Barbara Karoff - Making Quick Breads

Barbara Karoff Choose a recipe from those that follow. They are all simple to prepare and almost fail-proof. They require no special equipment and only the most basic measuring and mixing skills. They provide a variety of sweet and savory good eating and they offer a creative opportunity for even an amateur baker to bask in the I baked a loaf of bread limelight. And, as their name makes clear, they are quick. Quick breads are an old favorite of mine.

Because Ive found that most general cookbooks, and even most baking books, include few recipes for quick, non-yeast loaves, I long ago began collecting recipes. I use and change them frequently, and, in these busy times, I believe you will share my enthusiasm for these simple and delicious baked goods. Quick breads are versatile standbys that add the excitement of homemade bread to any meal or occasion without long preparation time. They also make excellent snacks, lunchbox or picnic fare, and are near-perfect companions to a cup of coffee or tea. One of my earliest and most pleasurable memories is of thin slices of my mothers dark, sweet, date-nut bread. Ritually spread with softened cream cheese and presented on a doily-lined plate, it was usually reserved for special occasions.

I also remember the many times I kept a watchful eye on the last two bananas growing ever more ripe in the fruit bowl and all the time hoping no one would eat them before they became too ripe to eat and just right to be metamorphosized into a fragrant loaf of banana-nut bread. Occasionally, a tart-sweet apricot-nut loaf appeared and disappeared quite rapidly. Seasonally, there were loaves bursting with plump cranberries and others rich, moist, and sweet with home-grown persimmons. These breads suited my childhood cravings nicely and still fill a special niche in my growing-up memories. That is, however, where I choose to leave them because times have changed and so have my tastes. I have subjected my recipes to a good working-over in recent years.

The quick breads I make today are both sweet and savory but Ive cut down on the sugar, and none are over sweet. They are nutritionally sound and appealing; many include generous additions of whole grain flours, bran, oats, and wheat germ. Dried fruits and fiber-rich nuts and seeds add flavor as well as texture, and herb and spice combinations provide a flavorful update. Generic quick breads as we know them have been around since the first baking powder was invented about 120 years ago. A few years later a Boston company came up with a double-acting version of the quick leavening agent which is the product we still rely on today. Double-acting baking powder, a mixture of acid and alkali, begins to work as soon as the wet and dry ingredients are combined and the oven heat activates it fully.

Most recipes include eggs, which also help the breads to rise. These two leavening agents not only work together, but back each other up should one fail. Because most quick bread batters are light, they obligingly hold heavy ingredients in suspension during baking. Thats why its generally successful to add chopped fruits and nuts, seeds, grated cheese, and vegetables to basic recipes. And because few of these batters require kneading or time to rise, most loaves are ready for the oven in 10 to 15 minutes. Mixing time is brief, in part, because the cardinal rule about quick breads is: Do not overmix. Overmixing results in tough breads.

Mix batters with a wooden spoon or rubber spatula just enough to combine the wet and dry ingredients. A few lumps are all right. Electric mixers, food processors, or blenders do not produce good quick breads. Equipment requirements are as simple as the mixing rule. A wooden spoon, a couple of bowls, measuring cups and spoons and baking containers are all that are necessary. A wire whisk is a handy time-saver.

Most recipes were originally designed to fill one or two approximately 9 x 5-inch loaf pans. The one I use is closer to 8 x 4 inches but it doesnt make any difference. Dont be put off by pan sizes. As Ive baked quick breads over the years, Ive come up with a variety of baking containers to meet my needs and suit my whims and I hope you will too. I frequently use smaller pans and I do so for a number of reasons. The loaves bake more quickly.

Without cutting a large loaf into several pieces, I have several options from one recipe one loaf to eat immediately, one for the freezer, and another to give away. Sometimes, drawing from my freezer stockpile, I enjoy serving a variety of small loaves at one time, or put together a gift basket for a friend. The small pans I use most often measure 5 x 3 inches and, in most cases, three of them are about equal to one 9 x 5-inch pan. A standard size pan has become a confusing and unreliable term, given todays large number of choices. This is not, however, a problem. Most quick breads, at least the ones Ill be discussing here, are not fussy about the size and shape of the container in which they are baked.

Any oven-proof casserole, bowl, or pan will work. Of course baking times will vary, but they do in different ovens anyway, so keep a tester handy. As soon as it comes out clean when inserted in the center of the loaf, and the bread begins to pull away slightly from the sides of the pan, the bread is done. I urge you to experiment with casseroles, small ramekins, and au gratin dishes. Ive baked successfully in one-cup porcelain ramekins. The little round loaves these containers produce are an interesting change and just right for one hungry person.

Please watch carefully the first time and make a note of the actual time required when bread is baked in a particular pan size. Not only pan size, but the material of which the pan is made, affects the baking time. The times below are approximate and are intended to serve only as a guide.

Pan Size/Type	Approximate Baking Time
1-cup porcelain ramekin	15 to 20 minutes
3-cup au gratin dish or pie pan	15 to 20 minutes
9-inch x 5-inch loaf pan	about 1 hour
5H-inch x 3-inch loaf pan	30 to 40 minutes
1-quart casserole	40 to 50 minutes

I always bake beer bread in a 2-quart round, straight-sided casserole; the soda breads I mound onto a cookie sheet or into an 8-inch round cake pan. Check your cupboards for possible baking utensils. Probably you will be surprised at what you turn up thats useful and different.

Porcelain, earthenware, and tempered glass, as well as metal pans, are all appropriate containers for baking quick breads and the new shapes and sizes are fun. And heres a seldom-mentioned plus: Almost all quick breads bake nicely as muffins. (The reverse is less frequently true.) You may consider each new quick bread recipe in this book a new muffin recipe as well unless otherwise noted. Listed below are a few tips to make your quick breads even quicker and more fail-proof. l. Never beat the batter.

I repeat this because it is so important. 2. Allow thick bread batters which do not contain baking powder to rest in the pan for 10 minutes before baking. A lighter loaf will result. 3. 4. 4.

Place filled pans in the center of the oven. 5. No need to preheat the oven. Save energy instead. 6. 7. 7.

Use whole wheat pastry flour instead of regular milled whole wheat flour for a lighter loaf. Its processed from soft wheat which contains less gluten. (Gluten is something else that makes quick breads tough.) 8. Seek out and experiment with special flours. A store that sells in bulk allows you to purchase just the amount you need. Special flours include amaranth, buckwheat, cornmeal, graham, millet, oat, quiona, rice, rye, soy, triticale, and whole wheat.