Marlen's Cantaloupe Bread 3 eggs,beaten 1 c vegetable oil 2 c granulated sugar 3 t pure vanilla extract 2 cups of pureed cantalope 3 c all-purpose flour 1 t salt 1 t baking soda 3/4 t baking powder 2 t ground cinnamon 1/2 t ground ginger 1 c chopped walnuts Mix eggs, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add pureed cantaloupe to mixture. Sift dry ingredients. Add to liquid. Pour into 2 greased and floured 9x5 loaf pans. Bake 325* for 1 hour or until done. Check after 50 minutes. FRESH AUTUMN PEAR BREAD 8 TBL (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened 1 cup sugar 2 eggs, slightly beaten 1 tsp vanilla 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp salt 1 tsp baking powder 1/2 tsp baking soda 1/8 tsp nutmeg 1/4 cup buttermilk or yogurt 1 cup coarsely chopped fresh ripe pears, skin left on Preheat oven to 350°. Butter a 9" loaf pan. In a large bowl, using a mixer, cream teh butter & sugar together until light & fluffy. Add the eggs & vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda & nutmeg. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture alternately w/the buttermilk, mixing gently but thoroughly. Gently stir in the pears. Transfer the dough to the prepared pan. Bake 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.~~More Than a Tea Party PEANUT LOAF 5 TBL butter, softened 1/4 cup packed brown sugar 1 cup shelled peanuts, chopped 2 cups flour 1/2 tsp baking soda 1 tsp baking powder 1/3 tsp salt 2 TBL peanut butter 1 egg 1 cup packed brown sugar 1 cup buttermilk or sour milk Preheat oven to 350°. Grease a 9" loaf pan. Spread 3 TBL of the butter over the bottom of the pan; cover w/brown sugar & chopped peanuts. Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder & salt together. Melt the remaining 2 TBL of butter w/the peanut butter. Beat the egg until frothy & beat in the brown sugar gradually. Stir in the peanut butter mixture & the buttermilk. Mix the liquid mixture with the dry ingredients but do not beat. Pour the batter over the brown sugar topping & bake 1 hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert on a rack.~~Soup & Bread LEMON NUT BREAD 3/4 cup butter 1 1/4 cups sugar 3 eggs 2 1/2 cups flour 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 1/2 cup milk 1/3 cup fresh lemon juice 3/4 cup chopped pecans 2 tsp grated lemon zest Preheat oven to 350°. Grease & flour 9x5" loaf pan. Cream butter & sugar until light & fluffy. Blend in eggs. Combine dry ingtredients & add to creamed mixture alternating w/milk & juice, mixing well after each addition. Stir in nuts & zest. pour into loaf pan. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 20 minutes. Cool 5 minutes, remove from pan & cool completely.~~Bountiful Arbor

LOL!! Annie, I admire your determination. i like using grams because it says it on the scale, and it's a smaller unit than an ounce. Makes the math easier. :) And you're absolutely right that a recipe is an approximation. I do find that weights are more accurate to that approximation than volume, so if I'm going to do a recipe I've never made before, I'd rather one that uses weight. Both are variable, but volume is more so, unless you sift, and then it's still a little more accurate. Perhaps that's less true if you live somewhere with wildly swinging humidity, though... These last few months, I've been learning how to make breads that are very different than the ones I'm used to, with different flour and different yeast. It was probably something I should have eased into, but I just leapt into the deep end and had some "interesting" results. It's very hard to judge if the dough is off if you don't know what it's supposed to be like to begin with. That's why I advocated looking for the adjectives. They help more than anything. Right this moment, I have a loaf from a new recipe in the oven. I started off trying to follow a recipe, which meant starting a very wet rye starter. The wheels came off halfway through, when the starter started dying and I just fixed it rather than worrying about the requirements of the recipe. Then I fixed the preferment to try to get back on track, and that worked. But then I sort of went my own way with the flour choice, and started adjusting back to the recipe, but kneaded and folded in the same bowl as it rose in to cut down on wash water, which worked, but I think it was meant to absorb more flour from the bench so I sprinkled flour, but it didn't cloak well, and I needed a second pan, and then it sank, so I changed it again to a sided pan and gave it some extra rise time. And it has the best oven spring of any of these new recipes I've tried! We'll see what happens when it comes out. So, yes, listen to your instincts and do what you think you need to to get it to come out, even if what you end up with isn't the recipe you thought you were starting with!

Eileen, here is a recipe from a few years ago that someone else with the name Eileen was looking for. Posted by Eileen (ecr531@webtv.net) on Wed, Apr 11, 01 at 9:18 Hi all.... I am looking for a recipe for a yeast free bread, due to a yeast allergy. I know others have used baking soda. Can anyone help? TIA Follow-Up Postings: o RE: LOOKING for: yeast free breads? clip this post email this post what is this? see most clipped and recent clippings * Posted by Jane (jakeandjane@accesswave.ca) on Fri, Apr 13, 01 at 22:57 Eileen: Here's a bread recipe I found that uses baking soda AND baking powder. Haven't made it yet so don't know what it is like, but the reviews for it sounded OK. I got it from epicurious.com, searching under bread. (BTW, most Irish soda breads use baking soda instead of yeast.) If you want a regular-shaped loaf of bread, bake it in a loaf pan. There would probably be a slight change in the baking time so keep a close eye on it. Jane IRISH SODA BREAD - A perennial favorite on both sides of the Atlantic, this raisiny bread makes fine, fragrant toast. 4 cups bread flour 1 tablespoon double-acting baking powder 1 teaspoon salt 3/4 teaspoon baking soda 1 cup raisins or dried currants, rinsed in hot water and patted dry 1 tablespoon caraway seeds 2 cups buttermilk Into a large bowl sift together the flour, the baking powder, the salt, and the baking soda and stir in the raisins and the caraway seeds. Add the buttermilk and stir the mixture until it forms a dough. Turn the dough out onto a well-floured surface and knead it for 1 minute. Halve the dough, with floured hands shape each half into a round loaf, and transfer the loaves to a lightly greased baking sheet. Cut an X 1/4 inch deep across the tops of the loaves with a sharp knife. Bake the loaves in the middle of a preheated 350°F. oven for 45 to 55 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean. Transfer the loaves to racks and let them cool. Makes 2 loaves. Gourmet October 1991

Emily, I'm sorry you had trouble. I think that too much flour might have been the problem. I know the recipe calls for 6 cups of flour, but whenever I make any kind of bread, I always hold back at least 1 or more cups. I only add more flour if I think the mixture is too, too wet. I forgot that I kind-of ran into the same problem you're describing. Even at the five cup stage, the flour mixture seemed more like a kneading dough than a batter. So I remember (now) adding about 1/4 -1/3 cup additional water to make it more batter-like. When I got the batter into the pans, I was so worried about over-proofing the dough. I didn't want to pop the pans into a hot oven and then watch the bread deflate. So I think I could have let the dough rise in the pans longer. I'm sorry you had trouble. Forgive me for not mentioning anything. This old gray mare's brain ain't what it used to be. I need to make a note on my copy of the recipe too or else the next time I make it, who knows what I'll remember. I hope you'll try the bread again. It really did turn out well. My biggest problem right now is that my husband keeps wanting to have "toast" snacks.