Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Its been a long time since I posted. Since my last post (which was apparently on December 6th) I managed to fly home for Christmas, fly back to California for a week, pack up my life, and drive it half way across the country to Minnesota.

I had a moving company move all my stuff for me. After I'd been in Minnesota for about two and a half weeks, my stuff arrived. As you can imagine, sleeping on an air mattress and sitting on my living room floor to watch TV had gotten old, fast. So, I was VERY excited for my couch to arrive. When the moving man saw the layout of the apartment, he said there was no way they were getting my couch in. I was devastated (and of course didn't believe him - he'd only been moving furniture for 20 years. How could he know?).

So, I had him put the couch in my garage while I figured out a plan. Luckily enough, Kimba was coming to visit two weeks later. Aside from all the cooking and eating we were planning on doing (posts on that to come...soon?), I told Kim to prepare for a couch moving adventure as well. The couch was heavy and bulky and we we looked like ridiculous fools trying to get it in the house, up my narrow stairwell and into the living room. Basically after a half hour of trying different couch manipulations, we gave up (but we DID at least get it into the kitchen!). I sadly posted the couch on craigslist and started my search for a futon - which I found later that week. Despite thinking (knowing?) that I have super woman strength, I was still going to need help getting this futon in my house. So, I solicited the help of two of the guys I worked with. This banana bread was my thank you to them for the help. Unfortunately, the only picture I took of the bread was with my cell phone...

Adapted from allrecipes

Ingredients

• 1 C whole wheat flour
• 1/2 C whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/4 C amaranth flour
• 1 tsp baking soda (I like my boy Bob)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/4 C butter
• 1/4 unrefined coconut oil (good oil should smell like coconut)
• 1/2 C cane sugar
• scant 1/4 C maple syrup
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 1/3 C mashed, really really ripe bananas (I think I used ~6 bananas)
• 3/4 C semi-sweet chocolate chips (optional)
• 1/2 C chopped walnuts (optional)

Recipe

1. Grease a loaf pan (butter + flour, or my girl Pam). Pre-heat oven to 350 deg F.
2. Combine the dry ingredients (flours, baking soda, salt) in a large bowl.
3. In a medium sized bowl, cream together the wet stuff (butter, coconut oil, sugar, syrup). Add in the eggs and bananas.
4. Mix in the dry ingredients, chocolate chips, and nuts. Combine until just mixed. Pour into the loaf pan.
5. Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, until a toothpick/knife stuck in the middle comes out clean.

If you're not crazy about using the flours, oils, etc. you can just use 2 C flour, 1/2 C butter, and 3/4 C sugar.

Servings 10-18 servings (depending on slice size, obviously!)

Chocolate Cookies

These are "the cookies."

1-1/2 cups chocolate chips
2 ozs unsweetened chocolate
7 tbs butter
1 tsp coffee powder
1 tsp vanilla
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
½ cup flour
½ tsp baking powder
1-1/2 cups milk chocolate chips

1. Melt chips, unsweetened chocolate, and butter in double boiler. Remove and set aside to cool.

2. Stir coffee powder and vanilla together until dissolved. Beat eggs and sugar. Add vanilla-coffee mixture. Add melted chocolate mixture.

3. Whisk flour and baking powder together. Fold flour mixture and additional chocolate chips into batter. Let stand for 20 mins until batter firms up. (Looks like brownie batter).

4. Roll cookies into 1 tbs balls. Bake 350 F for 11 to 14 mins.

Tomato Soup

Serves 6 to 8

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil , plus more for drizzling
1 medium onion , chopped medium (about 1 cup)
3 medium garlic cloves , minced or pressed through garlic press (about 1 tablespoon)
Pinch hot red pepper flakes (optional)
1 bay leaf
2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice
1 tablespoon brown sugar
3 large slices good-quality sandwich bread , crusts removed, torn into 1-inch pieces
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
2 tablespoons brandy (optional)
1/4 cup chopped fresh chives

1. Heat 2 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until shimmering. Add onion, garlic, red pepper flakes (if using), and bay leaf. Cook, stirring frequently, until onion is translucent, 3 to 5 minutes. Stir in tomatoes and their juice. Using potato masher, mash until no pieces bigger than 2 inches remain. Stir in sugar and bread; bring soup to boil. Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until bread is completely saturated and starts to break down, about 5 minutes. Remove and discard bay leaf.

2. Transfer half of soup to blender. Add 1 tablespoon oil and process until soup is smooth and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to large bowl and repeat with remaining soup and oil. Rinse out pot and return soup to pot. Stir in broth and brandy (if using). Return soup to boil and season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve soup in individual bowls. Sprinkle each portion with pepper and chives and drizzle with olive oil.

New York Style Crumb Cake

CRUMB TOPPING

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup dark brown sugar

3/4 tsp cinnamon

8 tbs butter

1-3/4 cup cake flour

CAKE
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp baking soda
1-1/4 cup cake flour
6 tbs butter

1. For the topping: Whisk sugar, brown sugar, cinnamon, and melted butter in bowl. Stir in flour until dough-like. Set aside.

2. For the cake: Whisk flour, granulated sugar, and baking soda, in large bowl. Beat butter into the flour mixture using an electric mixer. Beat in egg, egg yolk, vanilla, and buttermilk until combined. Beat the batter until smooth.

3. Place batter in 8-inch sq cake pan. Break apart crumb mixture into pea sized pieces and layer on top of batter.

4. Bake 35-40 mins at 325 F.

5. Let cool for 30 mins and sprinkle with confectioners' sugar.

Banana Bread Muffins with Chocolate Chips and Crystallized Ginger

I have been posting so many sweets lately. I think it is because it was the holidays and winter but also because it is so much easier for me to post baking recipes. When I cook I fly by the seat of my pants, rarely measure, substitute like crazy and rarely remember what I do. I actually prefer cooking over baking for precisely those reasons, although it makes it a little challenging to post the recipe. We hosted a beer tasting evening this weekend where people brought all different beers to try. Although my food choices weren't necessarily beer food, they were designed to be bite size party food. I made nutcups which were tasty but nowhere near as good as my moms; pizza with caramelized onions, goat cheese, and artichoke hearts; and mini banana bread muffins follow a recipe from the book I am currently reading by Molly Wizenberg, who has a Seattle based food blog. I didn't make any changes to the recipe except I added some pumpkin pie spice and made mini muffins instead of bread but the bread would be delicious too.

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cups flour (I think I put 1/2 cup whole wheat and 1 1/2 cups all-purpose)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chocolate chips (I used bittersweet)
1/2 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 eggs
3 large mashed bananas
1/4 cup well-stirred whole-milk plain yogurt (the recipe notes - not low fat or nonfat)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Preheat oven to 350 deg F.
2. Grease a loaf pan (9 by 5 inches) or mini muffin pan or muffin pan.
3. Melt butter and set aside to cool slightly.
4. In a large bowl - mix flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Stir in chocolate chips and crystallized ginger.
5. In another bowl - mash the bananas and mix in eggs (beat eggs lightly together before mixing with the rest of the wet ingredients), yogurt, melted butter, and vanilla.
   
6. Add wet ingredients to the dry and gently stir until just combined. Careful not to over mix.
7. Pour batter into your baking dish of choice.
8. Mini muffins took about 10-14 minutes (lightly brown around the edges and clean toothpick - unless you stick the toothpick into a chocolate chip)
9. Loaf pan - bake 50 minutes to 1 hour.
10. Cool in the pan for a few minutes and then cool completely out of the pan. Be careful - melted chocolate is hot.
    

Chocolate Mousse

My friend Arti came over for dinner on Sunday with the promise of making chocolate mousse if I cooked some dinner. She also made some delicious bruschetta too. She had gotten the chocolate deck for Christmas, a set of 50 recipe cards for decadent chocolate desserts. I encouraged her to go all Julie and Julia and try to make all the cards. The chocolate mousse was pretty easy although it suggests you chill in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours. We did not have 4 hours so we cheated and threw the bowl in the freezer for about and hour and a half. It seemed to do the trick although some parts seemed to be getting a little more solid than mousse consistency. We were also a little worried when we were mixing the chocolate to the egg white and they seemed to be not stiff enough but it all turned out great at the end. It says it serves 4 but those four people better be ready for chocolate overload - 6 smaller portions seem more appropriate.

4 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped (we used semisweet but I think
bittersweet would be good too)
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup sugar
4 large eggs, separated
pinch salt

Melt chocolate with cream in a double boiler (i.e., a heatproof bowl placed over a saucepan of simmering water). Whisk until smooth. Add half the sgar and whisk until blended. Add the rest of the sugar and whisk until smooth. Remove from heat and whisk in one yolk at a time.

Beat eggs white and salt with an electric mixer on medium-high speed just to stiff peaks. Fold in 1/3 of the chocolate, repeat with the second 1/3 and then the rest until just blended.

Transfer to serving bowl, cover and chill for at least 4 hours if you want to do it right or cheat if you are not patient.

Nutcups

These are pretty much my favorite Christmas cookie that my mom makes. It really isn't even a cookie, but it is oh so delicious. It is like a small pecan pie but with a better filling to crust ratio. It is a little bit of a tedious process to make 4 dozen mini 'pies' shaping each one in a mini muffin tin but it is so worth it. The dough is a super simple cream cheese dough and can be made in advanced and left in the fridge for a few days. For a savory alternative skip the sweet filling and instead make mini quiches, caramelized onion tarts, or what ever else you can think of.

The Dough:

2 cups flour

1 cup butter/marg.

1 8 oz. cream cheese

Sift flour. Blend butter and cream cheese together. Blend into flour. Shape into ball, Wrap in wax paper, Chill.

The Filling:
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 T melted butter
1 1/2 cups chopped pecans or walnuts
1/4 t vanilla

Beat eggs, add sugar, melted butter. Stir in nuts and vanilla.

The Process:
Preheat oven to 375.

Divide dough into 4 parts. Work with 1 section at a time and refrigerate rest. Roll into 1 foot log. Cut into 12 equal parts and make each into a ball. Press each ball into a mini muffin pan cup (here is where my mom uses a fancy pampered chef tool, but I have found that a champagne cork also works well).

Fill each 1/2 full with nut mixture. Bake 20 min until golden brown. Cool 2 min then remove from pan, put on their bottoms on wire rack to cool. Continue with each 1/4 until done.

Makes 4 dozen. Best when eaten warm.

Granola Bars

I eat too many pre-made, overly packaged, expensive granola bars, luna bars, cliff bars etc. In an effort to curb this habit and because I love Alton Brown I have tried both his protein bars (totally forgot to post it) and most recently his granola bars. The granola bars turned out great. I was afraid they weren't going to stay together but that wasn't the case at all. Since it isn't really a "baked good" with scientific principles governing the outcome you can sub out different nuts, toss in a little whole grain flour, add shredded coconut, chocolate chips, you get the idea. I didn't have enough honey so I replaced half of the honey with coconut butter. I looked into some variations after I made these and it seems as though you could get away without baking them at the end and it might result in a chewy version. I might try that next.

recipe adapted from Alton Brown

~2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
~1/2 cup raw sunflower seeds
~1/2 cup raw pumpkins seeds
~1 cup sliced almonds
~1/2 cup wheat germ
~1/2 cup honey
~1/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
~2 tsp unsalted butter, plus extra for pan
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
~1 1/2 cups chopped dried fruit, any combination (I used cherries, golden raisins, blueberries and cranberries)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Butter 9x11 baking dish and set aside.
3. Spread the oats, seeds, almonds, and wheat germ onto a half-sheet pan. Place in the oven and toast for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. (Be careful not to burn these)
4. Combine the honey, brown sugar, butter, extract and salt in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium heat the brown sugar has dissolved.
5. When the oat/seed/nut mixture is done, remove it from the oven and reduce the heat to 300 degrees F.
6. Immediately add the dry mixture to the sugar/honey mixture, add the dried fruit, and stir to combine.
   
7. Dump the mixture into the prepared baking dish and press down.
8. Bake for 25 minutes.
   
9. When done, remove pan from the oven and allow to cool completely. (This is very true I tried to cut one early and it fell apart)
   
10. Cut into squares and store in an airtight container for up to a week.

Roasted Parsnips and Carrots

This recipe came in the farm notes with my November holiday share from my CSA. They adapted the recipe from The Herbfarm Cookbook by Jerry Traunfeld. I added a shallot to the recipe which worked really well. The shallot I used is bigger than any shallot I've even seen in the store. You could use an onion or a few smaller shallots. This dish makes about 4 servings but I think it should reheat well or be a good addition to a frittata. The sugar and vinegar gave the dish some sweetness but not too much. Other root vegetables would substitute well, although I've found that not all root vegetables need the same cooking time, sweet potatoes for example seem to cook faster than their counterparts when everything is equally sized.

1 lb parsnips, scrubbed
1 lb carrots, scrubbed
1 large shallot
3 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tbs dark brown sugar
1 tbs balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
3 tbs coarsely chopped fresh thyme (mine was more like dried because it had been hanging out for a few weeks)

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Cut the parsnips and carrots into similarly sized pieces. Cut the shallot(s) into chunks, these can be larger than the other vegetables. Combine veggies in a bowl and toss with salt and pepper. Melt butter and add the brown sugar and vinegar. Pour over vegetables and toss to coat. Put coated vegetables in shallow baking dish - hopefully in one layer. Bake for 20 minutes, stirring half way through. Remove the pan from the oven and stir in the thyme. Bake until the parsnips are lightly browned and fork tender, about 10-15 minutes longer.

Pumpkin Pie Bars

I received two small sugar pie pumpkins in my CSA back in October. So, I baked them, pureed them, and went searching my favorite food sites for pumpkin recipes. Joy the Baker had a handful of recipes that looked amazing. I made two. This was the first one.
The bars came out great. If you can get past the artery clogging aspects of this recipe, you will thoroughly enjoy it (e.g. eat 5+ bars/day). I couldn't always taste the butterscotch chips in this recipe. So, if you're a bitgbutterscotch fan, you might want to leave the chocolate chips out.

Ingredients

• 1 1/3 C flour
• 3/4 C sugar, divided
• 1/2 C brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 Cc butter (~1 1/2 sitcks)
• 1 C oats, uncooked
• 1/2 C walnuts, chopped
• 1 8oz pkg cream cheese, softened
  
• 3 eggs
• 15 oz pumpkin puree
• 1 tbsp pumpkin pie spice (recipe to follow)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• handful of butterscotch and/or semi sweet chocolate chip

Recipe

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees, F. Line an 9"x13" pan with foil and butter/flour or spray with Pam baking spray.
   
2. Combine flour, 1/4 C of sugar, and brown sugar. Add butter and cut into mixture (I tend to use a fork - a pastry cutter works well too). You want the mixture to be crumbly looking. Add oats and nuts.
3. Add 1 C of oat mixture (Step 2) to the baking pan. Press down evenly over the entire surface and bake for 15 mins.
4. In a separate bowl, combine remaining sugar, cream cheese, eggs, pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, and vanilla. Mix well and pour onto pre-baked crust. Sprinkle the stop with butterscotch/chocolate chips (I used both!).
5. Bake for 25 mins and let cool for at least 10 mins.

Pumpkin Pie Spice
Mix equal parts of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, and allspice