Dean Razavi's Guest Post - Break Bread

I'll be honest, baking has never been my forte. Bread matters get complicated when I see “yeast” listed anywhere in the ingredients. So when I found a recipe for Orange Quick Bread that involved no yeast, and took about an hour from start to cooling-on-a-rack, I immediately had to try it. Except that I didn't have orange marmalade.
Without further ado, I give you Apricot Quick Bread!

Step 1: Mix 3 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon baking powder, and 1 teaspoon of salt in a bowl

Step 2: Over low heat, in a small sauce pan melt 4 tablespoons of butter into 1 cup of milk

Step 3: Once the butter is melted, stir in 1/3 cup of apricot marmalade (but really, any jam, preserver, marmalade, or other fruit spread you have on hand will do!) until the marmalade is broken up.

Step 4: Let the butter, milk, and marmalade mixture cool. Once it has, add 1 teaspoon of lemon juice

Step 5: Combine wet and dry ingredients until you have a dough

Step 6: Bake in a cooking-sprayed loaf pan (mine was 8 x 6) in a 350-degree oven for 40 minutes

And that's it. The prep for this is a whopping twenty minutes of work, and most of that is waiting for your mixture to cool to add the lemon juice. I went to the kitchen at 8:40 pm and had the loaf in the oven in time for True Blood.

Noticeably absent from the ingredient list? Sugar. Look, this may have a fruit in the name. This may, on paper, sound sweet. But make no mistake ladies and gentlemen. This is bread. This ain't pastry, this ain't dessert. And this ain't sweet. Spread some butter on it, or use it to make a turkey sandwich, or toast it with some (more) marmalade on top for breakfast. Don't expect to eat it on its own and have a revelation. Do expect a tasty, fast loaf of bread.

- D