Carrot Bread

I found this old recipe I got from one of my aunt's cookbooks and thought I would give it a try with some marginal carrots in the vegetable drawer. It was good, but I think next time I will decrease the oil to 3/4 cup and bake it as muffins instead of a loaf.  It wasn't done at the end of the 60 minutes and by the time I got it out of the oven it was rather crusty around the edges.

2 cups flour
2 tsp. soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1 cup (or less) oil (I used coconut oil)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 1/2 cups sugar
2 cups carrots, finely grated
3 eggs
1/2 cup shredded coconut
1/2 cup raisins

Sift flour, salt, soda, cinnamon and sugar together.  Make a well in the dry ingredients.  Add nuts, oil, vanilla, carrots, raisins and coconut and stir until well mixed.  Pour into greased loaf pan or muffin pans.  Let stand 20 minutes before baking. (I forgot that step!) Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.

Cranberry Bread

Normally, the cranberry bread is one of the last to get eaten, but this year I made it a bit differently.  We chopped the cranberries fairly small (used the food chopper from Pampered Chef), and I used coconut oil for the shortening.  It was really the best cranberry bread I have ever had, and even Ornery, who has never liked it before, went for this before the pumpkin or banana bread!

Cranberry Bread

1 cup chopped cranberries

3/4 cup chopped nuts (optional)

1 T grated orange peel (zest)

2 cups all purpose flour (can mix 1/2 and 1/2--white and whole grain)

1 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. baking soda

2 T shortening (or coconut oil)

3/4 cup orange juice (juice the oranges used for peel)

1 beaten egg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour loaf pan or line muffin cups. Prepare cranberries, nuts and orange peel; set aside. Mix dry ingredients; cut in shortening. Stir in juice, egg and orange peel until moist. Fold in cranberries and nuts. Spoon into prepared loaf pan. Bake 60 minutes or until pick inserted in middle comes out clean. Remove loaf after 15 minutes cooling on rack.

Zucchini Bread

This was my mom's recipe. Wow, it is good!!

Makes 2 loaves or 24-30 muffins

Prepare pan with Baker's joy or lightly grease and flour to keep from sticking. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Beat 3 eggs in large bowl.

Add 2 cups of sugar, 1 cup of oil, and 2 tsp. vanilla extract.

Add 2 cups coarsely grated zucchini (with peel still on it), 3 cups flour sifted with 1 tsp. salt, 1 tsp soda, 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp. cinnamon, 1/2 tsp. allspice, 3/4 cup raisins and 3/4 cup coarsely chopped nuts (walnuts or pecans--optional).

Bake loaves for 1 hour, muffins about 35 minutes or until they test done. (Not gooey in the middle when you put a toothpick in them

Ornery's Banana Bread

This is not a gluten free recipe. It is an adaptation of a recipe my mom used to make.

1/2 cup coconut oil
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
3 very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour (or 1/2 and 1/2 blend w/ all-purpose unbleached)
1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/2 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup sour milk (add 1 T. vinegar to milk to sour)
1 tsp. vanilla


Cream sugar and oil, add eggs and banana. Combine dry igredients and add to mixture alternately with milk and vanilla.  Bake at 350 degrees in greased and floured loaf pan (we love the Pampered Chef stoneware) for 45 - 60 minutes until done. Makes one large loaf or 12 muffins.

(adapted for RBTI by removing the nuts.  If you like nuts, and have no problems with them, add them at the end--about 1 cup)