Sunday Scribblings and a Keeper from the Recipe Box

The Sunday Scribbling topic this week is Spicy. I love to bake, but I stay true to recipes. I guess I don't know enough about the different tastes and textures of spices to experiment much. The smell and taste of each of the spices above are familiar, but when it comes to mixing up a recipe I just follow the spices and amounts listed. Recipes that create a warm, spicy flavor are favorites of mine. Ginger can stand alone in a cookie and have a delicious flavor. Most of us have had cinnamon alone in a crisp or on toast. I like cinnamon in small doses. I like it blended with other spices, but not when it overpowers the others. Cloves reminds me of the gum we used to chew as kids. I also used to love to take off the lid of the whole cloves and smell them at Christmastime. My favorite of the four is nutmeg. I love rice pudding with nutmeg only. It gives a special taste to rhubarb custard pie. It adds a nice finish to hot drinks like eggnog and Tom and Jerry's.

I don't care for allspice and the pumpkin pie spice and apple pie spice you can buy now. The combinations don't seem right. I just go back to my traditional spices and follow the recipe.

The recipe below is one of my favorite sweet bread recipes. Combining pumpkin, chocolate, and these spices creates a delicious bread. The nutmeg is the perfect spice for the glaze. This may not sound good in early summer so tuck it away to enjoy "when the frost is on the punkin".

Pumpkin-Chip Bread
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cooked or canned pumpkin
1 cup chocolate chips
3/4 cup chopped nuts
Glaze:
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 TB milk
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

Cream together the butter and sugar, blend in the eggs. Add dry ingredients (which have been combined)- alternately with the pumpkin- beginning and ending with dry ingredients. Fold in by hand the chocolate chips and 1/2 cup nuts.
Spoon into two greased and floured 9x5x2 1/2-inch pans. Sprinkle with remaining nuts. Bake at 350 for 45-50 min. Test for doneness. Remove from oven, let cool five minutes. Remove from pans and drizzle with glaze. Best held overnight before slicing- it gives the spices a chance to set in.
Yield: 2 loaves
Freezes well also.

For other Sunday Scribblings posted using Spicy go here.