Cookapelli

Banana Cranberry Bread

Funny what a week with the flu does to my food enjoyment and thus the need to write about food. However, now with the taste-buds returning to full function and my appetite back, I’m ready to think about food again. Today’s post is about what started as my favorite banana bread and through a happy accident become the best banana bread in this solar system. Typically Hilary has to do my shopping for whatever menu I plan and thus if my attention span gets slightly distracted then my shopping list might miss one or two vital ingredients. This happened when I thought I had a few more bananas in the pantry than I actually had. So of course the shopping list didn’t have bananas… and I discovered this around 6 in the morning after I had started making the banana bread. So some nimble early morning head scratching created this, enjoy!

Preheat oven to 350F

1 2/3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup water
2 eggs
2 very ripe bananas, mashed (approximately 1 cup)
1 cup dried cranberries
1 cup orange juice

Put the dried cranberries and orange juice in a microwave safe bowl and heat for 1 minute on high. Let the cranberries sit for 15 minutes before using in the recipe.

Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix together the melted butter, sugar and eggs until well combined. Fold in the bananas. Mix in the dry mixture and water. Drain the cranberries and add to the batter, mix well.

Pour the batter into a greased or buttered 9 inch loaf pan and bake for 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted and removed from the center of the loaf comes out clean.

Share on Facebook

coconut scones with coconut milk glaze

I have to thank my cousin, Dale, for inspiration for these. He sent me a recipe for coconut scones and in my usual fashion at about 6:10 this morning I decided that I didn’t care for the proportions of ingredients and decided to rebuild the recipe into something that has a better scone texture. I think that scones should be light, fluffy, and delicate beasties… not heavy, weapon’s grade, or door stop material. The shredded coconut does add a bit of chewiness to these, but I think you’ll find that to be part of what makes these so good.

Preheat oven to 425F

2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbs sugar
1 cup shredded coconut
1 cup butter
1 cup coconut milk (I really like the Goya brand, the milk is still pretty thick with coconut)
2 eggs
1 tsp coconut extract

glaze

2 Tbs coconut milk
1/4 tsp coconut extract
2 Tbs melted butter
1 to 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar. Mix in the shredded coconut and then using a pastry cutter or 2 knives cut in the butter to the dry mixture until the butter is in pea sized pieces and chill for 15 minutes. Lightly beat the eggs and then add the coconut milk and the coconut extract. Mix with the dry ingredients and lightly knead. Form into wedges and bake until golden brown. I found the timing to be around 15 minutes.

While those are baking, mix the melted butter, coconut milk, extract, and powdered sugar until a smooth glaze is developed. Once the scones come out of the oven, drizzle glaze over them and then proceed to burning your tongue with the quality control sample that you can’t wait to eat. We did use lemon curd this morning with these, but a pineapple curd would be even better (I’ll have to create a recipe for that later).

makes 8-10ish scones

Share on Facebook

fresh from the oven maple oat scones

For anyone that’s had breakfast at the inn, you may have had these scones. I will happily tell you they are the best in the world and I could even be right. These are light, delicate, barely sweet with maple syrup and nutty crunchy with oats. You can substitute the butter with lower fat ingredients, but you will lose some of what makes these scones so special. The recipe also has buttermilk, I use dry baking buttermilk for this as I don’t use enough to buy and keep fresh buttermilk on hand.

Preheat oven to 425F

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup rolled oats (instant are okay, but I prefer uncooked… I think the nutty flavor of the oats is better)
1 Tbs sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup butter (chilled, not softened)

1/2 cup buttermilk
2 Tbs maple syrup
2 eggs

for the top of the scones

1 Tbs maple syrup
1 Tbs rolled oats

Sift together the flours, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Mix in the oats. Using a pastry cutter or knives, cut the butter into the dry ingredient mixture. Once the butter is cut in and is in pea sized pieces chill the mixture for 15 minutes. Lightly beat the eggs and add the maple syrup and buttermilk, mixing well. Combine with the chilled dry mixture and lightly knead to combine. Too much kneading will cause your scones to be rather chewy. Cut into wedges, brush the tops with maple syrup and sprinkle oats over them and then bake on an ungreased cookie sheet for 12 minutes or until golden brown.

makes about 8-12 scones (depending on the size of scone you prefer)

Share on Facebook

This is a simple recipe, the key is great blueberries.

muffins fresh from the oven, exceeded the blueberry to muffin ratio again

1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups blueberries
zest of one lemon

A word about blueberries… I’m lucky to be in Maine, where blueberries rule. They are small, sweet, intense berries. We can find them at farm stands in late July through early September or frozen in the grocery store. They freeze very well due to the low water content. Bigger markets may have Wyman’s Berries, most of their wild blueberries come from Maine. I could go into the health benefits, but to be honest, I just like them.

Preheat oven to 375 F

In a mixer cream butter and sugar. Add the eggs and beat lightly. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Add flour mixture, milk, and vanilla extract to the mixer and mix to combine. Remember to scrape the sides of the bowl and then add the lemon zest, mix.

Using a spatula, fold the blueberries into the batter.

Divide the batter into a greased/ floured muffin tin and bake for 25 minutes.

makes 12 muffins

Share on Facebook