Poppy Seed Bread

Buttery, almond-flavored bread, studded with poppy seeds and topped with a sweet crusty glaze... what's not to like?

I was intrigued by it as soon as it popped up on Pinterest.  Plus I made the mistake of buying a giant container of poppy seeds once.  I think I have only made a couple recipes with them, but really I don't see why, because even though they get stuck in your teeth, they're awesome little guys.

This recipe makes two loaves of bread, which I was a little nervous about because we don't always eat tons of baked goods in my house, but I needn't have worried.  One entire loaf was gone by the next morning!  I will confess to cutting slices of it long after you would have expected it to be totally stale; it lasted longer than I thought it would; maybe the glaze locked the moisture inside?

The weird thing about the recipe is that it calls for almond extract, vanilla extract, and butter extract.  No idea what butter extract is, but I don't know why anyone would use fake butter when you cam just melt the real deal and use that instead.  That's what I did.

Oh and did I mention how easy this bread is?  Here are the instructions: mix all ingredients together.  I so love it when recipes say that.  It really gives you no excuse not to make it.

One last note - don't skip the glaze.  Besides my hunch that it keeps the bread fresh longer, it adds such a great texture contrast with that great crunch, not to mention the fact that it tastes great.  It's made with more of the 3 extracts, sugar, and orange juice.  Amazing.

Recipe:

poppy seed bread
from The Girl Who Ate Everything
makes 2 loaves

Ingredients:
for bread:
3 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
3 eggs
1 1/8 cups cooking oil
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups milk
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoon butter flavor extract (or melted butter)

for glaze:
1/4 cup orange juice
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon butter flavor extract (or melted butter)

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour 2 large loaf pans, or 6 small loaf pans.

2) Mix all of the bread ingredients together.  Pour into pans.  Bake for 50 - 60 minutes for large loaf pans and less for smaller pans.

3) For the glaze, pour all ingredients into a small saucepan and let cook on stove on medium heat until sugar dissolves.  Remove bread from pans and pour glaze over warm bread.  Use knife or spatula to bring the glaze that has run off up and over the warm bread until it stays on.