Textures, Flavors, and Smells of Bread

Josh: Bread. Could we be any more vauge?

Kandice: There's so many flavors and styles of bread! There are almost infinate possibilities!

Josh: We could probably create a whole new blog and fill that with just bread recipes.

Kandice: Seriously. Anyway, this week, we decided it would be fun to make some breads and post them on the blog.

Josh: We've got 3 easy recipes for you guys to try.

Kandice: All of them were awesome, and are in no particular order.

Lemon Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups shredded zucchin
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons lemon zest

Josh: Usually, when Kandice and I go out and get ingredients, we get back to one of our houses, and go, "Oh. We forgot -----." Skewers from the Kabob Recipe, Cumin from the Quesadilla Recipe... and every time, I would get back in my car and run back out to the supermarket. We may have spent more money on gas then on the food itself!

Kandice: But this time, when we realized that we forgot the cupcake papers, I dropped Josh off at his house and then I went back out to the store.

Josh: ...You took forever!

Kandice: Whatever! I had issues come up. (nods)

Josh: Sure ... Anyways, while she was gone, I began the prep work. First I shredded the zucchinis with what may or what may not have been a very large zester. Either way it did the job. I also prepared the flour mixture that consisted of: flour, salt, baking powder, and baking soda.

Kandice: By the time he was finished, I had gotten back from the store and had combined the sugar, eggs, and oil in another bowl. We then added those ingredients to the zucchini and beat them together using "Josh's Stand Mixer". (This is a really, really old stand mixer. I mean this thing had to have been at least 50 years old! Haha) I then zested the lemon while Josh measured out the cinnamon. We both added these to the flour mixture.

Josh: Then, the only thing to do was to combine the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients while mixing.

*** Note: It is always best to add dry mixtures to wet ingredients slowly so that you don't make a big mess when you turn on the mixer. ***

Kandice: When it had a doughy consistancy, we took it out and I spooned the batter into cupcake papers. Of course, that was just our method of choice. This easily works as a loaf, too.

Josh: Then we threw it into our 325 degree hotbox and kept an eye on it for awhile. We had doubled the recipe and used cupcakes instead of a loaf. It took about 30 minutes or so for them all to bake correctly or until a toothpick came out clean when inserted into the tops of one of the cupcakes.

Kandice: The original recipe calls for a 45 minute bake time for a loaf of the recipe we posted, but it's just best to keep a constant watch on it.

Josh: In the end, it turned out really well! I had never had zucchini bread before, and I was pleasantly suprised. Haha. We had plenty of leftovers after we divided it all up between our family and friends.


Peanut Butter Bread

Ingredients:
Cooking spray
2 cups All-purpose flour
½ cup Sugar
2 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Salt
1 cup Creamy peanut butter
1 large Egg, beaten
1 cup Milk

Kandice: To make the Peanut Butter Bread was actually quite simple. First I mixed together the dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt, in a large bowl. Next was my favorite part; adding in the peanut butter. Peanut butter is so good to eat. Sometimes I just eat it directly from the spoon. Don’t worry! I didn’t do that this time; even though I was tempted. After cutting the peanut butter into the dry mixture, I stirred in the egg and the milk. I then ladled the batter into individual muffin cups.

We then baked them for about 25 minutes. We had to keep checking them because the recipe that we were following called for the batter to be baked in a bread pan, not muffin cups. But I’d have to say that they came out pretty well. They are the best with raspberry preserves on top, however, josh preferred to have them plain. These would definitely make a great breakfast or lunch item. Who doesn’t love PB&J?!

Josh: I love making bread. I love the smells, the textures, and especially, the final product. I havent been cooking for too long. I just recently got really into cooking over the past year. I've always enjoyed it, but until recently I've never really done much. This Banana Nut Bread recipe was one of the first baking recipes I've done. I love this recipe. The bread is so good! So I've decided to share it with you.

Banana Nut Bread

Ingredients:
4 Bananas
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs
1/4 cup butter
2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Josh: The first thing I did is preheat my oven to 350. While the oven is preheating, I normally peel, slice, and mash the 4 bananas in a big bowl, but this time I let Kandice do it for me. At least she didn't make a mess. Haha.

Anyway, While she was mashing away, I put the sugar, baking powder, baking soda, flour, and the finely chopped walnuts in a big bowl. I put everything else in the stand mixer and beat those ingredients together before I slowly added the dry ingredients. It takes a few minutes to get everything added, but once it was, I just spooned them into the paper cupcake holders and popped them into the oven.

Depending on the size and shape of your bread, the timing may be different, so I just kept an eye on my breads. Basically I just kind of winged it by continually checking on them with the toothpick method.

When they were finally finished, I took them out and let them set for a little bit before doing anything with them. And there, I had Banana Nut Muffins. I love them. They're amazing with just a little butter on them or, as I like them, just plain right out of the paper. Enjoy!

We really hope you guys enjoy these breads. We know we enjoyed making them. We'd love to hear from everyone to see what kind of changes you would make, what other breads you like to eat or make, and what disasters you've had. Don't pretend like you haven't had any! Everybody does at some point in time.

Please leave us a comment or e-mail us with suggestions, stories, or recipes at jkdailyspecial@gmail.com. And if you like what we do, please subscribe to us!

Thanks again for visiting our blog. We hope you'll be back next week for a new recipe!