Goat Cheese Black Pepper Quick Bread | Baking with Dorie

It’s the season first when I harvest the fresh crop of mint from my perennial herb patch amid the drizzling misty spring rain. Mint is the last ingredient in the goat cheese black pepper quick bread recipe. I’m so stoked to stumble upon and take advantage of the home-grown mint, the grey sky not withstanding. There is not a chance I won’t like the goat cheese quick bread with fresh mint from my backyard, a forgotten place throughout the winter.

It helps that this recipe is so simple to execute. First, assemble the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt and pepper. Whisk together the wet ingredients: eggs, milk, olive oil, honey and lemon zest. Using a flexible spatula, stir together lightly the wet and the dry ingredients. Then add the chunks of goat cheese and the chopped mint, using as few strokes as possible. Dorie says: it’s better to be fast than thorough here. Transfer the batter into an 8- to 8 1/2-inch loaf pan. Bake at 350°F for 34 to 38 minutes.

One thing I notice from the recent recipes from Baking with Dorie, such as the breakfast-in-Rome lemon cake, olive oil is the ingredient of choice, not butter. (Besides, there is no sugar either.) That makes me happy being in synch with a healthful approach of a Mediterranean diet.