Category: Baking

The Apple and the Tree

Sadie1 Comment

I’ve come to realize I’m pretty much a carbon copy of my mother.  For the most part this means we have a lot of the same mannerisms and similar speech patterns and sayings.  I’ve also been told we look a lot alike.  These are the things that other people see.

For us, the similarities mean we basically have ESP with each other.  We have fragmented conversations because it’s redundant to say every word out loud when you know what the other person means.

Though this connection is helpful, sometimes the similarities combine to too much of a good thing.  We’re both very strong minded, and we do not always appreciate compromise.  So we tend not to compromise and each do our own thing.  We also both love to cook/bake and plan family gatherings and menus.  When we have the family out to the summer house during the summer weekends we go through several iterations of menus and dishes to try.  We have trouble settling on one idea.

This past weekend, we went food shopping separately and not surprisingly we ended up with a lot of duplicates. This included an abundance of bananas.  What to do, what to do with too many bananas?

Chocolate Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Adapted from How Sweet It Is

Yields 2 8 x 4 loaves

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (one stick)
  • 1/2 cup smooth peanut butter
  • 1/3 cup brown sugar
  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 4-5 large ripe bananas
  • 2 cups AP flour
  • 1/3 cup cocoa
  • 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/2 cup milk (any kind)
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare 2 8 x 4 pans with non-stick spray and/or parchment.
  2. Combine dry ingredients: flour, cocoa, baking powder, salt, cinnamon.  Set aside.
  3. Cream together room temperature butter and peanut butter until light and fluffy.  Add sugars, mix. 
  4. Add egg, vanilla, and mashed bananas.  Mix until well combined.

    Bananas ready to go
  5. Slowly add dry mixture to wet, combine well but do not over mix.  Add milk.  Fold in chocolate chips.
  6. Pour batter into loaf pans.  Bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean (might be longer).

    A moment for my parent’s fabulous oven.

The Truth

Sadie4 Comments

Let’s be honest with ourselves.  Sprinkles is the best discovery you’ve made since you were born.

I’ll have Butter Pecan in a cone with chocolate sprinkles please (vanilla with chocolate sprinkles if it’s soft serve).  

I would say they’re the best ice cream topping, but sprinkles are so much more than just a topping for ice cream.  What else can they do? Decorate cakes, cookies, cupcakes…  They are no one trick pony.

New Jersey loves it’s Italian bakeries, and a staple of the Italian bakery is the sprinkle cookie.  These remind me of childhood and all that is right with the world. Who needs chocolate chips when there are sprinkles?

Italian Sprinkle Cookies

Adapted from Food.com

Yields about 2 dozen (more or less depending on size)

Ingredients

  • 3 eggs
  • 2 1/2 cups AP flour
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • 1 Tbs and 3/4 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 cup vegetable oil or shortening
  • 1/2 Tbs almond extract
  • 1 1/2 Tbs lemon zest
  • 1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
  • Sprinkles (chocolate or rainbow of the traditional oblong shape)

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 350.
  2. Use an electric mixer to blend the eggs until frothy.
  3. Combine flour, sugar, shortening, baking powder, almond extract, lemon juice and zest in separate bowl.
  4. Add eggs to the rest of the ingredients and mix to combine.
  5. Roll dough into tablespoon size balls.  Flatten the dough slightly and dip one half of the ball in the sprinkles.  Place the dough sprinkle side up on a parchment lined cookie sheet (you want the dough closer to discs rather than balls so the cookies come out somewhat flat).  Most recipes call for the sprinkles to be added after baking with a glaze or frosting, but I prefer this method.
  6. Bake cookies at 350 for 10-15 minutes or until edges are slightly brown.
  7. Allow to cool and enjoy.  Be careful about handling the cookies when they’re hot because the sprinkles might melt in your hands.  Let them cool!

Old School Baking

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I had a culinary discovery the other day in the super market in Connecticut: Hermit cookies.  I found them in the bakery section of the store.  I’ve never seen such a cookie.  They are baked in a loaf and sliced like fat biscotti, but they are a lot softer.  Their texture is somewhere between a cookie and a muffin, and they are traditionally spicy, they taste a lot like gingerbread because they have all of that flavoring.  Long story short: Yum.

I tried to research them online since I’ve never heard of them before and I found a lot of conflicting information.  All I can figure out is that they are older, more traditional cookies from the religious groups who settled in New England.  Here I am thinking that the New England baking expertise revolved around donuts of the Dunkin variety, and I had totally overlooked these gems.  As I said, they are spicy, and reminiscent of Thanksgiving and Christmas dessert flavors.   A good cookie, a good snack, a good find.  Give them a try!

Hermit Cookie

From The Food Network

Yields 4-5 dozen cookies depending on size you slice them (about 6 loaves that you will end up slicing, it’s a big recipe)

Ingredients

  • 4 cups AP flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp fine salt
  • 2 sticks unsalted butter (1 cup)
  • 2 1/2 cups packed dark brown sugar
  • 3 eggs, plus 1 for eggwash
  • 2/3 cup molasses
  • 3/4 cup golden raisons
  • 3/4 cup dried cranberries
  • 1 cup chopped toasted walnuts
  • 2 1/2 Tbs chopped crystalized ginger

Method

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Sift together flour, spices, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Set Aside
  3. Cream together butter and brown sugar.  Add eggs one at a time, then molasses.  Gradually add dry mixture but to not over mix.
  4. Fold in dried fruit and nuts.

    They look appetizing, right?
  5. Line cookie sheets with parchment.  Form dough into about 6 thin logs with plenty of space to spread while baking (believe me, they will spread).  Logs should be 1-2 inches wide and about 1 inch high.  Paint logs with egg wash before placing in oven.
  6. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 375 (make sure they are done, mine took a little longer but I’m blaming my oven).
  7. Allow to cool then slice into thick slices (like fat biscotti).