Baking Day #3 ~ Cranberry Chocolate Bread

Oh the smells of orange, cinnamon and cranberry cooking in the oven, and the cool breeze coming in the house.... Is it really Fall? It's beginning to feel more and more like it!!!

Today I made 5 loaves and a cake of Cranberry Chocolate Bread. Oh and boy does it smell good right now! If a taste of the batter was any clue to what this bread will tastes like its sure to be good!

I made 4 recipes to make the 5 loaves and one cake pan full!

Cranberry Chocolate Bread

Ingredients
1/4 cup corn syrup
1/2 cup fresh orange squeezed
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 teaspoon whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick, halved
1 1/2 cups fresh cranberries (or defrosted or dried works to!)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 large eggs
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 cup chopped, toasted pecans (I used 70% Dark Chocolate Chunks instead!)
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
In a saucepan, combine the corn syrup, orange, white sugar, water, cloves, and cinnamon stick and bring to a boil. Stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the cranberries. Reduce the heat to a simmer and cook until the berries burst, about 8 minutes. Remove from the heat and let the berries cool in the liquid. Remove the cinnamon stick and cloves and discard.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease loaf pan.

In a mixer bowl, using the mixer on high speed (or using a hand mixer), cream the sugar and butter. Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy. Into a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. In a small bowl, combine the buttermilk and orange juice. Alternately add the dry ingredients and buttermilk mixture to the creamed butter, beating after the addition of each. Fold in the reserved cranberry mixture, pecans, orange zest and vanilla. Pour into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a tester comes out clean, 55 to 60 minutes.

Turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Wrap well to freeze and put in Freezer bags.
Recipe changed a bit from foodnetwork.com!

Check these out to!

Baking day #1 ~ Pumpkin Bread

Baking day #2 ~ Zucchini Bread

Have you been baking for the holiday's? Please do share!!!!

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Baking day #2 ~ Zucchini Bread

Today I made 5 loaves of this delicious bread. As usual when you bake something the house smelt so good! This recipe is very simple and good. I actually followed the EXACT recipe for once! I know not a norm for me but its a good one so why change it? :-D


I am really loving baking day and am on the search for some great recipes for items to make ahead to freeze to save money and time during the holidays!


Homemade food makes great gifts that people LOVE and they are a fast item to take to a get together so no stress involved in trying to get stuff together to take! Just take it out of the freezer and defrost, re wrap in a pretty colored saran wrap with a ribbon and you have a wonderfully packaged gift!

Here's the link to the recipe I used.

Zucchini Bread (I made 4 batches to make 5 loaves! )



Ingredients
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (I used fresh!)
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
3 large eggs
3/4 cup vegetable oil
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 medium zucchini)

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.
Stir the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. When cominbed, mix in the oats. Make a well in the center of the ingredients. Whisk the eggs, oil, and vanilla together in a small bowl and pour the mixture into the well. Combine lightly, then stir in the zucchini. Do not overmix.
Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, mounding it up in the center. Sprinkle with the turbinado sugar if you wish. Bake for 60 or 65 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack covered with a clean dish towel to prevent indentations. Let the bread cool at least 10 minutes longer before slicing. The bread can be served warm or at room temperature. It keeps well and makes good toast, too.
Variation: Brown-Sugar Carrot Bread
Replace the zucchini with 2 cups grated carrot. Because the carrots are a little starchier, reduce the oats to 3/4 cup.

To freeze wrap well with plastic and then tinfoil and put in Freezer bags and Make a note on bag what it is and date made!

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Baking day #1 ~ Pumpkin Bread

Today I made 7 loaves of pumpkin bread. Wow did the house smell GOOD!

I made it a goal to make a holiday food item, once a week or every other if it works out that way to, till the holiday season! :-) So this week I set out to make 6 loaves of pumpkin bread. And it ended up being enough for 7! So one for us at home, one for hubby's work (your welcome! haha), and 5 for the freezer.

And the great thing about all this is I can buy my items to bake ahead of time doing Walgreens, CVS, and other frugal shopping to pay for all these AWESOME goodies! It doesn't have to cost alot to have lots of special items to give away or eat during the holiday season! Stay tuned for each weeks baking day!

My niece is here staying with us for fun so she loved helping out! She already ate 2 & 1/2 slices herself LOL!

We had to put it in a bigger bowl to stir it all together! :-)

5 out 2 more in the oven.

5 ready to go into the freezer

Ready to go to hubbys work!

So good!!!

Here's the link to the recipe I used.

Pumpkin Bread (I made 4 and 1/2 batches to make 7 loaves! )

I made a few changes to it here's what I did!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 cups canned pumpkin
for the 4 1/2 recipes I used 2 bags of Chocolate chips so per recipe about
1-2 cups depending on how rich you want them!

Directions
Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift the flour, cinnamon, baking soda, baking powder, and salt together.
In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, vegetable oil, eggs, and vanilla. Combine both mixtures and fold in the pumpkin. Once the ingredients are all incorporated pour into a non- stick 9 by 5 by 3-inch loaf pan. If your pan is not non- stick coat it with butter and flour.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point a knife inserted into the middle of the loaf should come out clean. Cool for 15 minutes and turn out onto a cooling rack. Cool completely. For muffins temperature should also be 325 degrees F., but bake for 30 minutes.

To freeze wrap well with plastic and then tinfoil and put in Freezer bags and Make a note on bag what it is and date made!

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