I have been working on changing my blog a little basically the layouts,designs and themes. Initially, while setting up this site, I had some help but not any more. Its quite fun to learn new things,whack my brains and work on things on my own.I am not a techie and all these html,css coding is not my cup of tea. But thanks to Google and sites like DIY themes( the one that I use) who make our (dumb ones like me) lives easy:).I am hoping to complete my work by end of this month and actively get back to blogging. So until then wait for this space:)

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

Quick Bread
Bread that is quick to make because it doesn’t require kneading or rising time. That’s because the leavener in such a bread is usually baking powder or baking soda, which, when combined with moisture, starts the rising process immediately. In the case of double-acting baking powder, oven heat causes a second burst of rising power. Eggs can also be used to leaven quick breads. This genre includes most biscuits, muffins, popovers and a wide variety of sweet and savory loaf breads.

Rules :

No yeast

Can’t take more than 1.5 hours to prepare and bake through.

Only loaves or muffins/popovers

The best part of the challenge was that we could use any recipe but just stick to the rules.
Popovers and Banana Bread where the first that came to my mind but felt they were too common. And after a lot of thinking, I ended up with the “Apricot Bread”. I’ve always preferred quick breads to Yeast-ed Breads, as they are so easy to bake and also because there is no wait time for rising:). All of us at home love Apricots and this bread was just perfect on a Sunday evening:). When the apricots get baked along with the batter they become much softer,making it all the more tasty. Its one moist bread and tastes best the day its baked!

 

APRICOT BREAD

( Makes 1 small loaf)

Ingredients:

1 cup dried apricot chopped into bite size pieces
1/4 cup butter
3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1/4 cup milk

Preheat oven to 375F. Cut the apricots, pour over boiling water and allow it to sit for 20 minutes. Sift flour,salt and baking powder.Beat the butter,sugar and vanilla. Add the egg and beat until smooth. Fold in the flour and milk. Add the apricot cubes and mix. Fill the loaf pan, about three-quarters full. Smooth the top with a spatula and bake for 40 minutes or until a knife inserted comes out clean.

Note : The above recipe was adapted from BAKING by James Peterson.