Easy Holiday Quick Breads for Gift Giving

Holiday times are busy and often baking gifts gets delayed until the last minute. Easy holiday quick breads make excellent gifts for the bus driver, school teacher, or coworkers. By buying mini bread pans you can make several recipes and provide a variety of holiday quick breads for each person. Here are several easy recipes you can use for making your holiday quick breads this year.

Holiday Quick Breads #1: Gorilla Bread

1/2 cup butter softened

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 bananas mashed

2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup honey-roasted peanuts

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 9x5 loaf pan; mix all ingredients well and pour into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour. Allow to cool for 15 minutes before unmolding from pan. If you buy mini loaf pans, this should make three small loaves of holiday quick bread which make good holiday gifts.

Holiday Quick Breads #2: Lemon Cream Bread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 1/4 cup granulated sugar

8 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 small can evaporated milk

1/4 cup water

1/2 cup pecans, chopped

2 tablespoons grated lemon rind

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

While the ingredient may make this quick bread seem intimidating, it actually is a very easy holiday gift to prepare. Cream the butter, sugar, and cream cheese together until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating thoroughly after each one. Next mix together flour, baking powder and the salt, and add alternately with milk and water, blending well after each addition. Fold in nuts and lemon rind. Pour into a greased and floured 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan or bake in mini loaf pans or mini Bundt pans. Bake at 350 degrees F for about 1 hour or until golden brown. If you make a smaller loaf you may need to decrease the cooking time. For glaze stir sugar with lemon juice until dissolved. Drip over hot loaf. Let stand in pan for 30 minutes, and finish cooling on a wire rack.

Holiday Quick Breads #3: Delicious Pumpkin Bread

5 eggs

1 1/4 cups vegetable oil

1 15 oz can solid-pack pumpkin (not pie filling)

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

2 pkgs. (3 ounces size) cook-and-serve vanilla pudding

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground cinnamon

1/2 t. salt

In a mixing bowl, beat the eggs. Add oil and pumpkin; beat until smooth. Combine remaining ingredients in separate bowl; gradually beat into pumpkin mixture. Pour batter into two greased 8-in. x 4-in. x 2-in. loaf pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 75-80 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool on wire racks. You can also make this holiday quick bread in small loaf pans. If you use the 5-in. x 2 1/2-in. x 2-in. loaf pans you should get 5 loaves from this recipe. Baking time for the smaller loaf is 50 to 55 minutes.

Making holiday quick breads is a fun family project which results in nice gifts for the people on your gift list. Perhaps you may make a few extra loaves of these tasty holiday breads for your own enjoyment.