Vintage Monday: Baking Bread

I love freshly bread but baking my own has always seemed a daunting task. Bread machines were out of the question--been there, done that, didn't care for it. In my world bread has to have a hard crust and a nice, chewy body. So of course, when I found a super-easy no-kneed recipe on Pinterest I had to try it out. I'm glad I did.

Isn't it beautiful? Oh, and that crunchy crust... The dough needs 12-18 hours to rise but it's not an issue. I can start it in the evening and it's ready to bake sometime in the next day. The other big thing is that you need a Dutch oven to bake it in, but I had one already. I'll be baking more bread in the future.

Creative Baking

It's my belief that all human beings have a creative urge, and creativity can take many forms. One of mine is baking.

I had leftover homemade cranberry sauce and search the internet high and low for a recipe to use it up. When I couldn't find anything I liked, I made up my own:

Chocolate Cranberry Sauce Banana Bread

Ingredients

2 cups of flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 eggs

4 oz (one stick) of butter at room temperature

1 cup (packed) brown sugar

1 ripe banana smashed

3/4 cup cranberry sauce

4 oz dark chocolate

1 tbs blackstrap molasses (optional)

1 tsp vanilla

A bit of crystallized brown sugar or white sugar

• Preheat oven at 350ºF.
• Rub the insides of a loaf pan with butter. Drop in some sugar and shake it around to coat the bottom and sides. Shake out the access.
• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler
• Mix butter and brown sugar till smooth and creamy.
• Mix in molasses.
• Add eggs one by one and blend with electric mixer, fully incorporating each.
• Add melted chocolate, mix it in.
• In separate bowl mix flour and baking powder together.
• Add flour mix to wet ingredients, incorporate fully.
• Add banana, cranberry and vanilla. Mix.
• Pour it all into the loaf pan and bake till a tooth pick or skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
• Let it cool for a bit. When cool enough turn it upside-down—it will smoothly slip out of the pan.
• Eat plain or with jam, by itself or with coffee, tea.