Banana Bread Waffles

Bananas. I love them when they're just a touch green. I hate them when they're soft and speckled. I'm always looking for ways to use them up once they get to that point. This recipe is a great way to use them up. I posted these on The Life of Rylie's Saturday Play Date a few weeks ago. They are super easy to make, and they freeze well for later. Since I'm still on a waffle kick for breakfast, I end up using the bananas eventually.



Banana Bread Waffles
adapted from Seven Spoons


4 Tbs butter, melted
1 c plus 2 Tbs milk, warmed a little
1 tsp vanilla
2 c all-purpose flour
1 Tbs packed light brown sugar
1 ½ tsp yeast
½ tsp salt
2 eggs, beaten lightly
3 very ripe bananas, mashed (about 1-1 ¼ c)
3 Tbs sour cream or Greek yogurt

In a small bowl, whisk together the butter, milk, and vanilla. Mixture should be warm but not hot. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, yeast, and salt. Pour the milk mixture into the dry ingredients and whisk until just combined. Stir in the beaten eggs. Cover and refrigerate for at least 12 hours, and up to 24 hours.

Thirty minutes before you want to make the waffles, take the batter out of the refrigerator and let sit at room temperature. The batter should be doubled in size. When ready to make the waffles, stir in the mashed bananas and sour cream. Use a light hand to thoroughly combine. Heat waffle iron and bake according to the manufacturer’s instructions.

Gummy Frogs - August Daring Bakers (part 2)

So, the Daring Bakers challenge for the month was two-fold. Along with chocolate candies, we had to make one other type of candy. This other candy could be anything. I chose gummy frogs. I've wanted to make gummy candy for a while, but was a little off-put by the amount of gelatin used. I tried using less, but the texture ended up somewhere between jello and a gummy bear. That was even more off-putting.


When it came time to pull the candies out of the molds, I was a little wary. I was afraid they would rip, but they were surprising resilient. All means of tugging and pulling on them, and those frogs didn't lose their shape, let alone tear. I love how they look like they're marching into battle.


Look, they're getting closer.



Gummy Frogs
adapted from Skip To My Lou
white layer adapted from Jelly Shot Test Kitchen

Green Layer:
1/3 c water
1 box of melon flavored jello (or any green flavor)
3 packets of unflavored gelatin

White layer:
1/3 c water
1 packet unflavored gelatin
4 oz sweetened condensed milk

Cornstarch for dusting

For the green layer: Place water in a small saucepan. Sprinkle jello and unflavored gelatin over the water, and let set for 5 minutes. Place saucepan over medium heat and melt the mixture, stirring occasionally. Place gelatin mixture into a cup with a pour-spout. Fill plastic molds until almost full. Leave a few centimeters at the top.

For the white layer: while the green layer sets, make the white layer. Follow the same steps as above with the water and gelatin. After the mixture melts, remove from heat, and stir in the condensed milk. Place gelatin mixture into a cup with a pour-spout and fill the remaining space of the molds. Let candy set. Dust the surface of the candy with a little bit of cornstarch, and then pull out of molds.

You can use the mold over to make more batches. Gently re-heat the gelatin mixtures until melted and re-fill the molds, letting the green layer set a little before filling with the white mixture.

Peanut Butter Cups - August Daring Bakers (part 1)

The August 2011 Daring Bakers’ Challenge was hosted by Lisa of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drive and Mandy of What the Fruitcake?!. These two sugar mavens challenged us to make sinfully delicious candies! This was a special challenge for the Daring Bakers because the good folks at http://www.chocoley.com/ offered an amazing prize for the winner of the most creative and delicious candy!


I'm not sure how "creative" it was to make peanut butter cups, but wow, were they good!


Our task for the Daring Bakers was to make chocolate candies and to temper the chocolate. Tempering chocolate allows the chocolate to develop that shiny exterior and soft texture that chocolate candies are known for. It is important to use high quality chocolate. I've tempered chocolate using regular chocolate chips, and baker's chocolate, and it didn't quite work. The chocolate was soft at room temperature, and melted as soon as I touched them with my fingers. Those types of chocolate do not have a high enough cocoa butter content to temper properly.


Tempering the chocolate sounds tricky, but it is really easy. It's just a matter of keeping a close eye on the temperature while you're heating and cooling and reheating the chocolate. I have a feeling these candies will make a reappearance in my holiday goody boxes.

For part 2 of the Daring Bakers challenge, I made gummy frogs.



Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
filling adapted from Brown Eyed Baker


8 oz high quality milk chocolate
1/2 c creamy peanut butter
3 Tbs unsalted butter, softened
3 Tbs powdered sugar
1/8 tsp salt

Temper the chocolate: Break the chocolate into small chunks. Melt 2/3 of the chocolate the the top of a double boiler over simmering water. Gently stirring constantly, bring the chocolate to 113º F. Remove the double boiler from the heat. Add small amounts of the reserved chocolate bits to the hot chocolate, stirring to melt. Keep adding small amounts until the chocolate reaches 80.6º F (a digital instant read thermometer is extremely helpful for this). Return the chocolate to the simmering water and heat until the chocolate reaches 86º F. It is important to keep the water simmering and not boiling, as the chocolate heats very quickly. It is also important to keep the chocolate free of water drops, or it will seize and turn dry. The chocolate is now tempered and ready to use.

For the peanut butter filling: beat the peanut butter, butter, powdered sugar, and salt together until smooth. Place filling in a pastry bag fitted with a medium sized round tip.

Place mini-cup liners in a mini-muffin pan (or use chocolate molds without any liners). Fill cups about 1/2 way full. Using a small popsicle stick, or a lollipop stick, or a chopstick (you get the picture) paint the sides of the cups, making sure sides and are coated with chocolate. Chill the cups for about 5 minutes. Take out of fridge, and fill cups with peanut butter filling until about 3/4 of the way full. Tap the muffin pan on the counter to remove all air pockets, and to level the filling. Pour more chocolate into the cups, filling to the top. You can let the chocolate set either at room temperature, or in the refrigerator. Once set, remove chocolates from muffin pan.

Friday Food Truck Photo, August 26th

Ropa vieja tostones, from Tastebuds Catering. These tasted awesome. I had to fight my husband and my son off in order to eat them. As it was, I only ate about half the food. The garlicky green sauce was the best, and my son liked wiping it on my face as well.

Salmon Nicoise Salad

When I was on vacation in Europe (man, I love saying that!), I saw niçoise salads on just about every cafe and restaurant menu. I indulged in one, enjoying the crunchy veggies, soft eggs, and pungent anchovies. I ate this salad in Brussels, so I'm including a gratuitous Belgian street scene.


When I came back home, just about every food magazine I read had a recipe for a niçoise salad. There were 2 recipes alone in Gwyneth Paltrow's book. Most of the recipes swapped out salmon for the tuna. I figured that all these magazine editors (and Gwyneth) couldn't be wrong, and made a salmon niçoise salad.


This salad is a perfect make-ahead meal, since so many ingredients need prepping. You can poach the salmon, boil the eggs, and cook the potatoes and green beans the night/morning before eating the salad. And what's so great is that the prepped ingredients don't need to be reheated - it's a salad. A cold salad. Once it's time to eat, it's just a matter of whipping together the dressing, and throwing everything together. Speaking of the dressing - it totally brought everything together. Drizzle it lightly and toss well. It can overpower the other ingredients if poured on too thickly.



Salmon Niçoise Salad
Adapted from Garden Fresh Recipes
From Sunset magazine

1 bay leaf
½ Tbs kosher salt
10 black peppercorns
1 c white wine
1 lb salmon filet

2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbs Dijon mustard
5 Tbs white wine vinegar
½ c extra virgin olive oil
2 Tbs chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 Tbs chopped fresh basil
Sea salt

2 large bunches baby arugula
15 small red skinned new potatoes, boiled and cut in half
4 hard boiled eggs, cut into quarters
½ lb fresh green beans, trimmed and cooked until tender crisp
½ c pitted black olives (Niçoise, if available)
1 c chopped fresh tomatoes


Place bay leaf, kosher salt, peppercorns, and wine in a large saucepan. Add salmon and enough water to cover. Remove salmon, cover pan, and bring liquid to a boil. Reduce to a simmer, then gently place salmon in the liquid. Simmer, covered, until salmon is just opaque, about 10 minutes. Meanwhile, make the dressing.

In a small bowl, whisk together the garlic, mustard, and white wine vinegar. Slowly whisk in the oil until the dressing is well combined. Whisk in the parsley and basil. Season with salt.

With a spatula, carefully remove the salmon from the poaching liquid. Set on a plate, and chill for 10 minutes, loosely covered with foil. Discard poaching liquid.

To assemble the salad, break salmon into large pieces, discarding the skin. Arrange arugula onto a large platter. Top with salmon, eggs, green beans, olives, and tomatoes. Drizzle dressing evenly over the salad. Toss, and serve.

Friday Food Truck Photo, August 19

Continuing the quest to eat my way through O-town's growing list of food trucks. This is a chicken and waffle from Melissa's Chicken and Waffles. Every time I've been to a food truck event where this truck was parked, there was a line deep that was at least an hour long. Sometimes a two hour line. I finally realized why. What a great combination, especially when topped with gravy. It's pretty filling, so I recommend sharing with a friend.

Calzones

I can't decide which I like more - pizza or calzones. They're essentially the same thing: dough, cheese, sauce, and fillings/toppings. Pizza has more has a higher toppings to crust ration, whereas calzones are the opposite. I guess my favorite depends on whether I'm in the mood for carbs or not.


Calzones take about the same amount of time to put together as pizza, which if you use pre-made dough is not much. I find this especially helpful on busy weeknights when I don't have time to prep dough. My local supermarket sells pizza dough near the bakery section, in a little refrigerator along with pizza fixings.


I'm not normally a pepperoni eater, but on this occasion it sounded really good. Combined with mushrooms, it tasted great! Some of my favorite fillings are spinach, tomato, artichoke, meatball, and pineapple, although not all at once. What are some of your favorite fillings/toppings?


Calzones
Original recipe


1 batch pizza dough (or store bought dough)

Filling:
8 oz. mozzarella, cut into small chunks
4 oz pepperoni slices
Small carton button mushrooms, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced

Olive oil
1 c marinara sauce


Place a pizza stone (if available) in oven. Preheat oven to 400˚F.

Follow instructions for pizza dough through punching the dough down. (If you’re using store bought pizza dough, let the dough rise at room temperature until doubled, then punch down.) Divide dough into 4 equal portions. Working with one piece at a time, roll dough out to form a flat circle (or as close to a circle as you can get.) Place ¼ of each of the mozzarella, pepperoni, and mushrooms on one half of the dough. Sprinkle with a bit of garlic. Fold over the other side of dough, covering the filling. Pinch ends together, making sure to completely seal. Drizzle with a little bit of olive oil, spreading it to cover the surface. Place calzones on hot pizza stone and bake until browned on top, about 10-15 minutes. Check a few times to prevent calzone from burning. Let cool for 5 minutes, and serve with a side of marinara sauce.

My First Guest Post

I'm posting over at The Life Of Rylie...And Bryce, too today for a Saturday Play Date! I made some banana bread waffles to share with LeeAnn's readers.


Head on over to her blog and check it out. You'll also get to see a rare photo of Hubs, the tyke, and me - all in one shot!

Friday Food Truck Photo, August 11

Brown sugar bacon fries from Big Wheel Truck. Fried in fat from their house-cured bacon, and sprinkled with brown sugar. Salty and sweet. Don't knock them until you try them, because they are ah-ma-zing! Of all the local trucks, Big Wheel's menu changes the most often. That's because they focus on using local, seasonal ingredients in their dishes.

Baguettes

While on vacation in Europe last month, we spent a few days in Paris. I had been to Paris once before, about 12 years ago. I had already done a lot of the typical tourist things, so on this trip I wanted to explore the city in a different way. Since we left the tyke in Belgium with family, we did lots non kid-friendly activities - like museums, bike tours, eating leisurely at sit-down restaurants and cafes, and drinking lots of wine. Check out my album, which includes pictures I took while on a photo tour.


I also took a four hour long bread baking class. I mean, what better place to learn to make baguettes than Paris? Along with the baguettes, we also made two types of brioche, and fougasse. Chef Pino was patient, informative, and a thorough instructor. Best part was that we got to taste all the bread at the end of the class, and we took the rest with us when left. Hubs and I devoured the baguette and half the brioche on the train ride back to Belgium (along with some exquisite macarons from La Duree.)

Once home, I immediately tried to replicate the baguettes. The method I had learned didn't quite work here, so I had to find a recipe that was adapted for American ingredients. I remember having some success with the recipe in Mireille Guiliano's book, so I added a few things I learned from the class to this recipe.

I love the crisp crusts on these baguettes, along with their soft insides. I also learned that baguettes are only good for about 4-6 hours after baking, after which they go stale. If you don't plan on eating all four baguettes within that time, you can save the dough for later. Once you shape the baguettes, wrap them in plastic wrap and keep in the refrigerator. They will last a few days that way. When you are ready to bake, unwrap them, place on baking sheet, cover with a dish towel, and let rise at room temperature until doubled.



Baguettes
Adapted from Mireille Guiliano


1 tsp active dry yeast
1 ¾ c warm water
5 c unbleached flour
2 tsp kosher salt
Spray bottle of water

In a small bowl, combine yeast and ½ c warm water. Stir gently to dissolve yeast. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Combine flour and salt. Add yeast mixture and stir in remaining 1 ¼ c warm water. Mix dough until it is sticky enough to knead (or use a dough hook in a stand mixer.) On a lightly floured surface, knead about 10 minutes. Dough should be slightly sticky and smooth with no lumps. Coat a large bowl with a thin layer of non-stick spray. Place dough in the bowl, and cover with a damp towel. Let rise at room temperature until doubled, about 1-1 ½ hours.

Remove dough from bowl to a very lightly floured hard surface. Pick up dough, and slam it onto the surface a few times. (Don’t be gentle. This helps remove air pockets. Be careful, because flour will fly in a few different directions.) Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Roll each into a baguette shape. Tuck ends under to form a smooth surface. Transfer loaves to a lightly greased baking sheet (or baguette pan), cover with a damp towel, and let rise until nearly doubled in size.

Place about 2-3 cups of water in a baking pan and place on the bottom rack in the oven. Preheat oven to 450˚F. Do not open oven door until you are ready to bake the baguettes. Score loaves diagonally across the top with a sharp knife. Spray tops generously with water. Place baguettes in oven and bake for 10 minutes. Lower heat to 350˚F and bake an additional 10-15 minutes, until golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on a rack before slicing.

Friday Food Truck Photo, August 5

Traditional pupusa from Pupusas Orlando - thick tortilla stuffed with shredded pork, cheese, and mashed beans.

Salt and Pepper Shrimp

Whole shrimp. With heads. And tentacles. All edible. I debated for a while about posting this recipe, which resulted in no blog updates for a week. It tasted fabulous, so much so that we made it twice in one week. But its appearance might be off-putting, possibly intimidating. The shrimp are meant to be eaten in their entirety. In fact, they taste best when eaten this way, since the salty-sweet pepper mixture coats the crunchy shell.

We brought a shrimp to our neighbor so he could try one. He took one look at it and declared us "adventurous eaters." Hidden meaning: "No way I'm putting that thing in my mouth." I never really thought of myself as an adventurous eater. I'm not as adventurous as my friend Julia, who has eaten donkey, tripe, live squid, and fried silk worms. Does eating shrimp legs and heads constitute as adventurous eating? The tyke loved the shrimp. Of course, he'll eat just about anything that's deep fried.

So here is my question for you readers: if presented with a plate of these succulent, fragrant shrimp, how much of them would you eat? Shell? Legs? Tail? Head?

Salt and Pepper Shrimp

adapted from a recipe by Luke Nguyen

1 tsp sea salt

1 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1/2 tsp five spice powder

1 tsp sugar

Vegetable oil for frying, plus 1 Tbs more

8 large whole shrimp

1 ½ c cornstarch

1 Tbs minced garlic

1 Tbs minced shallot

1 tsp minced fresh red chile or jalepeno chile

3 green onions, green and light green sections sliced into 1-inch pieces

1 lime, quartered

Place salt, pepper, and five spice powder in a hot pan over medium high heat. Dry roast for about 1 minute, stirring a few times. Remove from heat to a bowl, and let cool. Stir in sugar. Set aside.

Place enough oil in a fryer or a dutch oven to reach a 3-inch depth. Heat oil to 300ºF. Place cornstarch in a large bowl. Dredge the shrimp in the cornstarch, shaking off excess. Place four shrimp in the hot oil and fry for 1 minute. Remove with a slotted spoon onto a cooling rack. Repeat with remaining shrimp.

In a large skillet, heat 1 Tbs of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. Add garlic, shallot, chile, and green onions. Saute until fragrant, about 1 minute. Add shrimp, tossing to combine. Sprinkle salt and pepper mixture onto the shrimp as you toss, making sure to coat the shrimp well. Remove from heat and serve immediately.