Eggnog Quick Bread

It seems every January I find myself staring at a half empty carton of eggnog. We buy it throughout the holiday season, but after Christmas it just sits there. Sad. Ignored. Forgotten.

Inevitably I end up pouring it down the drain, hurting it's pride. Not this year. Thus my hunt for, and modification of, a great quick bread recipe.

Now this is a bread in the way a cake could be called a bread if it was baked in a bread pan. It is sweet, made my house smell divine, and went wonderfully with a cup of coffee.

Eggnog Quick Bread adapted from Allrecipes

2 beaten eggs
1 1/2 cups eggnog
2 teaspoons of rum
3/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla (be generous)
1/4 cup applesauce
1/4 cup butter, softened
2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon nutmeg

Begin by creaming sugar, applesauce, and butter.

The mixture will look a little different because of the applesauce, but this is ok.

Next, lightly beat 2 eggs.

Add eggs, eggnog, and vanilla to the butter/applesauce/sugar mix.

Now, here comes the part where you have a choice. The original recipe called for rum extract. At my local grocery store rum extract was $6 for a small bottle. Paying that much for a few tablespoons kinda defeated the purpose of this bread (a quick way to use up what I have). I chose to instead use some rum I had on hand.

Don't be scared. The alcohol cooks out during the baking process. But if you are super worried you can always fork over the cash for the "extract". Your call.

Add the rum to the wet mix and stir. Then sift together your flour, baking powder, salt, and nutmeg.

Slowly incorporate your dry mix into your wet mix, until just moistened.

Pour that delicious smelling concoction into a lightly greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50-65 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Mine took 65 minutes, and then this was what I had:

Yum! Allow to cool for 10 minutes, before turning out onto a baking rack to finish cooling.

Once cool, slice up and enjoy with a fresh brewed cup of coffee in a monkey mug. Oh, you don't have a monkey mug? So sad. This eggnog quick bread will be delicious regardless.

Enjoy!