Moist Nut Bread -- Cooking Alone, and Knowing How to Do It Well

Second week without Kezia's Saturday visits and I am adjusting to it in the way you adjust to any reconfiguration of what you expected: by naming it for what it is rather than pretending it is not happening, and then by finding what the new shape of things is. The Saturdays are quieter. That is honest. I am cooking alone more, which is also honest, and which I have done all my life and which I know how to do well. But there is a particular quality to cooking beside someone who is learning that I have been grateful for these four years, and the absence of it is its own real thing.

Kezia texted from culinary school. Short, efficient, exactly like her: the program is good, the instructors are serious, she is the only student in her cohort who has been cooking in community settings rather than restaurant settings and this is already generating conversations she finds useful. She is unusual in her group and she knows it and she is not apologizing for it. Good. Do not apologize for being formed by the right things.

Caleb is thirteen months old. He is walking everywhere now and reaching for everything above waist height and beginning to produce words with clear intentional meaning. CJ says he will stand at the refrigerator and say something that sounds like eat, which CJ translates as a complex negotiation and which I translate as: this child knows where the food is kept and what to say to the person who has access to it. He is negotiating with the right person about the right things. He is going to be fine.

I have been baking bread alone on Saturdays for most of my adult life, long before Kezia was old enough to stand beside me, and I know this particular nut bread the way you know a reliable thing: by its smell before it is done and by the weight of it when you pull it from the pan. It is not a complicated recipe, which is part of why I return to it when the week has asked a lot of me. Caleb standing at the refrigerator and saying what he needs —that image stayed with me all week, because it is the earliest form of knowing: this is where nourishment lives, and I am going to ask for it. I made this bread the same way.

Moist Nut Bread

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

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 cup whole milk
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Preheat and prepare. Heat your oven to 350°F. Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan and lightly dust with flour, tapping out any excess.
2. Combine dry ingredients. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and cinnamon until evenly mixed. Stir in the chopped nuts.
3. Mix wet ingredients. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs lightly, then whisk in the milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
4. Bring it together. Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and stir gently until just combined. Do not overmix — a few lumps are fine and will keep the bread tender.
5. Bake. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean and the top is deep golden brown.
6. Cool before slicing. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn it out onto a wire rack. Allow it to cool for at least 20 minutes before slicing so it holds together cleanly.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 265 | Protein: 5g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 33g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 185mg