All Things Walker: Almond Poppyseed Bread

How is everyone doing the day after Halloween? We had ZERO trick or treaters so it was an early night for us. The extra sleep was nice but still made me a little sad.

I got some bread pans for my birthday from my sisters and ever since then I have been looking for good bread recipes to try. I had never made bread before so this was going to be an experiment (as most things in our house are). Let me tell you, this experiment was DEFINITELY a success. This bread was SO good, we ate both loaves in about 2 days. :) I found the recipe here. This recipe is REALLY easy to make and is awesome!!

Ingredients:
-Crisco
-Extra Flour

Bread:

3 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp baking powder

3 eggs

1 1/8 cups vegetable oil

2 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/2 cups milk

1 1/2 T. poppy seeds

1 1/2 tsp almond extract

1 1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp melted butter

Glaze:

1/4 cup orange juice

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp almond extract

1/2 tsp vanilla

1 1/2 tsp melted butter

To start out, preheat your oven to 350. While the oven is preheating, you need to grease your bread pans (I used two large pans). This is done by rubbing a paper towel in Crisco and rubbing it all over the pan and then coating the Crisco in flour. Below is a picture of the Crisco on the pan, before the flour coating.

Next, mix all your bread ingredients together in a large bowl and pour into your bread pans. Here is what it should look like (and you can see some of the flour coating)

Cook your bread pans in the oven for 45-60 minutes. If you used dark pans like I did, you want to start checking your bread at 45 minutes to make sure it doesn't over cook. Your bread will be done when it is golden brown, and when a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Here is a picture:

When you start checking your loaves at 45 minutes, it is time to start the glaze cooking. In a small sauce pan, combine all your glaze ingredients and heat over medium heat until the sugar is dissolved (when you can't see anymore sugar granules in the glaze mixture). Once your glaze is done, remove your bread from their pans and pour the glaze over them (while they are still hot). I used a plate for this and it seemed to work well. The glaze will fall off the bread, so use a spoon to scoop up the extra and pour it back on top and on the sides until it is all gone. The goal is to have the whole loaf coated. Here is a picture of mine: