What's Baking: Rhubarb Bread

As I mentioned on Monday, I spent a few hours on Saturday trying out a few new rhubarb recipes. First up was a recipe for rhubarb bread. I have to admit I was a bit skeptical at the outset that rhubarb would work in a bread recipe; I'm not sure where my misgivings came from, but after tasting this bread, I can assure you that my fears were absolutely unfounded. The resulting bread was delicious, and given that half of the loaf was gone by Sunday afternoon, I think it's safe to say that D can also agree with that statement. In fact, we both liked the bread so much that I just picked up a few more rhubarb stalks at Whole Foods so that I can make another loaf in the very near future.

Rhubarb Bread (printer-friendly version)

makes one 9" loaf

1/2 cup organic skim milk

1 1/2 teaspoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

3/4 cup brown sugar

1/3 cup organic canola oil

1 cage-free egg

3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

3/4 cup chopped rhubarb

For the topping:

2 teaspoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 1/2 teaspoons butter, melted

1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.

2. Lightly butter a 9"x5" bread pan. Set aside.

3. In a small bowl, combine together the skim milk, lemon juice, and vanilla extract. Let set for at least 10 minutes.

4. In a medium bowl, sift together the flours, salt, and baking soda. Set aside.

5. In a large bowl, stir together the brown sugar, oil, and egg.

6. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk mixture into the sugar mixture, stirring between each addition.

7. Fold in the chopped rhubarb.

8. Spoon the batter into the prepared baking pan.

9. To make the crumb topping, stir together the brown sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, and melted butter.

10. Sprinkle the crumb topping over the batter.

11. Bake in the oven for 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out clean.

12. Cool the bread in the pan on a wire rack for five minutes, then remove the bread from the pan and let it cool completely on the wire rack.

(adapted from this recipe)