banana bash–three dishes you’ll want to make and one you will not

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Liz

Those who’ve been here before may have read mention of neighbors who bring over a box of food every Sunday. My understanding is that their church has a community food bank, from which they take any leftovers home to share with friends and family.

It’s much like a CSA as I never know what a Sunday will bring. Near-expired dairy products, produce, cookies, bread–it’s been fun to receive this kindness weekly. We offer our thanks each time they bring bounty (though their being from Nigeria and ourselves born and raised Minnesotan means communication can be spotty) and when appropriate, share what we make with their gifts. (They once brought over a 50-pound (!) box of chocolate chips–you’d better believe they got a batch or three of cookies out of me.)

they dared me to use them all

I share this here not so much as a personal anecdote, but rather to set up this post’s reason for being: four bunches of spotted bananas. Not four spotted bananas, no. Four bunches.

What to do? A loaf of banana bread wouldn’t even make a dent. Freezing (peeled or no, both work) would take care of what I couldn’t use, but I was up for a challenge, so put it out there on deLizious facebook that I needed banana recipes stat. And my awesome readers came through. Here’s what I did to use up three of those four bunches. (One went home with friends, so was not my problem.):

My friend Jill wrote about a smoothie her family enjoys on summer nights. Cleverly named Monkey Smoothies blend frozen banana chunks, chocolate sauce, peanut butter, and milk. I cut a few bananas up and froze them overnight, then followed Jill’s instructions the next morning. The shakes were dreamy and tasted much like a peanut butter cup would were it frozen and drinkable. Definitely a winner.

frozen bananas, pbutter, choc sauce, milk--yum!

frozen bananas, pbutter, choc sauce, milk–how could this be anything but extraordinary?

monkey smoothie: drink a candy bar for breakfast

Fellow WordPress blogger Perky Poppy Seed opened new worlds for me with her “recipe.” She suggested slitting unpeeled bananas “banana split-style” and placing on a baking sheet. Next, the slits were filled with small pieces of butter, ground cinnamon, and a splash of rum (or brandy or bourbon) and roasted at 400°F-ish until the skins turn black. Finally, the puree is spooned from the skins and used wherever mashed banana is called for. This was a “wow” for me–any banana bread I’ve ever made (and I’ve made a fair number as I try not to repeat b bread recipes) could be made again with this spiked puree, taking on a slightly different flavor. This I had to try.

not going to win any beauty contest, but they smell heavenly

not going to win beauty contests, but they smell heavenly

I filled and roasted 10 of the bananas, placing them on a foil-lined baking sheet to avoid having to wash the pan. The fragrance was heavenly and the final puree was as amazing as I’d imagined.

pure baking gold

I immediately set aside a cup for my next project, which was…

bananarama cake!

Beki, of Beki Cook’s Cakes, is the instructor responsible for my personal best in making a cake look pretty. She responded to my facebook query with a link to her blog for what looked to be an amazing recipe. I followed this recipe mostly to the letter, though used the roasted rum bananas and sprinkled a touch of vanilla salt between frosted layers.

The cake was phenomenal, though Beki will most likely wonder if I left my fine decorating skills in her classroom. Alas, the finished cake was a bit more goofy than it was beautiful. (I could use my 7-year-old daughter as an excuse for the imperfect frosting, but she was really only responsible for one smudge in the lettering. I’ll take full responsibility here.)

one crazy–but tasty–cake

But even without bakery-quality visuals, this cake was crazy good. I was finally able to stop myself after three slices (they were fairly small, but still!) and am even now remembering how moist and tender that cake was. How it had an earthy sweetness that keeps you coming back for more. I managed to part with half of the cake to share with our neighbors, which means the cake has already dwindled significantly. When it’s gone? I’ll make another as I have a good cup or so of the spirited puree in my freezer.

oh, this is good

The one banana recipe I did not use (besides the one that read “open trash bag, throw away”–horrors!) was offered by the keeper of the Kirschner Cookbook Library, which I’ve written up here before. Megan posts great finds from this library at a favorite blog and she pulled from her archives to share Banana Sardine Boats. These scary salads are worth a click for the kitsch factor alone.

Left in my freezer, then, is about a cup of spirited banana puree and maybe 1/2 cup frozen banana chunks. I was thrilled to meet my banana challenge, though also had plenty of help from facebook readers. While the four bunches of spotty bananas are gone, I’m certain I will run across more sooner rather than later and I’d bet you will, too. So I ask you to keep the recipes and ideas coming. What is your go-to banana recipe when you find yourself with too many brown bananas? Please share as it’s more fun to go bananas with fellow food folk 🙂

wow cupcakes

Posted on August 28, 2012 by Liz

My 10-year-old surprised me last night by saying she wanted to bake something. As much as I love to cook (and she loves to eat), it’s her younger sister who is most often interested in helping in the kitchen. Encouraged by eldest’s sudden interest, I offered to help her find a recipe for whatever it was she wanted to make. She envisioned small white cakes baked in our small custard dishes and topped with fluffy mounds of white frosting. After looking through a few recipes for white cake, she settled on one from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking.

She started her project later in the evening, so after filling four custard cups and 14 muffin cups, she headed off to bed and left me in charge of baking. She had filled the cups more than the recommended two-thirds full, which led to batter bubbling over and burning on the oven floor–yuck. The overflow batter also burnt slightly on the pan, making the cupcake edges slightly toasted. Initially, I saw this as a problem (and the messy oven floor was definitely that), but the toasted cupcake edges had a slightly tough (in a good way) chew and a roasty toasty sweetness that kicked the cupcake concept up a notch. Serendipitous yum.

Today the cupcakes were frosted after my young baker whipped up a batch of Fluffy White Frosting, also from BH&G. I was impressed with the results and she was pleased as well. After sprinkle fun, the cupcakes were enjoyed for dessert.

And I have this to say about the cupcakes: Wow. I am all about frosting, often leaving the cake behind. Not tonight. This cake was amazing. The crumb was perfect–moist, light but dense. And the flavors were so pure. A hint of vanilla, rich butter (big fan of Kerrygold), sweet but not overly so. And the “burnt” edges added to the wow. I ate every last crumb, as well as any strays left on my husband’s and daughters’ plates. I highly recommend this recipe to anyone who loves white cake. I’ve never tasted anything like it. Look up Perfect White Cake in the dictionary and this is what you’ll find.

amazing buttermilk cupcakes with fluffy white frosting

The frosting was a basic 7-minute variety and I was impressed that my daughter could pull it off. (I don’t always.) As with the cake, the vanilla and sweet flavors were nicely matched. The perfect frosting for the perfect cupcakes.

Buttermilk White Cake

Adapted only slightly from the Better Homes and Garden cookbook. The batter can also be poured into greased muffin cups and baked accordingly.

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
4 egg whites

Heat oven to 350°F. Grease and lightly flour 2 (9-inch) round baking pans.

In large bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, butter and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer on Low 30 seconds or until combined. Beat on Medium to High, scraping side of bowl occasionally, 2 minutes. Add egg whites; beat 2 minutes longer.

Pour batter into pans. Bake 30 to 35 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center of each cake comes out clean. Cool cakes in pans on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove cakes from pans to wire racks. Cool completely before filling and frosting.

Fluffy White Frosting

from Better Homes and Gardens Old-Fashioned Home Baking

1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
2 egg whites
1 teaspoon vanilla

In small saucepan, combine sugar, water and cream of tartar. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly, until sugar is dissolved.

In medium bowl, combine egg whites and vanilla. Beat with electric mixer on High, while slowly adding sugar mixture. Beat 7 minutes or until stiff peaks form. Makes about 4 cups.

cupcake redux

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Liz

Those who love to play in the kitchen–whether cooking or baking–are usually fairly flexible. If we run into snags (and maybe it’s just me, but I run into plenty), we either toss out what we’ve done and begin again OR take a different path and see where it goes. I’m almost always in the second camp as I hate tossing something I’ve already spent time on.

Take a recent project: frosting my oldest daughter’s birthday cupcakes. Her party is this weekend and I’ve been making and freezing cupcakes for weeks. Now that the party is days away, it’s time to think about frosting. My original plan was to make three: white, chocolate, and caramel. I found fun recipes (check out Baked Explorations–lots of crazy-good recipes, all very do-able) and the chocolate frosting went off without a hitch. The caramel came next and involved stirring homemade caramel sauce into a white buttercream. I made the mistake of stepping away from the caramel (oops) and returned just in time (so I thought) to take the pan off the heat. But the temp had crept just past 300°F and my “caramel” crystallized as I stirred in the cream and butter. I tried to melt it down over low heat, but you can’t change the laws of chemistry. No go.

Not willing to give up, I knew the buttery cream that wasn’t melding with the overheated sugar mixture would add great richness to any frosting; I stirred some into the whipped butter base that was waiting for the caramel sauce. I added extra powdered sugar for thickness and chopped the hardened caramel (almost brittle, really) into very small pieces and mixed those into the final frosting for crunch. It took a few more tweaks with brown sugar, vanilla, and salt, but I got to a place I liked. After all the extra ingredients, I had plenty of caramel frosting. No need to make a third flavor. I was done.

With a cup or so of chocolate frosting and maybe three times as much of the light-brown caramel, I started thinking kitty cats. The birthday girl had included our orange tabby’s picture on her party invites. Why not turn these cupcakes into cat faces? I’m not much for putzy cake decor, so wanted to keep it simple and use what we already had. A few mini m&ms and candy corns later, I had a cute–if slightly demented–kitty cat staring back at me.

Believe it or not, these are the same cupcakes from bacon birthday cupcake post. Not as pretty, but better suited for a 10-year-old’s birthday party.

I get that this cupcake looks terribly homespun. I have no future as a Cupcake Wars contestant for sure. My “cat” looks childishly simple, sad, and slightly devil-ish. But our party guests will get that these cupcakes are supposed to look like cats. And these guests will absolutely enjoy the cupcakes’ tender crumb and knock-out chocolate flavor (complete with a Hershey’s kiss dropped into the batter of each). Most important, my daughter will know I personalized her birthday cake. The cupcake’s appearance isn’t even a little bit spectacular (though again, the flavor is!), but as with all of the “playing” I do in the kitchen, things don’t always go as planned. And in the end, my baking (and cooking) projects come from the heart and are great fun.