Good Eating Tuesday: Basic No Yeast Batter Bread

So, I'm out of yeast and there's none to be had at the grocery right now---unless I want to order a pound online. I decided not to do that---I'm not sure I want to make that big a commitment to making bread. 

So without yeast there are 3 basic options left for leavening: baking powder, baking soda & sour dough starter.

There's recipes in Pinterest for making your own sour dough starter, which is basically home-grown yeast, but the process from scratch takes a week. Probably a little quicker if you know someone who can share some they have.

I decided I don't want to mess with that. Which leaves baking powder & baking soda.

So, today I'm trying out a quick batter bread recipe that uses a combo of baking powder and baking soda. 

This recipe mixes up quick, creating a soft batter you just scrape into a loaf pan and bake. 

I added Rosemary & garlic to mine, but we just like that flavor. 

Results: I tried cutting it for sandwiches, but found it a little dry and crumbly, though it tasted delicious. I put what was left in the fridge. It might perform better chilled.
I believe this recipes needs a bit of revision to make it more moist if you want to work on it.

Basic Quick Bread

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon sugar

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 large egg, beaten

1 cup buttermilk  (or add 1 Tablespoon  white vinegar to 1 cup milk to sour it)

1/4 cup melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F and grease or oil-spray a  9 x 5 loaf pan well.

In medium large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt.

In a separate bowl, whisk together beaten egg, buttermilk & melted butter. (If I'm souring milk with vinegar, I usually warm it in the microwave 1 minute, which helps the souring process)

Now stir the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring just enough to combine so there's no loose flour left. Run a scarper around sides of bowl.

You'll now have a glob of batter. Scrape this into your prepared loaf pan and bake 35 to 45 minutes. Check doneness by inserting a toothpick in middle and bake a few minutes more as needed.
 (My bread might've been less dry & crumbly if cooked only 35 to 40 minutes. It's not that thick. I only picked 45 min because the recipe had a longer time listed that I thought couldn't be right.)

Move to a cooling rack 15 minutes, then turn out on rack and let finish cooling. Store in a plastic bread bag in refrigerator to keep fresh and slice for use as desired.

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