A quick bread is a type of bread which is leavened with chemical leaveners such as baking powder, sodium bicarbonate, or cream of tartar. Unlike yeast breads which often take hours to rise and can vary greatly based on external factors such as temperature, breads made with chemical leaveners are relatively uniform, reliable, and quick. Quick breads are broadly understood as including many cakes, as well as banana bread, beer bread, cornbread, biscuits, muffins, pancakes, scones, and soda bread.
Almost all quick breads have only five basic ingredients: flour, baking powder (and/or baking soda), eggs, fat (butter, margarine, shortening, or oil), and milk (or another liquid). Everything beyond these basic ingredients is for variation in flavor and texture. The type of bread produced is variable based predominantly on the method of mixing, the major flavoring, and the ratio of liquid in the batter. Some batters will be thin enough to pour, and others will be thick and consequently be dropped.
There are three basic methods for making quick breads: the quick-bread method, the creaming method, and the biscuit method. These three methods combine the rise of the chemical leavener with advantageous lift from other ingredients. Aside from mixing methods, quick breads also vary widely in the consistency of their dough or batter. There are three main types of quick bread batter: pour batter, drop batter, and stiff dough. Pour batters have a dry:liquid ratio of 1:1 and is the most moist type of quick bread batter. Drop batters have a dry:liquid ratio of 3:1. Stiff dough, being the stiffest, has a ratio of about 7:1.
You can find authentic Kosher Quick Bread on many Kosher Restaurants in Los Angeles.
