One of my favorite things to make, and there are many varieties of these, is quick breads. You may not know what a quick bread is, but if you’ve ever had corn bread, banana nut bread, cranberry orange bread, or any other bread that requires fruits, you’ve had one. In fact, when a friend of mine from India asked me to help her learn an “American” recipe, banana bread was what I taught her. Now, if you’ve only had these sorts of breads from a box or the store, you are truly missing out as most of those are very dry. In this I will explore the joy of various quick breads and how you make them.
Quick breads are actually a variety of baked goods, as they are basically anything that is baked that does not involve yeast or eggs for making the dough rise. This could be anything from cookies, cakes, muffins, or bread, but they all have a few ingredients in common. For our discussion, we’ll be focused on the bread loaf form of quick breads. What is unique about a quick bread is not only that it rises without the aid of yeast but the fact they require a lot less labor, and as their name implies, a lot less time. On average most quick breads take roughly 15 minutes of prep and 50 minutes to bake, so if you need to make something sweet within an hour, they are your best baking buddy. There is a reason why a lot of bake sales have things like banana bread, it’s easy to make.
So, if not yeast, what helps a quick bread rise? Either baking soda or baking powder. If baking soda is combined with a light acid, they will cause a tiny reaction much like the baking soda and vinegar volcanoes in science class. Baking powder, on the other hand, just requires liquid to cause a reaction as it has both a weak base and a weak acid mixed in. This reaction causes bubbles in the dough, which then make the bread rise up as it bakes. It’s not nearly as dramatic a rise as some yeast breads, but it does the job very well.
Now that we know what it is and how it works in theory, how about we go through a few troubleshooting issues that are very common with quick breads. First is that if the bread is dry, that is often because what you added as a fruit was not very wet. This is more common with corn breads, as they need a lot of moisture to balance out the dry cornmeal that is used. If you have dry bread, serve it with milk to help in the meantime. Also do not forget that if you are using dried fruits to soak them before you use them in your dough. Often in store bought breads the fruit has dried out so the moisture is gone with it. Another reason they could be tough is if you over-mixed them. What do I mean? When you make a quick bread, much like pancakes, are best when it is not completely mixed together. There should be a few lumps, especially of any fruit, and if that is not the case, you can end up with too well mixed dough, causing “tunneling” or too many holes where those air bubbles from the dough rising escaped. One last thing is a bit obvious but I still forget on occasion: remember to grease your pan! Nothing worse than stuck on bread.
So what are your thoughts on quick breads? What’s your favorite? I know a while back I made a cranberry-orange bread that required chopped cranberries and orange juice. It was amazing and perfect for a christmas holiday party! Tell me your favorites below and catch up with what I am doing on twitter @TChefette. See you all on horror tuesday!
