Sweet Almond Bread

The holidays are officially in full swing and that means I am spending way more time in my kitchen!  This past weekend for Thanksgiving I was busy making homemade bolognese pasta sauce, tiramisu cupcakes, pumpkin pie, and pumpkin cheesecake to take to two Thanksgiving dinners.  Before all of this craziness, I managed to find some time to make some sweet almond bread and it was AWESOME!!!  The bread was moist and dense and was the perfect pairing with my morning coffee.

Ingredients
2/3 cup sugar
7 oz almond paste
2 tbsp butter, softened
2 tbsp veggie oil
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cup flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup and 1 tbsp milk
1/4 cup sliced almonds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  In a food processor, combine the sugar and almond paste and pulse until it forms a sandy mixture.  In a large bowl mix together the sugar and almond paste mixture with the butter, and veggie oil.  Add eggs 1 at a time, mixing well after each addition and then add in the vanilla.  In a small bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt and mix well.  Add the flour mixture and 1/2 cup milk alternately to butter mixture beginning and ending with the flour mixture.  Scrape batter into a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan coated with baking spray.  Sprinkle top of batter with sliced almonds.  Bake for 50 minutes.