Welcome Fall!

Cheddar Apple Bread
Originally uploaded by lasassone

First off, if you are into crazyquilting, embroidery or embellishments, I'm having a drawing on Getting To Crazy,my other blog, the link to which you will find over in the side bar.

Now back to the business at hand:

With the first hours of Autumn/Fall upon us today, I thought it would be fitting to post this recipe for Cheddar Apple Bread. I've noticed all the varieties of apples arriving in our markets in the past week or so and this looks like a great way of getting one of our fruit servings today. The picture was stuck into Mum's recipe book with her recipe, so I think this came from a magazine sometime in her 70+ years of cooking. I don't think she would have saved it if it wasn't good. If I have enough cheddar in the house, I will be making this today. Fire up the oven!

CHEDDAR APPLE BREAD

• 2-1/2 C. flour
• 3/4 C. sugar
• 2 t. baking powder
• 1/2 t. salt
• 1/2 t. cinnamon

Sift those drys! Then in your bowl, combine well:

• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 C. milk
• 1/3 C. margarine, melted

Put those reserved drys into your egg mixture, combine and then add in:

• 2 C. shredded cheddar cheese
• 1-1/2 C. peeled & chopped apples
• 3/4 C. chopped nuts (optional)

Stir well and then spoon into a well-greased and floured 9" x 5" loaf pan. Bake at 350 for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Let stand on rack for 5 min. and then remove from pan.

NOTES:

• Mum doesn't have the nuts marked as optional, but we don't do nuts at our house and I suppose many are like us. I don't think it will make a difference; if it does, I'll let you know. I may use 1/4 C. of ground nut "flour" for flavour but you wouldn't want to do that if you're allergic.
• I can't tell if she ever made this in the mini-pans, but I will probably do that, so later I can add how many little loaves it makes.

Yummmmm! Typing all that made me hungry!

Lulu's Zucchini Bread

Today I used the last large zucchini to make Mum's Zucchini Bread. This picture is a little sad, but the loaves are not very high because, even though her recipe says it makes 2 loaves, AFTER I baked it in 2 pans, I remembered that I used to just make 1 regular loaf and 1 mini-loaf. So, it's not very pretty, but it sure tastes good! It's very moist and if you look close you can see I had a bit of trouble getting one of them out of the pan. Since it is so warm here, I didn't want to turn on my oven to bake these. They were baked in my new-to-me Toastmaster Roaster Oven that G found at the flea market a couple weeks ago. Mum used to have a similar thing made by Westinghouse in the 1950's and 1960's and she passed it on to me at some point. Of course at some point over the years, I sold it I guess. In a heatwave OR for the holidays these free-standing roaster ovens really come in handy!

Lulu's Zucchini Bread

3 eggs, beaten

1 C. oil (I used Crisco Oil)

2 C. sugar

2 C. grated raw zucchini

1 T. vanilla

2 C. flour

1/4 t. baking powder

2 t. baking soda

1 t. salt

1 T. cinnamon

1 C. chopped nuts of choice

optional: 1 C. raisins

• Prepare your pans by spraying them and dusting with sugar if desired.
• Sift the dry ingredients and set aside.
• Blend eggs, oil and sugar well.
• To the egg mixture add the zucchini and vanilla
• Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wets and combine well.
• Add in the nuts and raisins if you are using them.

Pour into pans. I have made 4 mini-loaves from this recipe or 1 large loaf and 1 mini-loaf. As I recall I have also made this in a 9" x 13" cake pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 min. to 1 hour depending on your pan size. The mini-loaves will take less time. When out of the oven I let the pans sit 10 min before I tried to turn out the bread. Perhaps 15 min. would be better. OR....you could line the bottom of your pans with parchment paper. There would be no worry if you choose to bake this in a 9"x13" pan! I may do that next time.

Notes:

• You can sprinkle a little powdered sugar over the loaves or dress them up with a little homemade glaze. A quick glaze can be made by adding a little water to some canned frosting!
• I see a little note Mum made by the sugar and it appears you could cut the sugar to 1.5 C.
• Next time I make this I will try using 3/4 C. oil instead of the full cup. I might also buy some of that alternative to shorting made from fruit pulp or try it using applesauce for all or most of the oil to make this a bit more heart healthy.
• I can't eat nuts and G doesn't like raisins, so ours was plain and G-G-GREAT!

Nummmmmmmmmmm!