Baking Time- Almond Bread

We do a lot of baking in our house, especially around the holidays.  Cookies, breads and more cookies -many to share and many to eat.  Baking together is lots of fun and the stories from when we were younger are often retold in the kitchen over bowls of dough and piles of cookies being frosted.  Here is a favorite recipe of mine- Almond Bread.  Breads are so easy to make and freeze and I love having them on hand.

I am a big fan of vintage Pyrex for baking.



 

The old glass pans bake very evenly and with a little shortening used to prepare them, I never have trouble getting the bread out of the pan.



Easy Almond Bread

4 T. butter softened
2 eggs
1 container of vanilla yogurt- 6 oz. size
1 cup sour cream
2 t. almond extract
4 cups flour
2 t. baking powder
1 t. baking soda
1 t. salt
1/2  cup chopped almonds

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 2 large or 4 small loaf pans.

Combine butter, eggs, yogurt, almond extract and sour cream and mix well.
Add remaining dry ingredients and combine until just moistened.
Pour batter into pans.   Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the middle comes out clean.  Cool on rack before turning out of the pan.

This recipe has quite a bit of room for playing.  When I first used this it was a lemon poppy seed bread and I have changed it up quite often.  If I have only a flavored yogurt I go with that flavor and add what nuts, dried fruits or extracts will work well with it.  Sometimes I use white flour, sometimes I do half whole wheat and half white.   If I don't have sour cream I will use all yogurt and perhaps and extra tsp of butter.   I will often sprinkle sugar over the top before baking or make a simple powdered sugar glaze and drizzle that over after they are out of the pan.  Have fun with this and make it your own- just don't stray too far with the basic ingredients or I can't be held responsible for the results !

Stay tuned to the recently neglected blog,  I plan to do quite a bit of posting as we progress through the ridiculous number of holiday cookies that we traditionally bake!