Simple Banana Bread

Ah, today I did something very unlike me. And it made me happy.

I'm one of those people who loves to use millions of ingredients in her recipes. A little whole wheat flour here, some AP there, and a little graham flour for good measure. Add-ins? Chocolate, raisins, zucchini, banana, applesauce, cherries, blueberries, nuts... And the list (usually) goes on.

And though Tim loves my baking & cooking, sometimes he'll say to me, "Can we just have Bisquick pancakes today?" And then I remember that people actually like simple, basic recipes. And actually prefer them over extravagant, complex ones. Silly me, how hard this is to remember.

(I haven't yet mentioned to Tim that you can in fact still make pancakes from scratch with plain AP flour...that Bisquick really isn't the main ingredient of pancakes...but I'll save that for another day! :) Keeping quiet is one way to get him to make the pancakes...)

So Tim's been in southern Illinois since Thursday, working through the weekend 14 hours a day, & he's tired of it. Today's his last day before he comes home to me, so to make it easier to get through the day, I told him I'd bake him whatever he wants for when he gets home.

He chose banana bread. I immediately thought of all the combos out there...nutella, pb, chocolate, caramel! Then I quickly realized that what he has in mind is probably good ol' plain banana bread. When I ask if he wants anything in it, he answers plain & simple: nuts.

And so, with great difficulty, I created a (nearly) plain loaf of banana bread.

I used the banana bread from Simply Recipes as a base (I still intend to make the delicious looking cake from The Wednesday Chef, but figured I'd stick as close to the simple bread as possible). I halved it because I only had 2 bananas (so sad!) & made very few other changes.

Banana Bread
adapted from Simply Recipes

2 ripe bananas, mashed
2.5 Tbsp melted butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 egg, beaten
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup unbleached AP flour
1/4 cup graham flour
1 tsp instant coffee

Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C). Mix instant coffee & 1/2 tsp hot water, then add to butter. With a wooden spoon, mix butter mixture into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl. Mix in the sugar, egg, and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda over the mixture and mix in. Add the flour last, mix. Pour mixture into a buttered mini loaf pan. Bake for 45 minutes. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve.

Ok. Yes. I did add instant coffee. Only a little. Oh, and I did add a little tiny tiny bit of graham flour, which I don't really count. And some cinnamon. See...step in the right direction! :)

It was pretty yummy. Not as moist as I expected it to be, but I did use frozen bananas, & I did allow them to leak all over the counter as they defrosted for far too long. I'll have to try again soon with fresh ones!

Peanut Butter & Banana Scones

Ever since I started making scones, I haven't been able to stop. It's like an addiction. I can't even eat scones from coffee shops anymore. I just can't imagine that they are as good as the ones I make in my kitchen, plus I can customize the flavors (& generally cut out about 1/2 the fat).

My latest variation was a desperate attempt to use up some of the bananas rapidly "ripening" on my kitchen table. I thought about throwing in some walnuts to make a delicious banana bread scone, and also contemplated adding some nutella since I'd just finally bought some (but if I don't open the jar, I can't eat it all in one sitting!), but finally decided that the jar of cinnamon peanut butter (that I didn't like on its own...yuck, too sweet) would be a perfect addition.

They turned out really well, though not very sweet (just like all my scones) & the peanut butter taste was subtle. I'll mention here that I decided to go back & make a version with more pb, but the scone ended up a lot flatter & didn't have a much stronger pb taste. The recipe below is the first recipe I tried, and it produced some flaky delicious scones.

Ingredients:

1/4 cup soy flour
3/4 cup oats
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 cup peanut butter*
1 medium banana, ripe
1/4 cup butter, unsalted
1/2 cup lowfat buttermilk
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp packed light brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together flours, oatmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & cinnamon. Add butter to mixture & blend in using a fork or a pastry blender until coarse crumbles appear. Add bananas. In a separate bowl, beat together buttermilk, peanut butter, vanilla & egg. Using a spatula, integrate dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just blended. The dough shouldn't be too sticky, so if the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl you can add a bit more flour.

On a floured surface, take half of the dough & form a circle, as if you were making an extremely thick pizza crust. Use a large knife (I used a floured pizza cutter!) to divide the circle into 6 pieces. Repeat with the other half of the dough, then place the sections onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. You can easily freeze these (I wrap them in aluminum foil & then put them in a ziploc freezer bag), or store them in a container for a few days.

*The pb I used was sweetened, so if yours is not, you might prefer to add 1/4 cup of sugar.

Tim's Sacred Geometry

Does anyone watch Rob & Big? No? I thought that might be the case. We, on the other hand, watch it somewhat religiously. (If you haven't seen it, you have to catch the one where they buy a net gun, it's a complete winner!)

Ever since we saw an episode where Rob & Big went to see a spiritual leader to find out how to improve Rob's skateboarding (I should probably mention here that Tim skateboards, and thus the show is particularly entertaining for him), Tim has been talking about sacred geometry (also known as sacred "g"). Basically, they pasted this geometric pattern (sacred g) onto the bottom of the skateboard for luck. And indeed, it somehow improved his "run".

When Tim saw the cinnamon buns upside-down (why were they upside-down you ask? that's how they came out of the pan of course!), looking all perfect and similar, he asked "Honey, did you make me sacred geometry?" which I thought was very cute, and it stuck.

So I present to you, my sacred geometry.

Cinnamon Rolls
adapted from Bon Apetit, March 2008

1/2 cup skim milk
1.5 Tbsps unsalted butter
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp rapid-rise yeast
1/2 egg
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt

filling
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 1/2 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp light spreadable butter

glaze
2 oz cream cheese, room temp
1/2 cup powdered sugar
2 tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

For dough:
Combine milk and butter in glass measuring cup. Microwave on high until butter melts and mixture is just warmed to 120°F to 130°F, 30 to 45 seconds. Pour into bowl of stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment. Add 1 cup flour, sugar, egg, yeast, and salt. Beat on low speed 3 minutes, stopping occasionally to scrape down sides of bowl. Add 21/2 cups flour. Beat on low until flour is absorbed and dough is sticky, scraping down sides of bowl. If dough is very sticky, add more flour by tablespoonfuls until dough begins to form ball and pulls away from sides of bowl. Turn dough out onto lightly floured work surface. Knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if sticky, about 8 minutes. Form into ball.

Lightly oil large bowl with nonstick spray. Transfer dough to bowl, turning to coat. Cover bowl with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 2 hours.

For filling:
Mix brown sugar and cinnamon in medium bowl.

Punch down dough. Transfer to floured work surface. Roll out to 15x11-inch rectangle. Spread butter over dough, leaving 1/2-inch border. Sprinkle cinnamon sugar evenly over butter. Starting at 1 long side, roll dough into log, pinching gently to keep it rolled up. With seam side down, cut dough crosswise with thin sharp knife into 18 equal slices (each about 1/2 to 3/4 inch wide).

Spray two 9-inch square glass baking dishes with nonstick spray. Divide rolls between baking dishes, arranging cut side up (there will be almost no space between rolls). Cover baking dishes with plastic wrap, then kitchen towel. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, 40 to 45 minutes.

Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 375°F. Bake rolls until tops are golden, about 20 minutes. Remove from oven and invert immediately onto rack. Cool 10 minutes. Turn rolls right side up.

For glaze:
Combine cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat until smooth. Spread glaze on rolls. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes about 10 cinnamon buns, at least mine did.

Also, Tim and I just discussed how much of a guilty pleasure these are, and I realized...the way I made them, they probably aren't that bad for you (I mean, besides all the sugar...). Since I used skim milk & some whole wheat flour, (plus I actually used light spreadable butter for the filling, which worked out nicely), they probably aren't overwhelmingly unhealthy. Of course, they should still be saved for a once in a while indulgence, but you shouldn't feel guilty eating 3 (or 4, or 5). ;) Oh, and I ate them without the glaze. Yes, I know, I'm weird!

*footnote: I went crazy on these pictures because it was actually SUNNY out when I took them! Wow, Sarah, you baked during daylight? Yes, I know, I was out of control!*

Irish Soda Bread: 2x the fun

Ugh. What an awful few weeks. They have been just overwhelmingly sad, almost unbearable. I never thought I'd have to watch the people I love suffer so deeply. It's still so hard to believe, for so many people, and I don't know that the sadness will fade easily.

And so, this post is dedicated to Mark, who I barely knew but I loved, and who I regret I will never be able to know like Tim did. We celebrated St. Patty's Day in honor of him (well, hell, I did anyway) & I thought of him as the cabbage cooked because Tim told me that he's awful at making cabbage (since he hates it) & the only time he's ever made cabbage well was once when he cooked St. Patty's dinner for Mark, who told him that it was cooked just as he liked it. :)

And I know that Irish Soda Bread is the last thing on anyone's mind right now, but I made it before all the crap, and I've been wanting to post about it (and I haven't really baked/cooked in over a week...ugh, I'm so tired of take-out). I was originally going to post 3 recipes, but I seem to have lost the 3rd, so you'll get the first two I tried instead.

The first is much more like a cake (and therefore, delicious) but the second is much more like what I think of when I think of soda bread. I still think a mix of the two recipes might result in my perfect idea of soda bread (the 3rd recipe was my first attempt at integrating the recipes) but maybe a completely separate 3rd recipe would be best.


Irish Soda Bread (cake form)
from Whole Grain Baking

6 Tbsp unsalted butter, room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup raisins, plumped
1 Tbsp milk, for glaze

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Lightly grease an 8-inch round pan.

Beat together the butter & sugar in a large bowl until smooth. Add the eggs and beat on high speed until the mixture is thick & light colored, about 2 min. Stir in the baking powder, baking soda & salt, then 1 cup of the whole wheat flour. Gently beat in half of the buttermilk then another cup of the flour. Add the remaining buttermilk and the all-purpose flour, mixing until smooth. Stir in the raisins.

Turn the dough into the prepared pan. Drizzle the milk over it & sprinkle with sugar.


Irish Soda Bread (bread form)
from Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
2 Tbsp packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp cold butter, cut into pieces
1 egg white
1 cup buttermilk
1 cup raisins

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

Prepare a 9-inch round baking pan with cooking spray.

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flours, salt, baking osda & baking powder. Thoroughtly mix in the brown sugar. Cut the butter pieces into the flour until the mixture is crumbly and resembles coarse meal.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg white until frothy. Add the buttermilk & raisins. Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients, stirring just until the dough is evenly moistened, the dough will be very soft & VERY sticky. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured board and with floured hands, gently knead for just 30-45 seconds.

Mound the dough into a dome about 9 inches across in the baking pan. Cut an "X" in the top of the loaf. Bake for 45 min, or until firm to the touch & golden brown.

*You know, I might have made some modifications to these recipes (in fact, I'm pretty sure I did) but I can't remember at this point. I'll edit the recipe if I remember. I know instead of buttermilk I used about 1/2 cup vanilla yogurt, & the rest milk.*

I know I don't really have any regular readers out there, but if anyone's noticed my absence, thanks for bearing with me. I haven't been able to focus worth a damn. And it hasn't helped that in between I've been sicker than I can remember. (My "Spring Break" was spent shaking with fever while my mom took care of me in the middle of the night (thanks Mom!) & missing my flight back to Indiana...I'm so glad I was home in Jersey with my family, but it sure wasn't my favorite "vacation" ever!) I even made these recipes before St. Patrick's Day, thinking for once I'd actually post before the holiday, but life got in the way!

So a happy belated St. Patrick's Day, and here's hoping that next year will bear happier times than this one.

* Love, Sarah *

Chocolate Banana Muffins

I intended to make this today: Banana Chocolate Walnut Bread but instead (due to what I had on hand) came out with these.

And they were delicious!

Chocolate Banana Muffins
adapted from the Wednesday Chef

3/4 cup white whole wheat flour
1/3 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cocoa powder
dash salt
dash cinnamon
1 1/2 tbsp butter
1 1/2 tbsp applesauce
1/4 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 medium banana, ripe & mashed
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 oz dark chocolate, chopped into pieces

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Oil/spray muffin tins.

Combine flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, salt, and cinnamon in mixing bowl.

In a separate bowl, beat together butter, applesauce and brown sugar. Add eggs until blended, then beat in the mashed banana, yogurt & vanilla extract.

Pour flour mixture into wet ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Gently stir in the chocolate pieces. Pour mixture into muffin tin.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until muffins are lightly browned & inserted toothpick comes out clean. Makes about 9 muffins.

Ok there is NO SUN in the whole state right now, so there won't be any pretty pictures for a while...4 days of grey and counting!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

So yesterday I was babysitting, and a favorite activity for one of the little girls (Elise) is baking muffins. Yes, she's 3. And, honest to god, she helps A LOT. She has mixed all of the ingredients more times than I can count, and she also loves pouring things into the bowl, and my favorite...cracking the egg (though she won't touch the actual inside of the egg, hehe).

Now yesterday Elise had the most awful cough I've heard in a while. And as a reminder, she's 3, and she's stirring the ingredients for the muffins. So where do you think the coughing was directed? Yup...right into the batter. Yuuuuuum.... I mean ew.

I decided that at 425 degrees all the germs would be killed, plus if I'm going to get sick from her, heck I'll get sick whether I eat the muffins or not. And I was really excited about these muffins. Anyway, promptly after we put the muffins in the oven, Elise was asleep on the couch. So I continued the baking activities with Evan, a cute but rascal-y 18 month-old.

So there's not much to do at this point...the muffins are in the oven, there's plenty of time, and Evan's shirt is off so we go upstairs to get a new one. We come downstairs, plenty of time still, try to put the shirt on but it's a no-go. Ok, no shirt. Wait...apparently no pants either. Great. Alright so here's the point when Evan tries to pull his diaper off. Fine. Ok, diaper off. He's starting to use the potty, so presumably he won't pee all over the floor. Hmmm...those muffins should be done...uhhhhhh wait. Evan is making all kinds of squeaky noises...I run for the potty but now he's PEEING ALL OVER THE FLOOR.

At this point I'm running for some towels, yelling for Evan to stop (which of course he can't do) and trying to get him to sit on the potty before it's too late, which it already is. I throw some baby wipes on the floor...wait Sarah, what is that exactly going to do? I recover and find some paper towels, but now Evan is bawling. Pee all over the floor, crying kid.

So I quickly pick up the miserable (naked, presumably wet
with urine) child and rock him around the room. Now, I smell burnt something...oh, burnt muffins. Of course.

Despite disasters, the second batch of muffins came out delicious, (actually I even ate the burnt ones...I kind of don't mind burnt things) and we ate them up quick.

So here's my recipe...gotta love cranberry & orange flavors together!

Cranberry Orange Muffins

1 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oatmeal (mine was quick cook)
1 tbsp baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
grated rind of most of an orange
1 large egg
3/4 cup vanilla yogurt + 1/2 cup milk
3 tsp juice from the orange you just zested!
2 tbsp butter, melted
2 tbsp applesauce
1 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients into a bowl and blend thoroughly. In a separate large bowl, stir together egg, yogurt & milk, orange juice, butter & applesauce. Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and stir until just blended. Add cranberries & again stir until just blended. Batter will look somewhat runny. Bake for 20 minutes in preheated oven. Makes about 12 regular sized muffins.

So I fully intended to take more pictures today when it was bright and sunny, but unfortunately...we ate them all. I completely forgot. Enjoy the cute pictures of Evan enjoying the muffins instead...his cute poses should be enough of a reason to try them!

Cherry & Blueberry Whole Wheat Scones

I made the scones from Farmgirl Fare a few weeks ago (with whole wheat flour) & I was so excited that they had such a nice texture & shape! Tim & I both enjoyed them in the morning as a quick breakfast.

They were easy to make, and all the ingredients sounded perfect together. I was happily mixing all the ingredients and finally got to the spices...my favorite part. I began dumping the nutmeg into the mixture with relish, and suddenly realized that...I don't actually like the taste of nutmeg.

Now of course the scones were still delicious even though it's not a flavor I love, but the next time around I decided to stick with cinnamon, and also to make them a tiny bit healthier (read: not as good) by removing some butter. I figured if we were going to eat them every morning for breakfast, I wanted them to be as healthy as possible while still tasting yummy.

Also, I suppose now is as good a time as any to reveal a secret...I don't like butter. It's not that I don't love baked goods, because I do, and I also LOVE dessert. However, I don't put butter on my bread, and I don't add it to my rice or pasta. I'm just not into it. So while I love desserts other people bake with tons of butter, I just can't bring myself to add a lot of butter to things that I bake myself.

Now that my secret is revealed, perhaps I should tell you what I actually did put in this recipe instead of all the things I left out. Instead of cranberries I used a mix of cherries and blueberries. The scones could probably use even more than I put in the recipe, but I didn't have any more on hand. For the oatmeal in the recipe, I placed it into a (tiny!) food processor and ran it a few times around to get the oatmeal smaller. I love oatmeal, but I tend to not love the big chunks in my scones, so I often use a blender or food processor to make kind of a chunky oat flour.

For the butter that is in the recipe, the original recipe suggests that you cut the butter into bits to make it easier to blend into the flour. Makes sense. Instead, I just threw the 1/2 stick into the flour & used *a fork* (I desperately need a pastry blender) to flake the butter into the flour. Took FOREVER but turned out just fine. :)

Ok, here's the recipe, a bit different from the original:

Cherry & Blueberry Whole Wheat Scones
adapted from Farmgirl Fare

3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup oatmeal
1 cup white whole wheat flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp light brown sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, chilled
1/2 cup cherries
1/2 cup blueberries
1/2 cup chopped almonds

1 egg
3 tbsp vanilla yogurt + milk to make 3/4 cup*

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together flours, oatmeal, sugars, baking powder, baking soda, salt, & cinnamon. Add butter to mixture & blend in using a fork or a pastry blender until coarse crumbles appear. Add berries and nuts. In a separate bowl, beat together yogurt, milk, & egg. Using a spatula, integrate dry ingredients into the wet mixture until just blended. The dough shouldn't be too sticky, so if the dough is sticking to the sides of the bowl you can add a bit more flour.

On a floured surface, take half of the dough & form a circle, as if you were making an extremely thick pizza crust. Use a large knife (I used a floured pizza cutter!) to divide the circle into 6 pieces. Repeat with the other half of the dough, then place the sections onto a lightly greased cookie sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown. You can easily freeze these, or store them in a container for a few days.

*You can also use buttermilk...I didn't have any buttermilk and I decided to use vanilla yogurt and skip the vanilla extract. If you don't have vanilla yogurt (or if you use buttermilk), you'll want to add 1/4 tsp of vanilla extract to the recipe.

The scones were not very sweet at all, so if you prefer sweeter scones (I try to avoid too much sugar in the mornings), add another 1/4 cup of sugar.

And I won't be mad if you like the original recipe better. :) Sometimes I go over the top in my quest to be healthy!

Updated: Semi-nutritional facts

Nutrition Facts User Entered Recipe 12 Servings Amount Per Serving Calories 210.9 Total Fat 7.2 g Saturated Fat 2.8 g Polyunsaturated Fat 1.0 g Monounsaturated Fat 2.8 g Cholesterol 28.3 mg Sodium 248.7 mg Potassium 140.0 mg Total Carbohydrate 32.4 g Dietary Fiber 3.3 g Sugars 8.0 g Protein 5.9 g Vitamin A 8.3 % Vitamin B-12 0.8 % Vitamin B-6 1.4 % Vitamin C 0.2 % Vitamin D 2.2 % Vitamin E 6.1 % Calcium 9.5 % Copper 6.3 % Folate 7.0 % Iron 7.9 % Magnesium 7.9 % Manganese 33.6 % Niacin 4.4 % Pantothenic Acid 2.5 % Phosphorus 10.7 % Riboflavin 7.1 % Selenium 7.2 % Thiamin 11.2 % Zinc 4.3 % *Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calorie needs.

*from SparkRecipes