Banana Bread

I had some very brown bananas in my fridge that my mother left when she visited over the Memorial Day weekend. Reading my Runner's World magazine on route to Halifax, I came across a recipe for banana bread from Joanne Chang, the pastry chef and owner of the Flour Bakery and Cafe in Boston. It is the best recipe that I have tried yet. For a while I've been making the banana bread from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion cookbook, but I like this much more. The high ratio of bananas to flour makes a very moist bread. I made the low fat version of the recipe which was also provided. I used my Pampered Chef stoneware loaf pan which usually results in a longer baking time. I had to bake it 10 minutes longer than directed. Since I've been on a strudel kick, I made a strudel topping taken from Robin Hood Flour's recipe for Banana Crunch Bread. I substituted the coconut with chopped walnuts. Thank goodness I run! Otherwise, I would not be baking all these goodies.

Flour's Famous Banana Bread

1 2/3 C. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1 C. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
2 eggs
1/2 C. vegetable oil (or 1/4 C. vegetable oil and 1/4 C. unsweetened applesauce)
3 1/2 bananas, very ripe, mashed
2 tbsp low-fat sour cream
1 tsp vanilla
2/3 C. walnuts, toasted and chopped

Strudel Topping

1/4 C. chopped walnuts
1/4 C. brown sugar, packed
1 tbsp. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp butter

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mix all the ingredients for the strudel topping and set aside. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Beat the sugar and eggs with a whisk until light and fluffy. Drizzle in the oil (and add the applesauce for low fat version). Add the bananas, sour cream, and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture and nuts. Pour batter into a buttered 9 x 4 inch loaf pan and sprinkle with the strudel topping. Bake for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cinnamon Puffs

I actually made these last weekend but haven't had a chance to post. Been extremely busy. Was in Halifax for work the week before and I am taking a distant-learning class. Been playing catch-up for my class. Lots of lecture watching!

I bought 3 bags of cinnamon mini chips from King Arthur Flour a couple months ago and since have been playing around with recipes. My favorite thing to do with them is to bake cinnamon chip bread with a crunchy topping. I am trying to duplicate the topping from my local Great Harvest Bread Company. Still experimenting. I am also experimenting with different muffin recipes. This recipe is from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. The recipe doesn't call for cinnamon chips but I thought it would be a good compliment. I substituted buttermilk for the milk which I think produces a more tender muffin. The recipe uses nutmeg which I didn't care for, next time I using cinnamon. I used brown sugar and soft butter for the topping instead of sugar to get a strudel-like topping.

Cinnamon Puffs

Muffins (makes 12)

3 C. all-purpose flour

1 C. sugar

2 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg (I think cinnamon would be better)

3/4 tsp. salt

2 large eggs

1 1/4 C. milk (used buttermilk)

5 1/3 tbsp (2/3 stick) butter, melted

1 C. cinnamon chips

Topping

1/4 C. sugar (used brown sugar)

1/2 tsp. cinnamon

4 tbsp (1/2 stick) butter, melted (used soft butter)

Preheat oven to 350 F. In a mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. In another bowl, beat the eggs slight, then add milk and melted butter. Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture well. Stir just until evenly moistened. Fold in the cinnamon chips. Fill lightly greased muffin cups about 3/4 full. For the topping, mix sugar, cinnamon, and belted butter until blended. Sprinkle topping over the batter. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Original instructions for topping are to bake the muffins. Mix the sugar and cinnamon. When they are cool to touch, dip the muffin in the melted butter then in the cinnamon sugar mixture until coated.

Lemon Curd Muffins

I had some lemon curd left over that I bought so I was looking for a recipe to use it in. I settled on lemon curd muffins using a basic muffin recipe, "All-Star Muffins" from The King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. The muffins looked better than then tasted. I thought the muffins were too dense and somewhat dried. The recipe calls for sour cream but next time I think I will try buttermilk. The muffin recipe says it makes 16, but I only made 12. Here is the recipe.

All-Star Muffins with Lemon Curd

3 1/2 C. unbleached all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 C. butter

1 C. sugar

3 large eggs

2 tsp vanilla extract

1 C. sour cream

1 1/2 C. lemon curd

Preheat the oven to 400 F and lightly grease 12 muffin cups.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar with a handheld mixer until light and fluffy, add the eggs one at time. Add the vanilla and sour cream. Add the flour mixture, mix on low speed until smooth. Fill the muffin cups ~1/2 full with batter. Add 1 tbsp of lemon curd then top will more batter. Bake 20 to 24 minutes until tooth pick comes out clean. Cool the muffins in the pan for 5 minutes, then cool on a rack.