Home Economics, better known as Home Ec.
There were two sides to home economics back when I was in school. You either had cooking or sewing. Half the year you spent working on a "McCall's" pattern and trying to figure out how to sew it together. The other half of the year was spent in the kitchen creating, what our teacher called, Recipe of the Week.
Near the end of the term, our teacher always let us bring our own ingredients to the class so that we could make our own recipe. I'm not sure why I remember this, but I brought in the ingredients for a blueberry oatmeal bread. I remember baking it and how good it was, and that was the last time I made it.
Last week, I noticed we had some frozen blueberries and I have been wanting to make some quick breads. I decided to go in search of a blueberry oatmeal quick bread recipe. I checked out a few different sites and arrived at The Kitchn. They had a great recipe for Blueberry-Oat Quick Bread. I looked at the ingredients and it was perfect. It called for buttermilk and I had a bottle in the refrigerator and knew if I didn't use it, it would be part of my next food funeral. It had cinnamon and nutmeg which are perfect when oatmeal and blueberries are involved. Grab the bowls, it's time for a trip down memory lane.
Two cups of blueberries and four cups of buttermilk were waiting for me, so I decided to double the recipe. Two bowls and 10 minutes later, I had blueberry oatmeal bread in the oven. Half way through, the house smelled amazing. I couldn't wait to get them out of the oven.
While they were cooling, my son, Stephen, said, "How about a lemon icing on top?" I said, "How about an orange icing instead?" We agreed to an orange icing which we had together in minutes. Amazing what you can do with some confectioner's sugar and a fresh orange.
The bread was still warm when we sliced it and it was delicious, very moist and chock full of blueberries. As you can tell, even with the flour, my blueberries sank to the bottom. But, mine were frozen, fresh blueberries may do better. Stephen had two pieces and cut a third as he was heading out to his dad's house. I enjoyed mine with the remainder of my morning coffee and two slices went next door to Jeff's mom.
Not a bad morning for Home Ec 101. If you are heading to the supermarket later today, grab some buttermilk, blueberries and aluminum foil bread pans. I'm sure you have the rest of the ingredients on hand. You can make some quick bread loaves to enjoy now, and then you can freeze the rest for later...that's what I'm doing. It's nice to end the week with some homemade treats as a breakfast or mid-afternoon snack. Kick back, enjoy the afternoon and cut yourself a piece of blueberry oatmeal quick bread.
Preparation:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees -
Wash and dry -
2 cups of blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Then toss with 1/2 cup of flour so they won't sink in the bread.
In a large bowl, mix together the following dry ingredients -
3 cups of all-purpose flour
1 cup of rolled oats, old fashioned, not quick cooking
4 teaspoons of baking powder
1 teaspoon of kosher salt
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
In a second medium bowl - mix together until well blended -
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
2 cups of buttermilk
2 teaspoons of vanilla
Pour the sugar mixture into the dry ingredients and blend until
there is no dry flour present.
Add the blueberries (with the flour).
Mix until incorporated.
Place in 3 aluminum foil bread pans (or two large bread pans). I find the foil pans much easier for getting them out of the pan as well as freezing.
Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden and a toothpick comes out clean.
We frosted ours with -
1 cup of confectioner's sugar with 2+ tablespoons of orange juice and a 1/2 teaspoon of orange rind.
