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Olive Oil Banana Bread w. Lemon Glaze

Olive Oil Banana Bread w. Lemon Glaze

(recipe from 101 Cookbooks)

Ingredients:

125g (1 cup) all-purpose flour

140g (1 cup) whole wheat flour

125 g (3/4 cup) dark muscovado or dark brown sugar

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

115 g (1 cup) coarsely chopped bittersweet chocolate

80 ml (1/3 cup) extra-virgin olive oil

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

340 g (1 1/2 cup) mashed, VERY ripe bananas (~3 bananas) *

60 ml (1/4 cup) plain, whole milk yogurt

1 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Glaze:

85 g (1/2 cup) sifted dark muscovado or dark brown sugar

55g (1/2 cup) confectioners’ sugar

4 teaspoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Process:

preheat oven to 350 degrees F, place rack in the center. grease and flour your pan (a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan is recommended, but I used my new angel food cake pan that I got for Christmas - which kind of made the cake look like a giant doughnut).

in a large bowl, whisk together the flours, sugar, baking soda, and salt. add the chocolate pieces and combine well.

in a separate bowl, mix together the olive oil, eggs, mashed banana, yogurt, zest, and vanilla. pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and fold with a spatula until just combined. scrape the batter into the prepared pan and bake until golden brown, about 50 minutes. (the author suggests erring on the side of under-baking so as not to bake all the moisture out of it, so as soon as you get that beautiful color check its doneness and pull it out of the oven.)

transfer the pan to a wire rack to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn the loaf out of the pan to cool completely.

while the cake is cooling, prepare the glaze. in a bowl, whisk together the sugars and the lemon juice until smooth. when the cake is completely cool, drizzle the glaze on top of the cake, spreading with a spatula to cover. **

* if you are like me and are craving banana bread but lacking in ripe bananas, put however many bananas you need in your preheated oven for 15 minutes (the skins will blacken and the insides will get nice and soft). this quick roast helps the sugars to develop and give the bananas a great depth of flavor.

** I was out of muscovado (brown) sugar so I just did a simple glaze with confectioners’ sugar and lemon juice. (I also didn’t bother to sift the sugar so please ignore the lumps - haha).

 - homemade vanilla extract from my sistafromanothamista -

 - leftover lemon zest I used to make lemon sugar -

happy new year!

Kombucha

so, today I am attempting to make my own kombucha. I’ve never tried making anything fermented, so this will be an interesting experiment.

I had first stumbled upon kombucha my freshman year of college at a local coop grocery store, picking it up out of curiosity while browsing the refrigerated section. I remember my shock as I took my first sip, coughing from its bizarre tangy, fermented flavor, and thought breifly to myself that I didn’t think this drink would be a repurchase. but as I continued to sip the drink as I walked back to my dorm it began to kind of grow on me, eventually becoming one of my favorite drinks (especially when flavored with ginger).

okay, by this point you might actually be wondering what kombucha is. my good friend Wikipedia explains it as: “…an effervescent tea-based beverage that is often drunk for its anecdotal health benefits or medicinal purposes… [it] is available commercially and can be made at home by fermenting tea using a visible, solid mass of yeast and bacteria which forms the kombucha culture, often referred to as the ‘mushroom’ or the ‘mother’.”

(see the ‘mother’ / ‘mushroom’ floating there? I know, it looks gross -haha- but trust me it makes a tasty drink)

so, that’s what I have - the ‘mother’  - which I had gotten from a friend, who had gotten it from someone else, and so on. kind of cool, right? I get a kick out of passed down stuff like that. I think it gives whatever is being passed on more of a special meaning as well as a cool background story. maybe I’m just being a bit of a nerd, but I kind of look forward to passing on a ‘baby’ from my kombucha starter to someone else and keep the chain going :D

the process:

 - *as with when you do anything that involves fermentation, make sure all your utensils have been properly cleaned so that you don’t introduce any bad bacteria / etc. to your fermented food* -

1. boil 2 cups water (I halved the recipe I was going off of because my container is small)

2. add 1 tsp of tea (I added about a tablespoon - combined - of Darjeeling / mango green tea and about a .5 tsp of powdered ginger)

*make sure not to use an oily tea as this can harm the kombucha starter over time

3. turn off the heat, cover, and let steep for 5-7 minutes

4. remove the tea and add 1 cup of sugar (any kind will work, even honey - I used a mixture of sucanat and turbinado because I like the richer flavor that they provide over regular white sugar - just make sure not to use any synthetic sweeteners)

5. stir until sugar has dissolved and let cool

6. pour starter liquid (the vinegar that you see the mother floating in from my first photo) into a glass** container, then pour in cooled tea (if it’s too hot it can harm the bacteria that is beneficial to the fermentation process)

** plastic or metal containers may leach so it is best to use glass

7. next, put the mother in the mixture and cover with a tea towel secured with a rubber band

8. let sit covered in a warm spot away from sunlight

9. don’t mess with it for at least 7 days

for a more knowledgeable and detailed kombucha making process head over here to Kombucha Kamp or any number of the various informative kombucha sites (I liked this site because it was the most to the point).

wish my kombucha some luck! (I hope it works)

-hanna

macaronnie asked: Since you went the trouble of making this, I feel obligated to ask a question. What will be your "signature dish" at your pastry shop?

ummmmm….either these cookies or guinness chocolate cake…or this apple cider spice cake i just made, that was really good too. or my pineapple sage cookies…

eimile asked: put up pineapple sage cookies sometime, yes?

i was actually just thinking about those. so, yes.

oh, hello!

well, you’ve asked for it and here it is. A blog, by me, with all my food creations and goodies. So, uh, yeah… let’s get this started.

Blog Post the First:

Dark Chocolate Chip Sweet Potato Cookies w. Candied Pecans

(Adapted from how sweet it is)

Ingredients:

1 stick (.5 cup) of butter, melted and cooled

1.25 cups packed light brown sugar

7.5 oz (or about 1 cup) mashed sweet potato*

1 large egg + 1 egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla extract (I used 1 vanilla bean)

1 2/3 cups of all-purpose flour

.5 teaspoon baking soda

.25 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice

1.5 cups dark chocolate chips

1.5 cups candied pecans (recipe below)

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.

1. mix the flour, salt, pumpkin pie spice and baking soda in a bowl and set aside

2. in another bowl, mix the melted butter and sugars until they are combined

3. add the egg, egg yolk, and vanilla and stir until mixed, then stir in mashed sweet potatoes until smooth

4. gradually add flour mixture and mix until a dough forms

5. fold chocolate chips and pecans (I crushed / crumbled the pecans with my hands as I added them in)

6. refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes, then scoop with a cookie scoop or roll into balls

7. bake (or waffle iron)** until edges are golden  - mine took about 10 - 15 minutes, but the original recipe said to bake for 8 - 11 minutes - cool completely (or in me and my housemates’ case, barely at all…just try not to burn your mouth)

*for this I cooked a large sweet potato in the microwave until it was soft, peeled off the skin, and then mashed it with a fork in a bowl.

**I got the idea from another blog to cook the cookies in a waffle iron, which turned out really cool (however, my housemates said they still preferred the old fashioned oven baked cookies over all - I don’t know). so, to do this just heat up your waffle iron, spray it with some non-stick spray, put a scoop of dough in each compartment, close the lid and cook for 1 - 2 minutes. quick and simple :D (until you have to clean the waffle iron).

Candied Pecans

(Adapted from the galley gourmet)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter

2/3 cup light brown sugar

1.5 cups pecans

1. in a medium non-stick pan, melt the butter

2. add the brown sugar and stir over medium-low heat until the sugar has completely dissolved

3. add the pecans and stir until everything is coated

4. dump pecans onto a piece of parchment paper or foil and quickly spread and separate into an single layer

5. let the cool completely, then break into bite-size pieces



and one more photo, just because.



bon appétit! - hanna