The Quick Bread Thread

Cooking Discussions Baking, Sweets
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I’m in a major rut - perhaps “loop” is more apt - when it comes to baking quick breads. At this point I’m alternating between this pumpkin bread (courtesy of @Rooster) and this zucchini bread.

There’s absolutely nothing wrong with either recipe: reliable, easy, adaptable (applesauce for some of the oil, brown sugar for some of the white, etc.) and enjoyed by my partner, family, and neighbors. Bonus is freezability and thawing without affecting texture.

But … I want some variety!

So I come to this marvelous Hungry Onion community and ask: what are your favorite quick bread recipes? Savory? Sweet? Fruit-centric? Cheesy?

Any and all recommendations are welcome and very much appreciated!

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Dorie’s cheesy apero bread is a very versatile savory option.

Chetna Makan has a couple of nice Indian-spiced ones (tomato-cheese, spinach-cheese).

There’s a version with variations in one of the recent BCOTMs.

The 1-bowl banana bread from Epi that’s become our household staple and kid and mom fave.

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The quick bread I make the most is a banana bread that is very heavy on bananas - it calls for about 5. I think one of the things that makes it so good is that it has an almost unholy amount of butter in it!

Banana Banana Bread
7 1/2 oz AP flour
1 1/4 t baking soda
3/4 t table salt
2 1/2 C very ripe bananas, mashed
1 C dark brown sugar
10 T unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
2 large eggs
2 T granulated sugar

Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat oven to 350F. Spray loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl. Whisk bananas, brown sugar, melted butter, and eggs in another large bowl until thoroughly combined, making sure to break up any clumps of brown sugar. Add flour mixture to banana mixture and whisk gently to combine. Batter will still be a little lumpy.

Placed prepared pan on rimmed baking sheet. Transfer batter to prepared pan and sprinkle granulated sugar over the top. Bake about 65 minutes, or until a toothpick comes clean.

Let bread cool on a wire rack in pan for 30 minutes. Tilt pan and gently remove bread and continue cooling for another 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

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Steve’s got a sweet tooth!

  • (Edit to explain - our recipes are pretty similar except mine has roughly a 1:1 by mass added sugar:flour ratio, while yours is about 2:1. I think I’ll give your version a try and see what I’ve been missing)

@ElsieDee - good idea for a thread start. Hope it’s got legs.

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No argument there! At the ricepad pad, we like to serve a slice with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top, with a drizzle (or flood, for Mrs. ricepad) of chocolate syrup.

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Another Dorie recipe:

This looks good, but maybe more of sweet treat:

And a quick bread recipe roundup:

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I made and really enjoyed the KA Date Nut Bread last week. I used tea instead of coffee, the smaller amount of sugar and pecans. I also added orange zest because I had it, and we loved that flavor note.

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Yeah Dorie has a bunch of different variations on the Cake Sale theme

This one from the BCOTM i linked was also very good in different varieties reported on that thread

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NYT Cranberry Nut bread is very popular here. Letting it rest overnight is important, not step to skip.
Freezes well too.

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Maybe you will exit ‘rut’ stage if you mix up your texture as well as your flavor? For me, I can only do so much muffin. Which is really just quickbread individual size. I try to rotate between that, cookies, biscuits/scones, no knead bread, challah, foccacia. It’s not typically the flavor that bores me, but the same mouthfeel too often.

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I’ve used the juice from canned sweet potatoes and some brown sugar to make a sweet quick bread. I think I put a thin butter cream frosting on one and left the other one plain.

Sweet_Pot_Quick
Sweet_Pot_Quick2048×1536 243 KB

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Echoing Aunt Holly’s banana bread. I also like this pumpkin bread. Probably go over like a lead ballon here because of the addition of boxed vanilla pudding, but I fiddle around with different spices and it’s quite good.

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This recipe is always popular at work… https://www.howsweeteats.com/2013/02/whole-wheat-banana-bread-with-coconut-cinnamon-streusel/
and Dorie’s maple miso loaf https://www.purewow.com/recipes/dorie-greenspan-miso-maple-loaf

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Here’s a few more, haven’t tried these but food for thought.

bread/https://www.patriciawells.com/recipes/2018/3/22/manchego-chorizo-paprika-bread

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I look forward to making Ina’s Guiness Brown Bread every year around St. Patrick’s day. This freezes well, too!

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If you are looking for something a little different, Ballynahinch Castle’s treacle bread is a treat. Often omit the walnuts and add seeds on top before baking.

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Gift link:

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I had a glut of strawberries and blueberries (half-price last week) and attempted to make a quick sweetbread using them.

I followed a recipe, including the instruction to dust the cut fruit with flour as a way to hopefully help the pieces from sinking to the bottom.

Well, they sank to the bottom and made a wet mess of the underside of the loaf. No worries, it tasted great and I just left it upside down for cutting/serving.

But I’d still like to get a better version of this. I’m wondering - what if I did a granulated sugar only maceration of the fruit until no more liquid was forthcoming, then sub in whatever amount of liquid I get from the fruit in the recipe (and keep track of sugar, too).

Will that make the fruit kind of “stiff” or too firm for a baking recipe?

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Tossing with flour doesn’t keep fruit from sinking. You want a dense, thick batter. And then you’ll want to hold back some of the fruit to sprinkle over top after you pour some batter.

Stella Parks wrote about this here:

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Thanks!

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