No Yeast Cardamom Bread

I am always on the "lookout," for new quick bread recipes.  I recently picked up a bottle of cardamom at the Kroger even though I had NEVER used cardamom in my life!! Being the "bread," gal that I am,  I knew I wanted to make cardamom bread, but many of the recipes out there used yeast. I do keep yeast in my pantry (but I use that for my bread machine). This bread has no yeast, but does include buttermilk. I always have plenty of regular milk, because Dominic goes through a couple of gallons a week, but I typically do not have buttermilk in the fridge. You can easily whip up your own in a matter of minutes. Do you dye eggs around Easter? then you probably have white vinegar somewhere in your pantry. To make what you need for this bread, pour a cup of milk into a small bowl and then add a tablespoon of white vinegar. Set the timer for five minutes. Yep, that's it. When I made this bread this morning, I got the homemade buttermilk going and then mixed up the rest of the ingredients. I made a loaf of this bread earlier in the week (with no icing or walnuts) and there was just one piece left this morning. I now have made this bread both plain and with vanilla icing and chopped walnuts on top (which is the "traditional," way of making it). Both ways were super duper scrumptious!

Ingredients

2 large eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/2 cup canola oil
2 1/2 cups white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cardamom
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1 cup buttermilk
  (if you don't have any, put one cup milk and
  one tablespoon of white vinegar in a bowl
  and wait five minutes)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and spray a  9 x 5 x 3 inch  loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray. Set aside. In large bowl, put the eggs and white sugar and mix well. Add the canola oil and mix well again. Next, put the flour, baking soda, cardamom, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Combine and then add the buttermilk. Mix until smooth and pour into the prepared loaf pan. Bake for 60-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean. Remove from oven, let cool on a baking rack and then remove from the pan. Top with vanilla icing and walnuts, if desired. Keeps for up to three days covered at room temperature.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

One of my dear friends, Melissa, looked at my blog recently trying to find a pumpkin cookie recipe. Finding none, I told her I would try and come up with one! I am ALWAYS up for a baking challenge, so I decided to make pumpkin snickerdoodles! My absolute favorite "trio," of spices (cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger) are in these tasty "gems!" Shortly before I headed over to a disability ministry art event at Melissa's art gallery Sunday a week ago, I whipped up a few dozen cookies, thinking there would be at least a few left over for her to enjoy later with her husband. Well, guess how many were left. ONE!!! You know what that means. Well, it actually means three things, the participants at the art event liked them, since I didn't even get a picture of my first platter of cookies, I had to make some more and I owe Melissa a platter of cookies!

 Ingredients

1 cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
3/4 cup packed pumpkin
1 large egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
3 3/4 cups white flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger

Topping

1/2 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger

In a large bowl, put the butter and white sugar and cream until smooth by hand with a large spoon or with electric mixer. Next, add the light brown sugar, pumpkin, egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well combined. Lastly, add the white flour, baking powder, salt, ground cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Mix by hand with large spoon until it turns into a soft batter. Don't over mix. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for a minimum of two hours. When ready to make, preheat oven to 375 degrees and cover a large cookie sheet with parchment paper. Roll the batter into four dozen balls the same size (a little smaller than a golf ball) and set aside. In a small bowl, put the topping ingredients - white sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger. Using a small spoon, mix until combined. Roll each ball into the sugar topping mixture, coating the entire ball. Place a dozen at a time on the cookie sheet and using the bottom of a drinking glass, first put in the sugar topping mixture and then press the ball. Bake for 12 minutes and then remove to wire rack immediately to continue to cool.  Store covered at room temperature for up to one week. Side note: parchment paper is my new favorite baking item for cookies. If a recipe calls for ungreased cookie sheets, I use parchment paper. I bought the Kroger "house," brand a while back and I still have several sheets and no "stuck" cookies!!