Sweet Potato Zucchini Quick Bread

 Pre-Brecken, I would sometimes spend an entire Saturday in the kitchen, knocking out half a dozen recipes. Sometimes it was for blog content, sometimes it was to relieve the stress of weeknight cooking, and sometimes it was simply because there was a recipe I was dying to try. Nowadays it's rare that I'll spend a big chunk of dedicated time in the kitchen, although I do try to squeeze in blocks of cooking during weekend naps! Brecken has always been a fantastic nighttime sleeper, spoiling us with 11 hours a night without a peep (KNOCK ON WOOD), but naptimes aren't nearly as predictable! Because I never know if I have 30 minutes or 90 minutes, and I want to spend her awake time focusing on her, the recipes I plan for naptime have to be relatively fast!


One Year Ago: Photo an Hour-Road Trip Style
Two Years Ago: Peach, Avocado, and Arugula Panzanella  
Three Years Ago: S'Mores Ice Cream and Grilled Chicken & Peaches Salad
Four Years Ago: Oreo Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Truffles and Thai Salad with Peanut Dressing

Wheat Oat Flax Buns

One Year Ago: Austin Eats
Two Years Ago: Thin Mint Brownies and Slow Cooker Whiskey Pulled Pork
Three Years Ago: (Almost) No-Bake Nutella Pie with Peanut Butter Crust and Chicken Paninis with Pineapple Black Bean Salsa
Four Years Ago: Strawberry Banana Bread and Oven-Baked Potato Chips

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

Oh goodness. Where do I even begin with this bread? It will forever be known as the McLaury family obsession of January 2014. Cinnamon raisin bread is one of my all-time favorites and yet I rarely buy it. To be honest, if I'm making toast at home, I'm toasting frozen waffles and slathering them with peanut butter & jelly. 
Still, I've been wanting to make homemade cinnamon raisin bread for forever and now that I've done it, I can't go back. The recipe makes two loaves. Loaf #1 was gone in less than forty-eight hours. I forced us to slow down our consumption and loaf #2 maaaaybe took seventy-two before it was nothing but a memory. 
At this point we were full on obsessed and before I knew it, Loaves #3 and #4 were in the oven. I wisely froze Loaf #4 to pull out on a day when the craving was particularly strong, but Loaf #3 was savored over breakfast for a few days! 

As far as homemade bread goes, this is certainly not as easy as a quickbread, but it isn't difficult at all. Most of the time is hands-off while the bread is rising and if you have a stand mixer, the kneading is done for you. The most difficult part is tightly rolling the bread up, but if you've ever made homemade cinnamon rolls you already have this skill mastered.
Toasted with butter, I'll definitely take this over my pb & j waffles! Even if you decide to skip the cinnamon raisin swirl, give the base bread recipe a try. It is the ideal bread in terms of taste and texture, and you'd never know it was whole wheat!

One Year Ago: Banana Coconut Mini Loaves
Two Years Ago: Reese's Fudge Pie and Almond & Coconut Macaroon Granola 
Three Years Ago: Slow Cooker Spicy Vegetable & Chicken Sausage Stew and Blueberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake 
Four Years Ago: Peanut Butter Chip Brownies 

Cornbread with Caramelized Onions and Apples

While Ryan is not one to gush or show exorbitant amounts of emotion, he does love to speak in hyperboles. I frequently tease him because everything is always "the worst _______ of all time" or "the largest ________ you've ever seen". Telling you this, you're probably going to raise your eyebrows when I tell you that he claimed this cornbread was "the best cornbread of his life". Normally I'd roll my eyes, except that he was speaking truth...and I couldn't agree more!
This really is the best cornbread I've ever tried. Forget every dry, crumbly, flavorless cornbread you've ever choked down alongside your chili. This is not that cornbread. Butter AND buttermilk keep this tender, and the sautéed apples and caramelized onions bring in an exciting taste element. I could honestly make a meal out of this stuff! Instead, I exercised some self-control and ended up freezing half of it. Thawed and reheated (via our toaster oven) a few weeks later, it was just as good as fresh! Whip up a batch to eat alongside soup, chili, or on its own and I bet you'll be making similar declarations! 
One Year Ago: Amish Baked Oatmeal and Green Bay Packer Snackadium
Two Years Ago: Butterscotch Blondie Bars with Peanut Pretzel Caramel and Turkey Quinoa Chili
Three Years Ago: Cinnamon Apple (Breakfast) Cake and White Bean Roasted Red Pepper Dip
Four Years Ago: Coconut Shrimp and Kale Chips

Pumpkin Cranberry Bread

No matter how many pumpkin treats I bake in a season, it never feels like enough. I feel like I always blink and suddenly pumpkin is OUT and gingerbread and mint are in. This year in particular I don’t think I took advantage of pumpkin enough. Though you can find a multitude of pumpkin recipes on The Sweets Life, I only managed to remake a handful of them this year and even fewer brand new pumpkin recipes. 

If you’re feeling the same way I am, don’t fear, this is really the only pumpkin recipe you need to get you through the rest of the season. Although, if I’m being honest, I have a feeling I’ll be stocking up on canned pumpkin and making this bread all winter long! I’m convinced this is the best pumpkin bread I’ve ever had. The pumpkin flavor shines, the cranberries add just the right amount of punch and color, and the tight crumb still manages to melt in your mouth. I froze the second loaf of this and audibly squealed in joy when we returned from vacation last month and I remembered that this was waiting for me. I've since made several more loaves and plan to share with family during our Thanksgiving day breakfast!
Maximize the remainder of pumpkin season (or extend it as long as you like!) and give this a go. Bring it as a thank you gift to whoever’s hosting Thanksgiving or serve it for breakfast to your out-of-town guests. Better yet, double the recipe, share a few loaves, and freeze the rest for when you’re craving a little fall in the dead of winter!

One Year Ago: Bacon, Onion, and Cheddar Corn Muffins and Three Bean Chili with Bacon
Two Years Ago: Pumpkin Ice Cream and Butternut Squash and Kale Torte
Three Years Ago: Shredded Brussels Sprouts with Bacon and Walnuts and Pumpkin Knots
Four Years Ago: Very Veggie Soup and Rosemary Bread

 Sometimes I just have to laugh when I think about how far I’ve come in terms of cooking and baking. The fact that I do things like make my own bread—from scratch—astounds me. Six or seven years ago I was grabbing bread off of the grocery store shelf, probably not even realizing that it was possible to make bread in my own kitchen!
One Year Ago: Chewy Peanut Butter Butterscotch Cookies
Two Years Ago: Spinach Artichoke Flatbread Pizzas
Three Years Ago: Spring Greens Dinner Salad

 A few weeks ago I came home from the grocery store with lots of extra carrots. I was craving carrot cake, but didn’t have the time to make and frost a layer cake, nor did Ryan and I need a giant cake sitting around. Instead, I decided to fulfill my craving in a slightly healthier way—via carrot bread and muffins.

One Year Ago: Salty Chocolate Peanut Butter Bars
Two Years Ago: Chili Glazed Pork with Sweet Potato Hash
Three Years Ago: Caprese Sandwiches

 My brother spent some time in Germany last summer with his basketball team and he arrived home with some chocolate for me. Can't go wrong with German chocolate, straight from Germany! I've enjoyed most of it plain, but when I set out to make this bread, I discovered I was out of chocolate chips. Instead, I pulled one of my German chocolate bars from the pantry and chopped it up.
The problem with German chocolate? I can't read the labels! I wasn't sure just what type of chocolate it was, although little nibbles led me to believe it had some sort of nuts (hazelnuts, maybe?) and some liqueur. It added a significant amount of flavor to the bread; Ryan thought it tasted like Bailey's, but to me it seemed more like rum. We weren't complaining either way!

Since I don't know what the chocolate was, I can't really tell you what chocolate to put in your bread. Mystery chocolate or not, you're bound to have success with the chocolate cranberry combination. If you're dying to add some boozy flavor, add a tablespoon of your favorite, and let me know how it turns out!

One Year Ago: Bailey's Dark Chocolate Pudding
Two Years Ago: Pumpkin Granola
Three Years Ago: Whole Wheat Pita Bread

Cranberry Chocolate Buttermilk Bread
adapted from Lemon Flaxseed Loaf

Ingredients:
-1/4 cup ground flaxseed
-3/4 cup granulated sugar
-2 large eggs
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1 cup whole-wheat flour
-1 1/2 tsp baking powder
-1/2 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-3/4 cup low-fat buttermilk
-1/4 cup vegetable oil
-1 tsp vanilla extract
-1/2 cup coarsely chopped cranberries
-1/4 cup coarsely chopped chocolate

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F. Coat an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.
2. Beat sugar with eggs in a large bowl until mixture is thick and pale. In a separate bowl, combine flaxseed meal, flours, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir to combine. In a third bowl, combine the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. 
3. Alternate adding the flour mixture and the buttermilk mixture to the egg mixture, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in the cranberries and chocolate.
4. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake at 350F for 50-55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. Cool in pan, on a wire rack, for 5-10 minutes before removing loaf from pan and cooling completely on a wire rack .

Are you keeping sourdough starter in your fridge yet?! I've kept mine alive now for about a year, a feat in itself, and I'm still finding new ways to use it. While I use it most often for pizza dough, it's also useful for both pancakes and rolls. In case those aren't reasons enough to convince you that you need your own sourdough starter, then this recipe should do the trick!
These grilled sourdough flatbreads are my new favorite thing. I've already made them a few different times and I imagine that drastically increasing as summer draws near and we use the grill even more frequently. Grilled pizza has long been a hit in our house, so I shouldn't have been surprised that grilled bread would be just as popular.
The dough requires minimal rise time. You can season it however you please (garlic powder and rosemary is a favorite of ours!). Dip it in olive oil, or hummus, or seven layer Greek dip. We can't get enough of it, both as a side dish and a snack and an appetizer. Now quick, get yourself some sourdough starter! (alternately, you can find similar non-sourdough flatbread recipes and roll out small balls of dough to grill!)

One Year Ago: Caramelized Onion Hummus
Two Years Ago: Pesto, White Bean, and Spinach Soup
Three Years Ago: Tilapia Zucchini Skillet

 
I have a few different banana breads that are my favorite. And while this might seem silly, I think it's actually quite practical. After all, I make this banana bread when I have some buttermilk that I need to use up. I make this banana bread when I'm missing home, as this is a slight variation on my mom's famous recipe. Now I have the Dahlia Bakery banana bread, which is about about as perfect as it gets.
Made with canola oil and sour cream, it bakes up with an ideal texture. As much as I love a gooey, slightly undercooked banana bread, I was impressed by how perfectly moist this was, especially when I opened the oven to find it so dark brown. I followed the recipe exactly-not opening the oven the entire time it was baking-and it came out exactly as described. That beautiful crack you see running across the top of the bread in the picture above? Dahlia Bakery called it! I usually make banana bread with pecans, so the walnuts were a fun change. This stayed fresh for days--I baked it on Saturday and on Thursday it still tasted like it'd been made only a few hours earlier.
Do you have a favorite banana bread? Mix it up and give this one a try--it's perfection!

One Year Ago: Brown Buttermilk Bread
Two Years Ago: Thai Chicken Peanut Panini
Three Years Ago: Salsa Chicken and Black Bean Soup

I remember when Ryan and I began registering for wedding gifts and I used the laser scan gun to add a KitchenAid mixer to our registry. Ryan glanced at the price and nearly had a heart attack before trying to convince me that it wasn't a necessity. He claimed that I wouldn't use it much, and that no one was going to buy it for me anyway.
It was one of the first, but certainly not the last, times I proved Ryan wrong ;) Not only did his aunt generously gift us with the stand mixer, but it is the most-used tool in our kitchen! Mine has a prominent spot on the countertop. I wouldn't dream of hiding it in a cabinet because I'd constantly be lugging it back out. From baking to bread making to chicken shredding, the KitchenAid is used at least four or five times a week, and sometimes four or five times in one day! 

These buttermilk clover rolls were mixed up in the KitchenAid. If you don't have one, you can certainly  knead these by hand. These don't have a super long rise time (an hour), making these easy enough to whip up, even on a weeknight. I froze most of our batch and we've been pulling them out to eat with soups and salads. You can sub some of the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour, just know that your rolls will get considerably heavier and denser.
Are you a KitchenAid owner?

One Year Ago: Banana Bread Ice Cream with Peanut Butter and Chocolate
Two Years Ago: Oregano and Prosciutto Pinwheels 
Three Years Ago: Butternut Squash Lasagna

Buttermilk Clover Rolls
from the Whole Foods recipe app

Ingredients:
-3 1/4 cups flour
-1 tsp salt
-1 package active dry yeast
-1 cup low-fat buttermilk
-1 tbsp honey
-5 tbsp butter, melted and divided
-1 egg

Directions:
1. Whisk together 1 1/2 cups of flour with the salt and yeast. Set aside.
2. In a small saucepan, heat buttermilk just until warm to the touch (about 115F). Remove pot from heat and whisk in honey, 3 tbsp of melted butter, and the egg.
3. Pour buttermilk mixture into the flour mixture and mix (I used the dough hook on my stand mixer but you could also mix by hand) until a thick batter is formed. Mix in remaining 1 3/4 cups flour.
4. Knead dough by hand or in the stand mixer until smooth and no longer sticky.
5. Divide dough into 36 equally sized balls (about 1 inch). Arrange 3 balls of dough in each cup of a greased 12-muffin tin. Loosely cover and allow to rise in a warm spot for 1 hour.
6. Preheat over to 375F. Brush rolls with remaining 2 tbsp melted butter and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown and cooked through.