Well hello September!! Yes I know we are already half way though the month but I feel like I’ve been “away” for ages…! I seem to function by way of the school calendar here… We have had a “fantastic” three months off!!!! I hardly mean to sound sarcastic when I say “fantastic” really… but .. truth be told… three months is slightly grueling …
I do love my cubs to bits and have no issues with holidays… the first week is great, as even we get to savour the joys of no school runs and no strict routines and constant repeating and yelling pre bedtime and post wake up time…! However that bright, sun kissed cloud bursts pretty quickly, especially when there’s 3 months of this… I’m not even going to get into all the details…! The point is we are BACK to routine now and I am in heaven… so I celebrated by making my first post summer post baking an easy yet scrumptious quick bread!!!
This is a cross between a pound cake and a loaf… it’s easy, doesn’t require any resting time and you can play around with the flavours… I added half a teaspoon of chai spice too, just to enhance the flavours of everything and I think it makes a difference to this citrus poppyseed classic combo!
You can have this as dessert, you can have this with your tea.. you can have this for breakfast… and that makes me happy 🙂
So if you’re a bread novice, start off with something familiar like this..and you’ll feel confident and pleased, and ready for the kneading and resting bit… this is a very good start… And to top it all off, the house was smelling amazing !!!
- 1 1/2 cups (195 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon lime zest
- 1 teaspooon chai-spice powder ( you can combine cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg powders too)
- 3 tablespoons poppy seeds
- 3/4 cup (170 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) demarera / brown sugar
- 3 large eggs
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup (60 ml) milk
- Pumpkin or sunflower seeds for the top and extra poppyseeds too
- Preheat oven to 180 degrees C and place the oven rack in the center of the oven.
- Butter and flour, or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray, the bottom and sides of a loaf pan (8 x 4 x 2 1/2 inch) (20 x 10 x 7 cm). If you don’t have one you can always used a square or round pan, that’s fine.
- In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, lemon zest, lime zest, chai spice powder and poppy seeds .
- In the bowl of your electric mixer, or with a hand mixer, beat the butter until softened . Add the sugar and continue to beat until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed. Beat in the vanilla extract. With the mixer on low, add the flour mixture (in three additions) and milk (in two additions) alternately, starting and ending with the flour. Mix only until combined.
- Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon or an offset spatula. Top with pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds and some poppyseeds. Bake for about 40-50 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Mine took 40 minutes but as we know, oven temperatures vary, so check after 35/40 minutes.
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