Polenta Pear Bread with Rosemary

 Here is a recipe for a quick bread that is versatile enough to work for a breakfast treat or as an accompaniment with dinner. I like it because it is so different from any other bread I have tasted...

What You Need:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3/4 cup polenta
• 3/4 tsp baking soda
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 cup oil (canola or other)
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
• 2 large pears, peeled, cored and chopped (any pears will work... I prefer green pears for this recipe)
• 1 tsp fresh rosemary, chopped
• 1 tsp lemon zest

What You Do:

• Preheat oven to 350
• Combine sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Using a mixer, mix on high for 1-2 minutes
• Add flour, cornmeal, baking soda and salt. Stir just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Then fold in pears, lemon zest and rosemary.
• Pour into a prepared bread pan and bake at 350 for about 1 hour 40 minutes (I think my loaf even took a bit longer) or until done.

I think next time I will try to make these as muffins because they are quite crumbly and the bread can be hard to slice.