Persimmon Bread (Muffins)

Every winter I somehow end up with a huge box full of locally grown persimmons. What the heck is a Persimmon, anyway? I am not really sure...Some sort of a fruit, obviously. I am also not really sure what they taste like. Every time I bake something just to get these things out of my house, the end product does not really taste like a 'persimmon'. And when I taste the fruit in its raw form, it has an awful bitter taste. According to wikipedia, the bad taste is due to the tannin, which doesn't go away until the fruit is all the way ripened. Oops.
Regardless, these muffins came out pretty awesome. Especially when they are fresh out of the oven.


Here's what you need:

2 cups white sugar
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup oats
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups ripe persimmon pulp
1/2 cup applesauce
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs


To get the persimmon pulp, I simply cut up the ripest 2 persimmons from my box and then tossed the pieces into my food processor.
In a large bowl, stir together the sugar, flours, oats, salt, spices, and baking soda until well mixed. Set aside. In another bowl, stir the persimmon pulp with the applesauce, vegetable oil, and eggs until well blended. Combine wet and dry ingredients. Divide batter into two greased 9x5 loaf pans, or into 24 muffin tins.
Bake at 350 degrees until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. (About an hour for the loaf pans, and considerably less time if using muffin pan.)



Each muffin is approximately 206 calories with 2.7g of protein.

Pumpkin Bread

Quick breads are easily one of my favorite things to bake. They can be breakfast and dessert all at once and are so quick to throw together, considering I almost always have all the main ingredients on hand at all times. Today is Halloween and I've been cooking up a storm, including a moist and tasty pumpkin bread inspired by closet kitchen.

Here's what I used:

1 and 3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon allspice
1 and 1/2 cups pumpkin purée
3/4 brown sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 cup chocolate chips


1. In a large bowl mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.


2. In another bowl mix the pumpkin, brown sugar, eggs, oil, and yogurt.



3. Mix the wet and dry ingredients together, then stir in chocolate chips.



4. Poor in greased 9x5 loaf pan and bake at 375 degrees for about an hour, or until a toothpick stuck in the middle comes out clean.


Now...I really should have added chopped toasted pecans to this bread. Two separate co-workers have given me a bag of pecans from their yards, but unfortunately I wasn't able to crack or toast any in time for the making of this bread.


Mmm! Pumpkin bread and coffee for breakfast this week. Next week I'd really like to try this new apple and cinnamon oatmeal bread recipe from the same blog.

Strawberry Bread

A co-worker of mine had a birthday on 10-10-10, so I decided to make strawberry bread for her. I had made this bread once before probably about a year ago, and I had forgotten how freaking good it was. I should have been baking this bread all strawberry season. Instead, I was bad and bought 2 crates of california strawberries for one last taste of summer.

Here's what you need:


1/2 cup unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3 large eggs
1 tspn vanilla extract
2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 tspn baking powder
1/2 tspn baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tspn cinnamon
1/2 cup plain or vanilla yogurt
2 heaping cups sliced strawberries

Here's what you do:

1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl
2. Beat in the eggs and vanilla
3. Mix the dry ingredients in a separate bowl
4. Add 1/3 of the dry bowl to the wet, then add 1/2 the yogurt to the wet mixture, followed by a second 1/3 of the dry mixture, the last half of yogurt, and finally the remaining dry mixture.
5. Gently mix in the strawberries and pour into a lightly greased 9x5 loaf pan

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour.

This bread is like dessert when fresh from the oven, and a healthy filling breakfast sliced up and cooled. I found myself wanting more after giving most of it away as a birthday present.

Banana Bread (Muffins)

Every time my sister and I buy bananas at the grocery store, there are bound to be one or two that start going brown before we get to them. Personally, I like to eat my bananas when they are still a little green, so in order to not waste the fruit, I peel the brown ones, pop them in a ziploc bag and store them in the freezer. Any time I have a craving for banana baked goods, I can (almost) instantly satisfy that craving because of my stock of old 'nanners.
I've been locked indoors all day while workers cut down an old oak tree in the back yard and I decided to make some muffins for breakfasts next week.

I modified and combined two different banana bread recipes and poured the batter into muffin tins instead of a loaf pan. Here's what you'll need:

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour (or regular flour if you're a baby)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup of butter (room temp, or zap it in the microwave like i did)
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs (beaten)
1/2 cup vanilla yogurt
3 overripe and mashed bananas
1/2 cup chocolate chips (original recipe called for 1 cup, but i'm trying to be "healthy")

1. Mix dry ingredients in one bowl
2. Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl
3. Beat eggs, bananas, and yogurt into wet mixture
4. Combine wet and dry
5. Mix in chocolate chips
6. Pour into muffin cups and bake at 350 degrees for about 25 minutes


This recipe made me 18 muffins. If using a 9x5 loaf pan, bake for an hour or until a toothpick in the center comes out clean.