BANANA BREAD FROM THE EXPERTS

Posted in Breakfast & Brunch, Cake by sallybr

This is a recipe from America’s Test Kitchen, the folks who test every single variable in a recipe multiple times until they come up with perfection. With the best. Or, as they called this one, The Ultimate Banana Bread. They’ve been known to go after food bloggers who either share their recipes without permission, or tweak their versions. I find the tweaking part a bit funny. Taste is so subjective that adjusting any recipe to suit the palate is what any cook should be doing…

THE ULTIMATE BANANA BREAD

The recipe is available online, so you can get it with a jump here. I actually did not see that review until after making the recipe, but I read it smiling all the way through… It turns out that I removed all the fuss and no major harm was done.

As the folks at thekitchn mentioned, the addition of turbinado sugar on top is brilliant. I actually added it in two installments, first right before placing in the oven…

And the second time another sprinkle just over the bananas when the bread had been baking for 40 minutes. I baked for a total of 55 minutes, in a 9 x 5 inch pan. The other tweaking I did was using frozen bananas without worrying about draining excess liquid. I also measured the amount of mashed bananas that went into the bread, as the fruit varies so much in size: 600g of banana pulp. One single fresh banana was used for the slices on top. Doing that, the recipe is really super simple, two bowls, one for dry ingredients, one for wet. Done.

Keep in mind that going at the sugary crust to peel it off and eat it is considered a faux-pas. Stealing extra slices of banana and running away? Equally distasteful. What you should do is make this recipe, available online in the link I provided or in this cookbook. Tweaking is optional. Your kitchen, your rules!

ONE YEAR AGO: Shrimp Stir-Fry with Snow Peas and Cashews

TWO YEARS AGO: Pickled-Roasted Chickpeas with Cashew Cream

THREE YEARS AGO: Twice-Baked Goat Cheese Souffle

FOUR YEARS AGO: A Star from England in the Bewitching Kitchen

FIVE YEARS AGO: Hommage to the Sun

SIX YEARS AGO:The Fabulous Three
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SEVEN YEARS AGO: Turkey-Chorizo Burger with Green Chile Dressing
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EIGHT YEARS AGO:Taco Salad
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NINE YEARS AGO: Semolina Sourdough Boule
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TEN YEARS AGO:Forgive me, for I have sinned
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ELEVEN YEARS AGO: Cracked Wheat Sandwich Bread
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TWELVE YEARS AGO: Au Revoir, my Bewitching Kitchen
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THIRTEEN YEARS AGO:French Bread

6Mar2016

SECRET RECIPE CLUB: OVERNIGHT COFFEE CAKE

Posted in Desserts, Desserts, Sweets, Secret Recipe Club by sallybr

Here I am to share with you my second participation in Group A of The Secret Recipe Club, the monthly event in which two food bloggers are paired in secret, and pick a recipe to cook and blog about exactly at the same time of Reveal Day. I’d been a member for over 4 years with Group D, and loved every minute of it! This month’s assignment was the blog Bcmom’s Kitchen, hosted by Anna. I love the quote she’s got on the front page to describe her kitchen:

Where towels are for drying, and the white spoons don’t go in the tomato sauce!

Clearly, we have a lot in common, as I can be very protective of my kitchen towels. Just ask Phil… Come to think of it, I don’t own any white spoons, but if I did, they would never be allowed near a tomato, a beet, or a raspberry. Apart from keeping her kitchen pristine, Anna is a busy bee, and focuses on recipes that are easy to bring to the table and also delicious. Pretty much the way I cook most of the time. I bookmarked A LOT of recipes from her site, including her Slow Cooker Mac and Cheese, her Apple Bread with Pecans and Dried Cranberries (wow!), her Rum Raisin Ice Cream (I absolutely must make this when the weather is right), her Snickerdoodle Bars (because anything Snickerdoodle makes my heart miss a beat), and her Crockpot Beef Carnitas Tacos (if you did not guess yet, the Bewitching Kitchen recently welcomed a slow cooker). But, in the end I could not stop thinking about her Overnight Coffee Cake, perfect for making departmental colleagues happy!

And now that the Reveal Day took place, can you believe that Anna got my blog? So we pretty much exchanged sites this month! She picked a favorite recipe of mine, and composed a wonderful write up! Check it out here… Thank YOU, Anna!

OVERNIGHT COFFEE CAKE
(from Bcmom’s Kitchen)

for cake:
2/3 cup butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk
2 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt

for topping:
2 bananas, sliced
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped nuts
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg

Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well. Stir in buttermilk. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. Stir into butter/sugar mixture and mix well.

Spread batter into greased 13×9″ pan. Mix all ingredients for topping and reserve. Spread the slices of bananas over the batter, and sprinkle the topping all over the surface. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 8 hours.

Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted near the middle comes out clean.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Here is what Anna had to say about the cake:

I’ve been making this coffee cake for a long time. It’s so convenient – mix it up the day or night before, refrigerate it overnight, and bake it in the morning. Warm fresh-baked coffee cake for breakfast or brunch. What could be better than that?

Well, I sign below. And of course, her improvement to the basic by adding bananas on top was a strike of genius… As usual, this type of goodie is not easy to take a picture, but trust me, the taste is out of this world delicious! The bananas pretty much melt on top, forming a gooey entity with the sugar, but then the nuts add that pleasant crunch and next thing you know, the universe is smiling at you… What better way to start the day?

This cake is a perfect complement to a cup of coffee or tea, either one will do. Our colleagues seemed to love it, as only crumbs were left over the platter when I went back to the mail room around 10am that morning. It always gives me a wonderful feeling when that happens… a sort of “sweet mission accomplished.”

Anna, I loved to “meet” you through SRC this month, and hope you had a lot of fun stalking your assigned blog too. For those interested in what my fellow secreters cooked up, please click on the blue frog at the end of this post, and have a blast!

The corner piece with the extra crunch on the sides… irresistible!

ONE YEAR AGO: Zucchisagna: A Twist on a Classic

TWO YEARS AGO: Night and Day

THREE YEARS AGO: Farro Salad with Roasted Leeks

FOUR YEARS AGO: Watercress Salad

FIVE YEARS AGO: Carrot and Sweet Potato Puree’

SIX YEARS AGO: Croissants: Paris at home on a special day

16Feb2012

CARAMELIZED BANANAS

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by sallybr

First, let me to introduce the world’s expert on caramelized bananas, my Mom!
If I had to select one recipe to always associate with her, I’d pick caramelized bananas. When I was a child she’d make a batch almost every week, using different types of bananas from the street markets of Sao Paulo. Sometimes, depending on the variety she found at the market, the “doce de banana” turned almost purple when she cooked it, which was quite interesting. For my Brazilian readers, “banana prata” was the one that acquired the reddish-purple color. But, the regular Brazilian banana, which is the one on the shelves here in the US, was her top choice, because both me and my Dad loved it the most. It gets dark brown, with an intense, sweet flavor and a splash of freshness from the lemon juice squeezed at the end. So, when I saw this recipe in the February issue of Food and Wine I immediately went to work, making a batch of caramelized bananas, and using some for this delicious frozen yogurt treat.

CHOCOLATE FROZEN YOGURT WITH CARAMELIZED BANANAS
(adapted from Food and Wine magazine)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3 large ripe bananas, cut into 1-inch rounds
3 tablespoons light brown sugar
squeeze of lemon juice
1 tablespoon dark rum
1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons 2 percent milk (divided)
2 + 1/2 tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder
2/3 cup granulated sugar
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 + 1/3 cups nonfat Greek yogurt
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

In a nonstick skillet, melt the butter. Add the bananas in a single layer and sprinkle with the brown sugar. Cook over moderate heat, turning once, until caramelized, about 8 minutes. Squeeze a little lemon juice all over. Remove the pan from the heat, add the rum and swirl the pan to completely dissolve the sugar. Scrape three-quarters of the bananas into a food processor and add 3 tablespoons of the milk. Puree until smooth. Transfer the puree to a small bowl and freeze until chilled, 15 minutes. Chop the remaining bananas and freeze until chilled.

In another bowl, whisk the cocoa with the granulated sugar, salt, vanilla and the remaining 1/2 cup of milk. Whisk in the yogurt until smooth, then the banana puree.

Transfer the mixture to an ice cream maker and churn until nearly frozen. Mix in the chopped bananas and pieces of chocolate. Scrape the frozen yogurt into an airtight container, cover and freeze until firm, at least 2 hours.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Food memories are so powerful! As the bananas cooked down in the skillet, their aroma whisked me back to my parents’ home. Suddenly I was 17 again and rushing home from school, dashing to the kitchen, all tantalized by the smell of Mom’s caramelized bananas. Back home people like to pair them with farmer’s cheese or some vanilla ice cream, but I’m a purist: just a small bowl of “doce de banana,” and a tiny spoon to make sure the pleasure lasts longer… 😉

I never imagined using them as part of a frozen dessert, but it is sublime! The yogurt reduces the sweetness, but the bits of banana and the chunks of chocolate bring it back, just enough to make you happy. It is still a light dessert, much lighter than ice cream, and perfect for someone who’s not wild about sugary concoctions. Come to think of it, the other day I found a recipe online for burnt orange ice cream, and my antennas immediately went up. But I found that it called for a cup and a half of heavy cream, a cup of whole milk, a ton of sugar, and 5 egg yolks. It’s easy to make a decadent dessert with such a surplus of fat, but as David Lebovitz points out in his book “The Perfect Scoop,” it’s really not necessary, and this frozen yogurt proves his point. 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Roasted Lemon Vinaigrette

TWO YEARS AGO: Whole Wheat Bread