The Daring Bakers’ Challenge, 2012 February: Quick Bread

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

My friend and coworker Stacy recently gave me a bag of praline pecans so I could experiment in the kitchen.  After throwing around some ideas in my head, such as praline cheesecake bites and praline brownies, I decided to combine the two ideas – and finish my Daring Bakers Challenge.  Three birds with one stone (or praline).  That’s not bad for a Monday night.

Thanks for all of your encouragement, Stacy!  And don’t worry, I’ll save a piece (or two) of bread for you.

Brownie Loaves with Praline Cream Cheese Filling

(adapted from Best-Ever Brownies)

Cream Cheese Filling

8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

2T butter, room temperature

2 T flour

1 egg

½ t vanilla

¼ c caramel topping

½ c roughly chopped praline pecans

Brownie Loaf

2 c flour

¾ c cocoa

1 t salt

1 t baking soda

1 t cinnamon

1 ½ c butter, room temperature

2 c sugar

1 c brown sugar, firmly packed

2 t vanilla

5 eggs

1 c milk, room temperature

½ c roughly chopped praline pecans, if desired

Preheat oven to 350° F.  Grease two 9-inch loaf pans.

To prepare cream cheese filling, with a hand mixer, beat cream cheese and butter about 1 minute, until fluffy. Beat in flour, egg, vanilla and caramel topping.  Set aside. [Note: As you can see, the bread just has a thin ribbon of cream cheese filling.  This was perfect for my tastes – and it kept the bread very moist. Next time I’ll try doubling the filling recipe for more of a cream cheese punch.]

To prepare brownie loaf, in a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.

In a large bowl, beat butter with a hand mixer until light and fluffy.  Add sugars, then vanilla.  Add eggs, one at a time.

Alternately add milk and flour mixture, just until combined.

Pour about ¼ of the batter into each loaf pan.  Pour half of the cream cheese mixture into each pan, then add the remaining brownie loaf batter to the pans.  If desired, sprinkle with ½ c praline pecans.

Bake 45 – 50 minutes, or until bread springs back from a light touch.  Cool in pans for about 5 minutes and then transfer the loaves to a cooling rack.

Enjoy!

English Muffin Loaves

Sorry I dropped off the face of the earth. I won’t bore you with the details but will try to make up for the silence with plenty of blog and Facebook posts in the coming months.

After my colossal failure with creating a sour dough starter last month (don’t worry, I’m doing some research and trying again), I felt the need to soothe my bruised baking ego. Bread was on my mind and my mom’s English muffin loaf jumped to the foreground. I’ve watched and participated in the creation of many loaves over the years and decided to give it a try on my own.

I followed the recipe carefully and waited anxiously for the dough to rise.  Forty-five minutes later I checked on the progress and — success.
 
English Muffin Loaf

6 c flour
2 (1/4 oz.) packages active dry yeast
1 T sugar
2 t salt
¼ t t baking soda
2 c milk
½ c water
cornmeal
* if desired, dried cranberries & orange zest

Grease two (8-inch) bread pans and sprinkle with cornmeal.

In a large bowl of a stand mixer, combine 3 c flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Heat liquids to 130° F and add to dry ingredients. Beat at medium speed until combined. Stir in the remaining 3 c of flour.* Batter will be stiff.

Spoon the batter into the bread pans and sprinkle the tops with cornmeal. Cover and let rise 45 minutes.

 

Preheat oven to 400° F. Bake loaves 25 minutes, or until light golden brown.

Let cool in pan 10 minutes and then transfer the loaves to a cooling rack.  Slice, toast, and enjoy!

* For a twist, I folded in the zest of an orange and a heaping ½ c of dried cranberries to half of the batter.