I have noticed a common theme to the second half of summer since my kids started school. Baking. Lots of baking. At the start of the summer, everyone is just excited to be out of school (well not Sammy, but that is a different matter), and excited to be doing summery things, like swimming, camp, preparing for our beach vacation, etc. But toward the end of the summer, the kids start asking to bake with me. My theory? They miss me when school starts. Maybe not as much as I miss them, but my kids and I had loads of fun together before they went off to school. We went to the park, we visited my family in Columbus, we baked together. Somehow, somewhere along the way, baking with Mommy became a symbol of all that fun (in addition of course to being fun in and of itself).
It is fun for me too, so you won’t catch me saying no!
So this is the first such baking session for this “end of summer.” I told Alex (my baking partner this time) that the recipe needed to double as the recipe I would be using for The Leftovers Club. So we swapped out the cream cheese drizzle for a streusel topping, hoping it would last in the mail better than a drizzle of any kind in the summer. We also avoided chocolate chips for the same reason, instead landing on a spiced carrot quick bread recipe from Moufflet: More Than 100 Gourmet Muffin Recipes That Rise to Any Occasion.
Be sure to check out everyone else’s awesome recipes for The Leftover Club below (linky will be added by the end of the day, August 1):
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- 1 1/2 cups AP flour fluffed, spooned and leveled
- 1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
- 3/4 t baking powder
- 3/4 t baking soda
- 1/2 t fine sea salt
- 3/4 t cinnamon cassia
- 1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 t cardamom
- 1/4 t allspice
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 t vanilla
- 3/4 cup whole fat buttermilk
- 2 eggs
- 1 packed cup finely shredded carrots I used my food processor
- 1/2 cup AP flour
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/3 cup old fashioned rolled oats
- 1/4 t cinnamon cassia
- pinch of salt
- 1/4 cup butter cut into chunks
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First make the streusel. Whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon and brown sugar. Cut the butter in, rubbing the streusel until the butter and dry ingredients have combined to look like gravel. Set aside in the fridge.
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Preheat the oven to 350 F.
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Spray 1 8X4 loaf pan and 2 mini loaf pans with nonstick spray (or you could make muffins, in which case it makes 18). Set aside.
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Whisk together the flours, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Then whisk in the brown sugar--you may need to crush some lumps of brown sugar between your fingers.
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Separately, whisk together the oil, vanilla and buttermilk. Whisk in the eggs.
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Fold the liquid ingredients into the dry. Fold in the shredded carrots--do not overmix.
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Scrape the batter into the prepared pans. Clump and then break apart to sprinkle the streusel evenly over the batter in the pans.
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Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the quick bread comes out clean or with only a few crumbs attached-- 18-20 minutes for muffins, 22-25 minutes for mini loaves, and 35-40 minutes for an 8X4 pan.
Beautiful looking bread = and lucky Lauren! Great post for the LOC!
It held up perfectly – and is delicious! Sorry that I dropped the ball on getting my post up for today, but you’ll have some goodies in the mail shortly. 🙂
Thank you! I was worried the top would get soggy. The weather really cooperated! And don’t stress about it, whenever you can is fine. 🙂
Love the idea of a carrot quick bread!!
That is such a cute and delicious looking loaf of carrot bread. Love it.
Looks wonderful!!
Yum- this looks amazing- bet your Leftovers Club partner loved it!
This looks amazing. That streusel topping is the best part. This recipe is going into my “must-try” pile, for sure!
Wow, this looks great!
It looks and sounds great! I would love to try it but I just can’t copy it into my MC, without tedious editing. Twenty-one ingredients and I would need to edit seventeen. I am sure you can sympathize. 🙂
Sorry about that. What does MC not like?
The t and c abbreviations and the squinchy fractions instead of 1/4, 1/3, etc. There’s nothing at all wrong with your style, it’s just that I need to make recipes consistent for mine. Our recipes will always say the same thing, but in different format.
Perfect bread, I’m swooning! I’ll definitely be making this with our fresh garden carrots, I can’t wait!
I got so sad when summer was almost over and I had to go back to school. I don’t think it’s possible my mom could have missed me more than I missed her. Adding streusel to this bread was an inspired idea!