Banana Bread

I've made my fair share of banana bread over the years, but today, Aiden helped me make it. I found a new recipe online that didn't add all of the extra spices, so I thought, why not?

Now the recipe told me to bake it for 60 + minutes. I checked mine at about 50 minutes and it was already a little over done, but that only seems to mater on the ends. On the long sides, it actually tastes kind-of sweet. Next time, I would certainly bake it for less time. Other than that, it tastes great. I don't miss all of the spices that are normally in banana bread. The kids love eating this with a little peanut butter on it. I hadn't tried that before, but that was quite tasty as well. Enjoy!

Ingredients
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 eggs, beaten
2 1/3 cups mashed overripe bananas

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
2. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Stir in eggs and mashed bananas until well blended. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture; stir just to moisten. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in preheated oven for 40 to 50 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean. Let bread cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.

Makes 12 slices - 230 calories each.

Blueberry Bread

This week has been crazy, so I thought I'd try a quick bread. I always have frozen blueberries in the freezer, so I went looking for a recipe. Here's what I found.

All in all, it's okay. It does seem a little dry, but when I cut into the center, it wasn't fully cook, so I can only imagine what it would have turned out like had I baked it longer.  I'll be looking for another recipe later this year.

Ingredients 

2 eggs

1 c. sugar

1 c. milk

1 t. vanilla

3 Tbs canola oil

3 c. flour

1 t, salt

4 t. baking powder

1 t. cinnamon

1 c. frozen blueberries

Directions

1. Mix together eggs and sugar.  Add milk, vegetable oil, and vanilla.
2. Sift together flour, salt, baking powder, and cinnamon.
3. Combine wet and dry ingredients, mixing as little as possible.  Fold in blueberries when mixtures is close to being combined.
4. Pour into greased loaf pan.  Bake at 350 for 50-60 minutes.

Chocolate Flourless Cake

Brandon chose a chocolate flourless cake for me to make for his birthday this year. It is very rich and feeds a lot of people, so he doesn't get it all too often.



I served it with fresh whipped cream and some raspberries. It was a hit. It's texture is more like cheesecake than regular cake, but it kind-of melts in your mouth. If you love chocolate, this is for you!

Ingredients

8 eggs

2 sticks butter

1 lb high quality bittersweet chocolate (I use Ghirardelli)

1/4 c. Kahlua (hazelnut liqueur would work well also)

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line bottom of 8-inch springform pan with parchment and grease pan sides. Cover pan underneath and along sides with sheet of heavy-duty foil and set in large roasting pan. Bring kettle of water to boil.
2. Melt chocolate with butter.  If doing this in the microwave, make sure to use 50% power.  You want the temperature of the chocolate to be about 115 degrees.  Mix in liqueur.
3. Beat eggs with wire whip attachment in mixer at medium speed until volume doubles, about 5 minutes.
4. Fold 1/3 of egg foam into chocolate mixture using large rubber spatula until only a few streaks of egg are visible; fold in half of remaining foam, then last of remaining foam, until mixture is totally homogenous.  DO NOT OVER MIX!
5. Scrape batter into prepared springform pan and smooth surface with rubber spatula. Set roasting pan on oven rack and pour enough boiling water to come about halfway up side of springform pan. Bake until cake has risen slightly, edges are just beginning to set, a thin glazed crust (like a brownie) has formed on surface, and an instant read thermometer inserted halfway through center of cake registers 140 degrees, 22 to 25 minutes. Remove cake pan from water bath and set on wire rack; cool to room temperature. Cover and refrigerate overnight to mellow (can be covered and refrigerated for up to 4 days)
6. 30 minutes before serving, remove springform pan sides, invert cake on sheet of waxed paper, peel off parchment pan liner, and turn cake right side up on serving platter.

Mocha Chip Muffins

My husband's birthday is tomorrow, and we will have plenty of time to celebrate with cake in the next week or so, so I decided to try something else baked for his birthday. He loves chocolate and coffee, so how could I go wrong making Mocha Chip Muffins?

They look great and they were very easy to make, even the boys helped out! Best of all, Brandon thought they were great!

Ingredients

3 c. flour

1 Tbs baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

10 Tbs softened butter

1 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 c. plain yogurt

3 Tbs. instant espresso powder

1c. semisweet chocolate chips.

Directions

1. Adjust oven rack to lower middle position and heat to 375 degrees.
2. In medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together, set aside.
3. In small bowl, dissolve espresso powder in yogurt, set aside.
4. Beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.
5. Add eggs to butter mixture, beating well after each addition.
6. Beat in 1/3 of dry ingredients then alternate with 1/3 of yogurt.  Continue pattern, until it is all incorporated.
7. Fold in chocolate chips.
8. Spray 16 muffin tins with cooking spray.  Use large cookie scoop to divide batter evenly among cups.
9. Bake until muffins are golden brown, about 20-23 minutes.
10. Set on wire rack to cool slightly, about 5 minutes.
11. Remove muffins from tin and serve warm.

Ham Balls

Does it count as baking if it goes in the oven and I use my cookie scoop to form them - I think so! Many people have asked me for my ham ball recipe, so I thought I'd throw it out there for everyone to enjoy. I made 60+ balls, so they feed a lot of people, but they also freeze well to pull out on a weeknight. Hope you enjoy these as much as my family does!

Ingredients

5 lbs ham loaf (or 3.5 lb ground ham and 1.5 lb ground beef)

3 eggs

2 c. milk

3 c. graham cracker crumbs

1 t. mustard

3/4 c. vinegar

2.5 c. brown sugar

2 cans condensed tomato soup

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large bowl, combine ham loaf, eggs, milk and graham crackers.
3. Using large cookie scoop (mine was 3 Tbs), scoop ham loaf into balls and put into into large roasting pan, or a couple 9x13 pans.  You want the sides of the pan to be slightly higher so the sauce doesn't boil over.
4. Mix together mustard, vinegar, brown sugar, and tomato soup in another bowl.
5. Pour evenly over all ham balls.
6. Bake for about 1 hour, until centers reach 160 degrees.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

So, I decided that I should make some whole wheat bread today. I found a recipe, started putting together a few things, and then realized that it was not 100% whole wheat flour, some of it was white bread flour. What I decided to do then, might go down in the history books; I decided to skip the recipe, and try to make something that tastes great and is made from 100% whole wheat flour just by mixing a few things together. Would it work?

It certainly looks pretty good, perhaps a little "rustic". I tried a new method for shaping the bread. I rolled it into a rectangle and then rolled that tightly into a cylinder keeping the dough as tight as possible. It left this strange pattern on the outside of the bread, which I think is kind-of cool, but it also left this...

a nice hole in the middle of the loaf. Now, the hole isn't that big, but it's still there, I think I'll stick with my previous method of just forming it by pulling the dough tight and to the bottom of the loaf.

Although, that really didn't matter. The taste of this bread was delicious and it was my first loaf of whole wheat bread that actually turned out to have a fairly soft crust. In the past, I have brush bread with oil prior to baking and had a pan of water in the oven., because I thought that was suppose to soften the crust. Neither seemed to never really seemed to help. I did a little research and found that brushing the loaf with water prior to baking could help it be softer as well as brushing it with a little butter as it is mostly water. I also baked the bread with a pan of boiling water in the oven. That seemed to do the trick!

It tasted wonderful; it was slightly sweet, very moist, and most importantly soft.  Also note, it looks a little 'gummy' in the center, but that only because in our house a fresh loaf of bread doesn't have a chance to cool at all before being cut into!

Ingredients

1 c. warm milk

1/2 c. warm water

2 Tbs melted butter

3 Tbs honey

1 Tbs canola oil

3 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 t. salt

1 1/2 Tbs gluten

2 1/4 t. yeast

Directions

1. Put all ingredients in bread machine in order listed.  Run bread machine on "dough" cycle.
2. Form dough into loaf shape and gently place into loaf pan.  Gently press so that the dough touches all 4 sides.
3. Cover dough with plastic wrap and set in warm oven until it almost doubles in size, about 45 minutes.
4. When dough is almost ready, take it out of the oven and set it on the stove.  Turn the oven on to 350 degrees to preheat and place a second loaf pan on the bottom rack.  Bring a couple of cups of water up to boiling on the stove or in the microwave.
5. When oven has preheated, remove plastic wrap from bread, brush with water and place the pan in the oven.  Immediately pour boiling water into the empty loaf pan and close the oven.
6. Bake until instant read thermometer inserted at an angle from the short end just above the pan rim into the center of loaf reads 195, about 45 minutes.  If desired, dot with a tablespoon of butter halfway through cooking.  Remove bread from pan and place on wire rack until it reaches room temp or if you live in my house, slice immediately and serve hot with dinner.
7. Enjoy!

Cinnamon Rolls

So, I tend to be scared away from making cinnamon rolls. All the letting them rise and getting them the right size, just scares me away. Hopefully, that won't be a problem after this year of baking. Today, I decided to go for broke and make some cinnamon rolls. I followed a Cook's Illustrated recipe, with a few changes of my own.


Rising in the oven - don't they look perfect!

The finished product. They turned our well. Even Aiden likes them! I think the bread texture turned our just right, but I do think perhaps they could have used a little *gasp* butter, but they are still quite tasty.  They also seemed to be slightly over baked, but since I was outside shoveling snow, I was unable to keep a close eye on these.

Ingredients

Dough

1/2 c. milk

4 Tbs butter

2 1/4 t. yeast

1/2 c. warm water (110 degrees)

1/3c. sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 t. salt

3 1/4 - 3 3/4 c. bread flour

Filling

5 Tbs brown sugar

5 Tbs sugar

2 Tbs cinnamon

Icing

1 1/4 c. powdered sugar

2-4 Tbs milk

1/2 t. vanilla

Directions

1. Heat milk and butter until butter melts.  Cool to about 110 degrees.
2. Meanwhile, sprinkle yeast over warm water in bowl of  stand mixer fitted with paddle. Beat in sugar and eggs and mix at low  speed to blend. Add salt, lukewarm milk mixture, 2 cups of flour; mix at  medium speed until thoroughly blended, about 1 minute. Switch to dough  hook attachment. Add 1 1/4 cups flour, and knead at medium-low speed,  adding additional flour sparingly if dough sticks to sides of bowl,  until dough is smooth and comes away from sides of bowl, about 10  minutes.
3. Turn dough onto work surface. Squeeze dough with a clean dry hand. If dough is sticky, knead in up to 1/2 additional cup flour to form a smooth, soft, elastic dough. Transfer dough to a very lightly oiled large plastic container or bowl. Cover top of container with plastic wrap and let rise until double in size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours. (Ideal rising temperature is 75 degrees.) After rise, punch down center of dough once (can be refrigerated, covered, up to 18 hours). Making sure not to fold or misshape dough, turn it onto unfloured work surface; let dough rest, to relax, about 10 minutes
4. Grease a 9x13 pan (I also used a loaf pan as I made 16 instead of 12)  Mix sugars and cinnamon in small bowl
5. Roll dough with rolling pin into an evenly shaped 12-by-16-inch rectangle. Sprinkle an even layer of cinnamon-sugar mixture, leaving a 1/2 -inch border along one of the long sides.  Press mixture into dough, so it will stick while being rolled.  Roll, beginning with the long side of the rectangle that has cinnamon on it. Use both hands to pinch dough with fingertips as you go, sealing final edge firmly to form a seam. (Do not seal ends.)
6. Cut into 12 (I cut into 16) even pieces using a serrated knife with cutting board and arrange in prepared pan(s).
7. Cover loosely with plastic and allow to rise until double in size (rolls will touch), about one hour. When rolls are almost fully risen, adjust oven rack to center position and heat oven to 350 degrees.
8. Bake until golden brown and thermometer inserted in center roll registers 185 to 190 degrees, 25 to 30 minutes.  (Mine came out over baked, so I would start checking earlier.) Invert rolls onto wire rack. Cool to room temperature, 20 to 30 minutes.
9. Whisk sugar, milk, and vanilla in small bowl until smooth. Place rolls right-side up on rack and place rack over piece of parchment or wax paper. Drizzle icing over rolls with spoon. Cut or pull apart to separate, and serve

English Muffin Bread

Over Christmas, my Aunt and cousin told me about English Muffin bread and how great it is. What would possibly be a better first loaf of bread for 2011. I think I was right. Look at this.


Look's good - doesn't it?


The inside looks just as good. As Brandon says, "It actually tastes like an English Muffin!" Of course, we had to try it right away. I can't wait to toast some up for breakfast tomorrow. I have a feeling that we are going to make a lot more of this bread.

Ingredients

1c. milk

1/4 c. water

1 Tbs. cornmeal

3c. bread flour

.25 oz bread machine yeast

3 t. sugar

1 t. salt

1/8 t. baking soda

Directions

1. Warm milk and water to 125 degrees. Lightly grease 1 loaf pan; sprinkle cornmeal in pan.
2. With mixer, mix together 1.5 c. flour, yeast, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Mix in milk mixture and beat well. Stir in remaining flour a little at a time dough forms. 
3. Place dough in in pan and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 50 minutes.
4. Bake in 400 degree oven until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from pan immediately and cool.

Makes 10 slices - 170 calories each.