Banana bread and zucchini bread

 

Today is National Zucchini Bread day.   I have no idea who designated this day as such.  But apparently it is what it is.

So that means I'm making zucchini bread, right?  Well ... no.  

I remember having zucchini bread when I was a kid, but I've not had it in all the years since.  Why is that?  I remember it tasting good back then, so why haven't I made it since then?  Hmmmmmm.....

Yesterday I made banana bread.  And today I made it again.  I had a large bunch of bananas that I purchased specifically with the idea of making banana bread.  I let them ripen all week, not realizing that I had twice as many bananas as I needed.  Then when I made the breads yesterday, it became apparent that I had all these over-ripe bananas that needed to be used up.  So I made more breads this morning.  Now I have seven mini-loaves of banana bread in my freezer.  (I ate one yesterday, or there would have been eight.)

I love breads of many different types (who doesn't?), but especially breads made of things like bananas, pumpkin, lemon, etc.  On a quiet weekend morning such as today, there's nothing quite like having a warm loaf of bread to indulge in, and the aroma fills the house, and I feel like eating bread all day long.  

But back to my original question.   Why haven't I made zucchini bread since I was a kid?  And for that matter, I wonder how many other foods there are from my childhood that I've not had since?  And if bread can be made out of zucchini (a great way to partake of a vegetable that most people don't have much enthusiasm for), how many other vegetable can be used to make bread?

Celery bread?  Beet bread? Asparagus bread?  Chives and cheese bread -- this one I've made, and it's good.  As for others .... perhaps I should do some research on unusual types of breads.  Then again, it is a wonderful lazy Sunday morning, and today all I really feel like doing is having a quiet morning with my banana bread.  

So that's my plan for today.  Eating banana bread, maybe watching a movie, and enjoying the warm spring day. 

A day for cooking

Today in Kansas City, the temperature is mild, the sky is fairly bright, perhaps a bit hazy -- it's a nice spring day.

Yesterday and already today (11:00 AM as I write this) I have spent quite a bit of time in the kitchen.  I tested out a few tweaks to my recipes for deviled eggs and also oatmeal candy cookies, I made beef gyros, and I just now finished a batch of double chocolate cookie dough which will chill in the fridge for the next several hours.  Here's a photo of the dough below.

This is a new cookie that will be added to the Bruce Bakery and Bistro menu this week.  It has loads of chocolate, two different kinds, 15 ounces of chocolate in this batch of dough, and lots of eggs and not much flour.  These cookies come out with thin crispy crusts and a chewy inside, and the cookies themselves are actually rather thin.  I make them small so that they can be eaten quickly and easily in just a couple bites.

Later this week I will be making French vanilla ice cream with fresh vanilla beans that just arrived a few days ago, and from that I will be making a dessert from my childhood that includes crushed chocolate wafers and crushed buttermints.  I have so many things planned to make these next several days that I will not be wondering what to do with my time.

Cooking in the spring weather with the doors and windows open to let in fresh air which mingles with the aromas of these freshly baked cookies and bread and so on -- well, it's a nice way to spend a spring day before heading outside to enjoy the sun and the newly green plants and all the birds that now migrating north and are taking advantage of the bird feeder stations in the yard.  

So make some good food and go outside everyone.  Enjoy the spring!

Three-layer oatmeal chocolate fudge cookies

It is a gorgeous day here in Kansas City.  The weather is pleasantly mild, quite sunny, and the plants are all coming alive as you can see by one of the early-blooming flowers from one my landscape beds in the picture above.  It's a good day for opening up the doors and windows, letting in light and fresh air, and cooking up some good food.  Today I'm making three-layer oatmeal chocolate fudge cookies.

These are a time-consuming but fun cookie to make.  Butter is beaten until very smooth and soft.  Then brown sugar is added, lots of brown sugar, and all of that is beaten for at least two minutes.  Eggs are added along with vanilla and the mixture is beaten until it is light, almost fluffy.  Flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon are stirred in slowly and on low speed.  Then old-fashioned oats are added and finally chopped peanuts as well.

A portion of this cookie dough is taken out and put aside.  The rest is pressed into a 9x13 inch cake pan to make the bottom layer.

For the middle layer, butter, chocolate and condensed milk are heated and melted together in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water.  Then vanilla, salt, and peanuts are added, and the mixture is slowly poured over the cookie dough layer already in the pan.  It is spread until it covers the bottom layer completely.

Now, the cookie dough that was put aside when the first layer was put down is broken into bits and scattered across the chocolate layer.  And the whole thing is baked for about 25 minutes.

When it comes out of the oven, it is set aside on a cooling rack for two hours.  Finally a blunt knife is run around the edges to loosen the cookie block.  Put a tray over the top and turn the whole thing over the let the block fall from the pan.  Remove the pan and put another tray on the block that is now bottom-up, and turn it over again to bring it right-side-up.  At this point the whole thing is put into the fridge to chill before cutting.

I usually cut the entire block into twelve large pieces.

And there you have it.  It is crunchy on top, a bit soft and chewy in the middle and a blend of crunchy and chewy on the bottom.  A wonderful bar cookie with many flavors and textures.  One bar cookie by itself will fill you up.  And since it has lots of oats in it, it's healthy so eat as many as you want.  At least, that's what I tell myself.  

Lava and technique

These past several days I have been watching the live streams of the erupting volcano in Iceland.  Those who know me know that I am fascinated by natural events such as hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and especially volcanoes.  So to have live streams of multiple cameras on this amazing geological event is very enjoyable to me.  As I watch the lava flowing from the cinder cones and the recent fissures that have opened up, I think of the lava field brownies that I like to make.

I developed these brownies from another recipe that I liked in some ways but wanted to tweak.  In the process of tweaking it, I accidentally developed these  brownies that I named after lava fields.  Why that name?  As you can see in the picture above, they have an interesting texture that, at least to me, is reminiscent of lava fields.  Not only that, but when they are pulled out of the oven they are literally still boiling and seething on the surface and take a minute or two to calm down in the open air of the kitchen.  When they are removed from the oven, it seems they aren't done baking because of this -- but they are.   And afterwards, they have not only this wonderful looking texture but also a bit of a crunch on the top that might be the same crunch of brittle lava that is cooling as it spreads from a volcano into the surrounding area.

I remember the first time I pulled these from the oven with that seething surface.  I wasn't at all sure that I should remove them yet.  Surely they can't be done, I said to myself.  But I did it anyway, just to see what would happen.  And I was very happy that I did.

It's a fun thing to tweak recipes, trying new techniques in both the ingredient mixing  and the baking.  Someone once said to me, "Technique can't be that important.  It can't make that much of a difference, can it?"  The answer is yes.  I have all sorts of notes written on my recipes that specify how to mix something, whether or not to thaw a frozen ingredient (such as wild blueberries), whether to mix by hand or by mixer, how little to mix, how much to mix, precisely how much batter should be added (exactly 250 grams of banana bread batter per mini-loaf, for instance), which pans to cook in, whether to fold with a spatula and then do a final gentle whisk or not, and so on and so on.

All these little things can make a noticeable difference in the final product in taste, texture, and appearance.  And so that makes the techniques used very important, indeed.  At least to me.

Enjoy the spring weather everyone.  The rains have been abundant so far, and my fingers are crossed that it stays that way.  Spring flowers are already blooming.  My creeping thyme beds are already greening up incredibly well.  And the temperatures do not seem to be leaning towards hot temperatures of summer yet, so that hopefully means we will have a long and pleasant spring.  So make yourself some good food and enjoy the pleasant days.