Daring Bakers' February Challenge - Quick breads

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lis stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I’ve been feeling under the weather these past couple of weeks. Nothing serious at all, but one of the consequences is that I have been completely uninterested in food. I’ve been completely absent from the kitchen, picking at my dinner plate in spite of Laurent’s efforts to make me something I would enjoy, and generally not being myself. It’s finally starting to get better, though – just in time for this month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge!

It helped that quick breads are really easy to make. They are breads which require no yeast, and rise in the oven thanks to baking powder and baking soda. Our hostess, Lis, had to put this challenge together at the last minute, but she managed to find a bunch of fun recipes. However, in my convalescent state, I was not in the mood for anything adventurous. Normally, I would have gone straight for the cheddar, green onions and asagio beer batter bread, but the thought of beer and cheese somehow turned my stomach under the circumstances.

So, once again, I turned to my old friend chocolate. Even when I’m feeling sick, I still love it.

Back when I was a teenager living with my parents, we would often visit Pâtisserie de Gascogne, a local bakery. They had the most delicious pastries… One of my favourite treats was a slice of moist chocolate quick bread, so rich with cocoa flavour it was almost overpowering.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite able to recreate it. The recipe I followed wasn’t nearly heavy enough on the chocolate. But drizzling it with syrup kept it nice and moist, and it was still a very acceptable treat. Only problem is, I forgot to take a picture until it was already half-eaten. Oh well, you get the idea.

Thank you Lis, for putting together this challenge under pressure! Please check out the Daring Kitchen for the challenge recipes, and look at g to see what everyone else whipped up this month!