Banana Bread

Banana bread has been a fixture in my life, for as long as I can remember.  As a child, my grandmother would send loaves, along with M&Ms and black jelly beans to my family when we lived across the country at a time when air travel and telephone calls were very expensive. I am so grateful for modern communication because back then bridging distance was difficult outside of  a weekly phone call on Sunday when the rates were the lowest, letters and and care packages and by comparison to today's texting, twittering, blogging, emailing and video chatting, I may as well have grown up during the westward expansion and crossed the country in a Conestoga wagon. I compare it to my great grandparent's living through the transition from horse and wagon to automobiles, but how far I digress from banana bread.  Once my family moved back across the country to be near family, my grandmother's banana bread became a staple in my life again.  We had it nearly every Sunday when she didn't make blueberry muffins or if she came up for dinner, she would bring a couple loaves for us along with her magazines (she was an avid magazine reader - the big three - Good Housekeeping, McCall's, and Better Homes and Gardens).  I find that, I too, give loaves of banana bread away to family.  It is such an easy item to make and it freezes so well that I like to keep a few in the freezer at all times.  I always wonder how many loaves my grandmother kept in her freezer at a time, as we have a largish family and she kept all of us well supplied. She had big chest freezer in the basement where she kept it but I was never able to get a peek in that freezer as we weren't allowed to go down  in the basement as it had a dirt floor and "lots of things to get hurt on," as she would say and would still say if I wanted to go down there and poke around.

Banana bread was one of the first scratch cakes I made.  In my small kitchen, I remember admiring the brown loaf and appreciating the heavenly reminiscent smell.  I felt proud. Later when I was working, I liked to bring a piece to work to eat with my afternoon earl grey tea - it would give me great comfort and now when I drink earl grey I always go back to those early working days. Now my kids love it and I am amazed at the size of slices they cut for themselves.  I hope when they grow up they have fond memories of this amazing bread.

Banana Bread

Makes 1 large loaf or 3 small loaves

1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
3/4 cup firmly packed light brown sugar

1/3 cup butter or organic vegetable shortening

1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon all spice

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 1/2 cups flour

2 eggs

1/2 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease or spray pan (s).

Mix flour, spices, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and set aside.
In a stand mixer, on medium speed cream butter and brown sugar.

Add eggs and bananas and mix until light.

Alternate one third of flour mixture and one half of milk beginning and ending with flour. Mix until combined.

Pour batter into prepared pan(s) and baked for 50-60 minutes until cake tester pushed into the center is crumb free.





Crepes Suzette

I have always wanted to try Crepe Suzettes and never had.  I have a list of things that I would like to try and for one reason or another I haven't gotten around to them.  Perhaps I should take to heart the quote ―

   “Why didn’t I learn to treat everything like it was the last time. My greatest regret was how much I   believed in the future.” — Jonathan Safran Foer

To name just a few items that I have been waiting to make or try are Bananas Foster, Baked Alaska, Black Forest Cake,  crumpets, homemade mozzerella and goat cheese, canning food of any kind, homemade pickles, beef bourguignon, homemade cherry pie bolognese sauce ,.....perhaps I need to make a food bucket list! 

The suzettes were delicious though very sweet and rich with butter.  They are definitely a treat to have on very special occasions. The next time I make them I will make them the traditional way in a saute pan and flambe it for flair!

Use any leftover Orange Butter Sauce on ice cream.

Crepes Suzette
Crepes
makes 20-25 medium size crepes
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups milk
2 eggs
1/4 cup vegetable oil
dash of salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon vanilla optional
1 tablespoon sugar
Whisk together flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder ingredients in large bowl.
Add to the same bowl the milk, eggs, oil, vanilla if using.
Whisk the ingredients together (I use the whisk attachement on my hand mixer or you can use a blender).
Let the ingredients stand for 15 minutes.
Generously oil sautepan and pour thin layer of batter in pan swirling batter to make thin circle.
Using a thin edged spatula lift edge of crepe and turn cooking a few minutes on each side.  Cook until desired browness is achieved.  I always try to stay on the extreme light side.

Orange Butter Sauce
2 sticks (1/2 pound) butter
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1/2 lemon juiced
1 teaspoon orange zest
1 1/2 tablespoons of Grand Marnier liquor

Combine the butter, sugar, orange juice, lemon juice and orange zest in a small saucepan and cook for around 10 minutes until it carmelizes and is golden in color.
Remove from heat and whisk in the Grand Marnier.
Return to heat and continue to whisk until  the mixture is syrupy around 10 minutes.

Assemble
Drizzle a tablespoon or so of the sauce onto crepes then fold in fourths and lay into a heatproof saute pan or a 13x9  baking dish. Pour the remaining syrup over or as much as desired and heat through in oven. 
Serve hot with extra syrup. Garnish with candied orange peel if desired.

Blueberry Scones

I have always wondered about the scones and why I hear people raving about them. I have had them at various tea and coffee shops and thought they were very much like a biscuit. I love biscuits and learned to make them years ago when PBS was the only station that ran food programs and Jeff Smith of the Frugal Gourmet showcased them. Up until that time I had only, sadly, experienced canned biscuits. I make biscuits at least once a week because my family loves them. I love biscuits but are the rave worthy? After watching and listening to many English chefs talk about scones, I found a recipe to try, and they are Oh My Goodness good!!! You must try these.

Blueberry Scones

makes an 8 inch circle for wedges or 10 medium biscuits

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

4 tablespoons butter cut into small pieces (make cubes)

1 large egg lightly beaten

1 teaspoon lemon zest

3/4 cup of heavy cream

1 cup blueberries (don't thaw if they are frozen)

Mix the dry ingredients in a large bowl

Add butter and lemon zest. Cut butter into flour with a pastry blender or two knives until the flour looks like coarse meal with peas in it. Don't over work the butter and flour. It should be crumbly.

Add the blueberries and toss in the flour butter mixture.

Add the cream and stir until batter comes together but still crumbly.

Dump out the dough mixture onto a floured board and knead the dough lightly a couple of times.

Cut out with a biscuit cutter or any round shape or a larger circle for wedges.

Brush tops with softened butter.

Bake at 425 F for 12 minutes on a greased or parchment lined baking sheet.