Quick Breads : Green Chutney Loaf (Daring Bakers' Challenge)

Yay my first Daring Bakers Challenge!! I registered for their challenge last month and was waiting ( not literally holding my breath but very very impatiently) for the 1st of February to receive my first bake challenge. I was thrilled to see "Quick Breads"!

The Daring Bakers’ February 2012 host was – Lis! Lisa stepped in last minute and challenged us to create a quick bread we could call our own. She supplied us with a base recipe and shared some recipes she loves from various websites and encouraged us to build upon them and create new flavor profiles.

I make quick breads every so often, and the challenge announcement encouraged me to go one step further and experiment. And boy did I have fun ? I was on a roll the whole month. I took Lis's basic quick bread recipe and played with it to make this : Green Chutney Loaf (plus I made a banana bread, fig bread, doughnut muffins and popovers....phew! I have been busy).

Quick Bread is an American term used to denote a type of bread which is leavened with leavening agents other than yeast. Quick breads includes many cakes, brownies and cookies, as well as banana bread, beer bread, cornbread, biscuits, muffins, pancakes, scones and soda breads.



Now I'll share all the versions made by me, in the weeks to come, but lets start with Green Chutney as it's one of my favourite flavours.

Green Chutney Loaf:
Ingredients:
2 cups (220 grams) all purpose flour
3 teaspoon (15 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams) baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoon (7.5 grams) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 grams) salt
1 egg
1/4 cup (60ml) olive oil (can use any vegetable oil)
2 tablespoon (40 grams) melted and cooled butter (for pouring over the loaf)

For Green Chutney:
2/3 cup (160 ml) curd/yogurt
1 green chilli (add more if you like it spicy and hot)
1 inch ginger
2 garlic cloves

 1/2 cup (40 grams) fresh coriander or cilantro, chopped
1/3 cup (80 ml) water

Method:
Preheat oven to 180 degree Celsius and place rack in the middle position. Butter and line the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
Put all the ingredients of your green chutney in your mixer or food processor and process it for about 4-5 minutes till you get a smooth paste. Add lightly beaten egg and oil to it and mix well. Set aside.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Make a well in the center of the mixture. Pour the green chutney mix in the well made in the dry ingredients. Just mix till the dry ingredients get wet. Pour the batter in the prepared loaf pan. Pour 1 tablespoon melted butter on it and bake for 30 minutes. Brush again with 1 tablespoon of melted butter and bake for another 10-15 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes in pan on a wire rack, remove from the pan. Cool completely on wire rack.