the quick bread. I also substituted 1 cup of the plain flour n the recipe with wholemeal flour and reduced the sugar to half a cup.

While baking, I checked the bread at 50 mins and there were some crumbs sticking to the toothpick so I decided to bake for another 10 mins. A mistake because while the quick bread came out full of flavours and of dense and nice texture, it was a slightly on the dry side. On hindsight, I should have stopped the baking there and then since the crumbs were dry and not the sticky type.

I cut the quick bread into thin slices, wrapped them in alum foil before storing it in the fridge and had them for breakfast everyday for almost a week. And oh, cutting down the sugar by half was a good choice for me since I really like my bread to be of mild sweetness. The bread is nice on its own but I also tried it with thick spread of butter, with cheddar cheese (slightly toasted to melt the cheese) as well as with blueberry jam. My favourite is having it with cheese because I find the melted cheese added extra texture to the bread and the cheese flavour complemented the fruits & nuts well.