476. Sweet potato streusel quick bread

yippeee got it right!

        Last month Priya challenged the Home bakers Challenge group to quick breads. Carrot and zucchini, chocolate and an apple one. Chocolate and apple ones were struck off the list immediately as I have already baked those ones. So the choice was between the carrot zucchini one and the sweet potato one. Since I have not made many dishes using sweet potato I wanted to bake the sweet potato bread. Got all the ingredients ready and baked the bread. After one hour, the bread was still raw from inside. The top was beginning to brown too much. I covered with foil and lower the temperature slightly and baked it further for 15 minutes. The skewer came out clean, so I thought its all done. I let it cool for 1 hour. When I sliced it to take photos, much to my horror the texture was just too dense and it tasted as though I have steamed flour. Couldn’t even see a tiny hole in the texture. Felt so disappointed and left the bread in the kitchen and sat down to watch telly. Hubby dear knew immediately that something was wrong. He kept out of my way for a while. What was running through my mind was how am I going to rectify this problem. Couldn’t think of much. When Priya posted hers, I thought but the texture is still very dense, as she also rightly mentioned.
     What kept on niggling me was how come I was not able to bake a quick bread successfully. So going through other recipes began in earnest. I am so grateful for pinterest. I checked out the photos and checked out the recipes that appealed the most. Finally I came across one but it didn’t have the streusel on top. Finally I tried out the recipe yesterday. Kept my fingers crossed that it turns out good as I wanted to serve it today for my tea party. When I sliced it after cooling the loaf, I couldn’t stop grinning. Finally there was some good bread like texture. A bit of a victory jig and stored it away. The bread disappeared very quickly. Thank God I had saved a slice for hubby dear.
      Struesel is a crumbly crunchy dessert topping usually made from fat, flour and sugar. Some include nuts.

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Does throwing away food in the dustbin really bother you? Its really upsets me.

SWEET POTATO STREUSEL QUICK BREAD (EGGLESS)
Adapted from Chow.com
Serves 8-10

For the bread :
¾ cup plain flour (all purpose flour)
½ tsp baking soda (soda bicarbonate)
1 tbsp flax seed powder (or 1 egg)
3 tbsp water
¼ tsp baking powder
½ tsp cinnamon powder
¼ tsp nutmeg powder
½ cup (about 150 g) cooked and mashed sweet potato
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup oil
1 tsp orange zest (rind)
¼ cup fresh orange juice
¼ cup chopped walnut or pecans

For Streusel:
1 tsp soft butter
4-6 walnuts or pecans, chop them roughly
1 tbsp brown sugar

1. Bake the sweet potato in the oven, steam it, or cook it in the microwave. 
2. Mix flax seed powder and 3 tbsp water and let it soak for at least 10 -15 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
4. Grease a 9 X 3½ ” loaf tin. Dust it with flour or line it with parchment paper.
5. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg powders together into a bowl.
6. Add the chopped nuts and mix well.
7. Take another bowl. Add sugar, oil, mashed sweet potato, orange juice, orange zest and the flax seed mixture.
8. Beat the sugar mixture.
9. Add it to the flour mixture and mix till the dough is all wet.
10. Pour the batter into the prepared tin. Level out the batter gently.
11. To prepare the streusel, mix the butter, sugar and nuts.
12. Sprinkle the streusel mixture over the batter.
13. Lightly press it into the batter.
14. Bake the bread for 30 minutes or till it is done. A skewer, toothpick or fork inserted in the middle of the loaf should come out clean.
15. Let the loaf cool in the tin for 5 minutes.
16. Carefully take the loaf out of the tin and let it cool on a wire rack.
17. Serve as dessert, for breakfast or for tea.

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