For book group a couple of weeks ago, I finally got around to trying a recipe I've had in my on-deck circle for a while. It comes from the Spice Islands site, and it was just delicious—and really easy to make. I have some leftovers in the freezer and will have to let you know whether it freezes well, but I don't see why it wouldn't—most quick breads and pound cakes do.
Almond Poppy Seed Bread
Bread:
3 cups all-purpose flour
2½ cups sugar
1½ tsp salt
1½ tsp baking powder
1½ Tbsp poppy seeds
1½ cups whole milk
3 eggs
1½ tsp almond extract
1½ tsp vanilla extract
1⅓ cups vegetable oil
Glaze:
¾ cup sugar
¼ cup orange juice
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ tsp almond extract
2 Tbsp unsalted butter
For Bread:
Grease and flour two 9x5" loaf pans. Preheat oven to 350º.
Combine flour, sugar, salt, baking powder, and poppy seeds in large mixing bowl; set aside. In a separate bowl, beat together milk, eggs, almond extract, vanilla extract, and oil.
Add oil mixture to dry ingredients. Blend at medium-high speed for 1 minute. Pour batter into prepared loaf pans. Bake for 50–60 minutes, or until loaves are light brown in color and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. (Mine were pretty dark by the time the centers were done, no matter.) Put pans on a rack.
For Glaze:
Heat sugar, orange juice, vanilla extract, almond extract, and butter to boiling in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Pour glaze over hot loaves of bread, in pans. (The glaze will pool up and look like way too much—see photo—but it will eventually soak into the bread. Oh, behave!)
Cool completely in pan. Remove loaves from pans; cover and let sit overnight before serving. (Mine sat only a few hours and were still wonderful.)
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