I made this gluten-free quick bread for a brunch several weeks ago, and now I’ve finally found the time to write it up. This is my first foray into gluten-free baking, and it turned out surprisingly well. It seemed like a good breakfast bread alternative for those who for one reason or another have to stay clear of gluten. I can (and do!) eat as much flour as I want, but I really enjoyed this bread, too. It’s healthier than most breakfast breads since most of the sweetener comes from the fruit, with just a little bit of honey. And the nuts, while adding wonderful flavor, also mean that it will stick with you better than the normal carbohydrate only quick bread. It’s a winner all around!

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Safeway had an amazing price on mangoes this week — 4 for a dollar instead of the usual $1.50 apiece! So we came home without about 8. So far, we’ve eaten them by themselves and in mango salsa. Then I noticed we had an overripe banana sitting on the counter, and I thought I’d try to make a banana-mango bread with the last two. I hoped to base it on my mom’s recipe, which adds some spice to the traditional banana bread. However, I couldn’t find it, so I turned where I always do, to Elise at Simply Recipes, who seems to have a recipe for anything and everything. I was thinking of a somewhat Indian-inspired concept, so I used spices normally found in chai. I didn’t think the spice flavor was pronounced enough (I added 1/4 t each of ginger, cardamon, cloves, and cinnamon), so I’ve upped the ante a bit in the recipe below. I also added some chopped pistachios, as I like a bit of texture in my quick breads.

So, how did it turn out? It like it, and if I ever end up with overripe mangoes again, I’ll definitely keep it as a possibility. However, that fresh mango flavor and texture didn’t quite shine through all the breadiness as much as I wanted to. So when they’re back to $1.50 a pop, I think I’ll stick to letting the wonderful juicy goodness of raw mango drip down my chin.

Just after deciding to make this bread, I heard that Not Quite Nigella is having a Banana Bread Bake-off. So this is my entry in that event … check out what everyone else did at the roundup, to be posted on May 12.

Banana Mango Bread

adapted from Banana Bread from Simply Recipes

2 ripe mangoes, chopped
1 ripe banana
1/3 c melted butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cardamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 c slightly crushed pistachios

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mash together banana, mango, and butter. Stir in sugar, egg, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (baking soda through cinnamon). Stir dry ingredients into fruit mixture. Stir in pistachios. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes. Let cool slightly in the pan, then turn out onto rack to cool the rest of the way.

Other mango recipes:

• Mango Chutney from Simply Recipes
• Mango Shrikhand from Mango Power Girl
• Frozen Mango Lassi from Cooking With Amy
• Mango Salsa from Culinate

This is another recipe I’ve gotten from my grandmother Meme through my mom. It’s not originally her recipe, but comes from a church cookbook from Friedland, a small Moravian town outside Winston-Salem, North Carolina. The original recipe calls it a “Golden Corncake,” but I’ve always called it cornbread. Like my mom and my grandmother, I always make my cornbread in an iron skillet. We melt the butter in the skillet first, so the skillet’s hot when you add the batter and it gets a nice buttery crust.

I usually accompany cornbread with some kind of stewy, stick-to-your-bones kind of food, like chili, or in this case Jambalaya (thanks for the country ham, Mom!). It’s pretty good left over, but it’s definitely best hot out of the pan. I like to smear it with a little butter, and Matt’s taught me to make that honey butter, which is also a pretty good treat.

Cornbread

Ingredients:

3/4 c Corn meal (yellow)
1 c Flour
1/3 c Sugar
3 t Baking powder
3/4 t Salt
1 c Milk
1 Egg, well-beaten
2 T Margarine

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425 F. Mix and sift dry ingredients. Heat skillet in the oven and melt margarine in it. Add the melted margarine, milk, and egg to the dry ingredients. Pour into skillet. Bake for 20 minutes at 425 F, until golden and a little browned around the edges.

I know, it’s the new year, and everyone’s got all kinds of resolutions to exercise and eat healthier, and the last thing you need is more pictures of delicious sweet things. So, I promise this is the last of the Christmas sweets. This is a traditional yeast bread/cake often made by Moravians, usually at Christmas time, but sometimes other times of the year as well. My mom grew up in the Moravian Church, but doesn’t remember making sugar cake herself until I was little and she made it for the Candle Tea (a kind of church bazaar at Christmastime) at Raleigh Moravian Church in North Carolina. She got the recipe there from Mae Marshall.

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