Bacon, Cheese & Caramelized Onion Quick Bread

Good Morning friends! Surprise, I'm back! My life has been crazy and I have been going through some huge life changes during the last 6 months or so and my blogging and baking/ cooking has been put on the back burner. I don't know how regularly I will be back here, so I'm not making any promises, but I've been missing all of you and missing spending some QT in my kitchen. I will post some more about all of the life changes and craziness soon, but I want the focus of this post to be this spectacularly delicious quick bread. It is totally worthy of a post devoted to its awesomeness.

 



The quick bread name is a little deceiving for this bread if you decide to make it all at once. Caramelizing onions properly takes time (read minimum 30 minutes). But the good news is that you can caramelize the onions and cook the bacon ahead of time. My method has you making the bacon in the oven while you caramelize the onions on the stove top, which will be the most efficient and least messy way to do the prep work!

Bacon, Cheese & Caramelized Onion Quick Bread
Recipe minimally adapted from Oprah Magazine

Ingredients

• 3 tbsp. butter, plus more for greasing
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 6 slices lazy maple bacon
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp. baking powder
• 1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 1 cup 1% milk
• 1/3 cup EVOO
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups muenster cheese (or any other sharp, white cheese), shredded

Method

1. First things first - cook your bacon and caramelize the onions. You can do this up to 2-3 days ahead of making the actual bread. Preheat the oven to 400F. Line a baking tray with parchment paper and lay the bacon in one layer, making sure the edges of the bacon don't overlap. Cook the bacon for 15-17 minutes or until crisp. Remove from tray to a paper towel lined plate and let cool. While the bacon is cooking - melt 3 tbsp. butter in a medium non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Add onions. Cook, stirring every few minutes and making sure they don't brown, until onions are soft and caramelized. This should take approximately 30 minutes. If onions are browning, your heat is too high. Remove onions from heat and let cool.
2. When ready to prepare the bread, preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9x5 loaf pan or line with parchment paper. Don't skip this step or skimp on the grease!!! The cheese can stick to the pan as it cooks, so you need to grease well.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Make well in center of bowl.
4. In a medium bowl, combine milk, EVOO and egg. Mix until combined.
5. Add liquid mixture to dry ingredients. Gently fold mixture together until flour is incorporated. Chop the bacon into small pieces. Add bacon, cheese and onions to batter and mix together gently. Don't over mix or you will have tough bread. Place mixture in prepared loaf pan and bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in middle comes out clean. Let cool as long as you can bear it and then remove from loaf pan and slice. Delicious topped with butter or jam for that sweet-savory combo.

I'm pretty sure this is my favorite quick bread recipe thus far and I know its my hubby's favorite too. It doesn't last long in our house. I hope you enjoy it as much as we do.

The thing I love about this recipe is that you can mix it up - add some herbs and spices that you like, change up the type of cheese or change up the type of meat - you could do prosciutto (go easy on the salt if you decide to do that though), left over ham, etc. The possibilities are endless!

I'm so glad to be back! Hopefully you'll be hearing from me more often this summer as we get settled into our new life. :) Happy baking my friends!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Filled Banana Bread

 Banana bread is such a delicious snack and its truely a classic! I'm pretty sure most of us grew up eating banana bread (I know I did!!). My mom would often bake banana bread for us and I always loved it when she would put chocolate chips in it. This time I decided to depart a bit from the classic and changed it up by putting a layer of peanut butter chocolate yumminess in the middle of this loaf. It was a total success. The loaf has disappeared quickly in our house with requests for a repeat being made frequently. :) So, today I'm going to share this delish recipe with you.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Filled Banana Bread
Recipe adapted from Starting Out by Julie Van Rosendaal

Ingredients:
Banana Bread:

• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/3 cup low fat greek yogurt (honey or vanilla flavour is nice, but plain is okay too)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt (omit if using salted butter)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Filling:

• 3 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/4 cup chunky peanut butter
• 1/4 cup milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Spray an 8x4 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray.
2. In a large bowl, beat the butter and sugar until well combined - mixture will have the consistency of wet sand. Add the bananas, eggs, yogurt and vanilla and beat until wel blended.
3. Add the flour, baking soda, and salt and gently stir with a spatula until just combined.
4. Pour one half of the batter into the prepared pan. Then prepare the peanut butter and chocolate mixture by combining all four ingredients and stirring until smooth. Spread chocolate peanut butter mixture on top of batter in pan, then top with the remaining banana bread batter.
5. Bake in preheated oven for one hour and ten minutes, or until the top is cracked and springy to the touch. Cool in the pan on a wire rack.

This is such a great twist on a classic recipe. It comes together really quick - perfect to make for a Sunday morning breakfast or to bake up and take in lunches. :)

This post has been linked up with the Recipe Party over at the Sweet Spot! Head on over and check out the other delectable goods other bloggers have created this week. :)

Happy Baking my Friends!! I'm looking forward to a marathon weekend in the kitchen, so you should have some yummy posts to look forward to next week. :D

February 2012 Daring Bakers' Challenge: Quick Breads

Seems like this month has just flown by... I know, I say that every single time I post a challenge, but its true. It is amazing how quickly so much time can pass while it feels as though I haven't had a chance to blink! This month's challenge was really easy and something I've made a lot of. So I decided to try out some flavours and recipes I haven't experimented with much - first - Whole Wheat Soda bread with Oats & Rosemary and second - Coconut Banana Muffins. They both turned out deliciously.

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.

First, I'll share the savory recipe with you -  its delicious. Prepare yourself so you don't end up eating two loaves of this stuff all by yourself. Find someone to give it away to, or put it in the freezer, whatever you have to do! Because if you leave it on the counter, you will eat it!!

Whole Wheat Soda Bread with Rosemary &Oats
Recipe minimally adapted from No More Secrets by Adrienne Johnston

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all purpose flour, plus extra for dusting
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 tsp kosher salt, plus extra for sprinkling
• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup rolled oats, plus extra for sprinkling
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 2 tbsp + 1 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.
2. Stir together the flours, salt, baking soda, baking powder and 2 tbsp of the rosemary. Add the oats and stir well. Mix together the buttermilk and the egg. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir until it forms a dough.
3. Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface and knead briefly until a sticky, but manageable dough is formed. Divide into two and form into flattish rounds about six inches in diameter. Place the loaves on parchment lined baking sheet, sprinkle with oats, remaining tsp fresh rosemary, kosher salt, and a bit of flour. Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for about 30 minutes, until lightly browned. They should sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

See what I have to resort to in order to get photos? Leaving threatening letters to my family: "Eat & Die!! No Touch!! Needs to be Photographed" LOL!! A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do right?!

Next up, these delectable muffins... coconut, banana and lime! It doesn't get any better than that for breakfast. Get ready to feel like you're somewhere tropical, because these babies will make you feel like you're on the beach!

Coconut Banana Muffins
Recipe adapted from Anna Olson's Back to Baking

Ingredients:

• 2 large, ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cuppacked dark brown sugar
• 1 egg
• finely grated zest of one lime
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup coconut milk - refrigerate the can, scrape off the thick white portion and use the clear liquid from the bottom of the can for this recipe.
• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 375F and line a muffin tin with paper liners.
2. Stir the bananas and sugar together, then stir in the egg, lime zest, and vanilla. Stir in the coconut milk.
3. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, and salt, then add the flour mixture to the banana mixture and stir until combined. Mix in the coconut and spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin.
4. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until the muffins spring back when gently pressed. Let muffins cool for 10 minutes before removing from the tin to cool completely. The muffins will keep in an airtight container for up to three days.

Yep, these recipes are pretty delicious. You should try them out when you get a chance!

Thanks Lis for hosting a back to the basics challenge. Sometimes simple is a refreshing change from complex and time consuming. I really enjoyed the break this month, but hopefully back with a more "daring" challenge for March!! :)

This blog has been linked up with Mouthwatering Mondays over at the Sweet Spot. Head on over there to check out what other delicious treats bloggers have baked up this week.
Happy Baking my Friends!