Beard on Bread (28 page)

• 
Cranberry
Orange Bread:
Use ½ cup orange juice and ¾ cup milk as liquid in the bread. Add, with the cranberries, 3 tablespoons grated orange rind.

• 
Cranberry
Sauce Bread:
Instead of raw cranberries and sugar, use 1½ cups cranberry jelly or, preferably, canned whole or unstrained
cranberry sauce. Beat the sauce into the eggs as you would beat in sugar. Use only ¾ cup milk or orange juice in the recipe. Add 3 tablespoons orange rind, if you like.

This can be made with either candied orange or chopped marinated prunes, or a combination of both. It is another of the quick baking-powder breads that are becoming increasingly popular in this country. The fruit flavor is readily apparent and quite delicious. It is an excellent gift bread, makes pleasant toast, and keeps well.

The top is likely to crack considerably, which is typical of baking-powder breads, and the loaf will not rise very high. When it is turned out the color is golden, with tiny specks of orange visible. A hard outer crust will develop as the bread cools.

[1 loaf]

Sift the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add the milk and beaten egg and combine thoroughly. Add the melted butter, candied fruit, and orange flower water. Mix well.

Butter a 9 × 5 × 3-inch loaf tin. Pour in the batter and bake in a preheated 375° oven 45 to 50 minutes, or until a knife comes out clean.

• Double the recipe to make one orange-flavored loaf and one prune loaf. Separate into two batches before adding the fruit and flavoring. Prepare one batch as in the master recipe. To the other batch add ½ cup chopped prunes that have been marinated in Madeira, ½ cup pistachios, and 3 teaspoons rosewater. Proceed with the recipe.

• Add 1 tablespoon caraway seeds to the master recipe.

A rather unusual baking powder bread that you will find delightfully textured and interesting in color and flavor. It keeps very well and, as a matter of fact, will be better if left to mature for at least 24 hours. It is a fine bread to give as a gift.

[1 large loaf]

Cream the butter or margarine, add the sugar slowly, and continue to beat until light and lemon colored. Beat in the eggs. Sift the flour with the salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Add to the creamed mixture alternately with the milk, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Stir in the apples, nuts and vanilla or lemon rind.

Butter a 9 or 10 × 5 × 3-inch loaf tin. Spoon the batter into the tin and bake in a preheated 350° oven 50 to 60 minutes, until the loaf pulls away slightly from the sides of the tin or until a straw or cake tester inserted in the loaf comes out clean. Cool in the pan for about 5 minutes, then loosen from the pan and turn out on a rack to cool completely before slicing.

• Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon chopped nuts on top of the batter before baking.

Interesting in flavor and nicely textured, this French fruit bread is excellent for toast. It bakes to a delicious-looking rich brown and is a very attractive gift bread.

[1 loaf]

Line a 9 × 5 × 3-inch bread pan with buttered waxed paper. Beat the eggs and sugar until they form a ribbon. Sift together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt and add, along with the melted butter, to the eggs and sugar. Then add the nuts, figs, citron, and raisins and blend thoroughly. Pour into the prepared pan and bake in a preheated 350° oven for 50 to 60 minutes. Cool slightly in the pan, then remove the loaf to a rack to finish cooling.

This is a tart, deliciously refreshing bread with a character all its own. I had a feeling that lemon flavor in a baking powder bread might work out very well, so I experimented and came up with this. I am delighted with it, and find that it keeps extremely well.

[1 small loaf]

Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the lemon rind and the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each is added. Stir in the lemon juice, then sift in the dry ingredients gradually. Beat well after each addition until you have a light, workable batter. Pour into a buttered and floured 8½ × 4½ × 2½-inch bread pan and bake at 350° for 50 to 60 minutes. Turn out on a rack to cool. Do not slice until the next day. Serve with butter and preserves as a tea bread.

Persimmons grow in many countries of the world, but often, as in France, they are left hanging on the trees. In this country we have learned to appreciate their superb deep-orange color, their shape, and their delicate flavor, and they are becoming increasingly popular. In earlier times they were allowed to ripen on the trees until dead ripe before being eaten raw or used for puddings, cookies, and breads. Nowadays they show up in our markets in a firm state and must be left at room temperature for several days or a week to ripen until they are almost mushy.

This old recipe, sent to me by a dear friend from the Middle West, makes a bread that is almost cakelike in texture. Spread with good fresh butter, it is very pleasant to eat along with a cup of tea or to use for a cream-cheese sandwich. It is unusual, rich, and thoroughly delicious.

Traditionally this bread is baked in four 1-pound buttered and floured coffee cans, but you can use 3- to 4-cup charlotte molds (my preference), round Pyrex dishes, or round stainless steel bowls.

[4 round loaves]

Sift all five dry ingredients into a mixing bowl. Then make a well in the center and add the melted butter, eggs, Cognac, persimmon purée, and, if you like, the nuts and raisins. Mix the dough until it is quite smooth. Butter and flour four molds, fill them about three-fourths full, and bake for 1 hour at 350°. Cool the loaves in the molds and turn out on a rack.