Banana Pumpkin Muffins

This year, I am determined to follow my sister-in-law's lead and start baking and freezing well ahead of time. Enter, Banana Pumpkin Muffins.

Since we spend a couple of days in Iowa, I always like to bring a few breakfast treats. This year I plan on making the sour cream muffins that all the kids loved, but I also had a bunch of quickly rotting bananas (now doesn't that sound yummy?) so I decided to make muffins with them as well. I have a wonderful recipe from Skinny Taste for low-fat banana nut bread but it calls for apple sauce, which I was out of. Instead I tweaked the recipe to include pumpkin instead, with half the sugar of the original recipe. They turned out dense and rich. Not sure if the kids will like them, but I know it's going to be hard for me to stay away from them before Christmas!


6 ripe medium bananas, mashed
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2-1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°. Grease muffin pan with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add mashed bananas, pumpkin and vanilla to the creamed butter and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk egg whites. Fold egg whites into butter mixture. Add flour mixture, then mix using a wooden spoon until combined. Do not over mix.

Pour batter into muffin pan and bake on the center rack for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. NOTE: My mix actually made 16 muffins, but you can make them larger and only make 12.

Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes.

Pie anyone?

Pies intimidate me. Most recipes I've read for pie crusts usually include strict directions like "use COLD butter," and "For the love of God whatever you do DO NOT let the butter/lard warm up or your crust will FAIL, and you will FAIL, and you will be an utter disappointment. " 

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but still, scary stuff. So when I offered to make desserts for Thanksgiving, and my husband made it clear that pies were the "traditional" requirement, I knew I needed help. Buying pie crusts would have been the smart thing to do, or better yet, a gorgeous $5.99 pumpkin pie from Costco that could easily feed 20 people, but I am not smart. So I turned to Zoe Francois, who I swear I would trust with my life, and certainly with my baking. Sure enough, she promised THE BEST APPLE PIE EVER, on her blog. And it was. It really, really was. 

I doubled the recipe because I was actually making three, count 'em, three pies, one of which was a double crust apple pie. For the pumpkin and pecan pies I used other recipes for the fillings with Zoe's crust recipe.  

This looks like a mess, but it's actually an amazing chocolate pecan pie from Paula Deen. I cut the sugar in the recipe in half, because, you know, it's Paula Deen, and I used orange juice instead of the bourbon. I would also recommend melting the chocolate first rather than leaving it in chunks like she recommends.

I don't even like apple pie, but this one is truly successful. It seems like you can't really over bake it, but don't test it. 

Luscious brown sugar pumpkin cream pie from Martha Stewart.

At the last minute, I decided the pies weren't enough so I made some bars. I wanted to use a can of organic butternut squash I had, so I put a few recipes together, tweaked them to my taste, and made some bars that turned out to be the run-away hit of the day.

For Friday's breakfast, I made simple sour cream muffins with a little sugar and cinnamon on top. Also a big hit.

Today I ran to Costco on the way back over to my sister-in-law's and picked up a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. I'm tired.

Salted Nut Roll Ice Cream

My friend Kurt likes ice cream. A lot. Recently he presented me with a challenge I could not pass up. Over brunch, he said, ever-so-slyly, "You know what no one has tried yet? Salted nut roll ice cream." And I was off.

First, I had to deconstruct a salted nut roll, which I was not very familiar with. I found a nice web site that featured a home-made version of the confection. I learned that the nougat center is replicated with marshmallow cream. That I can do. Obviously the chewy texture would not be possible in ice cream, but I found a promising recipe for marshmallow ice cream and forged forth undeterred.

To the ice cream I folded lightly salted peanuts. Note to self, don't be a wuss, use saltier peanuts next time.

I used my old stand-by salted caramel sauce from smittenkitchen both to add into the ice cream in what I had hoped would be a beautiful golden ribbon, and to use warm as a topping for extra indulgence.

The results were mixed. While the final ice cream was a decadent twist on rich vanilla, with some peanuts tossed in, it was not nearly salty enough. The caramel I mixed in dissolved into the ice cream too much so it didn't offer that creamy texture I had hoped for. However, dousing the ice cream with a warmed tablespoon or four of the stuff may make you forget what the original challenge was and just enjoy the treat for what it is. And according to Kurt, he did. A lot.

Apple Crisp

This recipe is from Millie's preschool, believe it or not. It's meant to be so simple a child can do it, and other than peeling and slicing the apples, it really is that easy. It's also the best apple crisp I've ever had, possibly thanks to the entire stick of butter that goes into the crust.

4 medium unpeeled or peeled tart apples, sliced.
3/4 cup of all purpose flour
3/4 cup of packed brown sugar (I used 1/4 and it was plenty sweet)
1/2 cup quick cooking or regular oats (I used quick cooking)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts (a generous 1/3)
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (I used 1/2 tsp)
1/2 cup butter, softened

Heat oven to 375.
Spread apple slices in ungreased 8 inch square pan.
Mix remaining ingredients with fork (I used my hands). Sprinkle over apples.
Bake uncovered until the topping is golden brown and apples are tender and bubbling, about 30 minutes.

Rugelach

Happy New Year to my fellow Jewish friends. In honor of Rosh Ha Shana, I made Zoe Francois's "modern" rugelach, to rave reviews. Rugelach, a traditional Yiddish crescent shaped pastry is often filled with dates and apricot jam, earning it a reputation for being "old lady" food, as my husband so eloquently said.

Leave it to Zoe to make rugelach cool again. She fills hers with raspberry jam and chocolate. Now how can that be bad?

Mine turned out considerably uglier than hers, but delicious and highly addictive, which is why I left the rest at my parents.

Recipe on Zoe Bakes.

Fall is in the air

You may have noticed that I don't do a lot of cooking in the summer time. But the cool air in recent days has made me excited to bake and cook using beautiful seasonal produce like pumpkins, squash, and apples. So stay tuned, after the fair I promise I will return to the stove, and my laptop.

In the meanwhile, go have another corn dog!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Iced coffee on a warm June day. Life truly does not get much better than this.

Cold Brewed Coffee from Smitten Kitchen

Deb at Smittenkitchen suggests using half concentrate to half water or milk. I have been known to pour concentrate over a bit of ice, and add just a dash of whole milk. It's strong, but oh, hurts so good. For this morning's coffee, which I am currently enjoying on my front porch to the sound of church bells ringing (no lie, we live by a Catholic church. Why they are ringing at Noon on a Wednesday, I don't know) I added a teaspoon of raw sugar, a few ice cubes, half a glass of the concentrate, and about 1/4 cup of whole milk. Then, wait for it...I frothed some more milk to top off my creation. Hence the Ahhhhhhhhh title of this post.

Whole Lemon Tart

It's Back to the 50's Car Show time in our hood. I love this weekend, when gorgeous "old fashioned cars," as Millie calls them, troll our streets and show off their purty selves at the State Fair Grounds. No need to pay the enterance fee, even a simple trip to Target becomes our very own Car Show. The cars, and their giddy, friendly owners are everywhere!

One of our neighborhood's fun traditions is a walk to Snelling (our main road in front of the State Fair Grounds) to camp out and watch the cars in an unofficial parade. Before the parade, we invited friends over to grill. Steaks, shrimp, orzo salad, grilled asparagus, roasted beets with walnuts, green salad with home-made citrus dressing, fresh fruit, chips and salsa...is that all? 

Nope! I decided to tackle my very first tart. I have always been very intimidated by the whole tart/pie shell challenge. But this was the day, I was going to stare fear in the face, and eat it. 

The results? Fabulous. Thanks to my favorite blogger, Smittenkitchen, the process was fairly painless, even if a bit time consuming. And the filling was the easiest, craziest thing I've ever baked. An entire lemon, yep, rind and all, thrown to it's death into the food processor along with a couple of other readily available ingredients and wham bam thank you ma'am, you have a tart! Served with some fresh blueberries and it's summer on a plate. 

Did I mention there were only five of us? Left overs anyone? 

Whole Lemon Tart by Smitten Kitchen: Click her for recipe and great photos.

Carrot Curry Soup

A couple of months ago, I had a gorgeous carrot soup at The Finnish Bistro in St. Anthony Park. It was made with more cream than should be legal (I asked) so I began my search for an equally delicious but slightly less coronary inducing version.

I found it in a little book called 200 Veggie Feasts. I tweaked it by omitting the potato and adding more broth than it calls for because the original version is really, really thick. It's lighter that way and better suited for a summer dinner. It has a nice kick, which can also be tweaked to your liking.

Curried Carrot and Lentil Soup

Serves 4

2 Tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

1 lbs. carrots, chopped

1 potato, chopped

1 Tbsp, medium curry paste

3/4 cup red lentils, washed

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

1 Tbsp fresh or frozen cilantro, chopped or minced

salt and black pepper to taste

Heat oil in a saucepan, add onion and garlic, cook over medium heat, stirring frequently for 5 minutes. Add carrots, potato, and curry paste and mix well. Add remaining ingredients. Bring to a boil, cover, lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes until vegetables are soft. 

Transfer to food processor or use an immersion blender to process until very smooth. Return to pan and add as much broth as needed to bring to desired consistency. 

Easter Trail Mix

Or, The Day The Diet Died.

At preschool, the kids made Easter Trail Mix, which Millie raved about. All I was able to get out of her was that it included cheddar gold fish, so I decided that we could make our own. To be extra festive, we chose only Easter-y colors, thus steering away from Cheddar anything.

Easter/Passover/Spring-if-it-ever-gets-here Trail Mix

Dry roasted peanuts
Golden raisins
Annie's Honey Graham Bunnies
Raspberry yogurt covered pretzels (at Rainbow bulk section)
Bunny shaped marshmallows
Easter color candy corn (Target candy bulk section)

And anything else your little sunshine deprived heart desires. Soooo good, we are talking pastel-colored crack.  Consider yourself warned.

Poppyseed Rolls

After making Hamantashen for Purim, I was left with most of a can of poppyseed pie filling. So since I hadn't baked anything in a whole 24 hours, I decided to make poppyseed rolls with the rest of the can. Becuase really, it's just not right to throw away perfectly good pie filling. They turned out so good I had to give one roll to my parents or I would have eaten the whole thing by myself. With a hot cup of coffee, a thick slice of this sweet bread makes even a frozen afternoon in March seem tolerable.

Shakshuka and pork

Seems like a bit of an oximoron, but I decided to put together an amazing Puerto Rican pork roast from Skinnytaste.com, topped with this lovely, spicy sweet Shakshuka from smittenkitchen.com. The dichotomy comes from the fact that shakshuka is an Israeli dish of tomatoes and eggs, while pork is, well, not exactly known for it's Jewish-ness. But together, these two dishes made for a beautiful mixed marriage of textures, fragrances, and flavors.

Click here for slow cooked Pernil from skinnytaste.

Click here for Shakshuka from my favorite blogger/foodie, smittenkitchen.com.

Healthy pizza (?)

Ok, so it's not exactly low fat, or low anything, but this pizza is made a tiny bit healthier by the use of a nutty, flavorful crust from Zoe Francois and Jeff Hertzberg's book, Healthy Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

For tonight's flat breads, I chose to use the Master recipe from the book, and customized one pizza for me and one for my husband. I topped his with crushed tomatoes, some spicy chorizo, sun dried tomatoes, garlic and fresh mozzarella and pecorino. For mine, I opted for mozz, herbed goat cheese, pecorino, olive oil, rosemary, lots and lots of sea salt, and a bit of arugula (added post baking, of course). In addition, I threw together a lively salad inspired by local chef extraordinaire, Steven Brown: bitter arugula, pecorino, lemon zest and olive oil. It was a meal representing my disgust with this ever-cruel winter. All that was missing was a tall Mojito, and sunshine.

Birthday Sugar Coma

There is a woman in New York who is trying to kill me. I've never met her, so I cannot think of what I could have done to provoke this. She keeps posting these beautiful cakes and other delicacies on her blog, SmittenKitchen, just egging me on, "try this, I know you wanna...it's not that bad for you."

Everything I have ever made based on Smittenkitchen's blog has been successful, and that is a testament to her cooking and baking talents, not mine. So when it came time to baking my own, yes, my own, birthday cake, I knew right where to look for the perfect thing. Chocolate and peanut butter cake? Yes, please.

Click on the above link to SmittenKitchen for the complete recipe. This is a fairly labor intensive cake, but well worth it. I had never made a layered cake before, so that in itself was intimidating, but I was excited to try something new. Frosting with peanut butter frosting was another challenge. It wasn't "peanuty" enough for me, so I added more peanut butter, which made it too crumbly. So I added some milk to the frosting to thin it out because it was too hard to work with otherwise. The thinned out version was a dream to frost with, and the additional peanut butter enhanced the flavor, in my opinion.

But wait, there's more. Just when you thought you couldn't consume any more calories per slice, now you can! Because as the last step in this journey toward a certain diabetic coma, you also get to pour a layer of chocolate peanut butter ganache on top of the whole darn thing. Yes, you heard right. More chocolate, more peanut butter. As you can see, the original version has ganache draped just so over the frosting. But the recipe made so much ganache, I couldn't bare to throw any away, so I frosted the whole cake with it. Why the heck not, right?

Finally, when she suggests, ever so politely, that you keep a glass of milk handy when sampling the cake, listen to the woman, she knows of which she speaks.

Brownies from Heaven

For brownies that will bring tears to your eyes (in a good way), try these Outrageous Brownies from Ina Garten. I made some tweaks (see below) because I had chocolate mint chips I wanted to use, which I made into two layers of ganache, but I am sure they are amazing in their original form as well. Note: they are even richer the next day.

Original recipe (taken from Smittenkitchen.com)

Ina Garten’s Outrageous Brownies

1 pound unsalted butter
28 ounces semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided
6 ounces unsweetened chocolate
6 extra large eggs
3 tablespoons instant coffee granules
2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
2 1/4 cups sugar
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, divided
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
3 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 12×18x1 inch baking sheet. Melt together the butter, one pound of the chips, and the unsweetened chocolate in a medium bowl over simmering water. Allow to cool slightly.

In a large bowl, stir (do not beat) together the eggs, coffee granules, vanilla, and sugar. Stir the warm chocolate mixture into the egg mixture and allow to cool to room temperature. In a medium bowl, sift together 1 cup of flour, the baking powder, and salt. Add to the cooled chocolate mixture. Toss the walnuts and 12 ounces of chips in a medium bowl with 1/4 cup flour, then add them to the chocolate batter. Pour into the baking sheet.

Bake for 20 minutes, then rap the baking sheet against the oven shelf to force the air to escape from between the pan and dough. Bake for another 15 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean. (Mine took a lot longer, closer to 30 minutes) Do not overbake!

Allow to cool thoroughly, refrigerate.

Ina’s notes: Flouring the chips and walnuts keeps them from sinking to the bottom.
It is very important to allow the batter to cool well before adding the chips, or the chips will melt and ruin the brownies.

Do ahead: This recipe can be baked up to a week in advance, wrapped in plastic, and refrigerated.

My tweaks:

First, I cut the whole recipe in half and used a smaller pan. I omited the chocolate chips and walnuts. I made two ganaches (ganachi?) from a big bag of brown and green chocolate mint chips. After the brownies were done, but still warm, I poured a layer of chocolate mint ganache on top while carefully piercing the top of the brownies with a toothpick. Once that layer cooled, I topped it with the green ganache (recipes to follow).

Notes: This can be made with any flavor chips. My next attempt will be peanut butter chips, of course.

Ganache

6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Melt together in a double broiler until smooth.

Green Ganache

Seperate 4 ounces green chips out of the bag
2 ounces white chocolate
6 tablespoons heavy cream

Melt together in a double broiler until smooth.

Is there anything more lovely then melted chocolate?

Super dark, rich brownies with messy, goopey, yummy layers of ganache. Sigh.

Cake Pops

My first attempt at Cake Pops was not a huge success, to say the least. Half the balls ended up plopped into the melted bark. But really, how can cake mashed up with frosting and dipped into candy bark taste bad? It was delicious. Ugly and delicious. I am determined to keep practicing though, so beware if you live close to me, these might pop up at your door step without warning.

Best.Cheesecake.Ever.

A few weeks ago, while lingering over our $5 sliver of cheesecake at Cafe Latte, I told my husband that I wanted to find the perfect cheesecake recipe. "Well that doesn't seem like such a smart move," he said. He was right. I am trying to maintain a healthy weight, and "perfect cheesecake" and "healthy weight" are not two concepts that often go together. But I did it anyway, I found the perfect cheesecake recipe.

My friend Alissa was kind enough to share her mother-in-law's grandmother's recipe and it is amazing. It's creamy and fluffy, with layers of delicate flavors. This cheesecake is for the purist, calling for no additions other than the sour cream top layer. It is cheesecake the way cheesecake was meant to be.

For a friend's recent visit, I made the cheesecake with a few tweaks. I must admit it felt a bit like editing the bible, but you really can add anything you like to this recipe and it will maintain its essential perfection. I like a little zing in my desserts, so I added lemon zest and powdered sugar to the top layer, and drizzled strawberry sauce on top.

I do plan on trying a lower fat version some day, but trust me, this was worth the 3000 points per bite. Really.

These are the only pictures I was able to snap before it all disappeared.

Shrimp in Yogurt sauce

The shrimp marinated in yogurt, coriander and ginger was a big success. Just a hint of heat, a little sour zest from the Greek yogurt, all in a creamy sauce that doubled nicely as a dipping sauce. Served along side fresh snap peas sauteed in olive oil and tossed with toasted almond slivers and sea salt, and a five grain mix from Trader Joe's, it was both exotic and comforting, perfect for an ultra cold Minnesota January night. 

Alas, no pictures to share, thanks to a few technical glitches, so you'll have to trust me. It was as pretty as it was delicious. 

Yogurt Marinade with Ginger and Coriander

(from The New American Plate Cookbook) 

1 1/2 cups plain, low-fat yogurt (I used non-fat Greek yogurt)

2 Tbsp lemon juice 

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper (I used a bit less)

2 tsp minced garlic

2 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp ground turmeric

2 tsp minced ginger

salt to taste

In a blender or food processor, blend all ingredients at low speed until well blended. Divide the mixture in half. Place half the mixture in a nonmetal dish. Add food to be marinaded (I used half pound of shrimp) and place in refrigerator for up to an 1 hour, occasionally turning the food. 

I grilled marinated shrimp in a grill pan without oil until pink and slightly charred, about 8 minutes. They were cooked perfectly thanks to the moisture from the marinade. 

The rest of the mixture can be used as dip for grilled food and sides. 

Chocolate Mousse Cupcakes

For Christmas, my friend Tracy gave me a lovely book called Cupcakes Galore. This was not only a thoughtful gift, considering my new love for baking, but also a timely one, since I volunteered...ok, pushed my way into... making cupcakes for our beloved Elliot's second birthday.  I chose to make Chocolate Mousse cupcakes for Elliot, since he loves chocolate. I've also made the Yeti cupcakes out of this book for New Year's Eve, and both have been successful. Next I am making the Yeti (or marshmallow) cupcakes for our beautiful friend Josie's 10th birthday, topped with white chocolate cream cheese frosting. Stay tuned to see how those worked out.

Here are a couple of shots of Drovi's snow-themed cupcakes. Happy birthday sweet boy!