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Jun 11, 2019

Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread

This cheddar bacon chive quick bread will have you doing back flips over its cheesy bacon-y goodness.


Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread

This Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread is loaded with lots of chopped bacon, a cup of cheddar cheese, and a big handful of chopped chives.

It's bacon-y, cheesy, and oniony. All kinds of goodness.

What are quick breads?


Quick breads are breads that are leavened with baking soda and/or baking powder. Essentially, they do not include yeast or sourdough, and do not require a first and second rise before baking. 

The category typically includes such breads as zucchini bread, banana bread, and soda bread. Basically, it's muffins baked in a bread pan.

The texture is more tender because you don't really develop the flour's gluten. In fact, the goal is to handle the batter as gently as possible.

Before the discovery of baking powder and baking soda, even cakes were made with yeast. Today, cakes baked with yeast are pretty rare, but some examples of old fashioned cakes using yeast include this yeasted pound cake, this apple kuchen, and this lardy cake.

Yeast (and sourdough) breads managed to survive and thrive, and quick breads became their own category. As an avid baker who bakes "slow bread" pretty much for therapy, for this I am grateful. Besides, you could never make decent pizza or crostini with baking powder or baking soda. 

Sliced Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread

This cheddar bacon chive bread is filled with cheese and bacon and is delicious sliced and served straight from the pan. 

It's also exceptionally delicious sliced, toasted, and buttered, something that never occurred to me until I took slices of this bread to work. I shared it with my colleagues who promptly popped the slices in the toaster oven, sending the aroma of toasted cheddar throughout the office. Oh man! 

As much as I love yeasty bread, this cheesy quick bread was pretty darn delicious.

Suggested substitutions for the add-ins: 

  1. For the bacon, you can substitute cooked pancetta cubes, ham, or crisped prosciutto. 
  2. If you are vegetarian, chopped sun dried tomatoes would be a great substitution for the bacon, along with basil for the chives. 
  3. To add a French flair to this bread, substitute some saucisson or jambon sec for the bacon and some Comté or Gruyère for the cheese. 
  4. For the milk in this recipe, you can substitute buttermilk. You can also dilute any leftover sour cream or yogurt you have in the fridge with some milk and add it, by volume, to the batter. 
I'd love to hear your ideas for variations on this quick bread! 

Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread Loaf

In case you're wondering about the bread pan, it's this one from USA pans. I have them in every size and luuurve them. There's something about their being made in the USA, those ridges, and the silicone coating. I've had the one in the photo for nine years (they're great for freezing ice cream too.)

This month's #BreadBakers theme, chosen by Stacy of Food Lust People Love, is quick breads. I'm looking forward to grabbing my fellow bakers' recipes for quick and easy breads. I love all of the recipe titles:
Sliced Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread Loaf


Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread


Yield: 10 servings
Author: Karen Kerr
This cheddar bacon chive quick bread will have you doing back flips over its cheesy bacon-y goodness.

ingredients:

  • 2 1/4 cups (12 ounces) all purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon baking powder
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 3 tablespoons finely sliced chives
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups milk, room temperature
  • 6 tablespoons neutral oil
  • 6 slices of bacon, cooked, drained, and chopped
  • 1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese

instructions:

How to cook Cheddar Bacon Chive Quick Bread

  1. Heat your oven to 350 degrees F and spray a 9 inch by 5 inch loaf pan with spray oil. Line the bottom and sides with a parchment sling. 
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and chives
  3. In another bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, and oil. 
  4. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix with a rubber spatula or wooden spoon until just mixed together. 
  5. Stir in the bacon and cheese until just combined. 
  6. Pour/scrape the batter into the loaf pan and smooth the top. 
  7. Bake the loaf for 40 to 45 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with just a few crumbs. If the bread is getting too brown, you can tent it with foil while baking. 
  8. Let the bread cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then remove it from the pan and cool it on a wire rack. 
quick bread, bacon, cheddar
quick breads
American
Created using The Recipes Generator


Recipe and information inspired by Baker Bettie and King Arthur Flour.

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

BreadBakers

Would you like to comment?

  1. I knew I was going to ADORE this loaf, just from the name, Karen. It does not disappoint!

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  2. Love the flavor profile of this bread and it is lovely to look at.

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  3. Beautiful texture, LOVE the flavor combination!

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    1. Thanks so much Kelly. So happy you are baking with us!

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  4. The breada texture is wonderful Karen. Love such savory breads, so easy on the breakfast table.

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    1. Thank you. It was definitely wonderful for breakfast.

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  5. Hello Karen, what a gorgeous quick bread. The colours of chives, bacon and cheese make it a beauty.It is definitely worth doing back flips with happiness!

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  6. Karen, I am not quite sure about the backflips... but I can promise you ten jumping jacks instead... looking at the crumb, though... perhaps I should work on the backflips after all...

    ;-)

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  7. Love this studded bread, looks amazing.

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  8. I made a very similar bread and it was a huge hit (I didn't add bacon though and now I'm thinking I should have haha). This loaf looks lovely!

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  9. It's been too long since I've made quick bread and I don't think I've ever made a savory one. This looks perfect!

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    1. I rarely make it too. This was a big hit.

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  10. This bread looks absolutely fantastic! So easy, even I could make it. And you know I am not a bread baker!

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  11. I love this bread! This one looks easy enough for me to try!

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  12. Karen have you ever thought of adding yeast to this recipe. Nothing wrong with it as is but I just thought it might make it lighter.

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    1. I've definitely added cheddar, bacon, and chives to lean yeasted breads and loved the results. I'm sure they would be good in a challah or brioche dough too, kind of like a casatiello. This dough probably has too much liquid to flour ratio between the milk and eggs for a decent yeasted bread.

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  13. Thanks Karen for your answer. The extra ingredients are what I thought might be good in your recipe for yeasted bread. I will try your way first.

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