Banana Bread -- Mom's and Chocolate Bits Banana Cake

Mom's Banana Bread

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 cup butter

3 ripe bananas, mashed

2 tablespoons sour cream, yogurt or milk

1/2 cup chopped nuts (or 3/4 cup)

2 large eggs, beaten

Have butter and eggs at room temperature.  Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Put in parchment lined or greased 9 x 3 loaf pan.

 Shift flour, salt and baking soda.

Mix butter and brown sugar, then add eggs and mashed bananas.   

Work flour mixture in gradually.

Add nuts

Bake in 350 degree oven for one hour, check at 50 minutes.

 

Chocolate Muscavado Banana Cake

2 cups all purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 cup butter, softened

1 cup plus one tablespoon Muscavado (dark brown) sugar

3 medium bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

2 large eggs, room temperature

3 1.2 ounces dark chocolate (shaved, chips or nibs)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  You will need a non-stick loaf pan 9.5 x 5 x 3 inches deep lined with parchment paper. 

Sift the flour and baking powder together.

Using an electric mixer cream the butter and dark brown sugar together until light and fluffy and pale coffee colored.

Put the bananas in a bowl and mash them with a fork.  Gradually add them into the butter and sugar mixture.  Stir in the vanilla extract.  Whip the eggs and beat them into the sugar butter mixture.  Introduce a teaspoon of flour at any sign of curdling.

Chop the chocolate into the size of fine gravel, or use tiny chips or nibs and fold into mixture.  Add 1/2 cup pecans if you wish nuts.  Gently fold in the flour and baking powder mixture.

Scrape the mixture into a lined loaf pan and bake for about 50 minutes.  Insert a skewer to see if it comes out clean at the end.  Let the cake settle in the pan for a few minutes, then lift out by paper and let cool on a regular surface.  Carefully peel off paper.  Serve cool in thick slices.  Very good with cream cheese.

NOTES: 

The major variation between the two is baking soda versus baking powder.  The Muscavado recipe gives you a smoother, more cake like texture.  The baking soda version, Mother's, give you more of a normal fruit bread like texture which is darker and coarser.

I always put chopped pecans into banana bread, so it's not an optional with me, and I usually use slightly more than 1/2 cup.

I grew up buttering and-or flouring cookie sheets and baking pans.  More and more I find myself turning to parchment paper.

Using dark brown Muscavado sugar versus light brown means you are adding more molasses and therefore a deeper flavor which complements and doesn't obscure the banana flavor.

Curried Chickpeas and Brown Rice

Curried Chickpeas and Brown Rice

 4-6 Servings

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup minced shallots
1 clove garlic, minced (or more to taste)
2 cups brown rice, rinsed and drained
4 cups cold water
1 cup cooked chickpeas (rinse, if canned)
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup diced carrot
1/4 cup diced celery
1 1/2 teaspoons curry powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Pinch of sea salt
1/4 cup fresh or frozen peas
Whole or chopped roasted cashews, for garnish

Directions: 

*  Heat the oil in a heavy saute pan over medium low heat.  Add the shallots, garlic, carrot and celery for 2-5 minutes to soften.  Stir in the rice and spices and stir another 2-3 minutes.

* Add all of the remaining ingredients except the green peas and cashews into the pan.  Cover and bring to a boil over high heat.  Reduce the heat to low, stir and cover.  Simmer for 45-50 minutes and the water absorbed and rice tender.

* Remove the pan from the heat and let sit for ten minutes.  Add the peas and transfer to a server bowl or plates.  Garnish with cashews.

Notes:

* I didn't follow the directions at all.  I used the baked brown rice recipe, also on this blog, and improvised.

* I used basmati rice, canned chickpeas, Thompson raisins which seemed nicer than Sunshine.

* I put oil in a large saute pan and cooked the garlic, shallots, celery and carrots over low heat at the time recommended.  Then I added the chickpeas and raisins and spices, followed by the water which I let come to a low boil.

* Once the water was heated, I poured all of this into a 9 x 13 pyrex glass casserole, sealed with heavy duty aluminum foil and baked for about an hour.

* I mistakenly added the peas during the cooking process, which was fine, but it blanched the bright green color out.  I would add them lightly sauteed at the end in the future.

* I bought raw cashews at Whole Foods, about a cup, and I roasted them in an iron skillet with a tiny bit of coconut oil which has a higher cook point.  Given the size of the dish, and how people want to eat the cashews while they sit roasted, I would seriously consider putting two cups of cashews out to top the dish. 

 

Baked Brown Basmati Rice

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups brown rice, medium or short grain
2 1/2 cups water
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees

Place the rice into a 8-inch square glass baking pan

Bring the water, butter and salt just to a boil in a saucepan.  Once the water boils, pour it over the rice, stir to combine and cover the dish tightly with heavy-duty aluminum.  Bake on the middle rack of the oven for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, remove the cover and fluff the rice with a fork.  Serve immediately.

NOTES:

For once, nothing.  I follow the directions exactly.  It's come out perfectly every single time.

Orange Smoothie

Orange Smoothie

 Ingredients:

2 cups Greek yogurt
2 cups frozen mango chunks
2 cups frozen peach slices
1 cup pineapple chunks
1 cup chopped carrots
1 banana, peeled and chopped
1/4  cup honey
1 cup orange juice

Put all of the ingredients in a blender and blend thoroughly.  

Notes:

*  I halved the recipe and it still made a great deal.  
* I used frozen pineapple chunks
* I used half of a banana, but I could see leaving the banana out
* I used fresh orange juice with pulp

The drink is not overly sweet, despite all of the fruit.  Theoretically, you could use any sweetener:  sugar, agave nectar, honey, Stevia, Truvia, etc.

The author of the recipe described it as a cross between a Dreamsicle and an Orange Julius.  I wouldn't go that far.  It is refreshing, not too sweet, and with it's light orange color and fruit, held the promise of Spring on a wintery day.

 

Maple and Nut Granola With Olive Oil

Makes about 7 Cups

3 cups rolled oats 

1 cup hulled, raw sunflower seeds

1 cup hulled, raw pumpkin seeds

1 cup unsweetened coconut chips (flakes)

1 1/4-1 1/2 cups raw pecans, left whole or chopped

3/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

1 teaspoon salt

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 1)   Preheat the oven to 300 degrees F

2)  Put the oats, pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds, coconut flakes, pecans, olive oil, maple syrup, brown sugar and salt into a large mixing bowl and combine thoroughly.

3)  Spread the granola mixture on a rimmed baking sheet.  Bake, stirring every 10 to 15 minutes until the granola is toasted, about 45 minutes.

4)  Remove from oven.  Let cool completely before serving or storing in an airtight container.  Keeps for up to one month.

 
NOTES:

You can reduce the sugar or maple if you want, but I wouldn't because the quantity made still doesn't produce an overly sweet granola.

You can alter the recipe to your needs in terms of ingredients.  Different nuts,  Raisins, currants or dried cranberries or cherries.  Chocolate nibs once cooled.

If you cannot find raw nuts, only salted, leave the salt out of the recipe.

I didn't mix this in a bowl, but rather in the roasting pan that I used.

Even at this low temperature, you really have to watch this while baking it.  The first time I made it I used a rimmed cookie sheet (industrial weight from a restaurant supply store) and it was burning at 15 minutes.

The second time I made this, I used a dark roasting pan, which is what I would recommend, but even then, I cooked it for 30 minutes, not 45, and constant watching.  If I ever made it again, I would stop the cooking at 20 minutes, because as you let it rest, it is still cooking from the heat of the pan.  I set the timer at 5, 5, 10, 5, and 5 minutes for a total of 30.  If I make it again, I would stir every five minutes, for a total of 20.  After it is removed from the oven, and still in the pan.  I would stir it once out of the oven, and then every ten minutes or so as it begins to stick.  This stirring after cooking  prevented a messy clean up with the pan.

I used pecan halves.  I think if you chopped them, the quality and taste of the pecan would disappear too much into the mixture.

I used Quaker's Oats in the cardboard canister.

You can find the unsweetened coconut chips-flakes at health food stores, Whole Foods, and sometimes a regular grocery store, but that is the hardest item to locate.  I think if you used sweetened coconut it would be cloying.  It might also have a lower burn point--I don't know.

You can eat this as a breakfast food with milk, but also sprinkle it on yogurt or cottage cheese or use it as a salad topping.  It has good crunch and isn't too sweet.