Amish Oatmeal Date Bread

I baked this Amish Oatmeal Date Bread I found over on another blog and was so shocked with the results. I had never tried dates before but recently bought a bag on an impulse to make myself try them. I don't know if it was the dates that made this bread, but it was fantastic. I really mean this too - I ate almost the entire thing within 24 hours. I had to give some of it away to my mom so I would stop! I modified it a bit from the recipe I came across originally based on what I had at home.



Try it!!



Ingredients:

1 ½ cups skim milk
1 cup Quaker old-fashioned oats
1 cup chopped pitted dates
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons salt
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 egg


Bring milk almost to simmer. Place oats and dates in large mixing bowl and add milk. Set aside to cool to room temperature.
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. When oat mixture is cool, beat in egg. Stir in dry ingredients, mixing well.
Pour batter into a buttered 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until top is crusty and golden. Cool before slicing.

Zucchini Bread

I picked up a monster of a zucchini from a farmer's cart the other day outside of my work. It sat in my fridge for days, during which it was constantly coming up in my thoughts. It's been sort of like this.

Zucchini: "Why haven't you eaten me yet??"

Me: "I'm too busy!!"

Zucchini: "I'm going to go bad soon, and you're going to be wasteful!"

Me: "Aaaaaagh!!"

I hate wasting food, and I think I hate eating bad-for-you foods even more. But I had to get this Zucchini out of my fridge so I pulled up an old recipe card of my grandmother's. This is not the same grandmother who loved to cook, this one is still alive and kicking in a nursing home out in MI. I don't have too many of her recipes, and this was a new one for me. It was actually really good. Probably because of the two cups of sugar that went into it :) I didn't do the two loaves, I did three of the mini loaves and a bunch of mini muffins. I'm not sure that the batter really is enough for two loaves, but I'll update next time I try it.

Anyways.. I'll post now!



Grandma Dz's Zucchini Bread

Ingredients:

3 eggs
2 cups sugar
1 cup oil
2 cups grated zucchini
½ tsp vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tbsp cinnamon
½ cup nuts
½ cup raisins (I subbed for chocolate chips)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Combine sugar, zucchini, flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder and cinnamon in large mixing bowl. Add eggs, oil and vanilla, blending all ingredients together. Stir in nuts and raisins/choc chips. Pour batter into two 9x5x2 loaf pans and bake for about an hour.

Yields: 2 loaves