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The newest edition to our house…plants! Yay!
Asian-style egg noodles. Made fresh. And the noodle fest begins!
Smiley cooks
Hot n’ spicy noodles with ginger, garlic, baby bok choy, broccolini, squash, purple and yellow carrots…
Yummy in the tum
The morning brought new friends, mimosas, and pancakes
An intimate table filled with breakfast goods
Banana pancake, strawberries, scrambled eggs
Good friends and good times…
>I want!!!!! (aka some of the items on the menu at my future breakfast cafe/restaurant?…):
…made with Homemade Challah Bread
Yogurt Parfaits with Peaches in Wine
Homemade Extreme Granola
And for some savory satisfaction:
Warm tortillas with Cheesy Eggs
Wash it all down with a tall glass of fresh squeezed OJ or a milky cafe au lait in a big giant bowl:
I used to think I couldn’t bake. I could not make a good cookie for the life of me. Now I work as a pastry cook. Funny how that happens.
I used to think I did not like peanut butter. My parents claimed they didn’t like peanut butter, so I just followed their lead. All of those childhood years where I could have brought a pb&j sandwich to school for lunch, I was packin’ rye bread with cream cheese and cucumber. Now pb is one of my favorite foods–crunchy, creamy, flavored, skippy, or all-natural, on toast, in a shake, with some ice cream, or right off the spoon–I love it every way.
This peanut butter banana bread was one of the first baked goods that I had made successfully when I was a novice baker. The banana, yogurt, and peanut butter combo help keep the bread/cake very moist. Easy to throw together, hard to mess up, tasty to the tongue.
Ingredients
1 cup whole-wheat pastry flour (I have used regular whole wheat flour and all purpose flour before, and both work fine)
3/4 cup light brown sugar or raw sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 medium bananas, mashed
1/3 cup unsweetened crunchy peanut butter (Skippy brand is a winner for me here)
1/4 cup plain fat-free yogurt
1 large egg
2 Tbs. canola oil
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate chips
Directions
Preheat oven to 350F. Coat standard loaf pan with cooking spray. Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt in large bowl.
Whisk together mashed bananas, peanut butter, yogurt, egg and oil. Stir banana mixture into flour mixture until combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan.
Bake 40 to 50 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it. Cool on rack 15 minutes before unmolding. Cool completely, then slice and serve.
Quick breads. Dense, moist, quick(er) than yeasted breads (no need to wait for the bread to rise because baking powder/soda are used as leavening agents rather than yeast). This quick bread is just PACKED with ingredients; your taste buds will not get bored.
Flax Seed. Healthy protein, fiber, and omega-3-fatty acids woot woot! A little goes a long way.
Apples and walnuts. You just can’t go wrong. Same goes for buttermilk.
Next time I make this bread/cake, I want to try browning the butter to just kick it up a notch.
Apple walnut flax seed bread. Made with buttermilk, cinnamon, nutmeg, and love. Kinda healthy, kinda indulgent, kinda really extremely delicious.
Apple Walnut Flax Seed Bread
from JoytheBaker
makes one 9×5-inch loaf
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
generous pinch freshly ground nutmeg
2/3 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup grated apples
1/2 cup coarsely chopped apples
1 tablespoon flax seeds (I used flax meal instead…)
3/4 cup coarsely chopped walnuts, divided
cinnamon and sugar (turbinado sugar might be nice, but granulated works great, too), for sprinkling
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease and flour a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan and set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, salt, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg.
In a small bowl, whisk together buttermilk, eggs, melted butter and vanilla extract.
Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Add the grated apples, chopped apples flax seeds and half of the chopped walnuts. Fold to incorporate thoroughly.
Spoon batter into prepared pan and top with granulated sugar, cinnamon and the rest of the walnuts.
Bake for 40 to 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
Let cool in the pan for 15 minutes then invert onto a cooling rack to cool before wrapping.
Joy says to serve the bread slightly toasted with butter (I thought it was mighty good all on its own. Some hot (or iced) coffee is also a splendid accompaniment to the bread.).
I dropped the cake. I dropped my Buttermilk Avocado Pound Cake midway through it’s baking cycle. I dropped the cake all over the oven, in the oven.
And here was my attempt to salvage the cake:
Sort of looks like a cheesy baked…something or other.
But alas, it is cake, not cheese. Sweet, not savory. Despite my clumsiness, the parts that I managed to salvage actually tasted quite, well, tasty. I had a grand time picking off all the browned spots (my favorite)! At least I had another loaf pan of cake that I did not drop. Phew.
My clumsiness was like “heyday” for the dogs. The following series of photographs chronicles Penny the dog’s happiness/determination regarding my dropping the cake/her trying to help me clean up the delicious green gooey mess (NOTE: I cleaned up the mess hours before I took these photographs; apparently Penny could still taste the yumminess).
“I’ve got to get into every crevice, who knows where some extra cake goup may be hiding”
Finnegan the dog usually enjoys a steady diet of dirty, sweaty socks and tomato plants + their fertilized soil, but whenever I come visit, he is also thrilled to lick up my baking accidents.
So yes, cake. Buttermilk Avocado Pound Cake. Different. Strange. Wonderfully moist and one of the best cakes that I have eaten/made in a while. Plus, it’s green!
Ever since I saw this cake posted on Joy’s blog, I knew I needed to make it. The combination of buttermilk and avocado is utter bliss. Joy notes how the avocado taste is “subtle but distinct with a nice sweetness and a hint of crunch from cornmeal.” A home run, indeed, Joy.
Want to get fancy? Try pairing the cake with creme fraiche ice cream and candied kumquats. Oh, or an olive oil whipped cream! But really, this cake is perfect on its own. Really, perfect.
Just try not to drop it like I did.
Buttermilk Avocado Pound Cake
recipe from www.joythebaker.com
makes 2 9x4x3-inch loaves
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
3 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract (I used my own homemade extract!)
3/4 cup buttermilk
flesh of 1 1/2 ripe avocados, just over a cup of avocado, mashed
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour two loaf pans and set aside.
In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside. Set the four eggs out on the counter to come to room temperature while you beat the butter and sugar.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat butter on medium speed until softened and pliable. Add the sugar and beat until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add the avocado and beat another minute to incorporate. Scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure that everything is thoroughly mixed.
Add the eggs one at a time, beating 1 minute after the addition of each egg. Beat in vanilla extract.
Reduce the mixer speed to low and add half of the flour mixture, all of the buttermilk, and then the rest of the flour mixture. Beat just until combined.
Divide the dough between the two loaf pans and place in the oven. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean (Here is where I messed up. I wanted to rotate my cakes halfway through baking, and plop, I missed a beat and it fell EVERYWHERE. Go Steph). Check the cakes every ten minutes or so after the 30 minute mark. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then invert onto a cooling rack to cool completely.
New picture: June 2015
Avocado pound cake with plain yogurt and homemade apple sauce
Figsinmybelly 