However the first quick breads came about, I am grateful. When else do we get to essentially dump ingredients in a bowl, stir, bake, and then be rewarded for our minimal efforts with a warm golden loaf of bread for the table? Here is the basic recipe I've settled on over the years, with plenty of variations for just about any occasion you can think of.
For an average weeknight meal, or even a non-average dinner party, I really like this basic buttermilk loaf all on its own. It's rich, a touch tangy, and not overly sweet, making it a good match for everything from a roast to a pot of chili. During the summer, I serve the leftovers topped with berries and whipped cream as a simple short-cake-like dessert.
This is a versatile recipe, to be sure. Add some diced fruit and warm spices, and this loaf becomes part of a brunch buffet. Go the other way with shredded cheese, savory herbs, and onions, and you could take this to any barbecue, football party, or potluck dinner with confidence that every last crumb will be eaten before the night is over.
Whether you stick with the basic recipe or change it up, the method is the same. Combine all the dry ingredients, whisk together the liquid ones, and then gently stir them together into a shaggy batter. Pour into a loaf pan, bake for about forty-five minutes, and it's ready to go on the table.
Makes one loaf
2 cups (10 oz) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (4 oz) white sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup (8 oz) buttermilk
1 large egg
1/4 cup (2 oz) unsalted butter, olive oil, or vegetable oil
Heat the oven to 350°F. Grease or spray with nonstick cooking spray a standard 9x5 loaf pan.
Whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium mixing bowl. Melt the butter, if using. Whisk it in a separate bowl with the buttermilk and the egg.
Pour the liquid ingredients over the dry ingredients. Gently stir and fold the ingredients until all the flour has been incorporated and a shaggy, wet batter is formed. Be careful not to over-mix.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and pat it into the corners. Bake for 45-50 minutes. When finished, the loaf should be domed and golden, and a toothpick inserted into the center should come out clean. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing and slicing.
Wrap baked loaves tightly in plastic wrap and store at room temperature. Baked loaves can also be wrapped in plastic and aluminum foil and frozen for up to three months.
Basic Variations:
• Sugar can be reduced to a tablespoon for more savory breads.
• Up to half the flour can be substituted with an alternative flour.
• Replace the buttermilk with a mix of yogurt and milk or milk and a squeeze of lemon.
• Use up to 1 1/2 cups fruits, nuts, olives, cheese, or other ingredients, added to the dry ingredients.
• Use 1-3 teaspoons of herbs or spices, added to the dry ingredients.
10 Variations:
1. Cranberry-Walnut Loaf (pictured above) - 1 c. dried cranberries, 1/2 cup toasted and chopped walnuts, 1 tsp vanilla, zest from one orange
2. Apple-Cinnamon Loaf - 1 c. diced apples, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 cup toasted and chopped nuts
3. Cherry-Almond Loaf - 1 c. dried cherries, 1/2 cup toasted and chopped almonds, 1 tsp almond extract
4. Blueberry Loaf - 1 c. fresh or frozen blueberries, 1 tsp vanilla, zest from one lemon
5. Ginger-Orange Loaf - zest from two oranges, 1/4 cup minced crystallized ginger, 1 tsp cinnamon, pinch of cloves, pinch of nutmeg
6. Herbed Sun-dried Tomato and Cheese Loaf (pictured below) - reduce sugar to 1 T, 1/2 c. grated cheese, 1 tsp oregano, 1/2 tsp thyme, 2 T minced sun-dried tomatoes
7. Onion-Dill Loaf - reduce sugar to 2 T, one minced onion cooked until soft, 1 T minced fresh dill
8. Pesto Loaf - reduce sugar to 1 tablespoon, 1/4 c. pesto, 1/2 c. shredded parmesan cheese
9. Spicy Jalapeno Loaf - reduce sugar to 2 tablespoons, 1/4 cup minced jalapeno peppers, 1 c. shredded cheddar cheese, 2 tsp chili powder
10. Irish Soda Bread Look-Alike Loaf - reduce sugar to 1/4 cup, 1 T caraway seeds, 3/4 cup raisins
Related: Essential Kitchen Tools: Bread Baking
(Image: Emma Christensen)
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i became rather obsessed with this after finding a recipe for olive artichoke bread at circle b.
my own concoction--and the one that gets the most raves--is the bread with sausage (fried & drained BEFORE adding to bread dough/batter), jalapenos, and cheddar cheese. OMG is that good.
How are 2 cups (of flour) equivalent to 10 oz? Isn't a cup 8 oz, so 2 cups should be 16 oz? Is this a typo?
@Julie - Not a typo! The "8 oz to 1 cup" rule is based on liquid weights. Flour is lighter than liquid, in general terms, therefore one cup of flour will weigh a little less than one cup of water or other liquid. When I scoop a cup of flour and then weigh it, I get 5 oz. Does that make sense?
What a great all-purpose recipe. I *love* quick breads and make several kinds, and consistently find that the recipes that use buttermilk come out particularly good. Although I more often end up baking them as muffins...I don't have great luck with loaf pans. They always seem to take *much* longer than the specified baking time, and then the outside starts to brown too much long before the inside gets fully cooked. I know I can cover with foil near the end to protect from burning, but even then the bottom and sides still often seem to dry out. Is it my oven? Maybe the temps is off (but then in which direction)?
@ BROOKLYNNINA...I've had this issue before, and what I found was that not all of my baking ingredients were as fresh as they should be (oops), baking powder was my culprit. Should your baking powder be stale, don't throw it away. Use in your cleaning products as you would baking soda. An inexpensive oven therm will let you know how off (if it is) your oven is.
I will be trying this soon as it sounds so easy and quick. I no longer buy buttermilk but use powdered buttermilk (so much less waste) and hope it works well here, I think it should.
I just made this bread a few hours ago and tried it...OMG. I cannot wait for breakfast! So tasty!
@ALA-KAT, I made this bread today with the addition of cranberries and chopped walnuts and used powdered buttermilk reconstituted with water. It worked like a charm. No problem with rising or flavor.
I can highly recommend something called quark-oil-dough, quark is a dairy product very similar to ricotta, so you can substitute with ricotta if quark is not available. The wonderful thing is that it tastes fairly similar to a yeast dough, but is really quick to make. Typically it's used for quick roles.
Here's a German link, Google translate does a very good job:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aGTNS13SDU
In Poland we eat this sprinkled with 'kruszonka' (before cooking). It's made of 200g flour, 100g hot butter and 100g sugar. It looks like this http://www.rysch.com/kuchnia/images/streusel_1.jpg. And the final effect http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_dVGk53gVPYE/TNFod_nwhxI/AAAAAAAAA74/tLWvZpHsiFY/s1600/dro%C5%BCd%C5%BC%C3%B3wka+z+kruszonk%C4%85+01.jpg
Made it last night....Soo tasty and easy to make.
Just made this. Wow. It is perfect - texture is light and just barely crumbly. Oh, wow, so delicious.
I wanted to make a fancy 'variation' loaf, but I stuck to the original recipe fairly accurately, but made the following changes, to make it even extra healthy:
Used 1 cup whole wheat, and 1 cup unbleached regular flour.
Used 1 oz good olive oil, and 2 TB unsalted butter.
Used buttermilk powder instead of buttermilk.
Used 2 TB sugar instead of the 1/2 cup (wow, maybe for a much sweeter bread? I can still taste a touch of sweetness.)
Took only 40 minutes in my oven.
I so recommend this recipe. I'm going to make several variations soon.
Thanks, TheKitchn!
This is just perfect. I'm making a variation of this bread this weekend. I love quick breads! Great comments too :-)
What an elegant, simple recipe. I'll be making one of these variations this weekend
Jules & Emma - I couldn't let your comment stand... oz for fluid are a measure of volume and 8 oz equal one cup. oz for solids (i.e. flour) are a measure of weight as in 16 oz = 1 pound... so when you say that 1 c of flour = 5 oz that just means that flour with a volume of 1 cup weighs 5 oz... it has nothing to do with the relative weight of water or milk because the 8 oz = 1 cup for milk is only referring to volume....
I made the pesto & parmesan version this weekend subbing out some of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat. It was SO good! I nibbled on it all the long rainy weekend with various soups, etc. Thanks for a recipe I can tell will go into my regular rotation!
Just sampled the first piece of my almond blueberry variation (blueberries, almond extract, lemon zest and slivered almonds on top). It's fantastic! Can't wait to try different combinations of this simple and delicious recipe. Thanks!
Made this this afternoon, plain, and it is very tasty. Used 1/2 AP & 1/2 whole wheat. Also used a mix of yogurt and milk instead of buttermilk, and less sugar.. Those were the only deviations from the original. Nice to know reconstituted buttermilk works just fine :).
I can see myself making several bags the next time I make this. Three or four additional with all the dry ingredients already measured out, a self made pack of dry buttermilk included to 1) reconstitute, or 2) to put back in rotation in case I have yogurt in the fridge :) Grab a bag, an egg and some butter and I'll be good to go. Customize with what I have on hand.
But enough of that already. I have a question. Were the above pictures made with a double recipe as mine is no where near that tall. Have you tried a double recipe to get more of a sandwich size loaf? Or am I missing some super secret baking tip :)
Baking the orange-ginger loaf ... Cant wait!
It is AWESOME!
Can't wait to try this recipe! I've been trying to find a simple bread recipe for a while now! Hopefully the hubby will like it! :)
Bread is only 2-3 inches high? Why so short, no good for sandwiches, or to hold anything but butter & jam. Disappointed.
My bread kind of deflates after I take it out of the oven - any suggestions on how to fix?
@ala-kat - maybe your pan is too large?
can I make this in an oval cast-iron pan as am snowed in and need bread!
Hmm - to those folks who are wondering about your bread not being 'tall' enough: maybe your baking powder/soda isn't fresh? Maybe you sub'ed too much, maybe too much whole wheat flour? I'm guessing the former. My baked goods always come out better with fresh baking powder. I use this original recipe (with only 1 TB sugar) for sandwich bread often. Just try again. Don't give up after one attempt. Tweak it a little.
Hi, just bringing to your attention the link contained in comment number 8. I clicked on it and it brought up a dodgy looking website, possibly pornographic. I did not click on the actual link! Something very rude about Miss Piggy. I tried to access the correct website a second time, thinking I must have been directed to the wrong website - back it came again. Thought you should know, to prevent any one picking up a viurs on their pc if they actually do click on the 'piggy' link .
Is it possible to convert this recipe into gluten free millet bread??what would be the proportions
mine turned out not as high as I would like as well....I didn't use any whole wheat flour, (because I wanted to test out the recipe first) and my baking powder is only days old. I wonder if the humidity could affect it? However the bread still looks delicious, and it is such an easy recipe and I always love to use buttermilk, so even if I don't figure out why it's a bit flat I will probably still make it again.
I just made two loaves of this bread tonight to use up leftover buttermilk. I used half white and half wheat flour. I did one cinnamon raisin and one cheddar dill. I just had a piece of the cinnamon raisin fresh from the oven-wow this bread is incredible! I can't wait to have the cheddar dill tomorrow with dinner.
I finally tried out this recipe and wanted to report back that it's easy and delicious. We had the version with pesto and parmesan with a chickpea/spinach stew. We'll be making this regularly. Parents, take note: it's a great loaf to bake with kids and they love eating it, too!
Hi there, love the recipe but am struggling with the measurements, Im in the UK and we use grams, but converting from oz or cups when the weights of the different cups are different is proving hard! Is there any way you could add to the quantities the measurements in Grams too please? :-) x
There are a couple of scenarios that can keep baked goods from rising, some are already mentioned (I.e. old leavening, pan too wide). Another is oven temperature. Too low oven temperature can prevent baked good from rising. Get an oven thermometer and adjust your dial accordingly. If you are worried your bread gets too dry and crusty, try baking in a lighter color pan or glass loaf pan.
You can buy dry weight measuring scoops. I use a measuring cup for liquids, and measuring scoops for dry ingredients. A kitchen scale helps, too.
I just made a savory version. Just came out of the oven, so I don't know what it tastes like yet. For those complaining about the bread not tall enough, look at the pictures. The
pictures show how tall the finish product is in relation to its width. Mine comes out just like that. If you want taller bread, maybe you simply need more batter to begin with. How about make 1 1/2 times recipe. Or make double recipe and bake some as muffins.
I am obsessed with this. I plan to regularly buy buttermilk JUST so I can make this recipe all the time. If anyone is wondering, it works well as muffins. I usually manage to screw something up when making quick bread recipes as muffins, but with these I just baked for 20 mins and they were perfectly done.
Do you think this would work in a bread machine?
How to be a good cook: Keep on hand at all times----fresh lemons, fresh garlic, and buttermilk (not powdered).
Do you use an 8" or 9" pan? Does it rise pretty well. I had the same problem as someone else. Baking powder and soda are still within code, but I think I should use fresher.
For those whose loaves didn't rise very high - try both greasing and flouring the bread tins. The dough needs something to hang on to as it rises and sometimes oil/grease alone is too slippery.