Happy Birthday Edna: Banana Cake

Happy birthday to my friend, Edna Staebler. This Canadian culinary gem would have been 109 years young today. She was a marvel and a talented woman who wrote about life, but is best known for bringing Waterloo County fare to the world.  I've written about her several times, including  here, here and here.

Even though 1 January marks the new calendar year, 15 January starts my culinary year: The holidays' excesses have lulled, the fridge is now rid of overcomplicated and overzhuzhed memories.  Overreaching and overhyped wannabe food personalities are hushed.  It's time to return to what sustains me for the other 350 days of the year--delicious yet simple foods, born of tradition, seasonality and curiosity.

This January sees a surfeit of bananas in my house--more freckled yellow fruit than I care to mention are in bowls and on my countertop, thanks to my parents.  Don't ask.  Things like this just happen.

While banana'd treats are a temporary staple--banana smoothies, and peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches--I still feel up to my knees in bananas.  I could take Josephine Baker's lead and make a fashion statement, but I don't. 

Edna offers several delicious-looking banana baking options, but this simple banana cake from her first book, Food That Really Schmecks, caught my eye.  As with all of her recipes, this one is easy, tasty and came together quickly.  I've made some minor changes: instead of shortening, I used butter with a splash of oil, and I substituted sour cream and milk for sour milk. 

The end result is a tender-crumbed, old-fashioned cake, devoid of propensity but filled with comfort and flavour.

This cake can be made in a rectangular pan or in two round tins, sandwiching a slathering of whipped cream and sliced bananas between layers.  Edna recommends a penuche icing--which I'm sure would be scrumptious--but I think unadorned is best.

Banana Cake

Edna Staebler - Food That Really Schmecks (adapted)

Yield: One 33x23x5cm (13"x9"x2") cake

Ingredients

110g/125ml/0.5c softened butter

1Tbsp/15ml flavourless oil

300g/375ml/1.5c sugar

1tsp/5ml salt

2 large eggs

325g/560ml/2.25c all purpose flour

1tsp/5ml baking powder

0.75tsp/3.75ml bicarbonate of soda

2Tbsp/30ml sour cream 
2Tbsp/30ml milk

260g/250ml/1c mashed overripe bananas (2-3 large bananas)

65g/125ml/0.5c walnut or pecan crumbs

Method

Preheat oven to 180C/350F (moderate/Gas Mark 4)

Prepare a 33cmx23cmx5cm (13"x9"x2") pan by either lining it with crumpled greaseproof paper or by greasing and flouring.

Sift together the flour and leavening agents. Set aside.

Mix together the sour cream, milk and mashed bananas. Set aside

Cream together the butter, oil, salt and sugar. Scrape down the bowl and add eggs one at a time, beating well between editions. Scrape down the bowl again.

Add the flour and banana mixtures in the usual way (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry), scraping down after incorporating each banana mixture. 

Fold in the nuts and give the batter a good stir to ensure no flour clumps are hiding. The batter should be light and thick but moussy texture.

Pour into the prepared pan, level the batter and smooth the top. Tap on the counter once or twice to release any large air bubbles.

Bake for 40-45 minutes. The cake should be golden brown, the top springs back when lightly touched, and the cake pulls away from the sides. An inserted bamboo skewer should come out cleanly.

Slather with the icing of your choice (cream cheese, penuche, chocolate, vanilla, peanut butter), dust with icing sugar or leave as-is.

Notes:

• The baking time listed is for the rectangular cake pan.  If baking in two 20cm/8" or 23cm/9" pans, bake for 25-35 minutes

cheers!
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!

Banana muffins with nut streusel topping

Here in Canada, New Year's Day pretty much marks the end of what's essentially a month-long modern Bacchanalian feast with meats and wines and cakes and whiskys and shortbreads and brandies and trifles and punches and loaves and cheeses and chocolates. Lots of food, lots of frivolity and lots of leftovers.

Chances are on 1 January (and 2 January and 3 January), fridges and pantries are still filled with leftover feasts and edible presents...I do my best to get through it but some foods end up teetering close to their best-by dates.

So I looked about my fridge and counters to see what needs to be used up and what I can do with them. This year it was bananas and eggnog. Not wanting banana pudding, or a bread and butter pudding, these muffins are what came out of my oven. It was a happy accident and an experiment of "what happens when I mix all of these things together."

If you don't have any eggnog, just substitute milk or yoghurt instead (and add an extra tablespoon of sugar to the mix).

These muffins aren't cakes in waiting. They are hearty and toothsome and not overly sweet like some shop-bought monstrosities. For those who are thinking of changing their diet to something a bit more "healthy," well...it uses whole wheat flour to help your ease yourself into your newfound dietary asceticism.

Truth be told, I find little eggnoggy taste remains in the finished muffin, but a friend tells me there is a feint aroma. Personally, I think it's the nutmeg, but who am I to argue?

Banana Muffins with Nut Streusel Topping
Yield 12

Ingredients
For the streusel topping
25g (2Tbsp) soft butter
35g (0.25c) all purpose flour
50g (0.25c) brown sugar
25g (0.25c) chopped pecans, walnuts, almonds or other nuts
0.5tsp ground nutmeg

For the muffins
175g (1.25c) all purpose flour
75g (0.5c) whole wheat flour
1dspn (2tsp) baking powder
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.25tsp cinnamon
0.5tsp ground nutmeg
0.5tsp salt
225g (1c) mashed bananas (approx 2 large)
130g (0.66c) sugar
180ml (0.75c) eggnog
1 egg, lightly beaten
1tsp vanilla
1tsp rum or brandy or their extracts (optional)
30ml (2Tbsp) flavourless oil
45ml (3Tbsp) melted butter

Method
For the streusel topping:
Mash together all streusel ingredients into a crumbly mixture. Set aside.

For the muffins:
Preheat oven to 180C/350F and line a 12-bun muffin pan with papers.

Seive together flours, baking powder, bicarb, spices and salt. Set aside.

Mix together the bananas and sugar until the sugar melts into the fruit. Stir in eggnog, egg, flavourings, oil and butter until well mixed.

Stir the wet ingredients into the dry until just combined.

Divide into the prepared muffin bowls (the batter will nearly fill each bowl) and top with the steusel mixture. Bake for 20-30 minutes or until an inserted tester comes out clean.

Let cool in the pan for a few minutes before removing muffins to a cooling rack.


cheers!
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!

Banana Oat Muffins

I'm trying to decide if my recent migration towards heartier muffins--ones imbued with whole grains and other nubbly bits, from sorry excuses for eating cake for breakfast, signals something significant or is just my body's natural attempt at rebalancing itself from sugarfest that marks each and every December.

Don't get me wrong, I think into every life more than a little cake for breakfast must fall. Same with cheeziepoofs for supper: sometimes all you need for a full meal is something you'd normally reserve for a once in a while treat. Perhaps it's my embodiment of the great Julia Child's belief of everything in moderation, including moderation.

My problem with oatmealy muffins is their inextricable association with old people and "regularity." The same sort of regularity that comes from prunes and castor oil. (Okay. I do love prunes...but not for that reason. I think they are just like candy.) Then there's the McHealthiness associated with nutrionism and the bandwagon jumpers who drone on and on about whole grain this and oaty that.

These muffins were born from a burden of a couple of mushy bananas and utter boredom with my usual banana bread (which does get turned into muffins from time to time). Yes, I could jazz things up by switching the fruit, adding nuts or introducing chocolate, but no. I wanted something different, something with a bit more oomphy-heartiness to it. Hearty--but not leaden--they are. Oomphy...not so much. But that's okay.



Banana Oat Muffins
Yield 6 ginomous muffins or 12 regular ones

130g ap flour
65g whole wheat flour
0.5t cinnamon
1 dspn baking powder
0.5t bicarbonate of soda
0.25t salt
90g sugar
2 mashed bananas (roughly 250ml)
60ml vegetable oil
1t vanilla extract
80ml buttermilk
2 eggs, beaten
50g rolled oats

Preheat oven to 170C/350F. Line or grease a 6-bun muffin tray with papers. You're looking at the ginormous muffin-sized tray, not the sane muffin-sized ones. If you want sane-sized ones, grab and grease or paper as 12-bun muffin tray.

Stir together flours, baking powder, bicarb and cinnamon.

Combine bananas, salt, sugar, oil, vanilla, buttermilk and eggs.

Stir the dry mixture into the wet until just combined, then fold in the oats.

Dollop into the prepared muffin trays. Bake for 25-30 minutes.

cheers!
jasmine

Elvis, you'll always be the King

I grew up watching Elvis Presley movies on TV. Everytime one of his films aired, my parents made a mini event of it and we'd sit on the couch and watch...sometimes sing.

I loved (and still do) films of that era and genre. It was a sort of candy-coated, sparkly world where everyone broke into song at a moment's notice. I never quite figured out why life wasn't quite like that. Oh sure, I treat pretty much everything as a song cue and will warble a few lines of this or that to prove a point...but for some reason people rarely join in...even rarer still, do they do that lovely spontaneous, en masse choreography.

I found out sometime mid-day that today marks his 74th birthday. Which surprised me. Not the number itself, but the fact that I found out mid-day...and quite by accident. It used to be on his birthday the radio station (regardless of the one I listened to) would mention something...even play a song or two...but not today.

Harrumph...

Is that any way to treat The King?

Harrumph...

His culinary predilictions are known...along with his appetite...Hamburgers, mashed potatoes, pound cake...What I always found a little sad was how so many people seemed to turn their nose up at a particularly yummy one: fried peanut butter and banana sandwiches.

Really all it is is a pb and banana sammy on toasted bread, browned in butter on the grill. Gosh, make an eggy coating and it would be a divine cross between French toast and pb&b...

What I like about this sandwich, is how both the banana and peanut butter just sort of melt into one other...all warm and gooey between pieces of fried bread...There are no quantities needed--you may want more pb than b or you may want more b than pb...it's all up to you.

You know what I'll be munching on, as I watch Bruce Campbell as that hunkahunka burning love in Bubba Hotep (if you've seen the movie, you know why I'm laughing as I type) tonight, wishing The King, a happy, happy...

Fried Peanut Butter and Banana Sandwiches

Lightly toasted bread
Mashed banana
Peanut butter
Butter

Spread peanut butter on one slice of toast, then slather it with banana and top with a second slice.

Melt butter in a pan. When it starts to sing place the sanwich in and let it fry for a couple of minutes. Add more butter (if necessary) and flip the sandwich and fry for another minute or two.
Serve immediately.

cheers!
jasmine

White chocolate banana muffins

It used to be that I'd make banana bread once every four or six weeks-- usually when I found myself with fruit far too overripened even for me (the joke with my parents is that I won't touch bananas until all traces of green have been taken over by black spots and they won't eat bananas with any trace of spotted goodness).

Then all of a sudden I stopped. It's not that I stopped making banana bread--I just stopped buying bananas. I don't know why or exactly when, but I've not had a banana in the house for what seem like ages and ages.

Just as suddenly the bananas reappeared. The first bunch was courtesy of my parents--more spotted than green. I made muffins and they were good. Since then there seems to have been at least one banana in the house.

This week I just couldn't get through them all and they morphed into a gooey-and-slimy-on-the-inside and pitch-like-on-the-outside existence. It would almost be sad if they weren't finding themselves to a better fate. Well..okay, not better...just tasty.

My standard banana bread recipe is from Nigella's How To Be A Domestic Goddess. I've tried others and as good as they are, this one is the one I always come back to. Sometimes I add dried fruit or frozen berries, sometimes nuts, sometimes a combination. This time I decided to reach for my jar of white chocolate chippies.

I'm not a fan of white chocolate--I find it too sweet and even the smallest amount seems to leave me glugging water. I keep it in the house in case I need to make an emergency special cheesecake or I want a visual contrast in some midnight-like chocolatey cookies. But this time the chippies just called out to me from the cupboard (it's amazing how they do that).

The end result was sweeter than I'd prefer--a combination of the bananas, chips and brown sugar--so next time I'd probably lessen the amount of sugar. Friends who've tried them really like them. They're easy and relatively quick and are good with a nice hot cup of tea.

White Chocolate Banana Muffins
adapted from Nigella Lawson's Banana Bread in How To Be A Domestic Goddess

Yield 15 muffins

175g plain flour
1 dspn baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
3/4 tsp salt
125g butter, melted
150g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
300g mashed overripe bananas
100g white chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 170C/325F; paper the bowls of a cupcake tin.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together the butter and bananas with sugar. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. Fold in the flour mixture, then the chips. Pour into lined tins and bake for 20-30 minutes or until done.


cheers!
jasmine

The last of my summer strawberries

Not that strawberry season is over but the ginormous-to-me basket of berries I bought at the market last week is no more. It will be a few weeks until I get out there again, so I'm afraid the berries will be gone by my next visit. Yes, I suppose I could get some at the bigscarymegamart, but they only seem to have imported berries...

I wasn't terribly inventive with my prized July possessions--you saw the cake and the sauce. Mostly they were eaten fresh, plain or dipped in yoghurt. or mixed with yoghurt and granola.

But the last few hundred grams are a different story.

One of my favourite flavour combinations has always been strawberry-banana. Love it in ice cream and frozen yoghurt; when teamed up with orange, it's a preferred juice blend.

Well, apart from not having any oranges, I wasn't in the mood to make my own juice and my freezer still doesn't have enough room for my ice cream maker's freezer insert, so those concoctions were well out of the question.

So, what's a girl to do with a few hundred grams of hastenlingly overripe strawberries and a banana that needs to go to a better place?

Let's just say it was time to hope, pray, light a candle, spread a little incense and hop on one foot for luck. Yup...Beelzebub would be called into service: I decided to bake muffins...and I didn't feel like making them in my parents' unairconditioned kitchen.

Well...something must have worked because Beelzebub behaved himself. You read correctly. He didn't ruin my muffins.

None of his usual games. No "No, I don't feel like turning on" nor any hint of "I'm teasing you, making you believe that I'm actually 350F when in fact I'll start at 200F and end at 450F." He didn't even try the old "Oh, you are sooooooo fetching in that apron, I'd love to get together with you and give the central air a reason to turn on" as a ruse to turn my offerings to charcoal.

Did I tame the beast? Have I won him over with my womanly wiles? Did I beat Lucifer at his own game? Have I been lulled into a false sense of security believing I actually have a stove that I can trust? Will Charlie Daniels immortalise my feat in a fiddle-sawin', fruit-chawin', baked-goods jawin' tune?

All I know is that I didn't have to toss any of them out. They all had a muffinny texture and a crunchy-sweet-sticky top. I'm not questionning it.

Strawberry Banana Muffins
Yield 18

For the muffins
110g butter, melted
150g brown sugar
2 beaten eggs
mashed bananas with enough vanilla yoghurt to fill a 250ml measure
250g chopped strawberries
300g plain flour
25g whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp vanilla salt

For the streuselly topping
10g butter, melted
75g brown sugar
40g roalled oats
15g pinhead oats
nine large strawberries, hulled and halved (optional)

Preheat oven to a moderate heat (180C/350F) and line 18 buns of two 12-bun muffin tins with papers.

Sift together the flours, baking powder, bicarb and salt; set aside. In a separate bowl, mix together the streuselly topping and set that aside as well.

Mix together the egg, melted butter and vanilla and banana-yoghurt mixture. Stir into the flour mixture. Do not overmix: what you want is the batter to barely hang together (lumpy is good). Lightly fold in the chopped berries.

Portion into the muffin papers and spoon about a teaspoon's worth of the topping over the wet batter. Top with the half-berry.

Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes away cleanish.

cheers!
jasmine