TigerBill’s Kitchen

This is based on a recipe I modified from one my son originally shared with me. It’s a healthy, gluten-free bread that’s perfect with any meal or snack anytime of the day or night. And it takes only about 10 minutes from start until it’s ready to put in the oven.

The only slight downside is that it takes an hour to bake in the oven. But, if you exercise in the morning (like I do), you can workout while it’s baking, take a shower, and your breakfast will be ready. Even if you don’t do a morning workout, by the time you shower and get ready for work, your breakfast will be finished. During lunch or dinner time, your bread can be baking while you’re eating your main course.

The recipe is also flexible in that you can easily modify it into exactly what you’re looking for, whether it be a sweet but healthy dessert, a protein packed high energy snack, etc.

YIELD: 8

ACTIVE TIME: 10 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour, 10 minutes

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 cup cranberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 2 cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/3 cup coconut oil or ghee (butter can be substituted if preferred)
  • 1 cup chopped nuts
  • Optional: I find the sweetness provided by the above fruits enough but I’m not looking for a sweet dessert. If you want a sweeter dessert type bread, then I suggest adding anywhere from 1/3 to 1 cup of frozen apple juice concentrate. You’ll have to experiment to find the level of sweetness that’s right for you.

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  2. Mix the blueberries, cranberries and water in a 3-quart frying pan, and place on medium heat until the fruit begins to render down.
  3. While you’re waiting for the fruit to render, add the flour, cinnamon, and baking soda to a 1/2 gallon sized glass or stainless steel bowl. (Don’t use plastic.)
  4. Mix the above dry ingredients together with a fork.
  5. Add the nuts to the dry ingredient mix if you want them. Here’s where you can use any seeds or nuts you prefer and in any mixture adding up to 1 cup or even more, depending on how much protein you want. If you choose to use whole nuts like pecans or walnuts, chop them up before mixing them in.
  6. By this time, your fruit should be nicely rendered. Pour it into the dry ingredient bowl and mix it into a paste-like consistency. If the mixture is too dry, add additional water.
  7. Lightly grease a 9x5x3 loaf pan with butter or ghee and scoop the above mixture in.
  8. If you enjoy a crunchy top on your bread, like I do, don’t smooth the batter over. Leave little mounds across the top and they’ll bake nice and crunchy.
  9. Put your bread into your 350 degree preheated oven and set your timer for 1 hour.
  10. When time is up, allow your bread to cool outside the oven and then it will slide out easily for eating and storage.
  11. If you plan to finish your bread within a week, you can leave it out of the refrigerator. I prefer to keep mine refrigerated because I like it to toast my slices before eating.

NOTES

What makes this recipe so powerful is its versatility. With just some minor ingredients changes you can turn it from a sweet dessert into a powerful protein snack into a non-sweet bread, etc.

I suggest you follow my listed ingredients the first time around and then add additional sweetening, as you like. If you don;t like cranberries or blueberries, you can easily substitute your favorite fruits in their place. I have also used overripe bananas for a sweetener in place of frozen apple concentrate.

If you find a version of this quick bread that you really like, I’d appreciate it if you’d share it with us by posting it in a comment below.