Banana Apricot Bread

This was awesome!  You HAVE to make it!

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 4 tablespoons chilled butter, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
• 2 large, very ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
• 1 cup buttermilk
• 2 eggs, beaten

Directions

 

• 1Heat oven to 350° F. Lightly coat a 5-by-9-inch loaf pan with vegetable cooking spray. 
• 2Combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Using your fingertips or a pastry blender, work the butter into the dry ingredients until it looks like coarse crumbs. Mix in the pecans and apricots. Stir in the bananas, buttermilk, and eggs until well blended.
• 3Pour into pan. Bake 60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Turn onto a wire rack.
  
   
  Variations: Substitute 1/2 cup flaked coconut or any dried fruit (such as golden or brown raisins or dates) for the dried apricots.
   
  This recipe makes 1 loaf.

Zucchini Bread

this recipe is in the oven right now. so it's not rated yet, but it comes from Paula Deen. Have you ever seen her show on the Food Network? She's from somewhere deep south, and she's pretty funny b/c of it. anyway, anything she makes is extremely fattening and usually extremely good.

Zucchini Bread
Recipe courtesy Paula Deen
Show: Paula's Home Cooking
Episode: Weekend House Guest
3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3 cups sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
4 eggs, beaten
1/3 cup water
2 cups grated zucchini
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine flour, salt, nutmeg, baking soda, cinnamon and sugar. In a separate bowl, combine oil, eggs, water, zucchini and lemon juice. Mix wet ingredients into dry, add nuts and fold in. Bake in 2 standard loaf pans, sprayed with nonstick spray, for 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean. Alternately, bake in 5 mini loaf pans for about 45 minutes.



i sprinkled chocolate chips on top of one. i have troubles getting my zucchini loaves to come out of the pan whole. they always stick to the bottom of the pan. this time i put extra oil in the bottom of the pan so hopefully it will all come out.