ORCHARD FRUIT BREAD

2020  is one of those years straight out of the record books. Some records that have been set this year are not ones we ever hope to break, but there are some nice ones. One such record we set here in Kansas City last week was for breaking our record high temperature for the day in December. It was 68 degrees F. We actually had another one a few days later. Our normal high is 42 degrees F. with 25 being our normal low.

Knowing we wouldn't have any/many of those days again this year, my canasta group of friends decided to get together one last time (for 2020) in Friend Ellen's driveway wearing our masks and sitting at least 6 feet apart. It was a beautiful day; not a cloud in the sky! I had on a scoop-necked cotton knit top and a vest. When I got home I noticed I had gotten a little tan on my neck. 

Knowing it was the last time this year we would gather together (Sharon is looking into starting a zoom group for us.), I decided to bake a little something to take to everyone. Of course it was a new recipe for me, but it came out of a Famous Brand Name Gifts from the Christmas Kitchen cookbook so I figured it had to be good. 

The recipe made 1 loaf but I thought I would use my 6 - cup Bundt muffin pan and make each one of them a mini-Bundt muffin. They did look cute as they came out so nicely.

ORCHARD FRUIT BREAD

3       cups all-purpose flour or oat flour blend

2/3    cup sugar

1       teaspoon baking soda

2       eggs, beaten

1       carton (8 ounces) lemon lowfat yogurt

1/3    cup oil

1       teaspoon grated lemon peel (I used dried lemon peel)

1       can (15 ounces) lite fruit cocktail, drained

1/2    cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9 x 5 - inch loaf pan or a muffin pan. I used the muffin pan and had enough to make one mini loaf for us.

Drain the fruit cocktail.

Combine the flour, sugar, and baking soda with a whisk. Set aside.

Beat eggs and

blend with the yogurt, oil, and lemon.

Make a well in the flour mixture and 

add the egg mixture to dry ingredients along with the fruit cocktail and nuts.

Stir just enough to blend.

Spoon into loaf pan or muffin pan.

Bake 60 to 70 minutes or until the bread test done with a toothpick for the large loaf. For muffins, bake til done about 15 - 20 minutes depending on size of muffins. Let stand in pan 10 minutes before removing.

Turn out onto wire rack to cool completely.

I made a glaze with powdered sugar and some of the liquid I drained from the fruit cocktail (even though it was water, it had a fruit taste) to drizzle

over the muffins and

the mini loaf I also made with the batter.

I think homemade gifts at Christmas are more meaningful to family and friends. 

PEACH BREAD

 I found this recipe for Peach Bread on a slow day at the thrift shop. I thought I would flip through some cookbooks for sale in the book department and copied it down. I didn't write down the name of the cookbook, but I know this is what happened because the recipe was written on the back side of thrift shop calendars for the customer. It was the calendar for the month of Easter so it must have been last year because of COVID-19, I wasn't going into volunteer at that time this year. It's too bad that it took me so long to make it, because the loaves were super good! 

PEACH BREAD

2       cups sliced fresh peaches (I used fresh peach slices that I had frozen.)

3       teaspoons cinnamon

1/4    cups sugar

*     *     *

2       cups sugar

4       eggs

1       cup oil

3       cups flour

1       teaspoon salt

1       tablespoon baking powder

1/3    cup pineapple juice

1       teaspoon vanilla

1       teaspoon almond extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease five mini loaf pans and set aside. (Could make fewer larger loaves and just adjust cooking time.)

Slice peaches and mix with cinnamon and 1/4 cup sugar. Set aside.

(I combined the cinnamon and sugar together first in a small bowl.

I did decide to chop my slices after I mixed in the cinnamon and sugar.)

In a large mixing bowl, beat eggs, the 2 cups of sugar along with the oil beating until well blended.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a bowl in a smaller bowl.

Alternately add the dry ingredients (3 times) with

the pineapple juice (2 times) to the egg mixture mixing well after each addition. (Start and end with dry ingredients.)

Mix in extracts.

The peaches by this time.

Using half of the batter, put an equal amount in each pan. (Sorry I forgot to take a picture.) Divide peach mixture evenly among the pans spooning it on top of the batter. 

Pour remaining batter over the peaches, being careful to distribute it evenly.

(My large ice cream scoop worked great for dividing the batter and

"spooning" it in the pans.)

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes or until loaves test done.

Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the pans before removing to finish cooling on wire racks.

I took a loaf each to our son Patrick and his family and to Carol, Lori's mother, at Thanksgiving. I saved two loaves for us and gave the other one to Friend Fran since she was staying home on Thanksgiving. Really delicious!

BAKED APPLES

I am notorious about buying food items for a recipe and then not getting around to making the recipe. That's what happened to me recently when I bought four BIG apples because I had seen a recipe that called for two. I have been trying to write down recipes that sound fantastic and that I want to make sure I try, but ever once in a while, I don't write it down for whatever reason. That's the case with this recipe calling for two BIG apples. Wayne has asked me several times if I was going to make something with the BIG apples and I would always answer back, "Yeah, something." 

To be honest I haven't tried to find the recipe, but I did get to thinking about maybe making some baked apples in my Instant Pot. While I have eaten a baked apple, it's been a long, long time. Needless to say I have never baked any. It sounded like something that would work though in my IP. I just needed to find a recipe. 

So I did what every other person, well most anyway, do. I googled baked apples. I don't have an Instant Pot cookbook yet. Not finding any recipes for baked apples in the IP, I had to narrow down my search. Then I found two I think.  Sweetandsavorymeals.com had a good post that lead me to this post. 

I decided I wanted fresh cranberries, pecans, brown sugar, and a little cinnamon stuffed in the hole. (I want to do some using chopped dates sometimes because I love dates.) As I said earlier I have never made any baked apples before. Since I came up with my own amounts for "stuffing", I had too much for the holes I made when I cut the core out. I think next time I will cut the hole a little bigger. I do have two more apples you know and I saved the leftover stuffing mixture to use. I also thought apple juice sounded better than water for the liquid so I used that. I used 1-1/2 cups because my IP (Duo Gourmet, a Costco Exclusive 9 in 1 IP) requires a minimum of 1-1/2 cups of liquid. Seems like most IPs just require 1 cup.

You can use your favorite ingredients in your "stuffing" and sorta go by the amounts I will give to judge how much you need. The main thing I am sharing is the cooking times, etc to use for the IP. If you don't want to use an IP, you can bake them in a 350 - degree F oven for about 40 - 45 minutes. You won't have to add as much apple juice or water, in fact 1/4 cup might be enough.

Remove the brown sugar and have a No-Sugar-Added treat!

BAKED APPLES IN THE INSTANT POT

2 - 4       large apples

1-1/2      cups apple juice

2            tablespoons brown sugar

2            tablespoons chopped pecans

3            tablespoons fresh cranberries cut in half

1/4 - 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 

Cut the core out of the apples. Hole should be 1/2 to 1 inch in diameter.

Pour the apple juice in the inner pot.

Place apples on wire rack.

Combine the stuffing ingredients in a small bowl.

Stuff as much of the mixture as you can in the hole of each apple.

Lift rack with the apples and place in inner pot. Close the lid.

Press the pressure cooker (or manual) button on front of pot.

Increase the time to 7 minutes.

IP will indicate ON as pressure builds in the pot.

Then the timer will indicate 7 minutes and

the float valve will be up

and the timer will start counting down the minutes while it is cooking.

When done, allow the IP to vent for 5 minutes on NR (Natural Release) which means you do nothing.

The timer will start to count up. After 5 minutes

(or so - I got busy and it was 6 minutes before I checked it),

press vent button to QR (Quick Release) any steam still in pot. (I took my picture a little late)

When the Float Value drops, it is now safe to open the lid.

You can rest the lid by inserting lid tab into handle hole.

My apples were baked. If yours aren't cook for 2 more minutes.

Remove rack from cooker and carefully remove apples with a large spoon. 

Allow to cool a bit before enjoying.

If you are interested in other posts I have using the Instant Pot, click on the Instant Pot labels on the right side of this post if you are looking at the web version of my blog. It will open a window of the other posts.