Tuesdays With Dorie - Classic Banana Bundt Cake

This week's recipe was an easy and yummy one - Dorie's Classic Banana Bundt Cake. Funny story about this cake. I almost ended up with a half-baked cake. You see, our oven door has been acting up. You could still open it, but it wouldn't open all the way, maybe 75%. Fixing the door was on the to-do list. Well, after baking for 30 minutes, I removed the cake from the oven, closed the door, and covered the pan with foil. Then I opened the door... and then I opened the door.....I said open door!! The door just would not open. Thoughts raced through my head. It's half-baked. It won't fit in the toaster oven (lol ok really? I have never, ever used our toaster oven before and that was the first thing that popped into my mind.) Can I run to someone's house? We spent about 5 minutes wrestling with the door until it FINALLY opened. I was nervous when time was up because I didn't know if the oven would give me back my cake. Took a few tries, but we got it out.



This tastes just like banana bread. My only concern is the recipe called for two sticks of butter. Wow, that's a lot, so I used margarine instead. I also used half sour cream, half Greek vanilla yogurt because I didn't have that much sour cream left. This cake is very moist, and next time, I will add nuts or chocolate chips. I did use the lemon glaze Dorie suggested. At first, I was banana and lemon??? But I tried it anyway. Of course, I tend to bake at night, so it was getting slightly late, and the cake was still a little warm to the touch. That's why you can't actually see my glaze because it melted. You could still taste it though.

After that night, we fixed the hinge on the door. Did you know the oven door actually comes off? Yea, me neither.

Thanks to Mary of The Food Librarian for picking this week's recipe. It was an enjoyable one, indeed. You can find the recipe on page 190 of Baking: From My Home To Yours or on Mary's blog.


I think it's time for a new box...

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Tuesdays With Dorie - Banana Cream Pie

This week's pick was Banana Cream Pie. I was excited to make this because my parents love banana cream pie. However, this isn't your typical banana pudding and meringue pie. It's a pastry cream filling with whipped cream on top.

I didn't make the pie crust, so I bought one pre-made. I wanted to, but I had a super-packed weekend two weeks ago (when I made this pie) and was too exhausted. I barely finished making this pie before running off for the night. Plus I usually end up with a tough pie crust. I don't even like eating pie crust.



This recipe I used fresh nutmeg for the first time, thanks to Marx Foods. They mailed me samples of six spices a few weeks ago. The people there are just awesome. Now if I can find a good recipe to use the rest of my spices. Any recipes with grains of paradise, tellicherry or scheuzan peppercorns? Anyway, back to the nutmeg. Now I know why you should use fresh - it's very powerful! I'm definitely going to consider using fresh nutmeg when possible.



Back to the pie itself. The pastry cream confused me. I was expecting silky smooth, like eclairs. Especially since banana cream pie normally has that smooth pudding. Wrong (unless I overcooked it??). It was thick and kinda gloopy, but it was still smooth. It spread easily over the bananas, so I guess I did it correctly? It tasted like pumpkin pie with the nutmeg and cinnamon. Since I was running short on time, the cream only chilled for an hour in the fridge and was still pretty warm. Didn't notice much of a difference since the assembled pie chilled in the fridge overnight.



As for the topping, the whipped cream was different. Good, but I prefer the traditional meringue. Plus you are left with 6 egg whites, so might as well use some making meringue. I used some of the whites for cupcakes (will post on April 13 for the virtual bake sale!)

Thanks Amy of Sing For Your Supper for picking this delicious pie! It lasted only 2 days with four people. You can find the recipe on pages 342-343 of Baking: From My Home To Yours or on Amy's blog.

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I'm Crumbling Up!

Yes, another Dorie recipe. I made this during the beginning of August when mangoes were only $1 each. Mango is definitely a favorite of mine. I really don't know what made me pick this crumble. I looked up mango in the index, and it found me. This would be a perfect winter dessert because it gives such a warm Caribbean feeling with the mangoes and bananas, but it also works well in the summer with ice cream (preferably homemade vanilla).

For the streusel, I used walnuts instead of pecans and added 1 cup shredded coconut. It did take a little longer than 20 minutes to freeze, maybe 40 minutes or so. Then again, I only had room in the front of the freezer, so it might be colder in the back.

Tropical Crumble




For this recipe, you can check out page 418 in Baking: My Home To Yours.

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Tuesdays With Dorie - Black and White Banana Loaf

I don't know how to explain it. You flip through Dorie's book and drool over the recipes and photographs. Everything sounds so yummy, and when you have an ingredient you need to use, usually you can find something in the index. So how could this baking bible disappoint any baker? Perhaps it was my tastebuds or perhaps fresh nutmeg really does make a difference, but I didn't enjoy the Black and White Banana Loaf chosen for this week. The nutmeg is very distinct. If you hate nutmeg, you will not like this bread. But I don't hate nutmeg. Maybe because I was expecting more chocolate flavor (I used semi-sweet) or even the rum. I barely tasted the Bacardi Puerto Rico rum I used. It smelled (and tasted) good when I made the banana mixture, but since alcohol evaporates after baking, I couldn't tell anymore. The rum was a golden rum, not a dark rum. Maybe I'm the one who messed up and the recipe is perfectly fine. After all, my bread was flatter than usual banana bread. And why did Dorie list this as a cake and not bread? Well, if I didn't do the baking right, at least my marbling looks like marbling! I'm quite proud of my photograph too.


Black and White Banana Loaf




Ashlee from A Year in the Kitchen has chosen this week's recipe. She also had trouble with her loaf, also barely tasting the rum. My batter wasn't runny, though. She tweaked the recipe, so please visit her lovely blog for suggestions and the recipe. If you own the book, the recipe can be found on page 232.

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Bananas For You

When there are leftover, overripen bananas in the house, I tend to make banana bread. However, it has been happening a lot this summer, so I'm getting bored with it. I decided to search around in my cookbook collection and find a new recipe. I found several options but decided to go with Ms. Greenspan's Cocoa-Nana Bread. Just like the name states, it is chocolate banana bread. This one is definitely a keeper (then again, all of Dorie's recipes are). I followed the directions exactly, including putting the loaf pan on a cookie sheet while baking. She notes that it will add extra installation and prevent the bottom of the bread from overbaking. I guess it worked because it turned out fine.

Cocoa-Nana Bread




2 cups flour
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking soda
8 Tbsp butter, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup chocolate chips

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease 9x5 loaf pan and place on an insulated baking sheet.

2. Sift together flour, cocoa, powder, salt, and soda.

3. In a large bowl, beat butter at medium speed for 1 minute. Add both sugars and beat another 2 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating for a minute after each addition. Reduce speed to low and beat in bananas. Add dry ingredients in 3 additions, mixing only until they disappear into batter. Add buttermilk, mixing until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Pour into pan.

4. Bake for 30 minutes. Cover with foil. Bake for another 40-45 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean. Let cool for 20 minutes before removing from pan. Then let cool to room temperature.

Source: Baking: From My Home To Yours, 2006 p.46

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Spontaneous Brownies

Every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, my friend and I eat lunch at my apartment before going to our 1:00 class. We were talking about baking and she goes "Let's make some brownies." "Now?" "Yes, now!" I was a little flustered because I had to search for a recipe (The one I use is back home in a binder. Remind me to grab that over Thanksgiving break.) and of course my laptop decides to go so slow that I could've driven home, grabbed the recipe, and driven back and it still would've been loading (exaggeration, of course). Finally, I got a recipe and we baked one hour before class started. This means we had to leave by 12:45. Uh yea. If the brownies would've baked the 25 minutes it called for, we would've been fine. Nope, it decided to take an extra 10 minutes. Thank goodness my one roommate was here to watch it while we power-walked to class.

I usually don't have eggs on hand, so I've been reading up on egg substitutions. Yay for vegan recipes!! I used butter, so these brownies aren't 100% vegan. However, they use bananas to replace the egg. I didn't realize until after the brownies were baking that there was no baking powder in the recipe!! The reasoning was that eggs can serve as a levening agent, and since I substituted with bananas, I lost that effect. As you can see by the picture, they still came out fine. I subbed chocolate chips for the bittersweet chocolate, two bananas for the eggs, and left out the espresso powder. I didn't bother letting the chocolate cool to room temperature.

I used leftover cream cheese frosting. The brownies are good enough without frosting, so feel free to leave it off to cut on calories. Then again if you're eating brownies, you probably don't care about calories at the moment. I didn't.

Chocolate Banana Brownies



1 cup chocolate chips
1/2 cup butter
2 large eggs or 2 ripe bananas
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease an 8x8 inch baking dish or line it with foil.

2. In medium saucepan, stir chocolate and butter together until just melted. Remove and set aside.

3. Mix eggs/bananas, sugar, cocoa powder, and vanilla together. Add chocolate and mix well. Fold flour into batter until just incorporated.

4. Pour batter into baking dish and bake until a tester comes out clean, about 25 to 30 minutes. Place on a wire rack and cool completely before cutting.

Source: Recipe Zaar

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The Portable Breakfast Snack

Since I want to eat healthier for breakfast, I decided I should start baking muffins. The only problem is that they don't last more than a day LOL Once I start finding recipes I like, I'll start doubling and reserving muffins for my breakfast. This one is a keeper.

Banana Nut Muffins




2 extra ripe bananas
2 eggs
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup melted butter
1 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Beat bananas, eggs, sugar, butter and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. Stir nuts into dry ingredients. Add banana mixture to flour mixture. Mix just until well blended. Spoon into well-greased muffin tins. Bake at 350F for 25-30 minutes.

Source: Bake Bake Bake LJ

I'm also watching a show on Food Network where 5 finalists are competing to make the next Hagan Daas ice cream flavor. That would be so much fun!! I don't know if any company has made this, but I would go for a banana foster flavor. I really need to buy an ice cream maker lol



Le Chef Murray

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It Never Lasts 24 Hours

You know you succeeded when something you bake doesn't last 24 hours. Every time I make bread, it is gone by the next evening. This is no exception. I had 1/4 bag of chocolate chips leftover from January *cough* and they were still good, so I baked chocolate chip bread. I also had one almost-rotten banana, so I threw that into the batter. I would recommend using 2 bananas because I didn't taste enough banana. My parents kept commenting on how I should've added nuts.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread




2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 egg
1 cup milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 bananas, mashed

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease 9 x 5-inch loaf pan. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in large bowl. Combine egg, milk, and oil in separate bowl. Add to flour mixture; mix just until moistened. Stir in chocolate chips and mashed bananas. Spoon into pan. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan.

Source: Diana's Desserts

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