Mom's Banana Bread

Personally, I'm not a fan of banana bread. Most people love it. I'm not most people, especially when it comes to food. I'll eat an occasional banana, but put some bananas in a bread, and I'm just not interested. Sure, it smells good when it's baking, but there's something terribly unappealing about banana bread to me. Enough about my weird opinion of banana bread...

Husband, on the other hand, is a huge fan. Particularly if you warm up a slice and top it with some vanilla ice cream. He tells me that this is some truly awesome banana bread - and I will just take his word for it!

This is my mom's recipe, which she's been making just about all of her life, though the whole-wheat flour is a substitution I made. I think a little bit of whole wheat flour makes things taste heartier, which makes sense for banana bread. It's a very simple recipe, and I'll bet you've got most of the ingredients in your pantry right now! Happy baking!

Mom's Banana Bread

Printer-friendly recipe

1 stick butter

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1. Oven preheated to 350 F, grease a 9x5" loaf pan.

2. Mix together the dry ingredients in one bowl and cream the butter in another. Beat the eggs and bananas into the butter, then stir this mixture into the dry ingredients. Finally, stir in the vanilla.

3. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for around 1 hour, but start checking earlier at about 45 minutes, until it passes the toothpick test.

4. Let cool in pan for at least 15-20 minutes, then take loaf out of pan. (I usually let the loaf fully cool before I take it out, but that's just because I usually forget!)

Cream Biscuits

Admittedly, I normally just use Jiffy mix for my biscuits when Thanksgiving rolls around. I thought that this year I would try a homemade recipe, see how they compare to Jiffy mix. Naturally, Jiffy mix is easier, but this was quite tasty. They were light and fluffy, and broke in half without a knife or fork. Definitely an awesome recipe! We like biscuits. A lot. Especially when they go with gravy. Yum!


Cream Biscuits
adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook

2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for the counter
2 tsp sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups heavy cream

1. Adjust an oven rack to the upper-middle position and heat the oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Whisk the flour, sugar, bnaking powder and salt together in a large bowl. Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, about 30 seconds. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds. The key is to work the dough as little as possible. The more you mix, the more you develop the protein in the flour, which leads to a tough biscuit.
2. Pat the dough into a 3/4 inch thick circle. Cut the biscuits into rounds using a 2 1/2-inch biscuit cutter. Place the biscuits on the parchment-lined baking sheet. The baking sheet can be wrapped in plastic wrap and refrigerated for up to 2 hours. Bake until golden brown, about 15 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls

Growing up, we ate Mom's cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning after we opened our presents. Cinnamon rolls were always something special to me. Now, as a grown up with my own family, I'm a little more liberal about making cinnamon rolls - it's not just a once a year occurrence. Last week, I baked some cinnamon rolls for my friends when I hosted a playgroup at my house, and I even tried a different cinnamon roll recipe. Not surprisingly, it was not as yummy as the one my mother used to make. I'll have to ask her to write it down one of these days, because I don't think I've ever been able to reproduce them as good as she did. In the meantime, here's a pretty good recipe - my friends loved them - but not the creme de la creme.

Cinnamon Rolls

adapted from The America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

Dough

3/4 cup buttermilk, warmed to 110 degrees

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 large eggs

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 envelope instant or rapid rise yeast

1 1/4 tsp salt

Rolls

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

Pinch salt

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled

Glaze

1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

3 tablespoons cream cheese, softened

3 tablespoons buttermilk or milk

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1. Whisk the buttermilk, melted butter and eggs together in a large liquid measuring cup. Combine 4 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast and salt together in a standing mixer with the dough hook. With the mixer on low speed, add the buttermilk mixture and mix until the dough comes together, about 2 minutes.

2. Increase the mixer speed to medium and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 10 minutes. If after 5 minutes more flour is needed, add the remaining 1/4 cup of flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, until the dough clears the side of the bowl but still sticks to the botom.

3. Turn the dough out onto a clean surface and knead by hand to form a smooth, round ball. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and wrap tightly with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size, 2 to 2 1/2 hours.

4. Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan. Mix the brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves and salt together in a small bowl. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and press it into a 16x12-inch rectangle. Brush the dough with the melted butter, then sprinkle the brown sugar mixture over top of it, leaving a 3/4-inch border along the top edge. Press on the filling to adhere it to the dough.

5. Loosen the dough from the counter using a bench scrape or metal spatula, and roll the dough into a tight log. Pinch the seam closed and roll the log seam side down. Gently stretch the log to be 18 inches in length with an even diameter and pat the ends to even them.

6. Slice the cylinder into 12 evenly sized rolls (about 1 1/2 inches wide) using a serrated knife. Arrange the rolls cut side down in the prepared baking pan and wrap tightly with greased plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place until the rolls have nearly doubled in size and are pressed against one another, 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

7. Flip the rolls out onto a wire rack set over a sheet of parchment paper (for easy cleanup) and let cool for 5 minutes. Whisk the confectioners' sugar, softened cream cheese, buttermilk and vanilla together in a medium bowl until smooth. Flip the rolls upright, drizzle with the glaze and serve.

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Pumpkin Muffins

I have never been a huge pumpkin fan. Growing up, I avoided anything pumpkin. Never had a bite of pumpkin pie, in fact, because I decided that I didn't like the scent, so I wouldn't like the taste. I truly didn't try pumpkin until this year. I'm proud of myself for trying, but I'm still not a fan. It tastes okay, but I'd much prefer chocolate any day. Husband is a huge pumpkin fan - he'd have me bake pumpkin bread all the time if I would, so fortunately, I'm still able to do some pumpkin-related baking and have it all get eaten up. And it turns out, Baby is a huge pumpkin fan.

These muffins were a bit hit with the playgroup crowd - I had baked them mostly for the kids, and Baby seems to want to have one every day at this point. He calls them "pumcake," like a combination of pumpkin and pancake which is really, really cute.

Pumpkin Muffins
from Gourmet magazine, 2006

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 cup canned solid-pack pumpkin

1/3 c vegetable oil

2 large eggs

1 tsp pumpkin-pie spice (or 1/8 tsp of cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger and allspice)

1 1/4 cups of sugar

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp sugar (for the topping)

1 tsp cinnamon (for the topping)

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Line muffin cups with paper liners or lightly grease the tin.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour and baking powder in a small bowl.

3.Whisk together pumpkin puree, oil, eggs, pumpkin pie spice, 1 1/4 cups sugar, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl until smooth, then whisk in flour mixture until just combined.

4. Stir together cinnamon and remaining 1 tablespoon sugar in another bowl.

5. Divide batter among muffin cups (each should be about 3/4 full), then sprinkle tops with cinnamon-sugar mixture. Bake until puffed and golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean, 25-30 minutes.

6. Cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then transfer muffins from pan to rack and cool to warm or room temperature.

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Soft and Easy Garlic Knots

Garlic bread and rolls are one of my most favorite things. Whenever I make pasta, there has to be garlic bread along with it, even if it is frozen. I've tried my hand at making garlic bread the way my mother used to growing up, but it's been a long time since I've tried, and my attempt was beyond pathetic.

Soft and Easy Garlic Knots
Printer-friendly recipe

Ingredients for the dough:
3 cups bread flour
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tsp. instant yeast
1 ¼ tsp. salt
2 tbsp. olive oil
¼ cup milk
1 cup + 2 tbsp. lukewarm water

Ingredients for the glaze:
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp. melted butter
½ tsp. Italian seasoning

To make the dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine the dry ingredients. Add the olive oil, milk and water. Mix until ingredients have formed a dough. Switch to the dough hook and knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Dust your hands with flour and transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a 10 inch long rope and tie into a knot. Take the end lying underneath the knot and bring it over the top, tucking it into the center. Take the end lying over the knot and tuck it underneath and into the center. Transfer shaped rolls to a baking stone, or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover and let rise for 45 minutes, until puffy.

To make the glaze, finely mince the garlic. Melt the butter, and mix melted butter, garlic, and Italian seasoning together.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Brush the glaze onto the shaped rolls. Bake until set and lightly browned, about 15-18 minutes.

Then consume until you're stuffed! These garlic knots are delicious, although I may experiment with the garlic flavor next time, and add some garlic powder to give the knots a little more garlic punch. Even my munchkin really enjoyed these rolls, and he's a bit of a garlic bread connoisseur - he will turn his nose up at a couple of brands of frozen garlic bread that aren't very good. The best part about the knots is that they're easy to make, and take very little time and effort.