Two of my favorite ingredients in on delicious tea bread, pumpkin and cranberries! Tea bread or loaf bread is easy to make and can be frozen for up to two months. I love to bake and freeze then I can always have a delicious treat to serve with a cup of hot tea.
“Tea makes everything better. ” Bindi Irwin
Autumn holds a special place in my heart; I was born in Autumn and I feel a pull – a strong kinship to this time of the year. I love the sights and smell of the season – burnished crimson leaves, crisp red apples, cinnamon spice pumpkin lattes, hayrides, pumpkin patches, mums exploding with color, and the majestic vistas filled with nature’s glory in New England. Autumn is my favorite baking season with a bountiful array of ingredients to create flavorful treats.
Pumpkin tea bread is so easy to make and although I have so many different variations, I still find new recipes to create. I love blueberries so I thought why not combine blueberries, from the summer, with a pumpkin flavor from the fall. Add a crumb topping for extra texture for an amazing tea bread to accompany a rich Chai Tea.
“Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.” F. Scott Fitgerald.
Nonstick cooking spray
2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon baking soda
2 ½ tsp. pumpkin spice
⅔ cup buttermilk
½ cup canned pumpkin
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ cup butter softened
½ cup granulated sugar
¼ cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup fresh blueberries
1 recipe Almond-Oat Streusel Topping
Preheat oven to 350°F. Spray a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl stir together the next five ingredients. In a small bowl combine buttermilk, pumpkin, and vanilla.
In a large bowl beat butter and both sugars with a mixer on medium until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating after each. Add flour mixture and buttermilk mixture alternately, beating on low after each addition just until combined (batter will be stiff). Fold in blueberries.
Spoon batter into prepared loaf pan. Top with Almond-Oat Streusel Topping. Bake 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Cool loaf pan on a wire rack 5 minutes. Remove from pan.
Almond-Oat Streusel Topping
In a small bowl stir together 1/4 cup packed brown sugar, 2 Tbsp. each rolled oats and sliced almonds, 4 tsp. all-purpose flour, 1/2 tsp. the ground cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp. salt. Stir in 3 Tbsp. melted butter.
Another recipe from my childhood Christmases, Poppy Seed Bread. My mother was raised in a neighborhood with many different ethnic groups sharing delicious foods with each other from all over the world. She learned from her Polish neighbors to make Eastern European style pastries which she incorporated into her holiday baking. Making her old holiday pastries transports me again to a time when I learned the magic of Christmas which still lives with me to this day!
Poppy Seed Bread
2 cups whole milk
2 packages yeast
2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/2 cup shortening (Crisco)
7 to 7 1/2 cups sifted all purposed flour
4 tablespoon butter
2 cans Poppyseed pastry filling(Solo)
1 cup chopped pecans
1 cup golden raisins
Preheat oven to 375F. Heat milk until tiring bubbles form, 2-3 minutes. Put 1/4 cup of hot milk in a small bowl, let cool to lukewarm. Add yeast, let dissolve for 5 minutes. In a large bowl add remaining milk and cool. Stir in salt, sugar, shortening, and eggs. Next, add dissolved yeast then on low beat in half of the flour gradually. By hand add as much of remaining flour to make the dough easy to handle. Knead on a wooden board for about 5 minutes. Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a clean towel letting rise to double in size for approximately an hour. Knead the dough again, place back in the bowl and let rise again for another hour.
Divide dough in half; roll each half into an oblong sheet about 1/2 inch thick. Melt butter then brush over dough. Spread poppy seed pastry filling over dough to half-inch from edge. Sprinkle pecans than raisins. Roll up jelly-roll style. Place both loaves on parchment-lined cookie sheet. Cover and let rise again for an hour. Then bake for 30-35 minutes until golden brown.
This recipe can be cut in half if you only want to make one loaf.
Enjoy!
What to do when you have very ripe bananas and can’t eat them all, make banana-nut bread. Quick loaf bread,(they call them quick because they are fast to make) are wonderful. Just mix all the ingredients in a bowl, pour into a loaf pan and bake. This can be frozen for up to two months. I like to slice and freeze in small packages so I can take a few slices out at a time to enjoy!
2 2/3 cup sifted flour
3 tsp baking power
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup of sugar
3 eggs
2 medium-size ripe bananas, peeled and mashed ( about 1 cup)
3/4 cup pecans, finely chopped
2 teaspoon grated orange rind
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1. Grease a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan, line the bottom with wax paper; grease paper.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda into a medium bowl.
3. In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar, until fluffy. Beat in eggs, one at a time, until fluffy again.
4. Stir in flour mixture, alternately with mashed bananas; fold in pecans, orange rind, and cranberries. Pour into loaf pan.
5. Bake 325 F for 1 hour and 10 minutes*, or until golden, and a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes. Loosen around edges with a knife; turn out onto rack; peel off waxed paper. Let cool completely. Wrap and store overnight.
* Depending on your oven this can be done in 1 hour and 10 minutes or 1 hour and 20 minutes. I have said before that I find ovens to bake differently. I always recommend the first time you make a recipe that you bake for less time and keep adding more time until done. This bread is moist, not dry. Add vanilla ice cream for a nice treat.
Enjoy
