Kumquat Tea Bread

Mara — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 05:01:34 +0000

My refrigerator fruit drawer is currently so packed with citrus fruit that I have great difficulty closing it. It takes about 3 tries to actually get the drawer to slide correctly from all the weight of blood oranges, clementines, tangerines, grapefruit and kumquats. It seems about time that I actually do something other than just devour the citrus fruit family, so I decided to actually bake with some.

I’d been eyeing some kumquats for some time in our local natural foods store and finally picked some up a few weeks back. I found a recipe that intrigued me with the tangy flavor combination of tea, cardamom, pineapple and kumquat. The tea flavoring was fairly subtle, so I’ve adjusted the recipe a little to make the flavor more pronounced. This is a bread that could easily pass for a cake. That’s the best kind, isn’t it? The kind you can justify eating for both breakfast and dessert.

Kumquat Tea Bread

adapted from Bon Appétit

makes 2 loaves

Ingredients

kumquat tea bread
2 cups kumquats, stemmed, quartered, seeded; plus 4 kumquats, thinly sliced
1-1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2-3 teaspoons instant iced tea powder (optional)
1-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cardamom
2 teaspoons kosher salt, divided
1-1/4 cups pure cane sugar
3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon olive oil
3 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 8-ounce can crushed pineapple in its own juice
1 cup walnuts, toasted and roughly chopped
kumquat glaze
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 cups powdered sugar
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon instant iced tea powder (optional)
water, if needed

Directions

make the kumquat tea bread

Place quartered kumquats in processor; puree 3 minutes. Reserve 1/3 cup puree for glaze.

Preheat to 350 degrees. Spray two loaf pans with nonstick spray. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, tea powder, baking powder, baking soda, cardamom, and 1 1/2 teaspoons salt. Using an electric mixer, blend 1 1/4 cups sugar and oil. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition. Then, mix in vanilla, 2/3 cup kumquat puree and pineapple with juice. Gradually add dry ingredients, beating just until blended. Do not over mix. Fold in walnuts. Divide batter between loaf pans.

Bake bread until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 50 minutes-1 hour. Cool 5 minutes, then turn bread out on rack, top side up. Cool completely.

make the kumquat glaze

Place reserved 1/3 cup puree in large bowl. Whisk in butter, powdered sugar, lemon juice and 1/2 teaspoon salt. If glaze is too thick, thin by whisking in a little water. Drizzle glaze over bread loaves. Top with kumquat slices. Let stand until icing sets. Store at room temperature.

Cranberry Pumpkin Bread

Mara — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 19:02:42 +0000

When I am baking there’s usually someone I’m baking for. Friends, family, a dinner, work, etc. Not so this time; this one’s for me. Just like Kesha and her ice cream, I have a little confession of my own. I am obsessed with cranberries. In fact, I can eat them raw by the handfuls—for which my husband thinks I’m a freak show. Although, he could have it much worse.

Sadly, he’s not the only one that looks at me strange. I was checking out at the grocery store the other day and the clerks snickered and laughed at my 6 bags of cranberries. What they didn’t know is I had 4 more bags at home in the freezer, and that won’t be my last trip. Last year I ran out of cranberries, so I’m determined to be more prepared this year.

The first thing I decided to do to with my glorious tart, red friends was to make cranberry pumpkin bread. I first saw this recipe last year on design*sponge’s lovely In The Kitchen With series and have been making it ever since. I love the pumpkin spices mixed with the tart cranberries. They really give the traditional pumpkin flavors an unexpected surprise. I’ve been through multiple recipe alterations using yogurt (bad idea), less sugar, switching out butter for oil (hooray for moisture), etc. etc. over the months. This combination is what I’ve found to work best.

Also, a note on the original submitter of this recipe on design*sponge, Lena Corwin. She’s a very talented designer and illustrator and also has an inspiring lifestyle/design blog. Definitely worth checking out.

cranberry pumpkin bread

adapted from Lena Corwin
makes 2 loaves

Ingredients
2 to 2-1/2 cups pumpkin puree*
2/3 cup water**
2/3 cup oil
4 eggs
2-1/2 cup sugar
3-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 tsp cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
2 cups fresh or frozen (not dried) cranberries

*I like to make my own puree. But, you can easily buy the canned kind, just make sure it’s not the kind for pies that already has spices.
**If you have made your own puree and it’s watery (hasn’t been strained with cheesecloth) you may not need all of this additional water.

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans. In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin puree, water, oil and eggs until just combined. In another bowl, mix together all of the dry ingredients.

If using frozen cranberries, place them in a strainer and run them under water for a few minutes until mostly thawed. Also, if you prefer a more subtle cranberry taste, roughly chop the cranberries, although I prefer mine whole in this recipe.

Then, add cranberries and walnuts to the dry ingredient mixture. Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix with a wooden spoon by hand. Mix until the batter is combined, but don’t over mix. Distribute the batter equally in the pans, which should fill each about half way. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick comes out clean in the center. Cool on a wire rack. It works well to eat one loaf and wrap the second loaf up and freeze it for later.

Shared Sugar » Breads

Kumquat Tea Bread