Joy of Cooking Muffins

I've been baking from The Joy Of Cooking cookbook for longer than I can remember. This is one of those full compendium type cookbooks and it's from before there were photographs with recipes, although there are some line drawings here and there.

Another feature is that the recipes are written as directions, with the ingredients and amounts coming as part of the recitation of oven temperatures, bowls to use, pans to bake in, etc.

I prefer a recipe where the ingredients are listed first so that I can make sure at a glance that I have the stuff I need to make the item(s). Since I have a well-stocked kitchen it is very likely that I'll have the pan or pot or implement needed, but missing an ingredient is often a reason I decide to not make something.

Recently I made some healthy-ish muffins based on a recipe in the Joy of Cooking book. The recipe was for Cooked Cereal Muffins. Mine also included added nuts and seeds, plus dates.

The key thing to remember for this recipe is to cook the cereal (I used oatmeal!) far enough in advance that it can cool to room temperature. While it is cooling, the melted butter can also cool a bit. The egg and milk can use that same time to warm up a bit closer to room temperature. While those things are cooling or warming, you can chop the nuts and seed and chop the dates. After that it all goes together pretty quickly. I did use brown sugar instead of white, for flavor, and added a bit of baking soda because the muffins were baked in two batches in 8-pan tins.

This past weekend we had some major storms, including a cyclone. The winds toppled trees all over the county and beyond, which meant that many electrical wires also came down. There are still areas and thousands of customers without power today. Fortunately we were only without power for about 30 hours. We have generators which we ran for a couple hours twice a day to keep frozen stuff frozen, but not a lot more. The local internet provider also lost lines so it was even longer before that was back. Still, we were lucky that there was no damage to our property and only a few pretty small tree limbs came down.

Fortunately I had made these muffins the night before, so at least we had yummy date-walnut-oatmeal-seeds muffins to enjoy. I hope that you enjoy them, too.

Cooked Oatmeal And Seedy Muffins With Walnuts and Dates

Joy of Cooking variation

2 eggs at room temperature

½ cup rolled oats cooked in 1 cup water, then cooled to room temperature

1 cup + 2 Tablespoons milk at room temperature

4 Tablespoons/4 oz./ ½ stick butter, melted and cooled

1 ½ cups all- purpose flour

1 Tablespoon brown sugar

½ teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ cup walnuts, chopped

¼ cup pitted and chopped dates

1/3 cup King Arthur Baking Harvest Blend mixed seeds

 Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease 16 muffin cups – baking spray works well.

 
Crack the eggs into a medium bowl, then mix the eggs with a fork to break them up a bit. Add to the cooled cooked cereal gradually and use the fork to break down any lumps as you combine the eggs and cereal. Add the milk and melted butter and combine.

 
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder and baking soda and salt. Stir in the chopped walnuts, dates and the seed mixture. Pour in the liquid mixture and use the fork to stir until just combined.

 
Scoop batter into the muffin cups to about 2/3 full. If any of the cups are left unused, add a tablespoon of water to that cup instead.

 
Bake for 20-25 minutes or until muffins are golden brown and spring back when you push down gently.

 
Serve at once. Butter goes well with these muffins which are hearty and delicate at the same time.

 

Tropical Pancakes

Does your family have a day on the weekend for making special breakfasts? Maybe you do brunch instead? Well, think about making these delightful pancakes and you'll enjoy the weekend even more.

I took two fairly basic recipes for pancakes from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book, mixed them together, added some yogurt, substituted non-dairy soy creamer and non-dairy margarine for milk and butter, used white whole wheat and Irish Whole Meal flours (King Arthur Flour carries both) for part of the flour, added chopped pecans, finely chopped fresh pineapple, finely chopped banana, and chopped, pitted dates. What I ended up with were some of the best pancakes ever if you like tropical flavors.

It takes a few minutes to chop up the fruit and nuts, a few more to mix together the milk or soy milk and the yogurt, a few more to measure out the dry ingredients, more to melt the margarine or butter and mix it with the eggs and then the milk mixture. Hardly any time is needed to add the dry ingredients to the wet and barely mix them.

Cooking the pancakes probably takes the most time and that may just seem that way since you are standing at the stove with a pancake turner, watching the tiny bubbles form at the edges of the pancake and smelling the warming pineapple and banana fragrances. Then when you turn the pancake over, you see the golden brown sheen of the cooked side and you see the pancake rise and you know this is going to be soooo delicious! And it is!

I topped mine with some applesauce, but you can just as easily slather on some butter and syrup or mix up a syrup of sugar, water and orange juice, letting it bubble and thicken while you cook the pancakes. However you top them, enjoy the flavors of the islands.

Tropical Pancakes
based on Plain Pancakes and Buttermilk Pancakes by Marion Cunningham
in The Breakfast Book

2 eggs at room temperature
3/4 cup milk or soy milk or soy creamer, at room temperature
1/4 cup plain yogurt
4 tablespoons butter, or margarine, melted and cooled slightly
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour (or use regular whole wheat)
1/4 cup Irish Whole Meal Flour (or use regular whole wheat)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup fresh pineapple, finely chopped
3/4 cup fresh ripe banana, finely chopped
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans
2 tablespoons finely chopped pitted dates

Beat the eggs in a mixing bowl until they are fully blended. Add the plain yogurt to the milk or soy milk and beat until combined. Let sit a few minutes, then beat into the eggs. Add the melted butter or margarine and beat until filly blended.

On a piece of waxed paper or parchment paper or in another bowl, combine the flours, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Stir into the wet ingredients and stir just until blended. Immediately gently stir in the pineapple, banana, pecans and dates.

Cook the pancakes on a lightly greased preheated skillet or griddle: scoop 1/4 cup of the batter for each pancake onto the griddle, using the cup to slightly spread the batter if necessary. Let pancook cook over medium heat until bottom is golden brown and the edges have rapidly breaking small bubbles. After flipping the pancake over, let cook until bottom is golden brown. Serve at once with toppings of your choice.

Makes enough pancakes for 4 people (usually).

These Apples

Our time with my younger brother and his family was relaxing and a nice change since, with the exception of mass family gatherings for birthdays and funerals (mostly), we have not spent time with the four of them and no other family.

Kate is a great cook and she made great, fresh, healthy food for us. One of the few things I made in her great kitchen was baked apples. No photos were taken because we were immersed in conversation and laughter, but I made baked apples again today, so I can share the recipe with you.

This is a really easy way to enjoy apples and this is apple season, so go big! Choose your favorite baking apple. I used Jonagolds but Cortlands and Galas work well, so do Pippins and Breaburns. The apple should have a nice apple flavor and hold some of its shape after baking. Gravensteins, for instance, would break down too much and be more like apple sauce. Many farmers markets have a selection of apples these days and you can ask which one would be best for baking.

If you like apple pie, but don't want the added fat and calories of the crust, these apples are for you.

Sweet and Spicy Baked Apples 
makes two, but can be doubled

2 medium to large baking apples, washed
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts
4 pitted dates, chopped
1/2 cup water
2 teaspoons butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Remove the core and seeds from the center of each apple, being sure to leave some apple intact at the bottom. I used a paring knife to remove the stem end, about halfway into the apple, then used a melon ball tool to remove the rest of the seeds. I left the apple below the seeds intact. Set aside.

In a small bowl mix together the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, walnuts and dates. Place each apple in a small baking dish large enough to hold it. I used two sizes of ramekins. If you are doing four apples, you might find an 8" square cake pan works. It's OK to have some room between apples, but they get soft, so you only should allow about 1/2 inch maximum between apples. Individual bakers solve that as long as they aren't too big or small. Experiment with what baking dishes you have before you fill the apples.

Place the cored apples in their baking dish(es) and fill the cavity with the brown sugar/spice mixture. Once they are filled, sprinkle any left over into the bottom of the baking dish(es). Put 1 teaspoon butter or margarine on top of the filled core cavity.  Add the water (I used 1/4 cup for each apple in it's individual dish) to the bottom of the dish, and then cover tightly with aluminum foil. Cut a small slit in the foil to let steam escape.

Place the dish(es) containing the apples on a baking sheet, then bake in the preheated over for 40 minutes, or until tender when pierced.

Serve warm or cold (with a splash of cream or scoop of vanilla ice cream, if desired).

Mixed Muffins

It's been a long time since I made muffins. Hard to believe that I used to make muffins as a business when I was young and foolish. Of course those muffins were rich with butter and milk and no one even knew about gluten intolerance then, except for a few doctors. The muffins a made yesterday were made with my current restrictions in mind, but they were decadent anyway. Instead of all one kind, I decided to make two kinds...but then found that I didn't have very many raspberries left. Still, I was able to make a couple of raspberry ones since I had gotten the yen for those. The rest were apple date pecan muffins. A nice mix of flavors all around.

These were delicious when warm, but also good once they cooled off. The crumb was open but delicate and moist. I really enjoyed the dates when they were warm and I could taste the apple more when they had cooled. The raspberry muffin was eaten while still a little warm and it was outstanding! The muffin itself doesn't have much sugar, so the berry flavor really dominated.

I used yogurt instead of sour cream. Yogurt seems to be the only dairy my bod likes. For additional liquid I used almond milk and a little olive oil. Although I'll bet these could have been made just with gluten free flour mix, I decided to use half GF (Bob's Red Mill) and half all-purpose. The best part was creating the mix-ins. I used diced apple, chopped dates, and chopped pecans for 10 muffins and some fresh raspberries for two. Sounds difficult? Not if you put the raspberries in the bottom of the greased muffin tins, then add the batter 3/4 of the way up the pan. The apple/date/nut mixture was then quickly blended into the batter and the rest of the tin filled up with that.

If you need to make these gluten free, just use your favorite gluten free flour mixture for all the flour and add a teaspoon of xanthan gum for stability. Enjoy with a cup of coffee or tea, and you have a great mid-morning or afternoon snack.

Mixed Muffins

a variation on Sour Cream Muffins in Joy of Cooking

1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour (I used 1 cup GF flour mix - Bob's Red Mill & 3/4 cup all-purpose flour)
1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 egg, beaten
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup almond milk (add a little more if yogurt isn't wet enough)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 medium to large apple, chopped
1/4 cup dates, chopped
1/4 cup pecans, chopped or broken up

optional- fresh raspberries for some of the muffins

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Grease a 12-cup muffin pan or spray with cooking spray.

In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar.

In a medium bowl whisk together the egg, yogurt, almond milk and vanilla. Gently and quickly, with as few strokes as possible, mix the wet mixture into the dry mixture. At this point, if you are doing both apple and raspberry muffins, place about 5 raspberries in the bottom of a couple of muffin cups, then add batter to fill cup 3/4 of the way to the top.

With remaining batter, fold in gently and quickly, with as few strokes as possible the apple, dates and pecans. Put batter in prepared muffin cups, filling 3/4 of the way to the top.

Immediately put the muffin pan into the preheated oven and bake for about 20 minutes. Check at 15 minutes and turn pan around 180 degrees if needed for even baking. Muffin is done when a light poke in the middle springs back.

Remove from oven and cool 10 minutes on a rack. Remove from the muffin cups and serve or serve at room temperature.

Makes 1 dozen large muffins.

Bacon and Dates

According to my sources, bacon wrapped stuffed dates have been a popular appetizer for a while, but I guess I missed that. Perhaps I don't eat at the right restaurants.

For Thanksgiving I was asked to bring stuffing and an apple crisp. I also brought a pecan pie because pie and Thanksgiving just go together. My lovely daughter brought the stuffed dates, although I helped heavily with the making of them.

We started with moist, large, pitted dates. If your dates aren't moist you may want to steam them briefly before starting, because some of the moisture is cooked off while the bacon cooks.

I like blue cheese with walnuts and since the recipe called for walnuts, we included a nubbin of good quality blue cheese, too. Warm melty cheese is always a treat. Each slice of bacon was cut in thirds and used to wrap three stuffed dates, so make sure you have enough bacon. If your bacon strips are short ones, you may even need to only wrap two dates per strip of bacon...extra bacon can be used for other purposed, right?

I pre-heated some cast iron skillets in the oven and added the stuffed dates to them which helped crisp up the bacon. They weren't fully cooked because we re-warmed them at the home where we were dining.

I warn you, these can be addictive! Who can resist warm and crisp bacon, soft and sweet date, crisp and mellow walnut and piquant blue cheese, all in one bite? Not me.

Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Dates

24 large moist medjool dates
8 or so walnuts, broken
1 oz. blue cheese
8-12 strips bacon - cut in two or three pieces depending on the length

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. If you have them, place two cast iron skillets in to preheat.

If dates have pits, remove the pits by slicing carefully from one end to the other with a paring knife and then removing the pit with the tip of the knife. Be sure to only cut the top of the date, NOT all the way through to the bottom. If your dates are not moist, steam them briefly before starting.

Stuff where the pits usually live with pieces of walnut and a nubbin of the blue cheese. You can use goat cheese if you prefer it to blue cheese.

Wrap a strip of bacon around the date, putting the stuffed part face down onto the bacon, overlapping the ends of the bacon on the opposite side. Secure with a toothpick.

If not using a cast iron skillet for baking, line a baking sheet with parchment paper and place the finished dates on the parchment.

Bake on the baking sheet or in the preheated skillets for about 8-10 minutes, turning over halfway. Bacon will start to turn golden and get slightly crispy on the edges. If you prefer, cook for another minute to cook the bacon a bit more.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool for at least 10-15 minutes before serving. Dates should be warm, not hot. They can also be served cold.

If you make them in advance, reheat them for a minute or two in the microwave if you prefer them warm.

A Vegan Cake for Christmas

I'm not a vegan, although I probably should be. If you know how to combine your foods to make a complete protein it's a very healthy way to eat. The good news is that there are absolutley delicious recipes I make that happen to be vegan, too.

Wishing each of you, dear readers, a happy holiday season and joy and prosperity in the New Year.

Counting my blessings this year takes some time because I've been very blessed. Loving friends and family are some of the biggest blessings one can have.

The day after Christmas we'll have a gathering of friends and family, with food and drink and conversation. One of the things being served will be this vegan spice cake, a variation on a Spanish Bar Cake I used to enjoy when I was a girl. It's based on a recipe in the Joy of Cooking but there are so many recipes in that cookbook that you may not have run across this one. Even though there will also be handmade cookies and Costco mousse cake as desserts, this one may be finished up first, it is so good. And yes Lynn, I did make some changes. But of course.

The texture is light for a fruit cake and the flavors are deep, dark and spicy due to the cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg and lots of raisins. Let it cool before slicing it. Sweetie couldn't wait and so it crumbled on him a bit.

Do try this at home. It contains no eggs, butter, or milk but you do need a non-dairy butter substitute or butter flavored shortening. It's not diet food, but is also less rich than a lot of the desserts that will be served this holiday season.

Vegan Spice Cake with Citron, Candied Orange Peel and Dates
Based on Eggless Milkless Spice Cake in the Joy of Cooking

1 1/2 cups water
3 cups raisins
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) non-dairy margarine or butter-flavored shortening, melted
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, freshly grated if possible
3 cups cake flour, sifted
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 cup chopped almonds
1/2 cup chopped dates
1/4 cup chopped candied citron
1/4 cup chopped candied orange peel

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Grease well and flour a 9 - 10 cup Bundt pan. Set aside.

In a medium saucepan stir together the water, raisins, brown sugar, margarine/shortening, cinnamon, allspice, salt and nutmeg. Bring to a boil and boil for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Sift together the cake flour, baking powder and baking soda. Stir gradually into the boiled ingredients until the batter is smooth (I transferred the boiled ingredients into a stand mixer bowl and used the mixer to mix in the dry ingredients.

Stir in the almonds, dates, citron and orange peel to distribute evenly in the batter.

Transfer the batter, which will be somewhat thick, into the prepared pan and even the top. Tap the pan a few times on the worktop to settle the batter. Bake in the preheated oven for an hour. Check to see if it is done by pushing a toothpick into the middle of the baked batter. If it comes out clean or with a few crumbs sticking to the toothpick it's done.

Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes on a rack. Turn out onto a serving plate and cool completely before serving. Can be decorated with a drizzle of melted white chocolate or with a drift of confectioner's sugar put through a fine screened strainer.

Serves about 16

Walnut Date Celebration Bread

Because it is in the Celebration Breads chapter and because I'm celebrating finally, after a month, being able to walk downstairs in the normal way with no pain, I decided to make a Sourdough Mixed Grain version of Panettone con Datteri e Noci inspired by the recipe for Panettone made that way in Carol Field's The Italian Baker.

I decided to skip all that lamination...did plenty of that with the croissants...and just keep the idea of making a date and walnut rich ball with a stack of three dough layers. This version still takes a little more time and care because you are working with large sheets of dough and stacking them after they are 'filled'. If I were to do it again I would flour up my bread paddle and lay the walnut layer on it as soon as it was rolled out but before I had filled it. That way the whole layer would, probably, slide off onto the date layer

fairly easily. As it was I did two layers on one board, moving the date layer to a sheet pan and bringing it back to be covered with the walnut layer when that was ready.


I rolled the plain layer on another work surface, although perhaps a bit too thinly. I didn't have room to roll the dough all out at once, so I cut the dough into three pieces and worked with each in turn.

Although a traditional Pannettone bread would be lovely and this multi-grain dough worked well, I suspect that you could use any flavorful bread dough for the dough part as long as it went well with dates and walnuts. I did add a 1/2 cup brown sugar with 1/2 teaspoon dried ground orange peel mixed in because I wanted it a bit sweeter than I had made the dough and I love orange flavor with dates and walnuts. You could also sub in orange zest. You could also start with a sweeter dough and skip the brown sugar (which is less messy, too). Doesn't this look mouthwatering with the dates and nuts?


I'm sending this over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her Yeastspotting weekly event...a wonderland of recipes of things made with yeast...check it out!

Sourdough Mixed Grain Dough with Almond Meal

Poolish
1 cup sourdough starter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup water

Dough
1/2 cup barely warm water
all of the poolish
1 1/4 cup bread flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup barley flour
1/4 cup soy flour
1/2 cup almond meal (finely ground almonds)
1/4 cup wheat germ
1/2 teaspoon super active dry yeast
2 teaspoons sea salt
additional bread flour as needed (1-2 cups at most)

Datteri e Noci
Above Mixed Grain dough
3/4 cup chopped dates
1 1/3 cups chopped toasted walnuts
4 tablespoons soft butter, divided
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon dried ground orange peel

For the Poolish
Whisk together the flour and water and add it to the sourdough starter. Let sit uncovered 2 hours to ferment.

For the Dough
Take the Poolish and put it into the bowl of a stand mixer. Add the 1/2 cup water and stir to combine.

In another bowl, whisk together the four flours, almond meal, wheat germ, yeast and sea salt to combine. With the dough hook attached and the speed on low, gradually add the flour mixture to the poolish mixture until a soft dough is formed. Let the mixer do the kneading, adding flour as needed a tablespoon at a time, or turn dough onto a floured surface and knead by hand until dough is satiny and elastic.

Place dough into oiled rising container or bowl, turn to coat with oil, cover with plastic wrap and a tea towel and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 2 hours.

Remove risen dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead lightly to release any extra gas.
Filling and Shaping. Mix the brown sugar with the orange peel and set aside.

Roll the dough out 1/2 inch thick. Cut the dough into 3 equal rectangles. Spread 2 tablespoons of butter one one, leaving about an inch around the edges free of butter, then repeat on a second rectangle, using up the rest of the butter. On one rectangle sprinkle the dates; on the second, the walnuts;


leave the third layer empty. If using, sprinkle the date layer with half the brown sugar mixture.

Place the walnut dough on top of the date dough and sprinkle with the other half of the brown sugar mixture, then cover both of them with the plain dough. Pinch the edges to seal and gently shape into a ball by pulling the dough taut and pinching it together at the bottom. Place in a buttered panettone mold, 2-pound coffee can lined with a round of parchment paper, or 2-quart springform mold with sides built up with aluminum foil. Cover with a towel and let rise until doubled, 3 - 4 hours.

Baking
Heat the oven to 400 degrees F. Bake 10 minutes. Reduce the heat to 375 degrees F and bake 40 - 50 minutes. If the top starts to get too brown, cover it with aluminum foil. Cool completely in the mold and then unmold onto a rack.


In the drawing the the book Carol seemed to decorate the top with sliced dates but I sprayed it with a bit of oil and sprinkled with sanding sugar before it went into the oven.

This makes a wonderfully fragrant and impressive loaf similar in shape to a pannettone. I think I rolled the top layer too thin.

You can see in the photos that even before it rose there were little holes and once it was baked you can see all the places the walnuts peek through. Some of the brown sugar came through and was deeply caramelized, too.

I found that most of the bottom of the loaf was just plain bread without the dates and nuts so the next time I would probably roll up the sealed dough layer like a jelly roll and put it in the pan as a wreath just so the fruit and nuts would be distributed throughout. If made with laminated dough this would be far flakier and buttery and a whole 'nuther beast so maybe then the ball with ends pinched under would work great. Might have to try that!

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.)

Will Sit for Bread

Xam says there's something delicious over at the Bread Baker's Dog blog...click HERE to go there and see!

Tropical Bannana Bread

Take one plain, uninspired, but solid recipe for banana bread, substitute some molasses for some of the sugar (while thinking of how the molasses / sugar trade was one leg of a terrible triangle in the early years of our country...the other legs being rum and slaves, or so I've been told). Bananas and vanilla are certainly tropical enough, but let's add some dates (thinking of desert palms and midnight at the oasis). Pecans grow in the south, not necessarily tropical, but warm, anyway. Let's throw some in, along with coconut (think Hawaii and Pohnepei where Sweetie spent time while in the Peace Corps, and island breezes). Now we have a tropical banana bread that is sure to please my Sweetie.

The fragrance that fills the house as it cooks is alluring. It was so hard to wait a bit after it came out of the oven to let it cool...well at least a little...although it was still warm.

What a mouthful! The flavors of coconut and banana are followed by the date and pecan and molasses goodness. It is flavorful from the whole wheat flour I used, super moist and hard to resist.

The next day, chilled and sliced thin, spread with cream cheese and cut into fingers, it's also an elegant accompaniment to a nice cup of hot tea. This might be the best banana bread I've ever made. Next time I might make some rum flavored syrup to pour over while it's hot. That would be perfection.

Tropical Banana Bread

based on my mom's banana bread in Family Food, June 1994
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

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/2 cup chopped pitted dates

1/2 cup shredded coconut

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf pan.

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, dates, and coconut.

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.

Warm Dates for Breakfast

I'm a big fan of dates as a snack food and added to all sorts of dishes, but my very favorite way to enjoy dates is warm for breakfast in Date Nut Muffins. On Saturday I decided to make some to go with the fresh fruit and coffee that Sweetie had made. Since I usually eat a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast, I decided to add some rolled oats to one of my favorite muffin recipes, along with the dates and some pecans. They were delicious!

The basic recipe for Muffins in Joy of Cooking was the starting place for this recipe, but, as usual, I made some changes. Fresh from the oven these smelled wonderful and the dates were soft and warm, the oatmeal gave the muffins character, and three of us managed to polish off nine muffins in hardly any time at all. Don't be surprised if there are none left to photograph or to enjoy with afternoon tea.

A few days ago, when I was completely exhausted from by far the busiest week that has ever happened at work, I found that sweet Mrs. W of Mrs. W's Kitchen had awarded me the 'E for Excellent Award'. Awww, that is so special. I enjoy writing this blog and know that there are folks who enjoy reading it, but had never thought that it was actually excellent. Thank you Mrs. W!

Part of getting the Award is then passing it along. I took some time with that, so here are the Awardees, followed by directions of what they are supposed to do once they get the Award, followed the by Date Nut Oatmeal Muffin recipe.

Hope you will visit the Awarded sites to see why I think that they are Excellent blogs and bloggers. There are at least 10 more I could name, but I'll save that for another time. If I have given an Award to a blogger who has already gotten one, well, guess they are super Excellent!

http://www.culinaryconcoctionsbypeabody.com/ , Culinary Concoctions by Peabody, this is the blog I check out when I only have time to visit one (a too frequent event these past weeks) because the posts are personal and thoughtful and the recipes are sweet, delish, and the photos usually make me want to lick the screen.
http://workingwomanfood.blogspot.com/, Taste and Tell, Deborah’s posts are engaging, her photos are great and she gives excellent information for the recipes…plus it’s fun to read her blog.
http://llcskitchen.blogspot.com/ La Mia Cucina, Lis is a totally funny blogger and cracks me up with her posts…plus she is den mother to the Daring Bakers along with the next nominee.
http://creampuffsinvenice.ca/ Cream Puffs In Venice, Ivonne’s blog is elegant and inspiring with truly lovely photography. She and Lis (above) began the creation of a wonderful baking community, too.
http://www.jumboempanadas.blogspot.com/ Jumbo Empanadas, Brilynn is unfailingly interesting, totally herself and her blog is delightful to read. Her enthusiasm for baking is inspiring, plus she is funny.
http://www.chezus.com/ Chez Us, Denise writes a thoughtful blog…check out the Ape Diet…also clean and appealing photos.
http://cookbookqueen.blogspot.com/, Cooking the Books, Kelly-Jane blogs about baked goods (my favorite) and main dishes with equal appeal. We often get multiple recipes in one post…and they are all good.
http://www.tasteslikehome.org/, Tastes Like Home, Cynthia could be my next door neighbor, even though she likes hot & spicy foods and I don’t. Her passion for ingredients is awesome and her photos really capture the beauty of those ingredients.
http://www.findingladolcevita.blogspot.com/ Finding La Dolce Vita, Maryann writes so well, it is always fun to see what she is sharing with us. Great recipes and fine photos, too.
http://technicolorkitcheninenglish.blogspot.com/ Technicolor Kitchen, Patricia has such great recipes…pasta, cookies, truffles, ravioli, pinwheel scones, and more. Very inspiring.

There are rules relating to the E for Excellent award*. Here they are:
- Find at least 10 more blogs of any kind which you deem to be excellent;
- Post about which blogs you picked, linking to me and to them;
- Once you've posted, return here to let me know your post is up, and of course let your 10 award winners know, too.
*If you've already received this award in the past, I won't hold you to selecting 10 more.

And now for the Date Nut Oatmeal Muffin recipe:

Date Nut Oatmeal Muffins
Makes 12

1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
¾ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons double-acting baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ cup sugar
1 cup quick cooking oatmeal, uncooked
¾ cup chopped dates
½ cup chopped pecans
2 eggs or ½ cup egg substitute
2 tablespoons melted butter
¾ cup buttermilk

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Spray the cups of a 12 cup muffin tin (or 2 6 cup muffins tins) with baking spray (or grease with butter or shortening)

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Mix in the sugar and oatmeal. Gently mix in the chopped dates, coating them with the flour mixture. Mix in the pecans.

In a smaller bowl, mix together the eggs or egg substitute, melted butter and buttermilk until well combined.

Pour the liquid mixture into the dry mixture and quickly, with a few strokes, stir to just mix. Fill each muffin cup about ¾ full. Place the muffin tin(s) into the preheated oven and bake for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown.

Serve hot. These are delicious eaten plain, but very good, too with some butter.

Love That Golden Syrup

April 23rd is England’s neglected national day, St George’s Day. When I saw that Sam of Becks and Posh was hosting a one-off event called Fish and Quips, just the title drew my interest. The theme of showcasing good British cooking is a winner.

Along with things like the traditional Afternoon (not High) Tea, with its cucumber tea sandwiches, small tarts, and rich scones slathered with clotted cream and jam, other sweet foods came to mind. There is the classic Victoria Cake, with sponge cake, jam and whipped cream, and the traditional trifle with sponge cake, jam, brandy, custard and whipped cream. (Are we seeing a pattern here?) Well, one thing is for certain, the Brits know a thing or two about sweets.

Originally I was looking for a recipe for Spotted Dick, a steamed pudding mentioned often in the O'Brian novels about Captain Aubrey and Dr. Maturin during the Napoleonic Wars. It seems to be a favorite dessert. Unfortunately, once I found the recipe, it sounded too sweet for even my overdeveloped sweet tooth.

Then I remembered a dish I enjoyed at a Father's Day meal years ago at Doce Lunas Restaurant east of Santa Rosa. It was Sticky Toffee Pudding, a sponge pudding that has a lot of dates in it, along with molasses and Golden Syrup. Well, the Golden Syrup in the recipe decided it. Golden Syrup is a golden pure cane syrup and is a British treasure. I also bake Anzac cookies using this lovely syrup as a key ingredient.

The pudding itself is moist, sweet and mellow. The sauce that goes with it is a sort of caramel sauce and it uses more of the Golden Syrup. The brand I use is called Lyles and it can sometimes be found in the market with other British imports. I combined elements from three different recipes. One had the size pan I wanted to use, another used the Golden Syrup, and another used some molasses, too. I don't know of a good substitute for Golden Syrup if you can't find it. Karo dark is nothing like it, although it might be the closest regular American grocery item.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Serves 4-6

For the Pudding:

5 oz. dates, pits removed, chopped

1 cup hot water

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 stick (4 tablespoons) butter, softened

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons molasses

1 tablespoon golden syrup

2 eggs

1/2 cup, plus 1 tablespoon, self-rising flour

For the toffee sauce:

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon golden syrup

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Butter an 8-inch square cake pan.

Heat the water in a small pot, add the chopped dates and the baking soda. Let stand while you prepare the butter, sugar, egg mixture.

Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. I use an electric stand mixer.

Add the molasses, golden syrup and mix well. Scrape the bowl and beaters.

Add the eggs, one at a time, and mix well.

Add the flour on low speed, then increase to medium to combine. Add the dates mixture and mix well. The mixture will be somewhat thin and curdled looking. That's OK.

Pour the mixture into the prepared pan. Place into the oven and bake 35-40 minutes, or until cooked through. Top will be springly when touched.

To make the sauce, melt the butter in a heavy skillet over medium heat. Add the brown sugar and golden syrup. Mix well. Add the whipping cream and mix to thoroughly combine. Simmer for five to ten minutes to thicken slightly.

To serve, spoon out a portion of the pudding into a shallow bowl and pour over some of the hot toffee sauce.