Welcome to Cooking Through the Counties, where we feature a recipe selected from one cookbook from a specific county in North Carolina. The cookbook featured here can be found in the North Carolina Cookbook Collection, part of Rare Books. This column highlights Beaufort County, and specifically a cookbook created by the Terra Ceia School in Pantego, North Carolina, in 1977.

Our recipe was submitted by Judy Hubers:

Speedy Poppy Seed Bread

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Need:

1 box yellow cake mix    1 box instant coconut cream pudding mix

4 eggs                           ¼ cup poppy seeds

½ cup vegetable oil           1 cup water

Put all ingredients in bowl and beat with mixer for 4 minutes. Put into greased and floured loaf pans. Bake 45 minutes. Very good when used with a cheese spread.

This recipe proved both straightforward and speedy, helped along with the use of my KitchenAid mixer. But folks, please read the recipe a little closer than I did on the first go – she tells you to use pans. Not one loaf pan. I was fooled by the size of the loaf pan and thought perhaps she meant the smaller loaf pans. But no. If you fill your regular loaf pan this full:

…You’ve filled it too high. This bread is not only speedy, it is also light and fluffy, almost doubling in size when baked. My first attempt resulted in one full-sized bread loaf pan and two smaller ones.

I’ve since made this recipe several times as those in my household zip through the loaves. I’ve substituted lemon pudding for the coconut and found that the lemon poppy seed pairing suits us better than the coconut flavor. Both are scrumptious when a slice is toasted and cream cheese spread on top.

-Carolyn Shankle