Banana Breads

I went a little crazy with the banana breads. I made one last night with a little wheat germ addition to a combination of recipes from Betty Crocker and from What's Cookin at the Cooper Clinic.
Next I made a version with lemon peel and a small amount of lemon juice poured onto the brown bananas. Banana bread is pretty friendly to being manipulated.

English Muffin Toasting Bread

• 3 cups King Arthur Unbleached All-Purpose Flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 tablespoon instant yeast
• 1 cup milk
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil or olive oil
• cornmeal, to sprinkle in pan

• Instructions

  1. Whisk together the flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, and instant yeast in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Combine the milk, water, and oil in a separate, microwave-safe bowl, and heat to between 120°F and 130°F. Be sure to stir the liquid well before measuring its temperature; you want an accurate reading. If you don't have a thermometer, the liquid will feel quite hot (hotter than lukewarm), but not so hot that it would be uncomfortable as bath water.
  3. Pour the hot liquid over the dry ingredients in the mixing bowl.
  4. Beat at high speed for 1 minute. The dough will be very soft.
  5. Lightly grease an 8 1/2" x 4 1/2" loaf pan, and sprinkle the bottom and sides with cornmeal.
  6. Scoop the soft dough into the pan, leveling it in the pan as much as possible.
  7. Cover the pan, and let the dough rise till it's just barely crowned over the rim of the pan. When you look at the rim of the pan from eye level, you should see the dough, but it shouldn't be more than, say, 1/4" over the rim. This will take about 45 minutes to 1 hour, if you heated the liquid to the correct temperature and your kitchen isn't very cold. While the dough is rising, preheat the oven to 400°F.
  8. Remove the cover, and bake the bread for 22 to 27 minutes, till it's golden brown and its interior temperature is 190°F.
  9. Remove the bread from the oven, and after 5 minutes turn it out of the pan onto a rack to cool. Let the bread cool completely before slicing.
  10. Yield: 1 loaf.

Jelly Roll Belly Cake

This is a Betty Crocker classic recipe. The filling is lemon. I had a lot of lemons left after peeling their skins off for Limoncello. It is a fat free dessert!

It got moister after sitting for a day in the refrigerator.
The red one is raspberry preserves. I rolled it the wrong way! But you could get a lot more servings out of it or just a small test taste piece if you are offering lots of different desserts. Either way you can't go wrong.

Jelly Roll

3 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup all purpose flour or 1 cup cake flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
  About 2/3 cup jelly or jam
  Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 375. Line jelly roll pan. 15 1/2 by 10 1/2 by 1" with foil or parchment paper or waxed paper.
Grease bottom.
Beat eggs on high speed until very thick and lemon colored. 5 minutes.
Beat in granulated sugar slowly.
Add vanilla and water.
Gradually add flour, baking powder and salt until batter is smooth. Pour into pan.
Bake 12-15 minutes. Immediately loosen cake from edges of pan: invert on a towel that has been sprinkled with confectioners sugar. Carefully peel off the foil or wax paper or parchment. Trim off stiff edges of cake if necessary. While hot, carefully roll cake and towel from narrow end. Cool on wire rack at least 30 minutes. Unroll cake, remove towel. Beat jelly slightly with fork to soften. Spread over cake. Roll up cake and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
10 servings: 205 calories per serving.

Lemon Filling

3/4 cup sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup water
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1/4 cup lemon juice
2 drops yellow food color, if desired

Mix sugar, cornstarch and salt in 1 1/2 quart saucepan. Gradually stir in water. Cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture thickens and boils. Boil and stir one minute; remove from heat. Stir in butter and lemon peel until butter is melted. Stir in lemon juice and food color. Press plastic wrap onto filling. Refrigerate until set, at least two hours.

Happy Birthday Cain

He's saying,"Yummy cupcake grandma!"
 A perfect size for a one year old boy.
May the dear Lord bless you!

Christmas Horns

Bohemian Horns
5 cups flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 pound butter
1 cake yeast
3 egg yolks beaten

Filling
3 egg whites, whipped
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 pound ground nuts (walnuts)

Combine flour sugar and salt. Cut in yeast and butter as for pie dough. Add milk and egg yolks. Refrigerate for a few hours and then divide dough into 8 balls. Roll out the dough thin and cut into triangle. It's easy to make eight  from each ball of dough.

Put a nice amount of filling on the wide end of the triangle and roll up. Bake at 375 for 25 minutes.

Notes: I used dry yeast and proofed it in 1/4 cup water. I cut in the butter with the sugar and salt. I added the yeast and eggs and milk together.  When I rolled out the dough I used a ruler as a guide for the size of the circle. I made a 13 1/2 inch circle almost intuitively each time. That made for a decent crescent. For the filling I used about 1 teaspoon per crescent.  This recipe makes 64 pastries.

Thanksgiving Table 2015

Carl Sandburg's Chicago