Almond Poppy Seed Bread

First week of December. Snow on Tuesday — about an inch, gone by Wednesday afternoon, but enough to give the property the first white day of the year. The cottonwoods are bare and the snow on the empty branches against the gray sky is one of the views I keep on this property. I sat on the porch Wednesday morning with coffee and watched the snow stay and then start to melt, and I thought about Danny — Danny who did not get to see this property because he died sixteen years before I bought it, but who would have looked at this view and known what it meant. Some views you inherit. Some you earn. Some you build. This is all three.

The Christmas list is on the fridge. Hannah does the planning. The shopping list, the cooking list, the gift list. I do the wood and the kitchen and the porch heat and the meat. The division of labor is so old I don't remember when it started. It just is.

Made bread Tuesday — the regular sourdough I keep going year-round. The starter is ten years old. Hannah named it Maeve when we got it from a friend in 2036, after the friend's grandmother who'd kept the same starter for fifty years. Maeve is now ours, and she lives in a glass jar in the back of the fridge and gets fed once a week and produces good bread. Two loaves Tuesday. One we ate fresh with butter and salt for dinner. The other we sliced and froze for Christmas morning toast.

The cohort is at semester's end. Final projects this week — each student has been working on a personal weld project that demonstrates the techniques we've covered. David made a fire poker for his wife, with a hammered handle and a steel ring grip. The granddaughter from cohort two's grandfather made a small steel sculpture of a bear, simple and abstract, which she gave to me at the end of class Friday. She said: I want you to have it. I said: it's your project. She said: you helped make it. I have it on the workshop windowsill now. The bear faces the door.

Caleb Saturday — last of the regular Saturdays before Christmas. He'll be back Sunday for Christmas anyway but we said our season-end Saturday yesterday. He brought a third casserole — beef and noodles and mushrooms — and he'd brought it in a glass dish this time instead of foil because he said he was tired of the disposable thing and was investing in real bakeware. I said: that's the move. He said: I want to start hosting people, eventually. I said: do. He said: not yet. But eventually. I said: when you're ready, you'll do it well.

The second sourdough loaf — the one we sliced and froze for Christmas morning — is really the one this story is about. Not the one we ate warm with butter and salt, though that one was good too. The one we set aside. The one that says: someone is coming, and I want to be ready, and I want what they eat to be something I made with intention. That’s why this almond poppy seed bread felt right. It’s the kind of loaf you bake a day or two early, wrap well, and bring out when the morning calls for it — the way Caleb brings a casserole in a real glass dish now, because he’s thinking ahead, because he’s starting to invest in the doing of it.

Prep Time: 15 min | Cook Time: 55 min | Total Time: 1 hr 10 min | Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
2 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

Preheat and prepare. Heat oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and set aside.
Mix dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and poppy seeds until evenly combined.
Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, whisk together eggs, vegetable oil, milk, sour cream, almond extract, and vanilla extract until smooth.
Combine. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined — do not overmix. A few small lumps are fine.
Bake. Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 50–55 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is golden.
Cool. Let the loaf cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing. For best results, wrap tightly and rest overnight before serving.

Nutrition (per serving)

Almond Poppy Seed Bread — Baked for the Mornings That Matter