Cinnamon Swirl Bread

Just to prove I still cook, and even a couple times a week, here's a loaf of cinnamon swirl bread I made with my mom about a month or so ago. The recipe is here, and I just didn't include raisins.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Nutmeg

Since Arizona is apparently under siege from wind, rain, potential snow, and the right conditions for a tornado, it seemed like a good night to bake banana bread. And I'm busy the rest of the weekend. This week's challenge was nutmeg, so off to google search I went. For the Love of Cooking is one of my favorite cooking blogs because her recipes are healthy and simple, the perfect recipes for the home cook. I found a recipe for Banana Bread with Chocolate Chips and Walnuts and since I'd been wanting to make banana bread for some crazy odd reason, it made sense that I turned it into my ICBC recipe. My sister and I decided the banana bread is delicious. I'd give you a roommate review too, but the roommate doesn't like fruit, especially bananas. I think I would definitely make this recipe again.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (adapted from For the Love of Cooking)
1 cup flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 ripe bananas
1 egg
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
chocolate chips
*The recipe also called for toasted walnuts which I don't really care for and ground cloves which I didn't have, but I don't think the bread suffered very much from the missing ingredients.

Grease and flour a loaf pan. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In one bowl, mix flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. In another bowl, mash bananas, egg, sugars, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla extract and butter and mix thoroughly. Slowly add dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix well. Add chocolate chips to the batter (I just eyed this) and pour the batter into the loaf pan. Bake for 40 minutes or until knife poked into center of loaf comes out clean.

Carrie: Iron Chef Blogger Challenge Cranberry

For the third week of Iron Chef Blogger Challenge, Michele chose cranberries. I don't really have much experience with fresh cranberries. I grew up in a household that served the canned cranberry stuff at Thanksgiving, and I love Craisins, and vodka cranberry cocktails, but other that, I'm not really friends with cranberries. I visited Ocean Spray as a kid, I think, for a class trip, and I didn't love it so it started a lifelong thing where I think I dislike cranberries. But Iron Chef Blogging is all about learning and loving new ingredients so here we are.

I chose to make this Lemon Cranberry Bread from Adventures in Baking. It ended up alright, a little too tart. Probably doesn't need the lemon glaze on top of the loaf, but it was a nice bread.

Lemon Cranberry Bread (recipe from Adventures in Baking)
1 1/3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp salt
1 beaten egg
1 cup milk
1/4 cup oil
2 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup cranberries tossed in 1 Tbsp sugar

Glaze
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp sugar

1. Grease the bottom and 1/2 inch up the sides of 8×4x2-inch loaf pan; set aside.
2. In a medium mixing bowl stir together the flour, 3/4 cup sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the centre of the dry mixture; set aside.
3. In another medium bowl combine the egg, milk, oil, and 1TBSP lemon juice. Add the egg mixture all at once to the dry mixture. Stir just until moistened (batter should be lumpy). Fold in the cranberries and lemon peel.
4. Spoon batter into the prepared pan. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 50 to 55 minutes or till a wooden toothpick inserted near the centre comes out clean.

5. Meanwhile stir together 2 TBSP of lemon juice and 1 TBSP sugar. While bread is still warm in the pan, brush lemon-sugar mixture over the top of the loaf. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Remove loaf from pan; cool on a wire rack. Wrap and store overnight before serving.