Banana Bread
Tomorrow ends my stint in jury duty. It was a short week but strangely enough we members of the jury have bonded in our time together, despite the fact that nobody seems to know anybody else's name. The best way I can describe it is to say that its like an extended field trip in high school.
- 1/2 cup butter, softened
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp molasses (rum also works, as does 1 tsp vanilla)
- 1 1/2 cups mashed banana (3-4 bananas)
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Dog Treats
Also on the agenda last night was learning how to make some dog treats for Jocelyn, Lauren's dog. She's usually well-behaved and deserves an occasional treat for having to lay on the kitchen floor, watching us cook all the food you see on this blog and never getting to eat any of it (aside from what might fall off the counter). These treats smell awesome and you'll see from the ingredients that they are edible for humans too, but don't let your nose fool you:
Peanut Butter Puppy Poppers
- 1 tbsp honey
We didn't have a bone shaped cookie cutter and the dough was pretty fragile so we rolled it into little balls.
Regarding the taste of these dog treats, as it turns out fat (butter/shortening) and sugar are what make cookies awesome. Leaving them out gives you a chew-activated flour bomb, waiting to absorb every last drop of moisture in your mouth. Joss likes them though. Or at least I think she does. Its hard to tell if she eats it because its food and a human is giving it to her, or if she would steal them off the counter when nobody is looking. Case in point, she eats carrots, celery, apples and tomatoes, but only if you throw them to her.
Later, Lauren made a second batch of treats using a different recipe. They smell better and taste worse. And yes, they are every bit as hard as they look.Apple Cinnamon Drops
- 1 large apple
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 cup of water
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon 1 cup oatmeal
- 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1/8 cup whole wheat flour
Preheat oven to 350 ° F (180 ° C).
Core, slice and mince the apple (use a food processor if you have one). In a large bowl, combine the minced apple bits, honey, water, cinnamon, and oatmeal. Gradually blend in the wheat flour, adding enough to form a stiff dough.
In a small bowl, add 1/8 cup wheat flour. Spoon the dough by rounded teaspoon onto ungreased baking sheets, spacing about 2 inches (5cm) apart. Using the bottom of a glass dipped in the wheat flour (to prevent sticking),
flatten each spoonful of dough into a circle. Adjust the size of the drops based on how big a treat you like to feed your dog.Bake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and flip each cookie to brown evenly on both sides. Reduce oven temperature to 325 ° F (180 °C). Return to oven and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Let cool overnight.
And once again, Jocelyn loves them.
Soft-Baked Pretzels
A couple of months ago when Lauren and I were messing around with yeast and dough for cinnamon rolls I mentioned to her that I really wanted to make soft-baked pretzels. Just this month I happened to catch an episode of Good Eats that explained exactly how to do just that. Unfortunately I don't see how you get this done without an electric mixer unless you've got some seriously muscular forearms. There is a lot of kneading required to get the smooth consistency required for the pretzels to have awesome chewiness.
* 1 1/2 cups warm (110 to 115 degrees F) water
* 1 tablespoon sugar
* 2 teaspoons kosher salt
* 1 package active dry yeast
* 22 ounces all-purpose flour, approximately 4 1/2 cups
* 2 ounces unsalted butter, melted
* Vegetable oil, for pan
* 10 cups water
* 2/3 cup baking soda
* 1 large egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
* Pretzel salt
Directions Combine the water, sugar and kosher salt in the bowl of a stand mixer and sprinkle the yeast on top. Allow to sit for 5 minutes or until the mixture begins to foam. Add the flour and butter and, using the dough hook attachment, mix on low speed until well combined. Change to medium speed and knead until the dough is smooth and pulls away from the side of the bowl, approximately 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl, clean the bowl and then oil it well with vegetable oil. Return the dough to the bowl, cover with plastic wrap and sit in a warm place for approximately 50 to 55 minutes or until the dough has doubled in size.
Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Line 2 half-sheet pans with parchment paper and lightly brush with the vegetable oil. Set aside. Bring the 10 cups of water and the baking soda to a rolling boil in an 8-quart saucepan or roasting pan. In the meantime, turn the dough out onto a slightly oiled work surface and divide into 8 equal pieces. Roll out each piece of dough into a 24-inch rope. Make a U-shape with the rope, holding the ends of the rope, cross them over each other and press onto the bottom of the U in order to form the shape of a pretzel. Place onto the parchment-lined half sheet pan. Place the pretzels into the boiling water, 1 by 1, for 30 seconds. Remove them from the water using a large flat spatula.
Return to the half sheet pan, brush the top of each pretzel with the beaten egg yolk and water mixture and sprinkle with the pretzel salt. Bake until dark golden brown in color, approximately 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the pans(s) half way through. Transfer to a cooling rack for at least 5 minutes before serving.
These pretzels are excellent. You can use coarse sea salt instead of pretzel salt if you have a sea salt grinder at home. On the episode, Alton Brown said the primary benefit of pretzel salt was that it gives you the classic pretzel look. Table salt gives you a little too much coverage on the pretzel.
Aside from the one hour proofing time, the recipe was quick and easy. Once the dough was ready it took about 10 minutes to roll them out, shape them and get them ready to bake.
Chocolate Scones!!
For a few days now Lauren and I have been contemplating an attempt at making scones, because I got the 75th Anniversary edition of The Joy of Cooking and it seems to have a recipe for everything you can think of amongst its whopping catalog of 4,500.So this morning we tried our hand at Chocolate Chip Scones, or at least she did. I mostly watched while I washed dishes. The recipe was as follows:
Sift flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt together into a large bowl. Cut butter into small pea sized cubes. Mix into dry ingredients with pastry blender. Beat eggs in a separate bowl. Reserve 2 Tbsp of egg. Beat cream into the remaining egg. Make a well in the dry ingredients.
Pour in the liquid and combine with a few rapid strokes. Handle the dough as little as possible. Place it on a lightly floured board. Flour hands, and pat dough to 3/4 inch thick. Cut into diamonds, squares, or whatever shapes you want. Brush with reserved egg and sprinkle with salt or sugar. Bake 15 minutes at 450. We added chocolate chips, or rather shavings of bittersweet chocolate from a baker's block because we didn't have chocolate chips.
Warm scones are delicious.
Well, That Didn't Last Long
In my last entry I lamented the new emphasis on healthy foods only that I was being dragged into. Today I am pleased to report that this appears to be over, or least scaled back to an acceptable compromise. A week from Saturday Lauren and I leave for South Carolina, where we'll spend 9 days or so with her family. This means we need to have our own Michigan Christmas responsibilities taken care of by next Friday.
Last night we decided it would be nice to give people some baked goods as a small but thoughtful Christmas present. We were inspired by the Food Network's 12 Days Of Cookies celebration. Lauren's cookies will be going primarily to co-workers and mine will be given to friends. But before any of that can happen we need to choose at least one recipe and give it a trial run. So last night we selected Paula's Loaded Oatmeal Cookies:
* 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
* 1/2 cup vegetable shortening
* 1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
* 2 eggs
* 1/2 cup buttermilk
* 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking soda
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
* 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
* 2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
* 1 cup raisins
* 1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
* 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* Brown Butter Icing, recipe follows
Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, shortening, and sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Add eggs and beat until mixture is light in color. Add buttermilk. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice; stir into creamed mixture. Fold in oatmeal, raisins, walnuts, and vanilla, blending well. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Drizzle with Brown Butter Icing.
Brown Butter Icing:
* 1/2 cup butter
* 3 cups sifted powdered sugar
* 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
* 3 to 4 tablespoons water
In a small saucepan heat the butter over medium heat until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in 3 cups sifted powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in enough water (3 to 4 tablespoons) to make an icing of drizzling consistency. Drizzle on warm cookies.
The only thing I would change from this recipe is the amount of icing. The recipe makes about 50 cookies. You could hit 60 if you're really anal about your portions. However the icing recipe makes enough to dunk 60 cookies like an Oreo in milk. If you're just drizzling you can cut the icing in half, unless you're big fan of diabetes. We baked them for the full 15 minutes and they still came out very moist. Even Lauren liked them, and she doesn't like Oatmeal Raisin cookies.
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