Classic Alabama Pecan Bread #BreadBakers

This Alabama Pecan Bread is a sweet chewy treat – akin to a blondie - that is a must at potlucks and family reunions all over the southern states.

While its origins aren’t easy to pin down, the first Alabama pecan bread recipes date back to the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when commercial pecan production took off in Alabama. Hence the name.

In my own home state of Louisiana, pecan growing for profit dates back even farther to the arrival of the French who recognized the potential of the wild pecan groves regularly harvested by the indigenous peoples. Nuts are an excellent protein source.

In fact, as early as the late 1700s, the Port of New Orleans started recording the sale and export of pecans as a profitable commodity. This makes Louisiana the actual origin of the pecan as a commercial crop. 

Even before I learned this history, I always thought of Louisiana as the source of the best pecans because, growing up, my extended family grew and harvested them. Until my maternal grandmother passed away, I never had to buy pecans. She always had a few pounds, already shelled, waiting for me when I’d visit. 

Alabama Pecan Bread

Recipes for Alabama pecan bread abound and there are many variations like the addition of sweet potatoes, pumpkin, cranberries, chocolate chips, coconut, etc. but the classic recipe is exactly the same on too many websites to count! This recipe was adapted from one on Mama Sue’s Southern Kitchen. 

Ingredients

1 ½ cups or 190g flour

2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 cup or 200g sugar

1 cup or 200g dark brown sugar

4 eggs

1 cup or 240ml canola or other light oil, plus a little extra for the baking pan

2 cups, chopped, or 240g pecans

1 teaspoon vanilla

Method

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 9 x 13 in or 23 x 33cm baking dish by greasing it or line it with baking parchment.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder and salt to combine.

In another larger bowl, whisk the sugar, brown sugar, eggs and oil together well until you have a homogeneous mixture. 

Set aside a handful of the pecans for topping.

Add the flour mixture, pecans, and vanilla to the sugar/egg/oil bowl. 

Stir well to combine. 

Pour the batter into your prepared baking dish. Top with the reserved pecans.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes in your preheated oven or until done. 

Remove from the oven and leave to cool on a wire rack before cutting into squares to serve. The edges aren't pretty but they were my favorite pieces. (My husband agreed!)

Enjoy!

It’s the second Tuesday of the month, so that means it’s time for my Bread Bakers group to share their recipes. Our host, Kelly of Passion Kneaded chose nuts as our theme. Many thanks to her for the impetus to research my favorite nut, the pecan. Check out the link list below. 

• Classic Alabama Pecan Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Coconut Flour Banana Nut Bread from Passion Kneaded
• Cranberry Pecan Boule from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Easy Cinnamon Nut Loaf from A Messy Kitchen
• Maple Pecan Cinnamon Rolls from Magical Ingredients
• Mini Chocolate Almond Babka from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Nutty Miso Banana Bread from Sneha's Recipe

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page. We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil Vegetable Soup

If it’s possible for a dish to be hearty but also, somehow, light, roasted butternut squash lentil vegetable soup is it! It’s a substantial bowl of comfort, rich in nutrition and protein, not heavy, just luscious!

You’re probably going to laugh (I did when I cut it open!) but I bought this butternut squash back in February and never got around to cooking it until, I kid you not, September. But to show you the longevity and storability of a butternut, it was absolutely perfect. 

We love it simply roasted with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper but the weather had turned a little chilly on us so I was craving soup. I added the lentils to up the protein content and it was a very good decision. And since I was using the urad dal, a little curry powder seemed like it would be another good addition. And, indeed, it was.

Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil Vegetable Soup

To make this vegetarian, use vegetable stock instead of chicken. I make mine from stock cubes. For a vegan soup, also skip the yogurt to serve or use a non-dairy version. I give the weights of my vegetables below as a guideline but more or less won't affect the flavors of this lovely soup. Serves six. 

Ingredients

3 ½ oz or 100g red (masoor dal) or white (urad dal) lentils

2 tablespoons olive oil, divided

1 butternut squash - small, medium, large - all good! 

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 medium onion – about 150g

2 cloves garlic

4 small carrots – about 7 oz or 200g

New potatoes, about 8 oz or 227g 

2 teaspoons curry powder

4 cups or 946ml chicken (or vegetable) stock

Good pinch asafetida – if you have it

3 ½ oz or 100g baby spinach (I like to pinch off the stems but you can leave the leaves intact, if you prefer.)

For garnish: small handful cilantro, roughly chopped

Optional to serve: dollop plain yogurt per bowl

Method

Rinse the lentils. If you are using red lentils (masoor dal), carry on. If you are using the white ones (urad dal) they need to be soaked in water for 30 minutes. Rinse and soak, drain, then carry on.

Preheat your oven to 375°F or 190°C and prepare a baking pan by lining it with baking parchment or a silicone liner. 

Halve the butternut squash and scoop the seeds out. Cut the halves in half and put them on the prepared baking pan. Drizzle them with half the olive oil then sprinkle with fine sea salt and black pepper. 

Roast in your preheated oven for about 30 minutes or until they are fork tender. 

Set them aside to cool while you finish prepping the rest of your vegetables.

Peel and finely chop the onion and mince the garlic. 

Peel the carrots and cut them into short, bite-sized pieces.

Scrub or peel the new potatoes, as needed. I scrubbed mine then decided they needed to be peeled because they were looking a little scruffy. Sorry, no pics.

In a Dutch oven, add the remaining half of the olive oil and sauté the onion and garlic until soft. Then, add in the curry powder and give it a stir to combine. 

Add in the stock and bring it to a low boil. 

Try the peel of your butternut squash. If it’s tender enough to eat, chop the whole thing into small bits. If it’s not, scoop the flesh out and discard the peels.

Put the squash into the Dutch oven along with lentils. If you have it, add the good pinch of asafetida now. When added to cooking lentils, it's said to help with the common side effect of eating them, flatulence. I can't say if that's true or not but I do always add it, just in case! 

Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 25-30 minutes or until the lentils are cooked and tender. 

Use a hand blender or normal blender to puree the soup at little, being careful not to splash yourself with hot liquid! I like to leave some bits of squash so I don’t puree until completely smooth. 

Add in the carrots and potatoes and cook for a further 30 or so minutes, or until they are both cooked through and tender. 

Add in the baby spinach. As per the note in the ingredients, as you can see, mine are sans stems.

Stir until the spinach is heated through and thoroughly wilted.

Serve the soup with a sprinkling of chopped cilantro and a dollop of plain yogurt, if desired.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes with winter squash, sweet and savory, to celebrate the arrival of Autumn. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm. Check out the link list below. 

• Apple & Butternut Squash Salad from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Creamy Sausage, Tomato, & Squash Pasta  from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Baked Acorn Squash with Butter and Brown Sugar from Sid's Sea Palm Cooking
• Butternut Squash Cake from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gnocchi with Roasted Squash and Sausage from A Messy Kitchen
• Parmesan and Thyme Honeynut Squash from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Pumpkin-Filled Flat White Pumpkin from Culinary Cam
• Pumpkin Soup for Two from Sneha's Recipe
• Roasted Butternut Squash Lentil Vegetable Soup from Food Lust People Love

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Lentil Vegetable Soup!

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Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks - Sous Vide

Tender and flavorful, these garlic lemon tuna steaks are well-seasoned and lightly cooked to perfection, vacuum-sealed, with a precision cooker. Just slice to serve! 

This summer our lovely little island decided to award a few limited fishing licenses for bluefin tuna to local fishermen in our Channel Island waters. It was such a big deal that every time one was caught, it made the news! Write-ups in the local paper with amazing photos. Those are some massive fish!

We’d never tasted bluefin before so you know our next shopping trip to town included a stop at the fish market. I hopped out and left my husband waiting in the car – no need to park – only to pull up short when faced with closed shutters on the fish stalls. I completely forgot that the market closes early on a Thursday!

All hope was not lost though because one of their doors was still open. I knocked and called out and the wonderful fishmonger responded, coming out of his back office. Bless him, he cut me two of the nicest, freshest, reddest tuna steaks I’d ever seen! (He also gifted me with two roe sacs so I could attempt making bottarga.)

I seasoned and simply seared the bluefin steaks because we wanted to really taste the tuna. To see if it was any different from our usual yellowfin. I am here to report that it was very nice but if you had blindfolded me, I don’t think I’d have known the difference. But you know what? Now at least we can say we’ve eaten and enjoyed line-caught, Channel Island bluefin tuna! 

Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks - Sous Vide

As you can see from my list below, I used yellowfin for this particular recipe. Use whatever lovely, very fresh tuna you can buy. 

Ingredients

2 (6 oz or 170g) yellowfin tuna steaks

Fine sea salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Zest 1/2 lemon

1 clove garlic, lightly crushed

2 bay leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil

Optional to serve: Cut the ½ lemon you zested into wedges for squeezing

Method

Dry the tuna steaks with paper towels, then season them generously on all sides with salt and pepper. Chill in the refrigerator uncovered for 30 minutes. 

Meanwhile, zest your lemon with a microplane and crush the garlic. 

Set up the precision cooker. In a vessel deep enough to keep the tuna submerged, preheat the water to 110°F or 43.3°C.

Put the lemon zest, garlic, bay leaves and olive oil in a Ziploc bag that is big enough for the tuna steaks not to touch each other. (I used a quart size bag.) Make sure everything is nicely distributed. 

Add the chilled tuna steaks to the bag and gently rub them around so they are coated with the olive oil, lemon zest, bay leaves and garlic.

Close the bag until it is just open on side of the zipper and carefully submerge it in a vessel of cool water to displace the air, zipping it completely closed when all the air is out. 

When your pot of water is at the correct temperature, put the tuna bag in it and secure it to one side. I use clothes pegs for this. Set the cook timer on your precision cooker to 30 minutes. (As you can see, this photo was taken three minutes in.)

When the precision timer turns off, remove the bag from the water.

Leave the tuna steaks in the bag for another five minutes, then remove and chill before slicing. Reserve the contents of the bag for plating up.

I like to use a rolling pin to really mash the garlic inside the bag and, once the tuna is chilled and sliced, I spoon the mashed garlic, lemon zest and olive oil all down the slices. 

Or, if you prefer, you can serve it sashimi-style with soy sauce, wasabi and pickled ginger.

Enjoy!

Welcome to the 20th edition of Alphabet Challenge 2026, brought to you by the letter T. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the T recipes below:

• Butternut Squash, Thyme, Ham, & Wild Rice Soup from Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Chanya Tondak from Mayuri’s Jikoni
• Cheeseburger Tacos from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks - Sous Vide from Food Lust People Love
• Homemade Taco Seasoning from Sneha’s Recipe
• Tomatillo Salad from Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Tortilla Española from Culinary Cam
• Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili Joes from A Messy Kitchen
• Tuscan Sausage Soup from Jolene’s Recipe Journal

Here are my posts for the 2026 alphabet challenge, thus far:

A: Ají de Cerdo aka Peruvian Pork Stew

B: Baby Cos Peach Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing 

C. Traditional Cullen Skink 

D. Coconut Cream Date Caramel 

E. Edamame Summer Salad 

F. Lamb Feta Mint Patties 

G. Ricotta Gnocchi à la Poêle 

H. Hazelnut Vodka 

I. Italian Sausage Stuffed Mini Peppers - this post!

J. Jägersuppe - Hunter's Soup 

K. Easy Chicken Kapama 

L. Easy Lamb Shoulder Roast 

M. Miso Chocolate Cookies 

N. Duck Egg Narjissiya 

O. Marinated Apéro Olives

P. Bacon and Pork Patties 

Q. Baked Quail Egg XO Sauce Appetizers 

R. Roasted Stuffed Chicken Parcels 

S. Scallop Roe Bottarga 

T. Garlic Lemon Tuna Steaks - Sous Vide - this post!

To check out the Alphabet Challenges for 2024 and 2025, click here.

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