a little over a month ago,
while going about my business on a thing called Work,
a work much entrenched in judging resumes,
i realized that i needed to work on mine.
it had been a rather disappointing summer,
career-wise,
and rather than harp about it,
i decided to do something about it.
tl;dr; i applied for a job,
i started said job last week.
happy autumn,friends.
dark molasses pear bread
adapted from epicurious
*note: i’ve been sitting on this recipe for years, playing around with ingredients, adding and subtracting here and there, following the recipe exactly to not at all. it’s delicious with tea, or an after dinner treat.
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup + 2 TBL olive oil
1/4 cup coffee
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (actually, i don’t pack it in too hard, sweetness level up to you)
1/2 cup molasses
3 large eggs
1/4 cup grated peeled ginger, or if you’re lazy, minced as fine as you can manage
1 Bosc pear, diced
sprinkle of cocoa powder, about 1/4 – 1/2 a tsp
preheat oven to 350°F with rack in middle. grease loaf pan, set aside.
mix together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a small mixing bowl, set aside
add the coffee with olive oil, set aside.
using a stand mixer, beat the brown sugar with molasses. add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well. throw in the dry mixture until just combined. next add in the liquid with ginger.
pour into prepared loaf pan.
in bowl, add the pear pieces, sprinkle with cocoa powder. scatter the pieces over the batter. (the cocoa powder should help a little from keeping the pieces from sinking to the bottom of the pan. it works sometimes.)
bake for 35-40 minutes. cool.
serve sliced with a spot of tea.
BAM!
4 years ago: carrot bread
3 years ago: three bean chili
2 years ago: apparently i didn’t do shit.
1 year ago: lemongrass chicken & rice soup
Best of luck with the new job Lan – good on you for changing it up. The pear bread sounds interesting, a bit like a classic gingerbread with the molasses and spices, but then there’s the coffee and pear and cocoa. I will have to try this next year when autumn rolls around again.
thank you!
it is very much like a gingerbread, and the pears does its job of keeping the loaf from drying out.
Three cheers for new adventures!
i like new adventures! 🙂
congratulations on the new job!!!! molasses sounds like a good one to try esp this time of the year.
Thank you, i’m quite pleased with my new job.
Good for you on finding a new job! The loaf looks fabulous, I love the flavor of molasses.
Thank you!
i enjoy molasses very much, but while cooking with it, the smell of it can be off-putting.
Congrats on the new job! I could use a slice of that loaf on this quite cool morning.
Thanks Elizabeth. now that the temps have finally cooled, quick and easy breads like these can give such comfort to balance out the season.