Vegan Coconut Ice Cream and Vegan Banana and Nut Butter Ice Cream with Granola

I love eating ice cream any time of year, but during a particularly hot summer like the one we’re having, it becomes necessary as a food source. And, yes, I could enjoy a meal of just ice cream. I received a review copy of Jude's: A celebration of ice cream in 100 recipes just in time for the hottest part of summer and got to enjoy reading about frozen treats and tasting some of them. I loved learning how this ice cream company began. The current owners are brothers, and their father began the business in 2002 in their barn in Hampshire, England. The business is named after their mother. From the beginning, the focus was on achieving the best flavor by using the best ingredients including milk from a nearby farm. Soon, their ice creams were chosen by chefs for restaurant menus, and they were sold across the UK in supermarkets. There are classic and intriguing flavors, dairy-free options, and frozen desserts, toppings, and cocktails. Some flavors that caught my eye include the Honey Fig and Thyme Ice Cream, Matcha Ice Cream and Black Sesame Brittle, and the Beetroot and Ginger Ice Cream. When I first flipped through the pages, I was sure my first stop in the book would be the Summer Peach Sorbet, but then I read a suggestion about topping scoops with their granola and became fixated on that instead. For more elaborate desserts, there are two roulades. One is the Dark Chocolate and Vanilla Roulade, and the other is the Vanilla Arctic Roll with Apricot Creme Fraiche Ice Cream. You’ll also find tarts, cakes, and brownies to go with ice cream and even Mini Caramel and Guinness Floats. But, I kept thinking about that granola. It’s made with buckwheat kernals, sesame and pumpkin seeds, and coconut. I thought it would be a good, crunchy counterpoint to the Vegan Coconut Ice Cream. Then, I couldn’t resist making the Vegan Banana and Nut Butter Ice Cream too since it’s so easy. 

I started by making the granola, and the recipe is similar to my usual granola. This one is made with coconut oil and honey, and in addition to oats there are buckwheat kernals. Sesame seeds, pumpkin seeds, and unsweetened coconut were also added along with salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. After baking until golden and crunchy and then cooling, dried cherries and raisins were to be added. I left them out to keep the mixture completely crunchy. And, I now intend to always add buckwheat kernals to any granola I make. For the Vegan Coconut Ice Cream, a little coconut milk was mixed with cornstarch to form a paste. Then, coconut milk was heated with coconut cream and maple syrup. The cornstarch paste and salt were added, and the mixture was stirred until thickened. It was then cooled and refrigerated overnight before being churned in an ice cream maker. I added a small splash of rum just before churning to prevent the ice cream from freezing too solidly. The Vegan Banana and Nut Butter Ice Cream was a quick puree of frozen bananas, peanut butter, almond milk, and confectioners’ sugar. The mixture was transferred to a container to freeze, and needs to be left at room temperature for 15 minutes or so to soften a bit before scooping. 

I served a scoop of each ice cream in a dish with dried banana chips on the banana ice cream, and granola on the coconut ice cream. Now that I’m writing about them, I’m craving them both again. I have my ice cream machine’s canister in the freezer as I type and am about to leave to gather ingredients. I can’t go much longer with no ice cream in the house. 

Vegan Coconut Ice Cream 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from Jude’s Ice Cream and Desserts. 

This vegan ice cream is so easy to create at home. It’s unexpectedly creamy, with a fresh coconut flavour that makes your mind instantly wander to tropical islands. We’ve used cornflour for extra smoothness and love serving it with toasted coconut flakes, which give nutty taste and texture, but if that’s not your thing, simply serve it straight up. 

SERVES 6 
MAKES 1 LITRE (1 3/4 PINTS) 

1 x 400g (14oz) can coconut milk 
1 tablespoon cornflour 
300ml (1/2 pint) coconut cream 
175g (6oz) agave syrup (or honey, for a non-vegan option) 
1/4 teaspoon fine salt  
Handful of coconut flakes, toasted, to serve (optional) 

Combine 1 tablespoon of the coconut milk with the cornflour to make a paste. Gradually add a further 2 tablespoons of the coconut milk, stirring constantly. Pour the remaining coconut milk into a saucepan over a low heat with the coconut cream and agave syrup. Bring slowly to a simmer, then stir in the cornflour paste and salt. Bring the mixture to the boil, stirring constantly until slightly thickened, then remove from the heat. Cover the pan, cool and chill in the refrigerator overnight, or if you don’t have time, for at least 2 hours. 

Pour into an ice-cream machine and churn to a soft set following the manufacturer’s instructions, or until the blade stops. Spoon the soft ice cream into an airtight, freezer-proof container and put in the freezer for at least 4 hours, or preferably overnight, until firm. Remove from the freezer and allow the ice cream to soften for 5–10 minutes before scooping. Serve with toasted coconut flakes, if using.

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Peanut Butter-Banana-Chocolate Yogurt Pops

It is August, so it’s no real surprise that it’s exceptionally hot outside. But maybe because we’d gotten lucky with comparatively milder summers for a few years, this summer has seemed really, really hot. In the middle of another triple-digit day, I have to wonder why I don’t own popsicle molds? I must have convinced myself that I wouldn’t use them very often, but right now they seem like an obvious necessity. I started pondering this kitchen tool question when I read about these yogurt pops in the July/August issue of Clean Eating magazine. They’re presented as one of three frozen breakfast pop options, and I was delighted with the ingredient list and its lack of refined sugar. They’re made with plain yogurt, natural peanut butter, cocoa powder, and a little maple syrup. I wanted to pull out the blender and get right to work. I had some paper cups that I could use to freeze the pops, and I just needed some popsicle sticks. And, that’s when I learned that I would have to go to a craft store to get popsicle sticks because the grocery stores where I looked didn’t have them. That should have been a sign that I need to just get popsicle molds. 

I pushed onward, found some sticks, readied the paper cups, and made the yogurt pops without molds. First, I toasted some unsalted organic peanuts and added salt. Next, a banana, some plain Greek yogurt, unsweetened almond milk, natural peanut butter, and maple syrup were pureed in the blender. Some of the peanuts were added to the cups, and half of the mixture in the blender was poured over the peanuts in the cups. Back on the blender base, cocoa powder was added and mixed into the remaining yogurt mixture. The chocolate mixture was added to the cups, and more peanuts were sprinkled on top. Additional peanut butter is also suggested, but I skipped that and just added peanuts. I appreciated the simplicity of this recipe, but if you’d like a truly layered look it would require a little more time. To get layers, the first addition of yogurt mixture in the cups would need to be frozen until set before the chocolate mixture is added. Without that added step, you get a swirly result. Also, since I was new to popsicles, I didn’t realize the mixture needs to freeze and set a bit before you place a stick in the center of each cup, or the stick will just fall to the side. 

I feel like I learned some good lessons in the realm of popsicle science here. And, I got to enjoy some delicious frozen treats. The salty, crunchy peanuts were a delightful contrast to the ice-cold, creamy frozen yogurt, and I always love the mix of banana, chocolate, and peanut butter. What’s your opinion on whether popsicle molds are a kitchen necessity, and if you have some which kind do you recommend?

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Caramel Banana Bars

I love baking cookies, and Kurt loves finding freshly baked cookies in the kitchen. So, it was a happy day when I received a review copy of the new Dorie's Cookies book. In the introduction, Dorie mentions that she’s wanted to write a cookie book since she started working on cookbooks 25 years ago. Of course, her other books have included some cookie recipes, but this is the first devoted to nothing but cookies. The options cover the full spectrum from classics to bars to sandwich cookies, and there are even some savory options to serve with cocktails. One chapter is just for the cookies baked and sold from Beurre and Sel which was a cookie boutique she operated with her son. And, the final chapter is for Cookie Go-Alongs and Basics, and it includes ice cream to serve with cookies, ganaches and spreads to fill sandwich cookies, glazes to top cookies, and more. I started baking as quickly as I could after opening the book. There are a few recipes that call for kasha and specifically Wolff’s medium granulation kasha. I’ve cooked buckwheat groats and baked with buckwheat flour, but I was not familiar with medium granulation kasha. As promised, it is easy to find, and it adds a bit of crunch to a cookie. With buckwheat flour, the medium granulation kasha, and flaked sea salt on top, Kerrin’s Multigrain Chocolate Chip Cookies had a nutty, more complex flavor than your standard chocolate chip. And, they were Kurt-approved. I also tried the Espresso Chocolate Sables. That’s a recipe from the Beurre and Sel collection, and almost all of those cookies are intended to be baked in rings. All of these recipe suggest rolling the dough, chilling it on sheets, cutting the dough into two-inch rounds, and either baking the cookies in metal rounds if you have them or baking them in muffin tins. I went a different route and used the dough for a slice and bake technique. After forming a log of dough, I chilled it, and then cut rounds that I baked on cookie sheets. They spread just a bit, but they were still delicious with espresso flavor running through the crumbly, buttery cookies. 

The third cookie recipe I tried was the Cabin-Fever Caramel Banana Bars as it’s called in the book. Dorie came up with the idea while going stir-crazy during a blizzard. But, they’re great treats for any weather. I had one little problem with this recipe, and I’ll explain how I got around it. You begin by making a quick caramel by melting butter in a saucepan with brown sugar. That mixture was transferred to the bowl of mixer and allowed to cool for about 10 minutes. Flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and cardamom were combined. In a separate bowl, a ripe banana was mashed with yogurt. Next, granulated sugar was added to the bowl of the mixer and mixed followed by the addition of an egg and vanilla. The banana-yogurt mixture was added, and then the dry ingredients were stirred into the batter. Chopped salted peanuts were folded in before pouring the batter into a buttered and floured eight-inch square pan. The pan went into the oven for twenty-two minutes or so. For a chocolate topping, finely chopped chocolate was to be sprinkled over the baked bars as soon as the pan came out of the oven. Then, the pan was to go back into the warm but turned-off oven for a few minutes to melt. I must not have chopped the chocolate finely enough because mine didn’t melt well enough to spread even after several minutes. The chocolate seemed to seize up and not want to move. I ended up scraping off the unmelted chocolate and starting over. I melted chocolate by itself in a bowl in the microwave and then poured it over the bars. More chopped salted peanuts were sprinkled on top, and the bars were left to cool until the chocolate set. 

Despite the small issue with the chocolate topping, I still really liked these bars. Banana, peanuts, and chocolate make a great combination. Now, I have a decision to make. What should I try next, the Snowy-Topped Brownie Drops or the White Chocolate Poppy Seed cookies? 

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Carrot Banana Cake

We’re still anxiously awaiting our return to our permanent property. The work on our new house is progressing, and the kitchen is starting to take shape with cabinets being set into position. Every day brings a new dilemma like what kind of outlets should be installed on the island? Hopefully, all of the issues will be solved soon, and I’ll be in my new kitchen in time for holiday baking season. I realized how much I’ve missed more frequent baking as I turned the pages of Yvette Van Boven’s newest book Home Baked. I recently received a review copy. I was hooked on this book from the very beginning thanks to the tips for homemade vanilla extract, natural food coloring, and a list of flours from various grains to use. The Bread chapter won me over quickly with tender Potato Rolls, Spicy Italian Anchovy-Garlic Bread, and the use of a sourdough starter for bread and pizza dough. The recipes are a mix of sweet treats and some more wholesome options with whole grains and less sugar. There are cakes, bars, cookies, pies, and pastry, and even treats for canine friends. I took one look at the Speculaas cookies and wanted to find out how to order a board with a windmill mold to make them. (Incidentally, I found one here.) And, the Pear Caramel Pies with Walnuts look decadent with the crisp puff pastry and drizzles of homemade caramel. Since I’m still doing my best to keep sugar intake at a minimum, I decided to try the Carrot Banana Cake. It’s a cross between a carrot cake and banana bread, and it’s lightly sweetened with just a couple of tablespoons of honey. The rest of the sweetness comes from apple juice, carrots, and the fruit in the cake. 

This is a little different from other banana bread recipes because the bananas are sliced rather than mashed. There were supposed to have been dried apricots in the recipe, but as seems to happen to me often with various ingredients, the day I needed dried apricots there were none to be found. I used dried plums instead. To begin, apple juice (and I love that organic unsweetened apple juice was recommended), grated carrots, halved dried plums in my case, and honey were combined in a saucepan and brought to a boil. The pan was removed from the heat, and it was left to rest for 30 minutes. Spelt flour, grated unsweetened coconut, baking powder, ground ginger, and salt were sifted together. There’s a note that cinnamon is nice here as well, so I added some. The carrot and apple juice mixture was added to the flour mixture, beaten eggs were stirred in, and last the banana slices were folded into the batter. The cake baked for about 50 minutes. 

I tasted the batter just before transferring it to the baking pan. I thought it tasted not sweet enough and worried the cake would be bland. But, it didn’t occur to me that I was tasting plain batter with no banana in it. Once the cake was baked and sliced, and the banana slices were evenly distributed and found their way into each bite. They added just enough extra sweetness. I loved the texture with the carrots and all the fruit, and I wouldn’t change a thing the next time I bake it. Now, if we can just get moved, I can wait to start breaking in my new, roomier kitchen with lots of baking. 

Carrot Banana Cake 
Recipe reprinted with publisher’s permission from Home Baked. 

Oh, delicious. Look, I figured: I love carrot cake, I love banana bread, why don’t I throw the two together and combine them into a single thing I love? The cake doesn’t contain any sugar, butter, or wheat, so it’s pretty healthy. But by adding the apricots, banana, apple juice, and carrot, it ends up being pretty sweet anyhow. If you can’t get spelt flour, you can of course simply use wheat flour, I won’t stop you. Bake this cake and bring a thick slice to work. It’s the perfect snack. 

for 1 cake, prep 25 min., inactive 30 min., bake 50 min. 
wheat-free, lactose-free, refined sugar–free 

1 cup (250 ml) unsweetened organic apple juice 
1 1/4 cups (150 g) grated carrot 
2/3 cup (100 g) unsulphured dried apricots, halved 
2 to 3 tbsp honey or agave syrup 
2 cups plus 2 tbsp (250 g) light spelt flour 
1/2 cup (50 g) grated unsweetened coconut 
2 tsp baking powder 
1 tbsp ground ginger (cinnamon is nice too)
pinch of salt 
3 eggs, beaten 
2 bananas, sliced 

Preheat the oven to 350ºF (180°C). Position a rack in the center. Thoroughly grease a 1 1/2-qt (1.5-L) loaf pan, or any other pan with approximately the same volume. I use some melted coconut oil, but baking spray or olive oil also works fine. 

In a saucepan, bring the apple juice, carrot, apricots, and honey to a boil. Turn off the heat and allow to rest for 30 minutes. Let cool until the mixture is nearly at room temperature. I usually spoon the mixture into a large dish to make sure it cools faster. 

Meanwhile, combine the flour with the coconut, baking powder, ginger, and salt. Then spoon in the carrot mixture. Stir in the beaten eggs and finally the banana slices. Pour the batter into the prepared pan. Bake the cake for 50 minutes or so. The cake is done when a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean. Let it cool in the pan, then turn out onto a rack. Once cooled off, the cake will be slightly firmer. 

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Chocolate-Bananagasm Muffins

It is a catchy recipe title, and chocolate and banana in the same place always gets my attention anyway. So, it was a given that I’d try this. I shared a few of these muffins with some friends, told them what they’re called, and asked them to let me know if they were indeed bananagasmic. Everyone agreed that they were. Although, one friend felt it was more appropriate to wait until no males were in the room to admit it. Her reputation is safe. I won’t tell. The recipe comes from the new book The Sugar Cube by Kir Jensen, who operates a Portland food cart with the same name, and I received a review copy. It’s full of fun twists on classics and some new takes on sweets as well. I’ve been baking from it practically nonstop since reading it. The Twisted Toll House Cookies, which are thin and crisp and made with hazelnut flour and finely chopped chocolate, became an instant favorite in our house. Some recipes I haven’t gotten to yet but can’t wait to try include: the Bing Cherry Breakfast Clafoutis with an oat crumble topping; the Highway to Heaven Cupcakes which are chocolate cakes brushed with coffee syrup, filled with caramel sauce, topped with ganache, with an optional garnish of shards of potato chips; and the Black and White Sesame Brittle with pretty flecks of two kinds of sesame seeds. But, let’s get back to these muffins. They’re made with melted bittersweet chocolate, cocoa powder, cacao nibs, and of course, mashed bananas. The flavor was all kinds of chocolate fabulousness, and the texture of the muffins was perfect for days given the banana which kept them from becoming dry.

To start, chopped bittersweet chocolate, or feves which is what I used, was melted in a double-boiler. Mashed bananas were added to the melted chocolate. In a separate bowl, flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt were sifted. With a stand mixer, butter and brown sugar were creamed, three eggs were added followed by vanilla extract, and then the dry ingredients, cacao nibs, and chocolate-banana mixture were added. As with many of the recipes in this book, finishing salt makes a big difference here. Fleur de sel was sprinkled on the muffins just before they went into the oven, and it works like a spotlight brightening every flavor.

With three eggs and two mashed bananas, the crumb was tender and lovely with nice contrast from the crunchy cacao nibs. There’s a suggestion to serve the muffins with nut butter, and out of journalistic integrity, I felt it necessary to test that concept. It’s a superb idea, but even plain, these muffins were deserving of their name.

Chocolate-Bananagasm Muffins
Recipe reprinted with publisher's permission from The Sugar Cube.

The world doesn’t need another blueberry muffin. And don’t get me started on bran. But a chocolate muffin moistened with banana purée and sprinkled with sea salt? Hell, yes! These are so moist and tender yet not too sweet, and the cacao nibs add texture and a deeper chocolate flavor. When you have a couple of death-row bananas on your hands, skip the same old banana bread and whip up a batch of these. I adapted the recipe from a great food blog called “80 Breakfasts.” Serve with salted butter or your favorite nut butter, such as fresh almond or peanut.

MAKES 12 MUFFINS

Ingredients
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons bittersweet chocolate (about 3 ounces)
2 large very ripe bananas, pureed
1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/4 cup Dutch-process cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt 
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 
1/4 cup (1 ounce) cacao nibs 
Granulated sugar for sprinklling
Fleur de sel for sprinkling 

TIP This also can be made as a lovely dessert. This amount of batter is perfect for a 4-cup mini-Bundt pan. Generously butter the pan. Baking times will vary, so check after 30 minutes; the top should spring back when touched and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean.

Instructions

PREHEAT THE OVEN to 325°F. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. Put the chopped chocolate in a medium metal bowl and put the bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Heat, stirring, until the chocolate is just melted. Remove the bowl from the heat and let cool. Stir in the banana purée.

SIFT TOGETHER THE FLOUR, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt into a small bowl.

IN THE BOWL OF A STAND MIXER fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients, cacao nibs, and chocolate-banana mixture and beat just until combined.

DIVIDE THE BATTER equally among the prepared muffin cups. Sprinkle the tops lightly with granulated sugar and fleur de sel and bake for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan from front to back and bake for another 5 to 10 minutes. The tops should look crackled and slightly wet between the cracks. Let cool a bit before serving warm.

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Banana-Date Tea Cake

I had leftover dates after making tamarind-date chutney, and I started thinking about different ways to use them in baking. Date scones came to mind, and I know I have a recipe for walnut date bars somewhere, but neither of those options were quite right. I was indecisive until I saw the banana-date tea cake recipe in Tartine. This was perfect. It’s a simple quick bread with lots of banana flavor, crunchy walnuts, and sweet, chewy dates. The batter is mixed, poured into a loaf pan, topped with long slices of banana, and that’s it. When I’m making use of a leftover, I feel like what it’s going into needs to be a simple preparation, and I had all the other ingredients for this on hand.

Bananas were mashed and eggs and vanilla were added to them. Flour was sifted with cornstarch, cinnamon, baking powder, and baking soda. Butter was creamed with sugar, the banana mixture was added, and then the flour mixture was folded into the batter. Toasted and chopped walnuts were added with pitted and chopped dates. I use kitchen shears to cut dates in half, pick out the seeds, and then cut them into chunks. It seems easier to me to cut with shears since the dates are so sticky. The finished batter was placed in a greased loaf pan, and then it was to be topped with full-length slices of banana. My banana broke in several places as I sliced it, so my slices were quartered rather than full-length. It was still pretty enough though, or so I thought. The banana slices were sprinkled with sugar, and the tea cake baked for a little over an hour until an inserted cake tester came out clean.

This was a somewhat dense but very moist and flavorful tea cake. It sliced easily, and each piece was full of walnuts and dates. I stored the cake for an entire week in the refrigerator, slicing pieces for breakfast each morning, and it was as delicious on the last day as it was on the first. In fact, Kurt dropped a few hints about how there should always be a breakfast item like this in the refrigerator, and I think he’s right about that.

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Brown Sugar and Spiced Banana Ice Cream

I like experimenting with bold and interesting flavor combinations in all kinds of food, and doing so with ice cream sounded great to me. I received a review copy of Spice Dreams which is the second book from Sara Engram and Katie Luber about making good use of your spice rack. This book is devoted to ice creams, sorbets, and frozen yogurts made with sometimes adventurous flavor combinations. There are options like honey-mint ice cream with thyme and basil, chile-lemongrass ice cream, white chocolate-allspice ice cream, and chocolate ice cream with cumin and fennel. In the sorbet chapter, pink grapefruit-tarragon sorbet and chile-orange-chocolate sorbet both grabbed my attention. There are also suggestions for frozen sandwiches and sundaes like cardamom snickerdoodle ice cream sandwiches and peach waffle sundaes with cinnamon syrup. Last, there’s a chapter for sauces, syrups, and toppings to further gild the lily. Whipped cream with dried lemon zest is one I'll have to try. I flipped through the ice cream pages calling out options, and Kurt’s pick was brown sugar and spiced banana. I thought it was a great choice, and I readied the ice cream maker.

All of the ice cream and sorbet recipes in this book are written to make one to one and a half quarts. This one made one and a half. For that amount, only one banana was needed, and I thought there would have been at least two for some reason. The one banana was pureed with some milk, and then that mixture was added to more milk, brown sugar, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, and salt in a saucepan. That was scalded and then used to temper four egg yolks. Eggs and the milk mixture went back into the saucepan and were heated until the custard was thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. I always strain custards just in case there’s any unappetizing cooked egg in there, and then it was chilled in an ice water bath. Once cool, it was refrigerated for a few hours before being churned into rich and nicely flavored ice cream.

My first instinct was to caramelize some sugar on top of banana slices and serve the ice cream on top. Or, I thought a drizzle of caramel sauce might be nice over a big scoop. Wrong and wrong. This ice cream brings plenty to the palate just as it is. The one banana in the custard gave it lovely fruity flavor, and the warm flavors of the spices would have been muddied by caramel. I did slice a fresh banana and sat pieces in the cups as garnish, but anything more heavy-handed than that would have been out of place here. This is one to enjoy just as is or maybe in a cone, and now I wish I had some cones and more of this ice cream.

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Bake Sale Cookies

I’ve been open about my problem with cookbooks and food magazines regarding how I can’t stop collecting and reading them. Well, I also have an issue with collecting links to recipes I see on all those fabulous food blogs out there. The list of recipes keeps growing. Fortunately, a perfect opportunity for trying some of them presented itself. Bread Baby mentioned an upcoming bake sale and asked if anyone in Austin would like to donate items. She, in fact, had organized a very cool benefit for Space12 and planned a bake sale as part of it. What could be better than getting to try a few different recipes from my list and then having a place to take the baked goods to prevent me from eating them all? I wasted no time in combing through that long list of links and decided on these: cinnamon cappuccino cookies from A Kiss and a Cupcake, molasses cookies from Cooking During Stolen Moments, and banana snickerdoodles from Noble Pig.

I didn’t realize it when I picked those cookies, but they all have something in common. For all three cookies, balls of dough are formed and then are rolled in sugar or a sugar mixture before being placed on a baking sheet. I had the technique down after these recipes. The cinnamon cappuccino cookies have powdered espresso in the dough, and then the dough balls were rolled in cinnamon and sugar to which I added a little more espresso powder. The molasses cookies were rolled in sugar, and the banana snickerdoodles were rolled in cinnamon and sugar. I made one change to the banana snickerdoodle recipe which was to use butter instead of shortening, but I always do that.

These were three very different cookies in the flavor department, and I liked them all for different reasons. I’ll be keeping all three recipes in the permanent file. Kurt’s favorite, hands down, was the cinnamon cappuccino. I thought for sure my favorite was going to be the molasses cookie because I’ve become so taken with molasses in recent years, and it was extremely good. In the end though, I was torn between it and the banana snickerdoodle. The banana snickerdoodle dough was ridiculously good, and I almost had to restrain myself from eating the entire bowl before the cookies could be baked. Since I clearly can’t pick a winner among the three, I suggest you bake them all and let me know which one you like best.




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Meringue Topped Banana Pudding

About a year ago, I baked the brown sugar pound cake from Sweets: Soul Food Desserts and Memories, and I mentioned that there were several other things I wanted to try from that book. One of those other things was the meringue topped banana pudding, and just a short eleven months and twenty-something days later, I did finally try it. I’ve made banana pudding several times before and it’s a favorite of mine and Kurt’s, but this one was different because of the meringue on top. I usually serve it with a topping of whipped cream, and that’s how we see it served at restaurants too. I’d never tasted banana pudding with meringue on top. The pudding itself, as usual, is just a basic, vanilla pudding. Every time I make a pudding or pastry cream, I wonder why I don’t do so more often. I taste it warm from the saucepan just after the vanilla has been added, and every time, I marvel at how good that is. The lovely pudding is layered with sliced bananas and vanilla wafers, and I did not bake homemade vanilla wafers for this. I followed the recipe which suggested using a twelve ounce box. However, I did seek out an organic brand.

The pudding was prepared with four egg yolks, and the four whites from those eggs were used for the meringue. Pudding was poured over a layer of vanilla wafers and sliced bananas in a one and a half quart casserole dish, and then the layers were repeated two more times. This filled the dish to the very top edge, and I should have been smart enough to realize it was a bit too full. The fluffy meringue was spread on top with lots of swirls and curls, and it went into a 350 F oven for about twelve minutes. Luckily, I had placed the casserole dish on a baking sheet, because the pudding bubbled up and spilled over a bit here and there. Next time, I’ll eat a little more pudding right after it’s cooked so as to keep it just below the top edge of the dish. I let it cool on a rack for an hour and then refrigerated it overnight.

I have to say, I didn’t miss the whipped cream. I like it that way too, but the meringue was different and light and just as nice. With meringue, you have the browned, near-crust on top and then the airy, pillowy texture underneath. In the book, there’s a warning that while you can refrigerate leftovers it doesn’t hold up well. I can tell you that’s true. After scooping out two servings for dessert, I placed the dish back in the refrigerator. The next day, it was a little runny and not so attractive. The side opposite of the runny stuff was still delicious, but serving this sooner rather than later is ideal. One thought for next time is to create individual servings which could remain refrigerated for a couple of days with no scooped-out areas for runniness.

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Banana Strawberry Granola

A couple of weeks ago, I read a NY Times article about some addictive, crack-like granola, and that was the point at which I decided I had to make some homemade granola of my own. The recipe involved olive oil, and a sweet and salty contrast in the ingredients apparently made it irresistible. I also saw a homemade granola recipe on The Cosmic Cowgirl’s site a few months ago. Both The Cosmic Cowgirl’s and the NY Times recipes included pepitas which sounded great to me. Then, I recalled that Ruhlman had presented a slightly unusual granola recipe back in June. Pureed bananas and strawberries were mixed into the oats and nuts, and I had to try that. I actually consume a lot of cold cereal and granola for breakfasts, and I don’t know why I had never before made my own. I’ll definitely whip up a batch with pepitas as soon as I run out of this granola. It’s incredibly easy to make, you can tailor it to suite your taste or mood, and you can control the quantity of sugar.

With Ruhlman’s recipe, less oil is used because the pureed fruit and water add moisture that helps mix the spices throughout the oats and nuts. Then, most of the ingredients are up to you. You need to use the correct amount of oats, roughly the specified amount of nuts, but nuts of your choosing, then the spices and dried fruit are entirely your choice. I, however, followed almost exactly the quantities and ingredients suggested. I went with two bananas which were blended with strawberries, brown sugar, honey, canola oil, water, cinnamon, of which I added extra, and nutmeg. That was stirred into a mixture of oats, wheat bran, flax seed, walnuts, and sliced almonds. This was baked for an hour and was stirred every 15 minutes. Once it was removed from the oven and cooled, I added dried cranberries.

With homemade granola, you're able to choose the ingredients, but would the taste of be that much different? Yes, of course, homemade is far better. It’s perfectly fresh and the flavors are much more vibrant than something that has been sitting in a bin or box for however many days or weeks. It was worth making this just for the aroma from the oven while it baked. I usually take my granola with some plain soy milk, but it’s even better with thick Greek yogurt. Try one of these recipes or invent a new one, and let me know your favorite nut, spice, and fruit combination.




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Espresso Banana Muffins

When I was a student at the University of Texas, I used to love the banana espresso shakes at Quackenbush’s Cafe which was located right across the street from the side of campus where I spent my time. You could get the standard banana and espresso blended into a rich, ice cream shake, or you could add peanut butter. I soon realized what an incredible thing it was to taste espresso and banana at the same time. Our local Cafe Pacha makes a similar beverage, but they keep it on the lighter side with just banana, ice, milk, and espresso and no ice cream. Since I already had a history with this flavor combination, I knew I was going to like these muffins as soon as I saw the recipe. This is from Super Natural Cooking by Heidi Swanson, and it’s simple enough that I could bake these regularly and enjoy a continuous supply.

The obvious first ingredient here is overripe bananas. For some reason, we never have extra bananas in our house. They’re always eaten before reaching that overripe-I should bake something with these state. In fact, when I want to bake anything involving bananas, I have to plan ahead, remember to buy extra, and allow them ripen. So, I’m not even sure how it came to pass, but last week I was in the unusual situation of actually having extra, quickly ripening bananas. It was kind of exciting to get to make a banana recipe on the spur of the moment. Since I was in the spirit of using up those mushy bananas and baking something unplanned, I had to substitute a couple of other ingredients to avoid a trip to the grocery store. The recipe calls for white, whole-wheat flour which I didn’t have. I used half unbleached, white flour and half whole wheat flour. It also calls for a cup and a quarter of chopped walnuts. I only had about half a cup, so I added some almonds and pecans as well. Everything else, including the plain yogurt and espresso powder, I had on hand.

As I mixed everything together and scooped the batter into the muffin tin, the aroma of espresso mingling with banana hinted at how delicious these were going to be. Fresh out of the oven, I could barely wait to have a taste. And, one of these muffins with a steaming cup of cappuccino was perfection. Now that I’ve tried these once, I may be buying extra bananas every week in hopes of finding overripe ones that need to be used a few days later.

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