Banana Bread Muffins

My dad and one of my brothers hate bananas so growing up I never used to bake anything with bananas. However, Michael is a huge fan of anything banana flavored so I've tried a couple recipes before, but nothing that was good enough to repeat. Tonight I tried something a little bit different. I used a banana bread recipe but decided to make it into muffins. They were very easy and turned out really well, I will definitely make them again.

Ingredients

1/2 cup margarine, melted

1 cup white sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

about 3 very ripe bananas

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup chopped pecans (can be substituted with walnuts)

In a large bowl, stir together the melted margarine and sugar. Add the eggs and vanilla and mix well. While stirring, add in the flour, baking soda and salt and continue mixing until smooth.

Next, add in chunks of the bananas and using a wood spoon (or a hand mixer) mash the bananas while stirring until the bananas are in small pieces (or continue until they are completely mushed into the batter.

Next, add in the pecans and sour cream.

Stir until well combined. Spoon batter into lined cupcake tins. Bake at 350 degrees for about 25 - 30 minutes or until an inserted toothpick or knife comes out clean. Let cool for about 10 minutes and enjoy!

Olive Dip

Ingredients

1 cup pitted black olives

1 cup pitted green olives

1 cup pitted kalamata olives

2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

3 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Combine the black olives, green olives, kalamata olives, and garlic in the container of a food processor. We used our magic bullet blender extension, but next time I will definitely use my food processor for better efficiency.

Pulse to chop, then add the olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

Process until smooth, or the consistency of your liking. Refrigerate for at least one hour before serving.

Enjoy!

Best Challah Ever

Fall busy season is officially over this year, which means I finally have some time to dedicate to baking again. We decided to have some people over last night for dinner and to watch the ASU game so I thought I would make another attempt to find a good challah recipe. After I found this recipe I don't think I will ever need to search for another challah recipe again, it is so delicious and perfect!

Ingredients

2 cups water

1/4 cup white sugar

3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast

1/2 cup margarine

1/4 cup brown sugar

7 cups bread flour

1 tablespoon salt

4 eggs

1 egg, beaten

1 tablespoon (or so) of sesame seeds (optional)

In a large bowl, mix the yeast with 100 degree water and the water sugar and allow it to sit for about 5 minutes or until it has become very foamy. In case you're not sure how warm the water should be, it should be very warm but not so warm that you would burn yourself if you stuck your finger in for 5 or more seconds.

Next, mix in the brown sugar, eggs and margarine. Once well mixed, add in the flour and salt. I added the flour one to two cups at a time, stirring in between each additional cup

Once the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes or so. The dough is very sticky and it's okay to add some flour but you do not want to add too much. You may end up needed to scrape some dough off the surface you're using to knead.

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. I used the same bowl I had used to mix the ingredients and coated the bowl with oil, put the dough in, took the dough out and coated the bowl with oil again and flipping the dough to its other side so both sides end up coated in oil. Cover with a dmp cloth and let rise in a warm place until it has doubled in size, about an hour.

Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into six or eight equal pieces, depending on if you want a three strand or four strand braid. I did a four strand braid this time around, but I think both are beautiful.

Form each piece into long ropes.

Begin to braid. If you want to do a four strand braid but are not sure how, I highly recommend watching this youtube video. Once you watch it all you need to remember is "4 over 2, 1 over 3, and 2 over 3."

Place the loaves on two cookie sheets (either greased or tin foiled), cover the loaves with a damp cloth and let rise until double in volume. About 40 minutes or so.

I learned after the first loaf to very lightly flour the top of the challah before putting the damp cloth over it because the cloth ended up sticking to the dough, which made the challah a little bit less presentable. I was able to salvage the second loaf and it looked a lot better (see challah on the right below). 

Preheat the over to 350 degrees. Brush the risen loaves with the beaten egg and sprinkle sesame seeds on top.

Bake in the preheated oven for about a half hour, until loaf sounds hollow when tapped or bread is browned and feels hard to the touch.

Note: this is great with olive dip (recipe to follow) and also makes amazing second day french toast! 

Enjoy!

Mozzarella Making

While websites like Groupon often have the same deals over and over (car wash, massage, mediocre restaurants)  but every once in a while there is an amazing deal that stands out. A couple of months ago we saw a deal for a mozzarella making class. The class included a bottle of wine and an appetizer to split. Without any hesitation, we bought the deal and decided to take the class as soon as we could. It was a great time and best of all we learned a new, tasty skill. 

In the class they had us use vinyl gloves.

First, you should start off with 1/2 pound of fresh cheese curds

Prepare a medium sized bowl with the combination of 2-3 tablespoons of kosher salt and 3-4 cups of nearly boiling water. Soak the fresh cheese curds in the brine for about 5 minutes. After 5 minutes begin to stretch and smooth the cheese, but be careful not to do it to excess. Over-working the cheese causes the mozzarella to have a rubbery consistency. Continue to dip the cheese back into the brine throughout the stretching process. Once the cheese has been stretched and smoothed it can be formed in several different ways. The method we were taught by the instructor was to stretch the mozzarella out until it is very thin and then hold the middle so that the two ends hang down. Begin swirling the strands until the cheese has been twisted to the end, and then knot the twisted strand several times. See picture above for end result.

Enjoy!

Delicious Salad and Bruschetta Dinner

While this is not a recipe per se, I thought I would share a recent dinner we made that was one of the best we've had in a long time. First, we had a spinach salad complete with fresh steamed corn, black beans, mini heirloom tomatoes, manchego cheese, and green olives topped with olive oil, lemon juice, pepper, and little bit of sriracha. We paired it with homemade black bread (recipe to follow soon) toasted and topped with goat cheese, pistachios and chopped dates. 

Enjoy!

Pumpkin Muffins

One of my favorite ways to bake is to find a recipe for a dessert that I like and try to figure out how I can modify it to make it healthier. When I stumbled on this recipe I was surprised to find a lot of similar modifications that I would normally make. I decided to give it a try adding a few of my own twists here and there. The result? Possibly one of my favorite muffins I've made. I ended up making a second batch they turned out so well.

Ingredients

1 cup pumpkin

2 eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup unsweetened applesauce

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup oat bran

3/4 cup whole wheat flour (I recommend Trader Joe's)

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 tablespoon (if you like a lot) cinnamon 

touch of nutmeg 

a few sprinkles of pumpkin pie spice (optional)

pecan pieces (optional)

dried cranberries (optional)

oats (optional)

extra brown sugar (optional)

In a medium bowl, combine the pumpkin, eggs, oil, applesauce, water, and vanilla extract. Next, add the brown sugar and stir until combined. Finally add the oat bran and stir, followed by flour, salt, baking soda, and spices. Stir again. 

Next, fold in the pecans and dried cranberries. I did not measure, I just threw in amount that was to my liking.

Next, scoop the batter into lined cupcake tins. Sprinkle some oats and sugar on top. Bake at 375 degrees until a toothpick or fork inserted in the center of the muffin comes out clean. I would start checking after about 18 minutes or so. Our oven is a little bit off lately but this took about 22 minutes or so for me.

Enjoy!