Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Kitchen Tip Tuesdays



The other day when I was posting my banana bread recipe, I realized that I do several things with my quick breads that many others might not do! So I decided to share them for this week's Kitchen Tip Tuesdays over at Tammy's Recipes.

One thing I do with quick breads is make them into muffins instead of loaves. I find that making them this way accomplishes two things:
  1. The muffins bake in less time than a loaf. I can get 24 muffins made and baked in one hour! :)
  2. I can individually wrap them and stick them in my freezer and then they make a quick grab for snacks or on the go breakfast.

Another thing that I do is any fruit that I might use in the batter is put in as the last step of the recipe. I find this makes the fruit "taste" bolder in the bread once it is baked. The fruit doesn't get "lost" in the taste of the bread. Of course, if you are adding berries to the batter they don't turn to mush if you add them in last. :)

I don't like nuts of any kind! I think it is a texture issue or something. However, I have family members that do so I make the batter up and divide it so that I have some plain muffins and then add nuts to the remaining dough. To know which ones have nuts in them, I take a whole half piece of a walnut or pecan and stick it on the top of the muffin before baking. The nut ends up being stuck in the top of the muffin well enough that it makes for a good marker.

For more tips or ideas to use in the kitchen, head over Tammy's Recipes!!

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great tip! I like to make muffins better than quick bread too. I think my banana recipe calls for the bananas last too.

Candace said...

Great tips. I just have trouble getting my muffins out, or else I hate buying the liners. What do you do?

Anonymous said...

How much time do they take to bake? or do you play it by ear and check w/a toothpick?
Do you have a basic recipe you follow ? I have one that is like bisquick and I can make muffins, biscuits & pancakes with. The kids really like the muffins w/grape jelly in the middle.

Unknown said...

Thanks for the comment as well as another great tip! I am no ggod at making bread but the muffins I can handle! Just wondering.....how would I freeze muffins and how long do they last in the freezer?

Anonymous said...

I love to make muffins instead of bread too. Great tip about the fruit.
Just wanted you to know we had the Salmon cake sandwiches from Cheap, Fast, Good the other night and they were delish!
Toni