Banana Bread with Fresh Cherries

The farmers market in Del Ray has been wonderful for the past few weeks.  Tons of berries, gorgeous tomatoes, and beans!  I haven't been able to resist buying a few pepper plants, and gerber daisies to put in the garden as well. 

Cucumbers... from a long ago garden!

Little Bread Toddler helps me by picking the heads off the flowers and pulling up everything I've just planted.  But that's just the reality of life with a toddler.  That said, I can't help but melt when he runs over to the sugar snap pea plants and excitedly asks "peas? peas?" until I pick one off and give it to him.

Anyway, last Saturday I bought a ton of fresh cherries.  I had been thinking about what to do with some past-their-prime bananas, and I had the idea of making banana bread, and throwing in some cherries just to spruce it up a little. 

Did you know you can throw bananas in the freezer and they will keep? It's true.

I got this recipe from this website: http://www.ahastylife.com/2011/03/banana-bread-yes-it-is-low-calorie.html. 

However, I made a few changes, one of which was the addition of cherries.  I also used brown sugar instead of regular white sugar, and threw in a handful of rolled oats.

You will need:

1/4 cup sugar (white or brown)
2 Tbsp butter, melted
1 large egg, beaten
1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce (a generous 1/4 cup)
1 cup ripe bananas, mashed (3 small)
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup cherries
3 tbls rolled oats

1. Preheat oven to 350°.
2. In a large mixing bowl, combine melted butter, sugar, egg, and applesauce.

  3. Fold in the bananas.

4. Lightly spoon the all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour into dry measuring cups, and level with a knife. Combine the two flours, baking soda, and salt in a separate large bowl.

5. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing after each addition until moistened.  Add the oats and cherries right about now as well. 

6. Coat one loaf pan with cooking spray. Pour the batter into the loaf pan.

7. Bake at 350° for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a wooden pick inserted in center of the bread comes out clean.

8. Allow the bread to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove the bread and cool completely on a wire rack.

 So, obviously this bread is not the prettiest thing out there.  If you did manage to swing by A Hasty Life, her results were much prettier.  But it IS tasty!

Little Bread Toddler approves.  I've been microwaving it and spreading butter on it for breakfast, but it's also great on its own.  A solid recipe!

Argentine Sopaipillas

 As part of her Global Burger series, my dear friend and food writer Joanna O'Leary asked me to help her come up with an Argentina-style burger.

Of course I jumped at the opportunity.

While it may be confusing, this does not mean a burger in the style Argentines typically eat, which looks like this:

Argentina hamburgers are typically served with a thin beef patty, soft bun, tomato, lettuce, cheese and a fried egg on top.  It is quite tasty.

But that's not what the assignment was.  The assignment was to create a hamburger that would represent more of the essence of Argentina's gastronomic culture. 

While you'll have to read Joanna's article to see the final product, I decided to devote a blog entry to the bread we chose as the bun:

The Argentine sopaipilla.


It was difficult for me to track down the origins of the sopaipilla because there are so many different varieties.  According to Wikipedia, the sopaipilla has a long etymological history but that it came with the Spanish to the Americas and quickly spread and diversified.

 Chilean sopaipillas

The Mexican version is sweet and crunchy, the Chilean version uses pumpkin puree, and even within Argentina it goes by several names: torta frita,  kreppel, etc.  The book I bought on Argentine cooking in 2000 calls them Fat Crackers.  It can be baked, pan-fried, or deep-fried.  In Mendoza it is the custom to make and eat sopaipillas when it rains, although I'm not sure why.

Well, as long as it's raining and we have sopaipillas, might as well pass around the yerba mate:

The town where I was an exchange student hosts an annual Festival de la Sopaipilla where they crown a queen of the festival, everyone stuffs themselves full of the pastries, and they dance all night long to traditional folklore music.

Here is a picture of me, probably AT the Festival de la Sopaipilla, with three friends who perform traditional folklore music. 

This is where I got my first taste of sopaipillas, and this taste guided me towards the recipe I wanted to use for the hamburger buns.  I didn't want just any sopaipillas, I wanted the ones I ate in Mendoza.

So after lots of research, wherein I found this cool blog, this cool blog, and this cute old lady (SLYT), I found this recipe for baked sopaipillas.  Don't worry, I'll translate the recipe for you.  But you really should be using weight measurements if you aren't already.

You will need:

700 grams all-purpose flour plus more for kneading
200 g. lard (preferably beef, but whatever works)
20 g. salt
400 ml water

I cobbled together a combination of duck fat, lard, and butter.  It worked out fine.

1.  Melt the lard and let it cool.

2. Whisk together the flour and salt in a big bowl.

3. Add the lard and the water to the flour and salt and knead for about ten minutes, until the dough is smooth.  This is super easy.

4. Once the dough is smooth, transfer it to a floured surface. 

5. Using a pastry cutter, cut into equal-sized balls (I measured the entire dough, divided that weight into 12, and made the balls each the same weight)

6. Cover the balls with plastic wrap and let sit for an hour.

7.  Take out a few baking sheets and either cover them with parchment paper or coat them in butter then dust them with flour.  I tried it both ways, and I found using parchment paper was just fine and less of a mess, but it's your call.

8.  With your fingers, stretch each ball of dough into a flat circle.  Place them on the parchment or floured baking sheets. Cover them with plastic wrap and let them rest while you preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

 

9.  Remove the plastic and with a sharp knife, cut two little slits into each piece of dough. 

10.  Pop them in the oven and let them bake for 15-20 minutes until they are just golden brown.  When they are done, take them out and let them rest on a cooling rack before either coating them with sugar or leaving them plain.

These are super yummy and exactly what I was looking for in terms of taste.  We'll see how they work as buns; most Argentines eat them as sweet pastries and serve them with jam or dulce de leche.  But they aren't sweet themselves, so I think they will work well.  

Since making these, I've been eating them for breakfast this week.  The fat in them makes them very satisfying.  And I do put jam on them and accompany them with a nice cafe con leche, in case you were wondering :)

Peanut butter oatmeal bars a la Pinterest

The moment I saw this recipe on Pinterest, I knew I had to try it.  Slam dunk, right?

This recipe has it all: oatmeal, peanut butter, bananas, eggs, milk.  Super healthy and perfect for a quick breakfast.

You will need:

1.5 cups of quick-cooking oats
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder (not actually sure why this is in the original recipe since it didn't rise at all, but whatever)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 ripe banana
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup peanut butter
butter (for greasing baking dish)

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.  Grease an 8x8 baking dish and set aside.  I used glass; apparently in the original recipe it calls for metal.  I don't know which works better. 

 2. Mix together the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking powder in a medium-sized bowl.

3. Gently whisk the egg then add to the dry ingredients with the vanilla.

 Or, you know, just add the egg in without whisking.

4. Mash up the banana then add it to the ingredients. 

 If you were me, at this stage you would look around and realize Little Bread Toddler was hard at work throwing his socks and your baking supplies into the garbage.

5. Stir in the milk and peanut butter.

6.  Pour the mixture into your greased baking dish and bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until the top is pretty firm. 

BEFORE:

AFTER:

7.  Let it cool, then cut into squares or whatever shape you like and eat, or wrap individually in plastic wrap to store in the fridge or freezer.

So how were they? 

 

 Bland.

I'm sorry!

I know that's not what you wanted to hear, and it wasn't what I was expecting.  I mean, the recipe had everything going for it.  I don't know what happened.  Not enough cinnamon?  I know I didn't grate a whole teaspoon's worth, but the recipe also had a bunch of brown sugar, and it didn't really taste sweet at all.  Or peanut buttery at all. 

I don't get it.  I think if I make them again, I'll add more spice and more peanut butter.  I'm also thinking if you added raisins, chocolate chips, nuts or shredded coconut that might liven them up a little.  Or maybe I just think that because that would make these bars taste more like my easy granola bars.

I was a little disappointed because Pinterest is supposed to be a way to share things you really like... and this recipe was a bit of a dud. 

Have you ever been disappointed by a recipe posted and re-posted all over Pinterest?

Easy Granola Bars

 Our first year in Austin, we were awakened one early Saturday morning to "Eye of the Tiger" blaring outside.  After about ten minutes when it didn't stop, we got dressed and went outside to find the source.  Much to our surprise, the music was accompanying the annual Austin marathon, and our house was just steps from mile 21!

That morning, Mr. Bread Maiden made the commitment to run the Austin marathon before we graduated.  And two years later, he did.

In the pocket of his running shorts, he packed the following granola bars.

Yes, this recipe really is that simple.  It's quick too.

YOU WILL NEED:

1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups of any kind of flaked oats or grains (I like oats and maybe barley flakes)
1 cup dried fruit (raisins, figs, dates, currants, prunes, apricots, etc.)
2 cups nuts and seeds (pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, sunflower seeds, peanuts, almonds, flax seeds)
1/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips (optional)
1/4 cup shredded coconut (also optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F and place a rack in the middle of the oven.  Butter a large glass baking dish.  Set aside.

2. Combine the honey, brown sugar, peanut butter, and vanilla extract in a small saucepan.  Heat over low heat until the brown sugar melts and it all mixes together.  Turn off the heat.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the oats, dried fruit, seeds and nuts, and chocolate and mix together with the paddle attachment.

4. With the stand mixer stirring the granola, pour in the honey-brown sugar mixture.  The mixer should encounter some resistance.

5. When everything is mixed up, use a spatula to thunk it onto the baking dish, then smooth it out so it's an even layer.  Take care to push it into the corners of the dish as well.

6.  Pop the dish into the oven and bake maybe 15-20 minutes until it's a light golden brown.  Remove from the oven and let it cool, then cut into squares, wrap in plastic wrap, and freeze until you want to eat them.


The thing I like about this recipe is that it doesn't call for corn syrup.  Yes, the corn syrup gives granola bars that nice, chewy consistency.  But I'd rather use natural, not-really-processed ingredients, wouldn't you?  In any case, when we looked at the fancy goos and energy drinks touted to boost running performance, we were kinda grossed out.  These are much healthier, and you know every ingredient that went into these.  Because you made them yourself!