War and Peas

I found the recipe from Elise’s SimplyRecipes.com and modified it to suit my tastes. It has less bananas, less sugar and less butter than the original recipe. While making the bread, I accidentally added baking powder instead of baking soda, so after realizing my mistake, I scooped out as much as I could from the batter.About ¼ tsp of the powder was left but it didn’t effect the results so I’ve decided to keep the addition of baking powder in the recipe to ensure that the bread rises, since the rising and leavening process tends to be my greatest challenge with baking. This recipe is quite simple and makes a very moist bread with a crispy dark crust. It’s my favorite of all the banana breads I’ve made in the past.

Banana Bread Recipe

Ingredients

2 ripe bananas

4 Tbsp of butter
½ cup sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp baking powder

Pinch of salt

1 ½ cups flour

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a small bowl on defrost setting in the microwave.  Beat an egg in a small bowl.

With a wooden spoon, mash the bananas in a large bowl. Pour the melted butter in with the bananas and mash again.

Mix sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla into large bowl. Then mix in the salt, baking soda, and baking powder.Then add the flour and mix until combined and no large lumps. Pour into an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan.

Bake for 45 minutes on 350 degrees, then lower the temperature to 325 degrees and bake for another 15 minutes.

(If the bread is getting too dark in the oven or if you want a lighter color and softer crust, put aluminum foil lightly over the top of the loaf for the remainder of the cooking time or bake the bread at 325 degrees from start to finish)

This was my first attempt at making cupcakes from scratch.  All in all, I was happy with the way the cupcakes turned out.  I used half a cup of diced strawberries in the batter, but next time I’ll add a quarter cup more.  I couldn’t find liners in the kitchen and I was too lazy to go out to the store again, so I just baked them in a greased pan.  The frosting ended up being a bit too soft and grainy, but I’m not a big fan of really sugary sweets, so I usually leave my frosting on my plate anyway.

I didn’t want to go grocery shopping, so I tried to make dinner with only what I had in my fridge and pantry at home. I made pasta with button and shitake mushrooms in a cream sauce, but as I was finished preparing the dish, my boyfriend asked me out to have dinner with him, so I’ll be having this dish for lunch at work tomorrow. We went over to Ray’s Hell Burgers and he had the New Jack Zing, which had pepperjack, grilled onions, roasted peppers and roasted garlic.  I had a burger with gruyere, roasted peppers and sauteed mushrooms.  As always, Ray’s served an amazing burger.

I had sour cream and yogurt in the fridge that I didn’t want to waste, so I made this cake.  It’s from a recipe book in my bookcase that I’ve never used before.  The cake has cinnamon, walnuts, cocoa, yogurt and sour cream.  The recipe was difficult to follow.  I prefer my recipes to be very detailed in instructions, but this book had no pictures and only half a page dedicated to each recipe.  I don’t think I’ll be making this cake again and this is one book that will either be recycled or given to goodwill.

I made a lemon and ginger cheesecake a few days ago. It’s an awesome recipe from Epicurious, which uses fresh lemon juice and chopped ginger, as well as crystallized candied ginger, ground ginger, and lemon peel. Because of the lemon, ginger, and sour cream, the cheesecake tastes light and refreshing with a little tart and spice rather than feeling heavy and decadent like many other cheesecakes.  The recipe called for a 10-inch springform pan, but since most of my friends are health-conscious and my boyfriend is lactose-intolerent, I chose to cut the recipe into about a third and bake it in my regular 6-inch round cake pan. Since, I couldn’t easily release the cake from the pan like in the springform version, I generously greased the bottom of the pan and applied two strips of parchment paper in a cross shape, pressing the strips onto the bottom and the sides of the pan, and allowed the ends of the strips to overhang just slightly above the pan. I cut a parchment round and placed it over the strips and then pressed the crust into the bottom of the pan. I baked the crust for about 10 minutes. Then, I poured my batter into the pan, placed it in a waterbath, and baked the cheesecake for over an hour and a half. After allowing the cake to cool, I used a knife to release the sides and bottom edges of the cake from the pan. Then, I pulled on two opposite ends of the parchment strips and, then the other two ends and when I was pretty sure that the cake wouldn’t stick to the bottom, I lifted it out and…success! The cheesecake came out of the pan with ease.