Cooking at Home with Tess: Blueberry Bread

[Music]hello everybodymy name is tess conley and i’m theactivities coordinator at the beverlycouncil on agingand today i am here to walk you throughthe steps of makingthe blueberry bread that was featured inour newsletter on page fiveso go ahead open up to your recipe andwe can get goingso the first thing that you’re gonna dowhen you’re making anything at all isget your oven hot so we’re gonna preheatour oven to 375 degreesonce that’s done we can get our panreadyso i’m using a 9×5 loaf pan but thisrecipe will also work with an8x8 square or a 9×9 square you mightjust get a thinner cakeand you’ll want to pay attention to yourcooking times first we’re going togrease and flour our panso i’m going to take a little bit ofshorteningmy pan and i’m just going to make surethat i cover every inch of itif you’re using a square cake pan youwant to be really careful and make sureyou get your corners really well or elseyourcake will stick then we’re going to takea little bit of flourand put it in and we’re going tobang it around so it covers all of yourshorteningperfect so your pan is now greased andfloured and nothing’s going to stick toitexcept for memories the next thing we’regoing to do is we’re going to make ourcrumb toppingso we are going to combine a half a cupof sugara third cup of flour a quarter cup ofbutterand half a teaspoon of cinnamon so ihave those all in the bowland i’m going to put my gloves onbecause i don’t like to have greasyhandsso we’re going to combine everything inthe bowl and we’re really going to smushour butteri’m using room temperature butter youdon’t want to melt it and you don’t wantit too cold because you really want tobe able to incorporate it into yourflour and your sugarso we’re going to mix it up until it’s acoarse sandlike texture and consistencyso it takes a couple of minutes to smellbrushi’m using room temperature butterbecause it definitely helps to blendbetter with the flour and the sugarif your butter is too cold you’ll end upgetting big chunks of butterthroughout your topping and that’s notsomething you want so we’re going tocombine our dryingredients in this bowl i have 2 cupsof flourtwo and a half teaspoons of bakingpowder and three quarter teaspoons ofsaltif you have a sifter you can put all ofyour dry ingredients over the sifter andsift them togetherif you don’t have a sifter like me youcan use a whiskor fork or a spoon really all we’retrying to do here is incorporate all ofour ingredients evenly throughout ourbatter and break up any lumps you mighthave in your flourso just give it a little mix and put itasidethe next thing we’re going to do iswe’re going to start to build our batterif you have a stand or an electric mixernow is a great time to use itif you don’t i’m going to show you howto do it it’s really easy we’re justgoing to use a whisk and a little bit ofelbow greasein this bowl i have three quarters cupsof sugar and a quarter cup of shorteningand i’m just going to combine themuntil they’re kind of a light fluffytexture and consistency and totallymixed together all rightnow that our shortening is combined withour sugar we are going to addone egg i’ve been really looking forwardto thatmix that in[Music]make sure you’re scraping down the sidesof your bowl so everything is gettingevenly incorporated into your batternow we are going to add while mixingthree quarters cups of milk[Music]all right by now your batter should belooking pretty liquidy the bestperfect that’s exactly how you want itto be and we can start to incorporateour dry ingredientsso here they are remember them oldfriendsso especially if you’re using anelectric or a stand mixer i recommendadding these in smaller batches or elseyou’re going to make a big messso i’m going to start with about half ofthe mixtureand i’m going to get the flourincorporatedyou only want to mix until it’s combinedif you over mixyou’ll develop too much gluten in yourbread and you won’t have that nice opentexture that we’re looking for it’ll bechewier that’s not what we wantnow i’m going to come in with my rubberspatula i’m going to make sure thatall of the ingredients have gone intothe mixture[Music]now that all of our dry ingredients aremixed in you should have a nicethick batter that’s going to hold upyour blueberries this is the supportsystem hereall right you’re going to take a pint ofblueberries it’s two dry cupsthey’re perfect you should always tasteone just to make sure and we’re going topour them in and gently fold theminto your batter you want to try not toburst too many opentry and keep them as full as possibleand mix them inso they’re evenly dispersed throughoutokay now that your blueberries are inthey’re ready to go into their littlehome[Music]pan[Music]now that it’s in the pan we can sprinklethe crumb topping onand you can be as light or as generouswith this as you’d like this is totallyup to youi like to put it all onbecause i love crumb topping[Music]and now the hardest part is here waitingyour bread will bake in the oven forabout 55 to 60 minutes or until atoothpickcomes out clean[Music]all right now that our bread is out ofthe oven let’s cut it open[Music]now that you know how to make this breadyou can cut a slice and enjoy it in thesunshineor you can brag about it to your friendson facebook thank you so much for takingthe time to bake with us today my nameis tess i’m the activities coordinatorat the beverly council on agingif you need anything at all feel free tocall us at 978-921-6017enjoy your baking[Music]