Double Chocolate Banana Bread

I had such high hopes for this bread after Emily raved about the taste.  As soon as she gave me the thumbs up recommendation, I went out and bought bananas and then had to wait for the long few days until they could get sufficiently ripened to be used.

Everything went together easily and, according to the gorgeous pictures on Smitten Kitchen, my efforts were right on the mark with Deb’s for each step of the preparation. This was another treat I planned to share with the church so imagine my displeasure when the seemingly perfect bread would NOT come out of the loaf pan all nice and pretty. Part of the bottom tore away as I gently coaxed the loaf from the home it clearly did not want to leave. You know what this meant? I had to eat all those mangled bits before (and after) slicing up the intact part of the loaf for church consumption!

I love chocolate and I love bananas, and I love the marriage of these two tastes. Is there anything better than a chocolate banana milkshake, for instance? And my sister-in-law’s famous banana chocolate pie? I could eat the whole thing in one sitting.  This double chocolate banana bread is rich and, in my version at least, almost more banana-y than the double dose of chocolate. It’s good right down to the last stray glop left at the bottom of the loaf pan.

Double Chocolate Banana Bread
recipe from Smitten Kitchen

3 medium-to-large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup (115 grams) butter, melted
3/4 cup (145 grams) brown sugar (I use dark here; either light or dark work)
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon (optional; I skip it)
1 cup (125 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 cup (about 6 ounces or 170 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips

Heat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan, or spray it with a nonstick baking spray.

Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. (You’ll have a little over 1 cup mashed banana total.) Whisk in melted butter, then brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Place baking soda, salt, cinnamon (if using), flour and cocoa powder in a sifter or fine-mesh strainer and sift over wet ingredients. (My cocoa is almost always lumpy, so this is essential for me.) Stir dry and wet ingredients with a spoon until just combined. Stir in chocolate chunks or chips.

Pour into prepared pan and bake 55 to 65 minutes, until a tester or toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out batter-free. (A melted chocolate chip smear is expected, however.) Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.

The banana bread will keep for up to 4 days at room temperature. I keep mine wrapped in foil.

Ma's Prune Cake

Of everything my grandmother made, I loved her prune cake the best. When I think of that cake, there is no recollection of the stigma usually surrounding the mention of prunes but, rather, of a dark spice laden dessert that was both dense and incredibly moist. As a testament to just how much I loved that cake, my grandmother even sent one through the mail on more than one of my birthdays. Imagine baked goods traveling from West Virginia to Arizona long before Amazon Prime put packages at your doorstep overnight. 



After recently finding the recipe, written up in my grandmother’s distinctive handwriting, I decided to do something evil. There’s no way Martin would eat even one slice of a prune cake and just as small a chance that I’d stop before eating the whole cake by myself, so what to do?  I baked one this weekend, put it on a platter, and sent it to the church for a fellowship. I didn’t even bother to describe what was in the cake and, in fact, rather hoped unsuspecting church folk would mistake the cooked and cut up prune bits for raisins.

Because I was in charge of a musical night before the fellowship, I didn’t even get to the room where all the eats where put out until after all the pieces of my mystery dessert were gone. I have no idea how the cake might have been received...but I bet there were some folks who found themselves surprisingly regular the next day. If you get my drift.

Just because I missed out on the church portion of the cake, certainly doesn’t mean I didn’t get a taste of the past in it’s most delicious form. I ate two (or was it three?) slices before I cut the rest up to be given away. Did it taste just like my grandmother’s? Honestly, I don’t have an exact remembrance of how her cake tasted because I think what most impressed me as a child and teenager was the love that went into baking that special cake, just for me. I could put all the same ingredients into a pan but I couldn’t duplicate the extra dimension of a grandmother’s loving attention to her only granddaughter added to each component of the cake.

If the thought of a prune cake seems odd, think of this as very close to an applesauce spice cake, in terms of taste and texture. Or, do as my daughter suggested and simply rename the prunes to "dried plums". Whatever it takes to get past a possible prune hang-up, this cake is worth it.

Prune Cake with Glazed Topping
3 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c vegetable oil
1 c buttermilk
1 c cooked, chopped prunes
1 t vanilla
2 c flour
1 t baking powder
1 t baking soda
1 t cinnamon
1 t nutmeg
1 t allspice
To prepare the prunes, place in a glass measuring cup and cover with water. Microwave 3 minutes. Drain and rinse with cold water to cool. Cut into pieces.

Mix wet ingredients in mixer and blend well.
Add sifted dry ingredients alternately with buttermilk. Beat well.
Pour into a greased 9x13 pan. Bake 350 for 40-50 minutes or until toothpick inserted into cake comes out clean.
Glaze
1 1/2 sticks butter
1 1/2 c sugar
3/4 c buttermilk
2 T white corn syrup
1 t vanilla
Place all ingredients in deep sauce pan and stir over medium
low heat just until it begins to boil.
Remove from heat and add 1 t of baking soda.
Stir until dissolved and foamy. Pour slowly
over hot cake until absorbed.

Cheddar Swirl Breakfast Buns

I've been wanting to make this recipe for months, even if it is improperly named. Breakfast buns? Umm...I think not. These cheesy, yeasty lovelies taste great any time of day. In fact, I think they'd make a great dinner bread, joined up with a Claire's type soul-sustaining soup, or a hearty roast. Sure, you can eat them for breakfast...but something this good was never meant to be limited to morning hours.

I couldn't find the instant yeast in any of my local grocery stores but, after reading other people's comments, decided to substitute bread machine yeast. The buns turned out great. I've since found out Smart and Final carries the instant yeast so maybe next time I'll buy the 10 gallon drum they probably sell. 

Is it silly to say that I love these kind of roll-up doughs? As I work the dough into the prescribed tight log, there's the feeling of being a child and getting to mold play dough one more time. Except this time it's ok to eat the dough. 

Cheddar Swirl Rolls

from The Smitten Kitchen Cookbook by Deb Perelman

Note: To make ahead – prep the dough to the point before the first rise and refrigerate it for up to 3 days. Just bring to room temperature before you continue with the recipe. (This does work because that's how I did my rolls. I also read that you can easily half this recipe.)

Dough


3 cups (375 g) all-purpose flour


1 teaspoon salt


pinch of black pepper


1 tablespoon sugar


2 1/4 teaspoons instant yeast


1 cup milk


1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to lukewarm, plus 1 tablespoon for brushing the rolls

Filling


1/2 cup grated onion (about 1/2 medium onion)


1 1/2 cups (170 g) grated sharp cheddar cheese


2 teaspoons minced fresh dill


1/4 teaspoon salt


pinch of black pepper

To make the dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the flour, salt, pepper, and sugar. Mix briefly to combine. In a medium measuring cup, whisk the yeast into the milk to dissolve. Add the yeast mixture and the melted butter to the mixer and beat on low speed just until a rough dough comes together. Switch to the dough hook and knead the dough on low speed for about 5 minutes, or until it is smooth and elastic.

Spray a large bowl with nonstick cooking spray. Shape the dough into a ball and place in the prepared bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl, stir together all of the ingredients for the filling. Line two 9-inch round cake pans with parchment paper and set aside.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Roll into a rectangle measuring about 12×16-inches. Spread the filling evenly over the dough, leaving about 1/2-inch border at the edge. Starting with a short side, roll the dough into a tight log. Cut the dough into 12 rolls, each about 1-inch wide. Place 6 of the rolls into each of the prepared pans, spacing them out evenly. Melt the remaining 1 tablespoon of butter and gently brush it over the rolls. Cover the pans with plastic wrap and let rise for about 2 hours, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 350 F when the rolls are nearly done rising.

Remove the plastic wrap from the pans, and bake the rolls for 20-25 minutes, or until they’re golden brown and the cheese bubbles. Serve warm!

Lunch Lady Brownies

When I have to make snacks for small group it's hard not to over think the menu. Last year, these mental exercises seemed particularly ludicrous because the folks in that group would've eaten just about anything...and did. It was definitely gratifying to serve up all kinds of foods and get immediate positive reactions. One of our members died unexpectedly last fall. I miss many things about him - including the way he'd come into my house talking about how he couldn't wait to eat whatever I'd cooked up. How could you not love a guy like that?

This year is harder. People either don't eat at all because of dietary constraints or they're Martin type selective about what they consider a decent snack. (OK, maybe it's just Jim and Martin that are choosy but since our group is smaller this year, those two plus the non-eater do constitute a fair percentage of folks who will be partaking of whatever is being offered to snack on.) For every exotic dessert or savory recipe to drool over, I find myself coming back to the old standards when I'm cooking for this crowd. Old standards such as these lunch lady brownies. The story has it that some cafeteria worker at a junior high school in Idaho has been making this recipe for decades. If food is good enough to stay on a school lunch menu for 50 years, you have to figure it'll be good enough for my small group.

Thinking about all those kids in Idaho eating up the Cafeteria Lady's brownies for fifty years made me recall my own school lunch experiences. I had the typical standing in the lunch line waiting for my plasticky tray to be filled with bland school food fare. None of it memorable. By high school, I was packing my own lunches though I do recall often standing in a long line to get the very much sought after warm cherry turnovers with a sugary icing criss-crossed over the top. In my jaded memory, I doubt those pastries were homemade every morning, but maybe there IS an Arizona counterpart to the Idaho Cafeteria Lady and maybe she's still making up batches of those turnovers fifty years later? I'll start googling Lunch Lady Turnovers now.

Lunch Lady Brownies
 Recipe courtesy of: http://www.saltboxhousecreations.com/2008/12/have-brownie.html

Ingredients:
1 cup of butter (I use unsalted)
1/2 cup of unsweetened cocoa
2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of sugar
4 eggs
4 teaspoons of vanilla
1 cup of chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Melt the Butter  and put into a mixing bowl.  Add cocoa and mix together until smooth. Add flour and sugar. Beat together and then add eggs, vanilla, and nuts. Mix until combined. Do not over stir!

Pour into greased, floured  9x13 baking pan. (The batter will NOT be runny like your average cake mix.)

Bake 20-25 minutes @350 F or until toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.

Let the brownies cool for about 10 minutes.  Frost while they are warm (not hot).
The frosting it what makes these brownies so good because they are not very sweet on their own. The warm frosting sinks into the brownies just enough to marry that dense cake with sugary sweet icing. You know how I always talk about the picky eaters in my life? Well, here's a confession: I can be pretty choosy when it comes to icings, preferring sweet over buttery/lardy type spreads. I used regular milk when I made the icing for these brownies and thought it tasted great. Next time, I'll definitely try the evaporated canned milk. Because there will be a next time.


The Chocolate Icing Recipe:
While the brownies are baking mix together:
1/4 cup of softened butter
1/4 cup of evaporated canned milk (regular milk is fine)
1/4 cup of unsweetened cocoa
3 cups of powdered sugar
Dash of salt

Mix all together and frost as desired.

Pecan Pie Muffins

Sometimes I love pecan pie and sometimes I don't. I think it's the sticky over the top sweetness that makes me thumb my nose at the mere idea of sharing Thanksgiving (pretty much the only time I would be inclined to make a pecan pie) dessert with anything other than the perfection of pumpkin pie.

Even so, there's something deliciously attractive about pecans, butter, and brown sugar mixed up into any kind of dessert. While it can be tricky to get just the right consistency for the filling on a pecan pie, these muffins are super easy and super delicious. All the goodness of a traditional pie with none of the fuss. Other than possibly the pecans, you're going to have every one of the ingredients on hand, such that you can remember late one night that you have to bring snacks the next morning for bible study and still whip up a batch. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

I like the bite size portion for these muffins though I'll warn you that they taste so good you might find yourself eating three or four (or five or six), before you remember that scarfing down many small muffins all at once still adds up to lots of calories. Hypothetically speaking, of course.

Maybe it's the tiny size of the muffins or the way they have so little flour in comparison to the brown sugar and pecans; but for whatever reason these little bites of yummyness really do feel closer to pecan pie than muffin. Not as gooey wonderful...but close enough. And an added bonus, pecan pie muffins are way more portable than pecan pie. You can baggie up a few and throw them in your purse for a snack while you go through your busy day. Or, you can stay home and sit by the fireplace watching a rare San Diego rain fall while drinking coffee and eating these sweet treats. Definitely not hypothetically speaking.


Pecan Pie Mini Muffins

1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1 cup chopped pecans
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter, melted
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Vegetable cooking spray
1/2 cup finely chopped pecans

Preparation
1. Preheat oven to 425°. Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; make a well in center of mixture. Stir together butter and next 2 ingredients; add to brown sugar mixture, and stir just until moistened. Coat 2 (12-cup) miniature muffin pans well with cooking spray. (Make sure you give a liberal dose of the cooking spray. Otherwise the muffins will stick when you try to remove them.) Place 1 tsp. finely chopped pecans in each muffin cup; spoon batter over pecans, filling almost to top. Place muffin pans on an aluminum foil-lined jelly-roll pan.
2. Bake at 425° for 10 to 12 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on a wire rack 2 minutes. Run a knife around edge of each cup to loosen muffins, and remove from pans.

Almond Crisped Peaches

Nothing says summer quite like fresh peaches and, as discussed before within this blog, I love me some peaches! I know the rest of the world is welcoming fall but here in sunny San Diego we continue on with our unending summer and fresh produce.

If I were to fix myself a peach pie it would sit in my kitchen and call my name every minute of the day and on into night. Even with partial deafness, I'm sure I'd still hear those peaches whispering in my ear, begging me to come have just one more little slice of summery heaven. And that's pretty much how it would go until the last flaky morsel was consumed. Making matters worse, I would be the only one hearing that seductive siren call as Martin is completely immune to talking pies. Even if we  had one he liked (and that would be cherry), he's that sensible kind of person who eats one slice in the evening and is done until the next day. Eating pie in measured moderation is almost like a superhuman power in my book.

I'm sure you can now see why it would not be a good thing for me to have a whole peach pie in the house right now. Remember, I'm the one who is trying to get control of some of my quirkier eating habits as I steer myself toward healthy eating and, please God, all the longevity and quality of life promised with such wisdom in food choices. Thankfully, Emily put me onto an easy little recipe that allows me to feel like I'm having a peach cobbler/pie without having to bake and eat a whole one every day.

When I first glanced at the recipe, it just LOOKED hard because there was so much text involved. To view this copious amount of instructions, I imagined that Deb must've started with telling us exactly how to plant the peach seed, watch it grow to tree, graft it at the proper times, glean the fruit and then start with the recipe instructions. All the verbiage aside, I couldn't believe how quickly and easily these little peach delights came together. And, best of all worlds, easy does NOT compute to not all that tasty. You know how you sometimes find a recipe that thrills your soul because it seems so quick and painless to put together but, when completed, you realize that it would've been a whole lot better if it had been harder but...well...better.

Not so with this recipe. While the topping couldn't be easier to whip up, the resulting baked peach is decadently good. Like having your own mini-peach cobbler, whenever you want it.


Almond-Crisped Peaches
Adapted from Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard
From Smitten Kitchen

Nigel Slater’s recipe is incredibly simple: almonds, sugar and butter. I came so close to following it exactly, and then couldn’t resist adding 1/4 cup rolled oats, a pinch of cinnamon and a pinch of sea salt, because I love all three so much in crisps. Consider it optional; the recipe works with or without them. Without them, the topping is more butter and brittle-like after baking; with them, it is still buttery and brittle-like, but with a little more of a traditional crisp texture and flavor. Both are magical; the peaches are barely sweet and taste fantastic with a dollop of creme fraiche or softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream on top. As for fruit, you could use peaches or nectarines with roughly the same cooking time, or try it with plums or apricots, or all soon, apples and pears. Feel free to try other nuts, too, any kind that you enjoy with baked fruit.

Slater recommends bakers sugar, which is sold in the U.S. as superfine sugar. I couldn’t resist going in the opposite direction, using coarse raw sugar (turbinado, often sold as Sugar in the Raw here) instead. Regular granulated sugar works as well. I didn’t try it with brown sugar, and suspect it may be delicious, but will not be certain until one of you report back (hint) how it holds up in the long baking time, hopefully not over-browning.

4 ripe peaches
1/3 cup (55 grams) whole almonds
1/4 cup (50 grams) sugar
3 tablespoons (45 grams) cold unsalted butter, cubed

Optional extras: 1/4 cup (20 grams) rolled oats, 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon, pinch of sea salt
(NOTE: I used about half that amount of rolled oats and at least 1/8 tsp of the cinnamon.)

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Halve peaches and remove pits. Place fruit cut side up in baking dish. In a food processor, grind almonds and sugar together until coarsely ground (with a few pebbles left). Add oats and other flavorings, if using, then butter, pulsing the machine until the ingredients are just blended. Spoon the almond mixture into the center of each peach, then press it flat, as if icing the tops of the peaches with it. Bake for 45 minutes to 1 hour (baking time varies with peach size), until the top is brown and crisp and you can easily slice through the fruit with a fork or spoon.

Serve warm or at room temperature, with creme fraiche, lightly sweetened whipped cream or even plain yogurt, cold, for breakfast.

Cinnamon Vanilla Crepes with Fresh Peaches and Cream

I am trying to eat a better balanced diet and part of this endeavor includes not scarfing down so many sweets. Let's face it - I'm a sugar addict and would be content to eat my substantial weight in chocolate, and candy bars...or chocolate candy bars. Why can't life be like when I was a kid and ate everything I wanted without gaining too much weight????

I bought some not quite ripe yet peaches a few days ago and have been eagerly feeling them up every day to see if they would be ready for this recipe I found online. Coincidentally, it happened that just after I'd earmarked the peach crepes as a future make it and eat it project, Emily sent me the link for another peach dessert. Good thing I live in Sunny California and can get lots of peaches at the farmer's market,  just down the street. I'm fully expecting to make Emily's recipe tomorrow.

So, here's the deal - since I'm cutting out lots of extraneous sugar sweets, I decided these crepes would be my lunch. I've eaten so many salads in the past few weeks that I figure I deserve to splurge a little and go for a slightly off the sensible eating grid for this one meal.

I'm copying the directions from the website where I found the recipe but I didn't do mine exactly the way it was listed. First of all, the part about putting the crepe ingredients in a blender - I don't currently own that particular appliance. Not since Martin broke the glass bowl component. I've made lots of other crepe batters using a mixer so that's what I did. Maybe these would be even more spectacular if you have a blender but until I replace my broken one, I'll never know that for sure!

I may not own a blender but I do have my very own crepe maker. Obviously, as the recipe states (and demonstrates via great pics if you go to the original site) crepes can be made in a kitchen frying pan, but it sure is a lot more fun to swirl the batter around on a bona fide crepe making appliance. I always feel like donning a beret and speaking french when I'm using mine!

CINNAMON VANILLA CREPES

Time: 30 minutes
Yield: 8-10 crepes

Recipe from Jamie Cooks It Up!
(NOTE - I halved the recipe)

Ingredients:
1 1/2 C milk

1 C all-purpose flour

1 T oil

2 eggs

1/4 t salt

1 1/2 T sugar

1/2 t cinnamon

1 t vanilla



PEACH FILLING:

6-7 fresh peaches

1-2 T sugar

1/8 t nutmeg

Cool Whip or Whipping Cream  or 
powdered sugar (optional)

Directions:
1 Get out your blender and add 1 1/2 cups milk into it.
2. Add 1 cup flour, 1 tablespoon oil, 2 eggs, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 1/2 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1 teaspoon vanilla.
3. Blend it all up until it's nice and frothy. You may have to turn off the blender and scrape the sides down with a rubber spatula if the flour sticks to the sides.
4. Heat a medium-sized skillet up over medium high heat. Drizzle 3-4 tablespoons of batter into the bottom of the pan. You don't want to get it too thick. Just enough to cover about half of the pan. Then pick the pan up and tip it on its side to let the batter coat the pan.
5. Let it cook until the bottom is golden brown. Use a fork to turn up the side and then flip it over. Let it get brown on the other side and then transfer it to a plate. Continue cooking the rest of the batter in this manner.
6. Peel and slice your peaches and place them in a medium-sized mixing bowl.
7. Sprinkle 1-2 tablespoons of sugar and 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg over the peaches. Give it all a stir and let it sit for about 10 minutes. The peaches will get nice and juicy for you.
8. Spoon the peaches into the crepes and top with cool whip or freshly whipped cream (if you are super ambitious)!