Cooking with Herbs/Spices

Lesson 6: Breads

Quick Breads

Quick breads are breads that are not leavened by yeast, rather usually with baking soda or powder. They don’t need kneading nor require time to rise. They tend to be denser than yeast breads and take especially well to a variety of flavorings. Quick breads can be savory – Irish soda bread, biscuits, and corn bread are classic savory quick breads. They can also be sweet, like gingerbread or banana bread. Many quick breads, to my mind, are sweet enough to be almost cakes.

If you would like to learn a lot more about quick breads, we have a great course at An Introduction to Quick Breads. The course author also recently posted the recipe for a delicious, classic Pain d’Espices, a spiced quick bread that highlights the remarkable mutual affinity of cardamom and cinnamon, see Pain d'Espices.

Quick breads are remarkably versatile. Because they do not rise before baking, they can easily incorporate various kinds of flours like rye, corn and oatmeal that can’t develop the gluten yeast breads require. They also take especially well to seasonings, including not only herbs and spices but fruits, nuts, cheese, and various sweetening agents like molasses or honey. The classic baking spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, allspice are great in quick breads. Most people have recipes for favorites like banana bread or corn bread; if not the bibliography can refer you to several sources.

I thought we’d explore one savory option that is a little less familiar but equally delicious, i.e. quick breads made with cheese and herbs. These breads make great brunch options and are also good for hors d’eourves. Or, after dinner, serve slices of the bread with a cheese and wine course.

To incorporate cheese into a quick bread there are a couple of rules of thumb. First, you do need a lot of cheese for the flavor to come out. If you don’t have enough, maximize flavor by putting the cheese on the top of the bread 10 or so minutes before the bread is baked. Secondly, use strong cheeses – for example, use extra sharp cheddar cheese rather than regular cheddar.

Cheddar cheese is one of the best cheeses to use, as it combines very well with a variety of herbs and spices, especially:

• Peppers, including paprika, hot peppers like jalapeno and cayenne, and ground black pepper
• Hot spices like ginger or mustard
• Sage
• Coriander
• Cumin
• Fennel

Other good herbal and cheese matches include:

• Basil with Mozzarella or Parmesan
• Caraway with Muenster Dill with Swiss Cheese
• Parsley with Swiss
• Muenster with hot peppers

The following recipe brings in all of the flexible elements we’ve discussed, i.e. using different flours, cheeses and herbs. It’s from the classic, The Laurel’s Kitchen Bread Book:

Cheese Muffins

• 2 tablespoons minced chives
• 2 tablespoons butter or oil
• 1 egg
• 1 ¼ cups buttermilk

• 1/2 cups grated Swiss cheese
• 1 teaspoon dill weed or parsley
• OR
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard

• 2 cups rolled oats, ground in a food processor to make a flour
• 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 teaspoons baking powder

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin or line each cup with paper liner.

In a large bowl, beat the chives, butter or oil, and egg together. Stir in the buttermilk, cheese and herb.

In a medium bowl, sift the oat flour, whole-wheat flour, salt, baking soda, and baking powder together. Add the flour mixture to the cheese mixture, stirring just until combined.

With an ice cream scoop, spoon some of the batter into each muffin cup. Bake the muffins for 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out dry.

  1  2  3  4