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Archive for the ‘Baking’ Category

Banana Bread

Posted in Baking, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , on June 3, 2011| 3 Comments »

We had a few bananas that were getting a little ripe which lead to Yuki harping on me to throw together a loaf of banana bread. I do make a mean banana bread. I’d actually throw mine up against anyones it’s so good. So, I obliged and banana bread we have. It is going fast though.

I keep my banana bread recipe very simple, but with a couple of tasty additions. I use 1 teaspoon baking soda, 2 cups all-purpose flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 butter melted and cooled to room temperature, 3 ripe bananas mashed but a little chunky, 1/3 cup of chocolate chips, 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts, 3/4 cup pure cane sugar, and 1/4 teaspoon salt. Obviously, the chocolate chips and walnuts are my tasty additions. I mean, really, what goes better with bananas than chocolate and walnuts?

In a large glass dish I thoroughly mixed together the flour, baking soda, and salt. In a medium glass dish I mixed together the sugar, eggs, and butter. Once the wet ingredients were well blended I added the banana, chocolate, and walnuts. Then, I added the banana mix into the flour mix and whipped it all together. I like to use a fork and really get into it. You have to mix it real well to eliminate any flour clumps.

Once mixed together I poured it into a greased loaf pan and threw it into a 350 degree oven for about an hour.

This bread is fantastic on its own or toasted with some butter. We’ve been eating it up for breakfast as it’s a perfect match with our morning coffee.

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Cornbread with Basil

Posted in Baking, Home Cooking, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on April 7, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Surprisingly, I’ve never made cornbread before. Yuki and I were talking about it and she thought some homemade cornbread would be good, I agreed. The only thing I disagreed with was that I wanted to make cornbread muffins while she wanted a loaf. Of course, she won that one and it wasn’t even close! I did find out though just how easy it is to make delicious cornbread.

My ingredients for the cornbread included 1.5 cups of buttermilk, 1 bunch of basil chopped up, 1 cup of flour, 2 eggs, 1/2 cup of butter melted, 1/4 cup of sugar, 3 ears of corn, 1 tablespoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1.5 cups of polenta.

In a large glass bowl I mixed together the flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Then I mixed in the polenta real well. In another glass bowl I beat the eggs with the buttermilk and then added the melted butter once it had cooled to room temperature (don’t want to make cornbread with scrambled eggs!). I rinsed and chopped up the basil and cut the kernels from the corn.

I poured the liquid into the dried ingredients and mixed it until everything was incorporated while being careful not to overmix. Then I added the corn and basil and mixed that in as well. I poured that into a buttered loaf pan. It went into a 400 degree oven for about 45 minutes.

Once it cooled down it was ready to eat. It’s great cold, it’s great warm, but it’s best toasted with a little butter.

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Caca Forte Muffins

Posted in Baking, Home Cooking, Sweets, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 29, 2010| 2 Comments »

Pregnant women need to snack. Fetus’s need nutrition. Fetus’s push against the digestive tracts of pregnant women. Sometimes you just need something to accommodate all three of these statements. That’s why I created this muffin yesterday. It’s packed full of healthy grains, probiotics, fiber…you know, things that keep the pipes running smoothly. And let’s be honest here though, these muffins aren’t just for pregnant women!

I used 1.5 cups of whole wheat flour, 1/2 pound of pitted prunes chopped up, 1/4 cup of sugar, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 2 cups of plain kefir, 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, and 1/2 cup of rolled oats.

In a large glass bowl I first mixed together all of the dry ingredients very thoroughly. Then, 1/2 cup at a time I stirred in the kefir until I had a nice smooth batter. After that I added the prunes and mixed them in. I poured them into my 12 muffin pan that had been lightly sprayed with baking spray and tossed them into a 400 degree oven. It took about 25 minutes for them to cook. I took a good night’s sleep for them to do their trick on me. I couldn’t be happier with the results of these muffins…both of the results.

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Maple Pumpkin Muffins

Posted in Baking, Home Cooking, Sweets, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 18, 2010| Leave a Comment »

We ran out of muffins so I had to make some more yesterday. Since I still had some pumpkin left from the quinoa dish I made the other day I decided to use it up.

The ingredient list includes 1 3/4 cup of cake flour, 2/3 cup of butter at room temperature, 1 egg at room temperature, 1 teaspoon each of cinnamon and nutmeg, 1/3 cup of maple syrup, 3/4 cup pure cane sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1 cup of pumpkin.

First thing I had to do was cook my pumpkin. I diced up 1 cups worth and tossed it in my steamer for about 6 minutes or so, until it was soft enough to puree. Then I pureed it in my small processor and set it aside to cool down a bit.

Then, in my large glass bowl I creamed the butter with the sugar and syrup until it was nice and fluffy. I don’t have a good electric mixer, so this was tough for me. I started with a fork to get the butter nicely incorporated, then switched to a whisk to get the air whipped in. After that I added the egg and pumpkin and stirred it all together.

In my other glass bowl I sifted together the flour, salt, baking soda, and spices. In a few batches I added the flour mix into the pumpkin mix and mixed really well to make sure there were no lumps in my batter. I poured it into my muffin pan (only got 10 instead of the 12 I was expecting) and put it into a 400 degree oven for 15 minutes.

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Raspberry Yogurt Buns

Posted in Baking, Home Cooking, Sweets, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , on October 9, 2010| 2 Comments »

I’ve been doing more baking lately and find that I quite enjoy it. There’s nothing like biting into a warm, fresh, moist baked good. With just the two of us one batch lasts about a week giving us healthy afternoon snacks. My latest were these Raspberry Yogurt Buns. They’re made like a muffin, but with the yogurt they don’t rise very much. They are absolutely delicious though and could be made with just about any kind of fruit, fresh or dried.

The ingredient list includes 3/4 cup pure cane sugar, 1 package of fresh raspberries, 1 3/4 cup cake flour, 2 eggs at room temperature, 1/2 cup butter at room temperature, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract, 1 cup plain yogurt, and two teaspoons baking powder.

In a large bowl I mixed together the butter and sugar until it was nice and fluffy. An electric mixer would make this easy. I don’t have one, but I kind of enjoy the challenge of doing this by hand. I used a fork to cream the butter and sugar. Once it was nicely creamed I switched to a whisk and added the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla, the yogurt, and then the raspberries. I whisked it really well until the raspberries mostly came apart and mixed in evenly.

In a seperate bowl I sifted the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and mixed that all together with a clean fork. In batches of three to make sure it’s evenly incorporated I mixed this flour mixture into the yogurt mixture. I whisked it all together until I had a nice smooth batter.

I have a 12 cup muffin pan that I lightly buttered each cup. I poured the batter in each cup and then put it into a 350 degree oven for about 20-25 minutes. The tops should be a little springy when touched. Once cooled I had some fantastic little buns.

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