{"id":174800,"date":"2025-04-07T03:10:13","date_gmt":"2025-04-07T03:10:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/recipes\/category-a-b\/bread\/feeding-my-enthusiasms-gifts-from-the-kitchen\/"},"modified":"2025-04-07T03:10:13","modified_gmt":"2025-04-07T03:10:13","slug":"feeding-my-enthusiasms-gifts-from-the-kitchen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=174800","title":{"rendered":"Feeding My Enthusiasms: Gifts from the Kitchen"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n
<\/a><\/div>\n

One of the satisfying things about baking is that you know that you can make delicious treats to give away to family, friends and neighbors. This is especially true at Christmas time because home made goodies are usually far better than the overpriced cookies and sweet breads that you are encouraged to buy for Christmas gifts.<\/p>\n

This year some of the things that I had hoped to make and bake ahead of time were scotched by a week in bed with a winter cold\/flu. Fortunately\u00a0 I was able to bake some sweet tea breads for our neighbors. There won’t be any photos of sliced breads, but I do have one of them wrapped up ready to gift.<\/p>\n

The breads I baked included three small loaves of Tea Brack<\/a> with warm spices, raisins and candied orange and lemon, a large and a small loaf of cranberry orange walnut bread, and a large and small loaf of cherry chocolate pecan bread.<\/p>\n

There is a link to the tea brack bread (above) and below are the recipes for the other two kinds. Truthfully, for the two breads below you can mix and match the dried fruit and the nuts used as long as you keep the proportions and keep the same measurements of the other ingredients. I’ve made it with apricots and pecans<\/a>, too, and that was delicious as well.<\/p>\n

Happy baking and Happy Holidays!<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n

Cranberry Orange Walnut Loaf<\/b><\/p>\n

a variation of a recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s marvelous\u00a0<\/span>Baking: From my home to yours<\/i><\/p>\n

2 cups all-purpose flour<\/span>
2 teaspoons baking powder<\/span>
1\/4 teaspoon salt<\/span>
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature<\/span>
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature<\/span>
3\/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar<\/span>
4 large eggs<\/span>
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract<\/span>
1 cup dried cranberries, dusted with a bit of flour\u00a0
<\/span>1 teaspoon freshly grated orange zest
<\/span>1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts<\/span><\/p>\n


Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked on on top of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Working with a stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. You can do the same thing using a hand mixer and a large bowl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, another 3 minutes or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. The batter may look curdled (mine did), but don’t worry, it will come together after you add the flour mixture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the flour mixture, mixing only until they are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the cranberries, orange zest and walnuts. (This step is important. Folding in the fruit and nuts makes for a lighter loaf than adding them with the mixer would.) Turn the batter into the pan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bake for 40 minutes. Cover the top of the loaf loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 40 minutes or so (total baking time about 1 hour, 20 minutes), until the top is honey brown, bumpy and cracked and a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.\u00a0<\/span>(Since I used one 8 x 4-inch pan and one very small pan, it took about an hour for the larger pan and 40 minutes for the smaller pan.)\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0Transfer the pan to a rack and cool about 10 minutes before turning the loaf out of the pan, then cool to room<\/span>\u00a0temperature right side up on the rack.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cherry Chocolate Pecan Loaf<\/b><\/p>\n

a variation of a recipe in Dorie Greenspan’s marvelous\u00a0<\/span>Baking: From my home to yours<\/i><\/p>\n

2 cups all-purpose flour<\/span>
2 teaspoons baking powder<\/span>
1\/4 teaspoon salt<\/span>
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature<\/span>
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature<\/span>
3\/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar<\/span>
4 large eggs<\/span>
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
<\/span>1\/4 teaspoon almond extract<\/span>
1 cup dried cherries (chopped if very large), dusted with a bit of flour\u00a0
<\/span>1\/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips or chunks
<\/span>1 cup coarsely chopped pecans<\/span><\/p>\n


Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked on on top of the other.<\/span><\/p>\n

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.<\/span><\/p>\n

Working with a stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes. You can do the same thing using a hand mixer and a large bowl.<\/span><\/p>\n

Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, another 3 minutes or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla and almond extract. The batter may look curdled (mine did), but don’t worry, it will come together after you add the flour mixture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the flour mixture, mixing only until they are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the dried cherries, chocolate chips or chunks and pecans. (This step is important. Folding in the fruit and nuts makes for a lighter loaf than adding them with the mixer would.) Turn the batter into the pan.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bake for 40 minutes. Cover the top of the loaf loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 40 minutes or so (total baking time about 1 hour, 20 minutes), until the top is honey brown, bumpy and cracked and a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Since I used one 8 x 4-inch pan and one very small pan, it took about an hour for the larger pan and 40 minutes for the smaller pan.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool about 10 minutes before turning the loaf out of the pan, then cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the satisfying things about baking is that you know that you can make delicious treats to give away to family, friends and neighbors. This is especially true at Christmas time because home made goodies are usually far better than the overpriced cookies and sweet breads that you are encouraged to buy for Christmas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":174801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[139],"tags":[53865,21736,468,1114],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-174800","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bread","tag-enthusiasms","tag-feeding","tag-gifts","tag-kitchen"],"yoast_head":"\nFeeding My Enthusiasms: Gifts from the Kitchen - Som2ny Network<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=174800\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Feeding My Enthusiasms: Gifts from the Kitchen - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One of the satisfying things about baking is that you know that you can make delicious treats to give away to family, friends and neighbors. 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