Peanut Butter, Bananas, Pecans and Pound Cake...Delicious!

Today was the annual silent auction for the P.E.O. Scholarships chapter that I belong to. We try to raise a couple thousand a year which goes towards scholarships for women both locally and at the state and international level. The auction is a good money raiser and so I usually donate some baked goods. There is almost always a bidding war for them which means more money for women scholars!

One of the cakes I donated (well, actually two) ended up being a pair of small Bundt cakes using the Maida Heatter recipe for Peanut Butter Banana Pecan Pound Cake that was one of the October Cake Slice Bakers recipes. I dolled them up with a crunchy peanut butter, butter, half and half and powdered sugar icing, but they would be fine plain, too.

Without the icing you can see that the crunchy peanut butter left some gaps in the pan design clarity. The recipe calls for smooth peanut butter which would solve most of that problem, but I like crunchy peanut butter, so no smooth in the house.

 To make the recipe as it was written, use one large Bundt cake pan. Also, remember to add the baking soda. I forgot to and so my cake was very dense. Sweetie ate the tiny loaf pan of batter that I baked up for him from the batter that didn't fit into the two small Bundt pans and he said that you didn't miss it and that it was a great cake if you like peanut butter.

Pecan-Peanut Butter-Banana Bread

• 1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sifted all-purpose whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. nutmeg
• 3 ounces (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
• 1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed 
• 2 eggs
• 2 to 3 large fully ripened bananas (to make one cup, mashed)
• 6 ounces (1 1/2 cups) pecan halves or large pieces, toasted (I used 1 cup)
  Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  
  Butter a large Bundt pan or two small cake loaf pans. Set aside.
  
  Sift together flours, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. Set aside.
  
  In a large bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter until softened, add peanut butter, beat until mixed. Add the sugar, and beat until mixed.
  
  Add eggs one at a time, beat until mixed.
  
  Peel the bananas and smash using a potato smasher or fork. Add the bananas to the mixture and beat until mixed.
  
  On low speed add the dry ingredients, beat only until mixed.
  
  Remove the bowl from mixer and fold in the pecans by hand using a spatula. Pour batter into bundt pan or divide between the two small loaf pans.
  
  Bake at 375 degrees F. for only 15 minutes, then reduce the oven temperature to 350 degrees F. and continue baking for 35 to 40 minutes. Watch your cakes, oven temperatures vary.
  
  Cake will be done after cake tester is inserted and comes out clean.
  
  Remove cake from oven and cool for 15 minutes, then turn out cake onto a cooling rack and finish cooling. 

The Babes Let The Good Times Roll

I'm currently reading some mystery novels set in New Orleans and it seems like at least once in each book that the heroine makes it to Cafe du Monde for some chicory coffee and beignets. Every time she does, I think of the beignets because I know how delicious they can be, freshly made and shaken with powdered sugar or cinnamon and sugar.

I know it's summer and a long time away from Mardi Gras, but the traditional saying  which is the title for this post is appropriate for the August BBB recipe. In July the Bread Baking Babes explored the almost extinct bialy and for August I'm asking you to gather around my kitchen counter as we make something that is also not an easily found bread and, bonus!, doesn't require turning on the oven! Of course you will need to heat up some oil to make traditional Beignets, the powdered sugar coated bread treats of New Orleans and that part of the South.

Wikipedia has this to say," Beignet (English pronunciation: /bɛnˈjeɪ/; French: [bɛɲɛ], literally bump),^[1]synonymous with the English "fritter", is the French term for a pastry made from deep-fried choux pastry.^[2] Beignets can also be made from other types of dough, including yeast dough.

Beignets are commonly known in New Orleans as a breakfast served with powdered sugar on top.^[2] They are traditionally prepared right before consumption to be eaten fresh and hot. Variations of fried dough can be found across cuisines internationally; however, the origin of the term beignet is specifically French. In the United States, beignets have been popular within New Orleans Creole cuisine and are customarily served as a dessert or in some sweet variation. They were brought to New Orleans in the 18th century by French colonists,^[3] from "the old mother country",^[4] and became a large part of home-style Creole cooking, variations often including banana or plantain – popular fruits in the port city.^[5][6] Today, Café du Monde is a popular New Orleans food destination specializing in beignets with powdered sugar, coffee with chicory, and café au lait.^[7] Beignets were declared the official state doughnut of Louisiana in 1986.^[8]"

This recipe is from Martha Stewart's blog, but I tested it ahead of time, having had a woeful experience with a Martha recipe years ago. Not sure that she always does sufficient testing on her recipes.

Anyhoo, this one makes light, airy sweet squares (bumps) that go well with coffee and tea. I suspect that if you wanted to that you could cut the dough into squares and put those squares on a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze them. That way you could deep fry the frozen squares (or thawed ones) whenever you got a hankering for a New Orleans snack.

The challenge here is to get the oil hot enough to fry them up without either having them greasy or over browned. It could also be fun to flavor them in different ways...banana slices would be traditional, but consider bits of dried fruit (cherry beignets anyone?), finely chopped nuts, sunflower seeds, ground ginger and candied ginger...all possibilities. Different flours would change the flavor, too. Just don't let them get heavy. Beignets are so light they almost float away....

Do be sure to visit the other Bread Baking Babes to see what they have done with their beignets.

If you'd like to be a Buddy, I'm the Kitchen of the Month, so you can email (plachman at sonic dot net) me a photo and a short description of your experience making the beignets, plus your blog URL so that I can include you in the round-up. Just get them to me by August 29th.

Beignets
from Martha Stewart's blog
Makes 16

1 (1/4 oz.) envelope active dry yeast

3/4 cup warm, not hot, water, about 110 degrees F

1/4 cup granulated sugar

2 tablespoons softened unsalted butter

1/2 cup whole milk

1 large egg

3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for shaping and for the baking sheet

3/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

8 cups safflower oil, for bowl and for frying

1 lb confectioner' sugar for coating (might not take this much, but close)

Directions

The wet ingredients will go into the stand mixer bowl. The dry ingredients will get mixed together and added to the wet.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the yeast, warm water and sugar. Stir. Let stand 5 minutes until foamy. Add the soft butter and stir. In another bowl, use a fork to stir together the milk and egg. Add to the yeast mixture and stir. Attach the dough hook to the stand mixer.

In another bowl combine the flour, salt and nutmeg.

Gradually, with the mixer running on lowest speed, add 1 1/2 cups of the flour mixture. When incorporated, add another 1 3/4 cups of the flour mixture. When incorporated, turn the mixture out onto a lightly floured surface. Knead in another 1/4 cup flour mixture and knead until dough is smooth, about 5 minutes. Form dough into a ball. Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl, turn to coat whole dough ball. Cover loosely with plastic wrap or a shower cap and place in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, about an hour.

Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface and punch down. Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out dough to a 12-inch square. Using a pizza wheel or sharp knife, cut dough into 3-inch squares. Transfer squares to a floured baking sheet and cover loosely with oiled plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place for 30 minutes.

While squares are rising, heat oil in a medium pot or deep-fryer until it registers 350 degrees F on a deep-fry thermometer. Working in batches, add a few squares to the oil and fry, rolling them around constantly with a slotted spoon or spider, until golden brown all over, 1-2 minutes. Transfer beignets to a paper-towel lined baking sheet to drain. Coat immediately with confectioners' sugar while warm. Repeat process with remaining dough and more confectioners' sugar. Serve at once while still warm.

I've heard that these can be microwaved (the next morning) successfully, too.

BTW, I used soy creamer instead of the milk, non-dairy margarine instead of the butter. To make it vegan, substitute egg replacer for the egg and you have it made.

Family Recipe Banana Nut Bread

The family cookbook began when my Dad died, over 20 years ago. As part of my grieving for him I began to gather old family recipes and to ask my Mom and siblings to contribute ones they had and to tell me if there were ones they wanted. A little less than a year later we had a family reunion at the beach and I brought a copy for each sibling and one for my Mom. Unfortunately I had neglected to give the printer the page for the index, but Mom solved that by making her own index on the inside of the back cover.

The next version came about because I noticed that Mom's copy was getting tattered and a few other family members told me that theirs were, too. This was not surprising since the books were about 17 years old! Since I was working in graphic arts at the time I decided to create a fancy version with color photos and organized around types of food. The original had been organized around seasons. I like this book a lot except for the paper. It is a pretty glazed paper which makes the photos look great but is hard to write on for changes I might make to the recipes. My solution has been to use sticky notes for changes, which works well.

Some of the recipes in the book, which I called Classic Comfort Food for the newer version (2012) and Family Food in the original version (1995), have been written about in this blog, but some have never been posted in their original form.

This Banana Nut Bread is an example of a great recipe that I have posted variations of but not the original. Even this one is a tiny bit different because the original used all vegetable oil and I used some butter and some oil. Otherwise it is the same and it makes a very fragrant, slightly sweet, very moist bread. I used pecans but walnuts are wonderful in this bread. When I took the loaves from the oven and smelled the lovely warm banana fragrance I was transported back to my Mom's kitchen.

This is an easy quick bread. Make sure to really cream the butter, oil and sugar before adding the eggs and bananas. Mix the batter just until combined once you add the flour mixture. Fold in the nuts with a spatula and you are ready to use the same spatula to scoop the batter into the prepared pans!

Classic Comfort Food Banana Nut Bread

½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 ripe medium bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon wheat germ
3 tablespoons milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup chopped nuts

Beat the oil (I used half soft butter and half oil) and sugar together. Add the eggs and banana pulp, and beat well. Sift the dry ingredients together. Add the sifted dry ingredients, milk and vanilla. Mix well and stir in the nuts.

Pour the batter into a greased and floured loaf pan (9” x 5” x 3”). Bake in a preheated 350⁰ F oven about 1 hour. Toothpick inserted in center will come out clean or with a few crumbs on it when bread is done. Cool well. Makes one loaf.

Leaving Southern Cakes

The Cake Slice Bakers have been baking for the last 12 months from The Southern Cake Book by Southern Living. Think lots of pecans, brown sugar and dairy products and you get the general idea. Since I grew up in the South I've enjoyed baking from this book. For the final recipe we got to choose any recipe in the book. I chose Hawaiian Sheet Cake and frosted it with the same easy 7-Minute type frosting I used last month. To tell the truth, I made the sheet cake last month, too, and served it up for the birthday party where I served the chocolate cupcakes, also frosted with that sticky, gooey, sugary frosting.

This cake is really moist and delicious and filled with good things. One of the reasons I chose it was because it was in the 'feed a crowd' section, but I also love the combination of bananas, pineapple and coconut, plus spices. It was a big hit with the crowd and with the birthday girl. I didn't get any photos beforehand and so I only have this one photo after most of the cake had been served. Trust me, it was good cake. I used a gluten free flour mixture and it has no dairy, so I was able to have a piece. The cake is fairly sweet and the soft icing was pretty sweet, so small pieces were enough. I used crushed pineapple packed in juice, not syrup, to cut down a bit on the sweetness and only used 1/2 cup of granulated sugar instead of 1 cup, but kept the full amount of brown sugar, because enough sugar is important to the chemistry of a recipe and I like the mellow flavor of brown sugar.

Next month we start a new book, so be sure to come back November 20th to see which book, OK?

Hawaiian Sheet Cake
Serves 15

3 cups all-purpose flour (I used King Arthur gluten free flour blend)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground allspice
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (to equal one cup)
3 large eggs, beaten
1 cup flaked coconut
1 (8 oz.) can crushed pineapple, undrained
1/2 recipe 7-Minute frosting
various sprinkles and dragees and candies for decoration

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Use shortening to grease and lightly flour a 9 X 13-inch baking pan.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and allspice in a large bowl. Set aside

Mix granulated sugar, brown sugar, oil, bananas, and eggs in a medium bowl. A whisk works well. Stir in the flour mixture, whisking until blended. Stir in the coconut and pineapple (including pineapple juice from the can) just until blended. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 40-45 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Run a knife around the sides of the pan and carefully invert the cake onto a serving platter. Frost with the 7-Minute frosting and decorate as desired.

An InLinkz Link-up

Goes With Hummingbird - Pineapple? Banana? Pecans? Cinnamon?

The Cake Slice Bakers are posting this weekend and the June Cake choices included a lovely blueberry coffee cake, a decadent caramel layer cake, a pretty pink lemonade cake, and my choice, the Celebration Hummingbird Cake. I've never made a Hummingbird Cake before. No one seems to know the origin of the name, but it has been a highly requested recipe from Southern Living Magazine for over 30 years. The recipe itself comes from the Southern Living Cake Book and to make it very celebratory they used Browned Butter Frosting and a Cream Cheese Custard filling, plus piping the icing in a basket weave for the cookbook photo. Not being in a crafty mood, I simplified my version.

The hummingbird cake is very moist because it has crushed pineapple and ripe bananas, along with the usual cake ingredients. It has just a touch of cinnamon and some crunch from toasted pecans. I only made one change to the cake part by substituting a stick of melted, browned butter for 1/2 cup of the oil. For the icing and filling of this delicious, decadent layer cake, I substituted my favorite cream cheese frosting. It has the cream cheese of the called for in the filling and I already used browned butter in the cake, so it's OK it's not in the frosting. The recipe for this wonderful cream cheese frosting is from a good friend and it is over 30 years old, too, so the timing is right. It is softer than the browned butter icing, has a small amount of sour cream which goes a long way to softening the super sweet effect you often get with confectioner's sugar icings. Pretty easy to work with, too.

My smart daughter was here helping with the cake creation and she suggested sprinkling some rum over the cake layers right before icing them to carry out the Caribbean vibe. It was brilliant! you caught just a hint of rum in most bites and a big hit of banana and pineapple. The pecans not only add crunch, but hey looked pretty on the top as decoration. Even though I put waxed paper strips under the edges to keep the icing off the plate edge, it was so delightfully gooey that the icing left tracks where the paper had been as I pulled the paper out. Lori's Cream Cheese Icing the kind of icing that you could just stand over the bowl and eat it with a spoon. Too rich to do it for long though.

I suspect I will be asked to make this one again. We had some friends over and I never did get a morning light photo...the cake was totally gone before I could get a shot. The photos I did get were with night time light. Don't worry too much about how it looks...just make this cake! You'll be glad you did.

Be sure to visit the other Cake Slice Bakers posts to see which of the month's choices they made.

An InLinkz Link-up

Going Bananas in the Land of St. Honore'

She woke with a start. It had been a horrible dream. The twins, her granddaughters who live on the other side of the country, were grown up in the dream. One was a dental tech and the other was a personal trainer at a gym...and neither one of them knew what to do with the ingredients on the kitchen counter in her dream; the softened butter, the sugar, flour, molasses, eggs, nuts, chocolate chips. They had a birth right, as anyone in our land has, to bake, yet they had no idea how to measure flour, soften butter, or even how to crack an egg. This was terrible! No child in the Land of St. Honore' should be flummoxed about baking something.

Eva decided she would do something so that this dream never became a reality. Well, maybe they would become a personal trainer and a dental tech, but she would make sure that they knew how to bake. Not only would they not be mystified at the sight of an egg, they would know how to separate eggs and whisk whites and bake a lovely, light, luscious, delectable cake.

First she waited until a decent hour, then called her daughter, their mom. She had to time the call just right because Grace would be leaving home soon to go to work. She was a CPA high up in her firm. Although she had been taught, she never baked. 'No time' was her excuse.

"Grace, I would love to have the girls visit me at Christmas, or even Thanksgiving, if that's possible. I know that they are always busy with volleyball and chess club and the debate team, but could you find a few days when they could spend a little time with me?" Eva was tempted to add "before its too late" but didn't think her daughter would be so easily led.

Grace had a particularly difficult client at the moment, so she agreed. Better that her girls have some fun instead of being saddled with a babysitter when she had to work extra. At eleven years old they were getting a bit beyond babysitters anyway.

Eva was thrilled. They were coming the day before Thanksgiving. They could bake pies for Thanksgiving, perhaps make dinner rolls, and surely they could make a cake, too. She could hardly wait!

Plans changed and they arrived the day after Thanksgiving. No one wanted pies or dinner rolls and a cake seemed too rich after all the holiday food. Still, there were some ripe bananas to use up. Time to bake a classic banana bread...with a twist. She wanted to use molasses and to add chocolate chips, just for fun.

The girls were a bit hesitant at first, but soon got into the swing of things, measuring flour and sugar, mashing bananas, and, yes, cracking some eggs and finding out that bits of shells could be removed from the eggs in the bowl, with care.

They giggled at the slow movement of the molasses and had fun getting their fingers greasy while using the butter wrapper to grease the bread pan.

Their faces beamed with big smiles when they brought the first piece of baked banana bread to their Granddad. They were even happier when he exclaimed over the texture, flavor and deliciousness. They were hooked! Eva knew that on their next visit that they would bake that cake with her. Their heritage was intact.

You, too, can keep the arts of baking alive. This banana bread is easy, uses up very ripe bananas, and can be packed in a lunchbox or used as an afternoon pickup or quick bite in the morning. If you make it with half regular flour and half whole wheat flour it is almost healthy...after all, it has fruit.

Banana Bread with Walnuts and Chocolate
makes one loaf

1/2 cup butter, softened

1/4 cup molasses, dark is best

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs, beaten

3 ripe bananas (or 2 large), mashed

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan (you can use the butter wrapper if you've already put the soft butter into the mixing bowl. That is what the twins did).

Beat butter, molasses and sugar together until fluffy. It's OK if it looks curdled.

Add eggs and banana pulp and beat well.

Add sifted dry ingredient's, vanilla, and buttermilk. Mix just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Stir in nuts, and chocolate chips.

Pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake about 1 hour. Test for doneness with a toothpick in center. When done, toothpick comes out clean or with a few crumbs on it. Cool well.

Store overnight before cutting...if you can wait that long. A serrated knife makes cutting easier.

Sweet Bananas and Persimmons

The rains came last week (about 8 inches in 5 days) and knocked most of the leaves off the trees. That made some trees look pretty bleak, but not our persimmon tree.

One of the harbingers of winter around here are the bright orange persimmons hanging like early Christmas ornaments on the bare branches of their trees. Our tree is a Hayachi, the kind that need to be soft, almost squishy, in order to be edible. I brought an unripe, hard one in to be part of the Thanksgiving table decorations and it is finally soft enough to use.

Today there were also a few very ripe bananas on the plate with the new greenish ones that Sweetie likes. I decided to combine the two fruits in one sweet quick bread. With the addition of some molasses and spices it is the perfect seasonal treat. This one is very moist. You get a hint of the persimmon flavor and a bit more of the banana. Fortunately they complement each other. Sweetie was a big fan of this combo and of the moistness, plus he has always liked thing with molasses flavors.

The butter needs to be soft, the eggs at room temperature and the fruit very ripe. It only makes one loaf, but it just might become your favorite tea bread when persimmons are ripe. Now you know what I'm going to be baking when the persimmons now on the tree are ripe in a few weeks. Hope you'll try it, too.

Persimmon Banana Spice Bread

1 fully ripe persimmon (about 1/3 pound)
2-3 ripe bananas
1 ½ plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon dried orange peel, ground
2 large eggs
¼ cup molasses
½ cup firmly packed light brown sugar
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1. Adjust oven rack to the lower third position and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Butter an 8 ½ by 4 ½ by 2 ¾ inch loaf pan; set aside.

2. Pull the stems off the persimmon and cut lengthwise in half. With a teaspoon or grapefruit spoon, scoop the pulp out into a bowl. Use a pastry blender or potato masher to chop or mash the pulp into small pieces; you should still have some pieces of persimmon mixed with the pureed pulp. Set aside. Peel and mash the bananas, also leaving some small pieces mixed with the very mashed pulp. Set aside.

3. Sift the flour, baking powder, salt, spices and orange peel together; set aside.

4. In the bowl of a stand mixer beat the butter until light. Add the brown sugar and beat until light. Add the molasses and beat to combine thoroughly.

5. Add the eggs to the butter mixture and beat to combine. Mixture may look curdled. That is OK. Stir in the persimmon pulp and banana pulp with a rubber spatula. Add the flour mixture and stir only until the batter is smooth. Pour the batter into the prepared pan(s) and smooth the top(s). (Note: I stirred in the fruit and then the flour mixture using a stand mixer and was careful to not overmix…it worked fine.)

6. Bake for about 1 hour and 5 minutes, until the bread is well browned and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. The bread will be quite dark, especially on the edges, but if loaf/loaves start to brown too much before being done, lay a piece of aluminum foil, shiny side up, loosely on top during the last 30 minutes or so of baking.

7. Cool in the pan(s) on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a small sharp knife around the side(s) to release the bread, and carefully unmold. Set right side up on a rack to cool completely. Wrap airtight. The bread can be frozen for up to 2 months.

One Good Dark Banana

It's been a long time since I've made muffins, which is sort of surprising since I used to have a muffing business when we lived in Berkeley. They are a super easy quick bread and if you only fill the muffin tin cups half way, they are not so huge that you need a wheelbarrow to carry them to the table.

Since Sweetie likes his bananas on the green side and I like mine when they are at least freckled if not brown sometimes I have to set one aside to let it ripen.

Monday I finally had one that was a good dark brown and smelled delightfully of true banana fragrance. That is the perfect kind of banana to put into a banana muffin. I used the tried and true recipe from Joy of Cooking subbing out some of the flour for whole wheat flour and with some additional vanilla added, and whipped the batch up in record time, then put them in a hot oven to bake while I made coffee and dished out the cut up melon Sweetie had mixed together and chilled the night before.

I think the aroma of muffins if one of their stellar qualities. Right before they are done they give off such a delicious fragrance and this time the banana outmatched the butter aroma. We didn't even need to butter these because they are a delight just as they come out of the oven, all golden and crusty and moist inside.

As you might imagine, this recipe can be endlessly varied. The banana can be replaced by applesauce...with some cinnamon and all spice added to the dry ingredients, or you can include diced dried apricots or prunes or some dried cranberries. If you add chopped nuts these are a luxurious item... a 1/2 cup of your favorite nut is all you need.

We have been at work on the trenching to bury the conduit with the electronic fence wire that is needed before we get a dog. After digging and burying about 22 feet by hand on Valentine's Day, this week we opted to finish out the remaining few hundred feet with a powered trencher which had tracks instead of regular wheels. It only took about 45 minutes to do the whole two lengths needed and by hand it would have taken us days. Yay for mechanization! We still have about half of the conduit to lay but it should be done by the end of the weekend. Then we need to replace the dog door and begin the process of looking for our rescue dog. I hope we find one that barks at deer. They are already starting to munch on my rose bushes! I know that deer look so lovely and graceful, but half of my rose bushes are gone and I'd like to save the few that are left.

I've also been enjoying the beginning of the daffodil season...first bloom of full sized ones was today.



The squash and tomato seedlings are sprouting in the sunspace and I have new seeds to germinate which I just bought today.


Starting to feel a little like spring with all the joy and hopefullness that comes with the season.


Banana Muffins
makes 12

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
2 eggs at room temperature
2 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled
3/4 cup milk (I used 2% milk)
1 large banana, very ripe if possible
1/2 cup chopped pecans (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease and flour a 12-cup muffin tin, knocking out any loose flour. Set aside.

In a large bowl whisk together the flour, whole wheat flour, salt, sugar, and baking powder. Set aside

In another large bowl whisk the eggs briefly, just until the whites combine with the yolks. Whisk in the butter and the milk.

Mash the banana in a small bowl, then add it to the wet ingredients and stir to combine.

Pour the wet ingredients into the bowl of dry ingredients and stir with a wooden spoon with quick strokes as briefly as possible, just until the dry ingredients are moistened. If using chopped nuts, fold them in along with the wet ingredients.

Scoop the batter quickly into the prepared muffin tin(s), filling 1/2 full. Batter should be evenly distributed among the 12 cups. If necessary take a bit of batter from the fuller ones and put into the less full cups.

Bake in the preheated oven for 20 -25 minutes or until golden brown. When baked you can push down on the center of a muffin, release the pressure, and the muffin will spring back up.

Cool in the pan 2 minutes, then turn out on a clean surface. Serve at once because they are best when warm. If any are left over, you can put them in an airtight container and store in the refrigerator.

Rum and Raisins Love Bananas

Sometimes there are ingredients hanging around the kitchen that need to be used up and my feeling is along the lines of mending a hem before it unravels more or picking the flowering tops off the basil to keep them growing...a task that is undoubtedly worthy but not particularly inspiring. Turning left over salad into soup falls into this area in my opinion.

Other times the ingredients are the kind you hope for...left over bread that will eventually be turned into stuffing or bread pudding, the end of a chunk of Parmesan that gives a great flavor to some soup, or one of my favorites...ripe bananas. A really ripe banana has golden yellow skin with dark brown spots. If all the skin is brown you may have gone too far, but it will still make some great banana bread.

That's what I did last week...made banana bread. The three medium bananas I used looked a bit like giraffes necks...the blotches of brown were pretty big but the skin was still golden, too. I used a recipe from one of my favorite baking books, Marion Cunningham's The Fannie Farmer Baking Book. This one is almost scone-like in texture and is less sweet than some but it has the benefit of raisins soaked in rum...the perfect complement to bananas.

About the only thing to know about this recipe is that the pan sizes are on the small size so plan accordingly. You can find the dimensions right under the recipe title. It also helps to remember that this kind of quick bread does best with minimal mixing of the batter once the dry ingredients are added.

Do give this bread a try when you find yourself with an overabundance of bananas...and some rum and raisins in the pantry.



Rum-Raisin Banana Bread
Makes two 8 1/2 x 4 1/2 x 2 1/2 inch loaves

1 cup raisins
6 tablespoons rum
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons (1 stick or 1/2 cup) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1/3 cup milk
1 cup ripe banana (about 2 large or 3 medium bananas)
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Note: I used 1/2 cup regular raisins and 1/2 cup golden raisins.

Stir the raisins and rum together and let stand for at least 30 minutes or up to several hours, stirring occasionally. You can soak the raisins in the rum the night before and they will be plump and moist.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two loaf pans.

Stir and toss together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Stir together the butter, sugar, eggs, milk, mashed banana, walnuts, and the raisins and their rum. Add the mixed dry ingredients and stir just until the batter is thoroughly blended. Over mixing causes the bread to become dry and tough.

Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pans. Bake for 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Remove from the oven, let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. I find it hard to wait until the loaves are completely cool. Slightly warm banana bread is hard to beat.

Fa La La - La La La

There is no way around it...the holiday season is in full swing. Instead of three calling birds, we had three Christmas parties this week, although the cioppino feed on Thursday wasn't officially a Christmas party, although there were Christmas decorations all over the house :)

For the hostess of one of the parties this past weekend I baked a small loaf of banana bread enriched with walnuts and dates. Just to make sure that it wasn't terrible; Sweetie and I had some of a matching loaf for lunch. It is a variation of a recipe of my Mom's in the Family Food book. Instead of 1/2 cup vegetable oil, I used 4 tablespoons softened butter and 4 tablespoons olive oil. Once you creamed it with the sugar you couldn't really taste the olive oil...partly because I used a very mild flavored one. The dates were cut into a medium dice and the walnuts were chopped. The bananas were mashed with a fork which allows you to keep the perfect amount of chunkiness in the fruit. I baked up four small loaves from the recipe, each the perfect size for two.


Banana Bread with Dates and Walnuts
Based on Mom’s banana nut bread in Family Food

4 tablespoons softened unsalted butter
¼ cup olive oil
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 ripe bananas (or 2 large), peeled and mashed
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 tablespoon wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon vanilla
¼ cup buttermilk
½ - ¾ cup chopped walnuts
½ - ¾ cup chopped dates

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Cream the butter, add the olive oil and the sugar and continue to cream for about a minute.
Add eggs, mashed bananas and beat to combine.

Sift together the flours, wheat germ, baking powder and baking soda and salt.
Add sifted dry ingredients to the creamed butter-egg-banana mixture, along with the vanilla and buttermilk. Mix just until combined.

Fold in the walnuts and dates to combine thoroughly.

Divide batter among four small greased and floured bread pans (each about 5 ½” x 2 ¾” x 1 ¾”) or put all the batter into one greased and floured 9” x 5”x 3” loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven about 35 minutes for small loaves or about 1 hour for the large loaf. When done a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean or with only a few crumbs on it.

Cool well and store overnight before cutting (Right, THAT happens! Never…banana bread smells too good to wait that long.)

Too many Bananas

These started out as Raisin Bran Muffins, but I had no bran, nor old-fashioned oats and I did have ripe bananas and walnuts and coconut…and raisins. Being playful, I changed quite a few things around and made some lovely muffins that have full banana fragrance and flavor and are joined sweetly by playmates walnuts, coconut and raisins.

Since I played around so much with the recipe, it ended up making more than 12 muffins. You could probably get 18 muffins from this recipe, but I chose to put the additional batter in a mini-loaf pan instead.

Playful Banana Muffins
Based loosely on Raisin Bran muffins in The King Arthur Flour Bakers Companion

3 ripe bananas
1 cup buttermilk at room temperature
1 stick of butter, melted (1/2 cup) and cooled a bit
2 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar, packed
2 tablespoons molasses
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
½ teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ cup rolled oats (oats for oatmeal)
¼ cup dried coconut
½ cup golden raisins
½ cup roughly chopped walnuts

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. Prepare a 12 cup muffin tin and a mini-loaf pan by spraying with baking spray or by greasing and flouring them. Set aside.

Peel and mash the bananas in a bowl. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, mix together the buttermilk, butter, eggs, brown sugar and molasses. Add the bananas and mix to combine.

In another bowl mix together the flours, salt, baking powder and baking soda, oats, coconut, raisins and nuts.

Quickly, with as few strokes as possible, mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, just until combined.

Fill prepared muffin cups with the mixture, filling each cup almost to the top. Pour the rest of the batter into the prepared mini loaf pan.

Bake in preheated oven for 14 to 18 minutes for the muffins, or until they spring back when pressed lightly in the middle and about 25 minutes for the mini loaf pan banana bread, until a cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean.

Removed when ready from the oven and cool on a wire rack 5 minutes, then turn out of the pans and let cool until ready to serve.

Lime, Coconut and More French Toast

Lime zest is so pungent, my whole kitchen smelled zesty today. Loved it!

One of the joys of blogging is visiting other blogger's sites and finding things that you just have to try. Another joy is participating in events hosted by bloggers you admire. This post is about having both happen in a delightful way.

The talented and delightful Meeta of What's for Lunch Honey? blog is hosting a monthly Mingle with a Caribbeans theme. Making the mingle even more fun is that my very favorite Caribbean area blogger, Cynthia of Tastes Like Home is part of the Mingle due to her book. Do go to Meeta's blog and find out all about it. You might just have time to join in the fun.

Another blog to visit often is Susan's Wild Yeast. Once a week she hosts the equivalent of a playground for passionate bread bakers, an event called Yeastspotting. The most recent collection on Yeastspotting included a recipe for Lime French Toast by Jan of InnCuisine blog. Never being content to leave well enough alone, and inspired by Jan's own variations on the French Toast theme, I decided to make Caribe French Toast with a host of island flavors including lime, coconut, pineapple, vanilla, rum and banana.

This is a perfect dish for a brunch because most of the work is done ahead. It also looks very impressive when plated. So what makes up Caribe French Toast? A buttery syrup with both lime juice and zest, pineapple juice and a healthy dose of dark brown sugar is heated up in a pot, cooled and mellowed with coconut milk. It serves as the base for the bread to sit on.

Over the top you pour an egg rich custard flavored with vanilla, then sprinkle it with coconut.

It sits in the fridge overnight so that the bread can soak up the flavors, then bakes to a golden brown.

While the toast bakes, you make a warm banana and pineapple topping. If you desire, you can even doll it up a bit more with some rum and/or candied ginger. Sweetie said that this was world class and he really liked the haunting note that the coconut milk provided. It's a bit on the sweet side, so you could reduce the brown sugar amount or serve with something salty like bacon on the side. The soft and custardy French toast has crisp coco nutty crust and the fruit topping finishes the Caribe flavors perfectly. Take a bite and you'll feel those warm breezes on your cheek. What could be nicer?

Caribe French Toast

¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons corn syrup or treacle
finely minced zest of 3 limes
juice of 3 limes (about 1/3 cup)
1/3 cup juice from drained crushed pineapple (see Compote below)
½ cup canned coconut milk
2 eggs
3 egg whites
1 cup milk
½ tablespoon vanilla
¼ cup flaked coconut
1/2 loaf French bread, cut into inch thick slices

Spray a 9×13 inch baking dish with non-stick cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan over low heat combine the butter, brown sugar, corn syrup or treacle, lime zest and juice, and pineapple juice. Cook about 5 minutes, until the butter and sugar have melted. Remove from heat and stir in coconut milk. Cool. Pour into the baking dish.

In a mixing bowl, mix eggs, egg whites, milk and vanilla. Blend well (I whip this with an electric whisk attachment on my mixer). Arrange the bread slices in one layer over the lime mixture and pour the whipped egg and milk mixture over the bread. Sprinkle with the coconut. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

Remove from refrigerator 30 minutes prior to baking and allow to return to room temperature.

Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 30 minutes or until golden brown. If needed, place under broiler to give the coconut a slight toasting. Watch so it doesn't burn.

Place 2 slices of the baked Lime French Toast on each plate. Top with Pineapple Banana Compote (recipe follows), and garnish with a bit of sifted confectioners’ sugar.

Pineapple Banana Compote
1 large banana, sliced
¼ cup (4 tablespoons) butter
½ of a 15 oz can crushed pineapple in juice, drained (use some of the juice for the French Toast), then add back in 2 tablespoons of the juice and stir
2 tablespoons dark rum (optional)
¼ teaspoon minced crystallized ginger or powdered ginger (optional)

In a saute’ pan, melt the butter. Over medium high heat cook the banana in the butter until golden and softened. Add the pineapple and stir to combine well. Heat just until the pineapple is warm. Stir in the rum and ginger (if using). Serve over Caribe French Toast. Leftovers can be used over waffles, pancakes, or ice cream.

If you know how to do flaming rum, you could bring the plates to the table, dusted with confectioners sugar and garnished with a lime slice, then flame the topping and scoop flaming spoonsful of it over the toasts.

This is going to be an entry in Meeta's Mingle and, as a tribute to Jan, in Susan's Yeastspotting.

Click - Mellow Yellow for Bri

Click - Special Edition - Fundraiser for Bri

Bri is one of the 5% of women diagnosed with breast cancer under the age of 30. That was two and a half years ago. Now she is fighting for her life and this event is a combination of the usual Click photo collection and a fundraiser to assist with the astronomical medical bills that almost all cancer patients have to face. The money raised will also make it possible for Bri, a fellow food blogger, to look at some alternative healing modalities. She was a teen when she witnessed her own mother's unsuccessful fight against breast cancer, so just imagine her courage as she faces her own illness with grit and the will to live. Click on the link above to see how you can be part of the fundraiser.

Yellow has become a color associated with the fight against cancer, in large part due to the efforts of Lance Armstrong's LiveStrong events. The photo above is my entry in this special Click event...Mellow Yellow for Bri, because sometimes even a fighter has to be mellow for a time and bananas are pretty mellow...and yellow. Hang in there, Bri!