Madhu Knits and Cooks

"Healthy" Banana Bread - probably not a recipe repeat but good in a pinch!

Another post where the title says it all!  I tried this "Healthy Banana Bread" recipe after searching for ways to use up the two blackened bananas on my countertop, without having to buy more ingredients.

The result was "fine" - pretty moist but with a relatively bland flavor. I will stick to more banana-rich/heavy preparations moving forward.

My recipe modifications:

• Slightly more almond milk (7-10 extra grams)
• Added chocolate chips
• Had to bake for additional time (approx. 63 min in total)
• Forget to pre-mash the 2 bananas before adding them to the other ingredients, so had to do in in the bowl (did not measure the amount of banana that resulted from the 2 ripe bananas)
• all-purpose flour and honey for the flour and sweetener, respectively

Loaf Cakes Continue - Moist and Sweet Banana Bread with Crispy Topping

Once the baking dam had been broken, it was fully broken!  The day after my loaf cake, I threw myself back into the oven with a new banana bread recipe, courtesy of the New York Times.  

I decided to try this recipe instead of some of my old favorites for the simple reason that it called for exactly the same number of bananas that I had in my freezer.  

The result was fantastic - moist, yet not studgy, and great textural contrasts from the sugar / cinnamon topping that crisped up the crust of the bread (which let's be honest, is more like a cake).  

I made a few modifications to the recipe - I added maybe 1/2 tsp. of Vietnamese cinnamon, a few shakes of nutmeg, and a splash of vanilla to the dough.  I omitted the nuts because of my allergy.  For me, a baking time of 60 minutes was perfect to get an evenly baked loaf.  I will make this recipe again!

Easy Yogurt Loaf Cake - Breaking Out of a Long Baking Hiatus

I hadn't baked in more than 2 full seasons, if not almost a year, when I finally was spurred out of this inadvertent baking hiatus by a simple yogurt loaf cake from Milk Street.  

 

I had been eyeing the recipe for months, but needed the excuse of visiting some friends to finally bring out the mixing bowls and loaf pan.  Classically, I made some modifications to fit the ingredients I had on hand, but the result was still outstanding. 

Mildly sweet and tart from the citrus, moist on inside with a pleasing light exterior crust, and no need for the citrus glaze, though a fresh fruit and/or whipped cream accompaniment would make it a proper post-meal dessert for guests.

The modifications I made were:

• Using a Siggi's 4 oz. / 113 gram lemon skyr cup instead of plain yogurt, with 3 tbsp. of water mixed in
• 1 tsp. of ground ginger
• Zest of maybe 3/4 of a lemon
• Baked for an additional 7-8 minutes, which still resulted in a slightly underbaked center and slightly overbaked exterior.  However, this may have been an oven issue
• No glaze

A Dorie Greenspan Hit and a Miss - Vanilla Sugar Cookies and Togarishi Meringues

While browsing the library stacks, my eyes caught Dorie Greenspan's massive "cookie book" Dorie's Cookies, and on a whim, I decided to check it out (largely because I parked my car nearby). 

I've made Greenspan's World Peace Cookies before, but have yet to make any other of this famed cookie creator's recipes.  When flipping through her book, I decided to make two different recipes - one that used egg whites and the other conveniently the leftover egg yolks.  A great low-waste approach to try new cookies!

The first recipe - the Togarishi Meringues - sounded a bit wild to be honest.  Using a spicy and largely savory Japanese spicy blend in meringues?!  Even typing these words together still seems wild to me!

I used 1 tsp. of the mixture from an expired blend a friend bought for us on a trip to Japan.  Even though the mix was expired, just one 1 tsp. did pack quite a punch on these tiny meringues, which I think I piped too small.  In addition, I also spaced these meringues too close together AND prepared them on a pretty humid day, so they didn't quite dry out and were unpleasantly chewy and sticky.  I don't think these will be a recipe repeat, but I am happy I lived on the wild side by making them!

The second recipe I prepared - the French Vanilla Sables - were excellent, by comparison.  Incredibly buttery and smooth, slightly crisp, crumbly, and chewy in the middle, and a simple sweetness from the sanding sugars on top.  The vanilla flavor also shined through as well.  

I loved the fun king cake / Mardi Gras sanding sugar colors I used as well, and look forward to making these again and again!  They are a hit among both adults and kids alike, based on the event to which we brought them.

Ovenly's Vegan Chocolate Chip Cookies

For a short spell over the holidays, we adopted a fully vegan diet.  As longtime blog readers know, much of what I already cook is vegan so this wasn't too dramatic a change.  However, it did affect some of our standard at-home preparations, notably desserts.  

The only sweet snack I made during this vegan stint was Ovenly's great vegan chocolate chip cookies.  I've had this Brooklyn bakery's cookies in person, and they are truly wonderful.  A bit heavier and thicker than the chocolate chip cookies I generally prefer, but very moist and rich with sugary cookie flavor.

At home, these cookies turned out similarly though were softer and underbaked than what I've had compared to the bakery.  I baked the cookies for a few minutes longer than the recipe 12-13 minute baking time, but many were still very soft in the middle.  I did rotate the cookie sheets, and wonder if I should have used the convection setting?

Regardless, these were a solid thicker and moist cookie.  It's not generally my favored outcome for chocolate chip cookies (I like crisper cookies), but I will make these again if I want a vegan cookie!

Quick Fudgy Brownies - Not a Recipe Repeat

Hampered by a dwindling supply of both white sugar and eggs, and hours away from a summer lunch in which I was asked (by a child) to bring brownies, I found myself furiously consulting my favorite internet baking sites to find a suitable recipe for a crowd.

I found success - I thought - on King Arthur Flour's website, with their Quick and Easy Fudge Brownies recipe.  I had just enough sugar - almost to the gram - and eggs to mix up the batter.  

I turned the pan halfway through baking, and pulled the brownies out right around the 25 minute mark as I was worried about over-baking them.  As they cooled, I fear I made have been right, at least at the edges which were a bit drier than I would have liked.  The chocolate flavor also seemed to be a bit dulled by the dry, too-chewy edges, which disappointed me.  I also agree with many of the recipe comments that these brownies were also too sweet, which is funny given that I was specifically looking for a recipe to accommodate the limited sugar I had at home.

However, and perhaps most importantly, the brownies were a hit with others at this event, particularly the children.  So be this a sign that we all do in fact have different tastes when it comes to even the simplest of desserts!

My First Crumb Coffeecake - A Brunch or Tea Time Must Bake!

I checked out the King Arthur Flour All-Purpose Baker's Companion bake book from the library on a whim, and to be honest, I am not sure what my logic was.  When I saw the book, I thought that it was likely was just a compendium of KAF's online recipes. When I took it off the shelf, it was also relatively heavy, so not sure why I thought lugging the print version home would make more sense than their easy-to-navigate website.

Well, despite that mystery of my intentions, at least one of my assumptions was proven wrong in that the bake book does contain recipes that are not found on the website.  How did I find this?  Through making their Crumb Coffeecake, which does not appear on the KAF website (though the cake base itself is within this recipe).  

This recipe resulted in what may be the perfect first crumb cake attempt in history - deliciously moist, slightly savory, and pleasantly multi-textured.  And super easy to prepare at that (I halved the recipe for one 8-9 inch round cake), with the texture and flavors remaining intact in the days that followed.  A bit of almond extract in the crumb mixture added a nice, unexpected almost-floral element as well.  

I look forward to making this simple and delicious cake over and over again in the years ahead!

Guittard's Original Chocolate Chip Cookies - Doesn't Replace My Favorites

I have returned to my pre-pandemic behavior of getting a cookbook - or three - on a whim when I pick up books from the library.  One of the latest is the Guittard Chocolate Cookbook.  This cookbook has been a ton of fun to flip through, but after renewing the book for the maximum three times, I have only made one recipe - the Classic Chocolate Chip Cookies (called the "Original Chocolate Chip Cookies" on their website).  

The cookie recipe wasn't the best or the worst that I've ever made.  I would have preferred the cookies to be slightly crispier and more buttery, like my King Arthur Flour go-to recipe.  A few modifications to the original recipe - I used the convection session on my oven, and as such, reduced the temperature to 350.  I baked the cookies for 11 minutes.

One important difference btwn. the online and cookbook recipes - the flour cup measurement is the same (2.5 cups) but the online recipe states that is 382 grams whereas the cookbook recipe states that is 300 grams.  That's a pretty big difference!  I followed the cookbook recipe.  

Yeasted Cinnamon Rolls - A Once-in-a-Decade Homemade Treat

It's been a decade since I've made yeasted cinnamon rolls.  Those soft, warm, gooey rolls are delicious - but incredibly time consuming.  The dough generally requires a few rises, making the final product a little too late for breakfast and a little too decadent for lunch.  So once-in-a-decade seems like the appropriate frequency for making these high-caloric, time-consuming treats. 

The inspiration for my 2020s attempt came from King Arthur Flour, which declared their Perfectly Pillowy Cinnamon Rolls as the KAF 2021 Recipe of the Year.  I halved this recipe and also followed the KAF catalog printed recipe, which had some slight deviations from the online recipe (namely 1 tbsp. of Vietnamese cinnamon instead of regular ground cinnamon).  

The recipe was very easy to follow, and I wished I adhered to it more closely by using dental floss to more cleanly cut the rolls.  Otherwise though, the tangzhong-based recipe produced soft and light rolls with a very, very sweet (but tasty) icing. 

The baked rolls held up for two days post-baking, and their only downside was that they took a long time to prepare.  See you in the 2030s delicious yeasted cinnamon rolls!

Out of Pie Practice - A Brown Butter Pumpkin Pie Mess

Pie doughs have generally caused me trouble in the past.  But boy oh boy, was my latest pie dough attempt a disaster!  Don't let the pretty pictures below deceive you :-)

First, I didn't work the butter into small enough pieces - there were far too many larger-than-pea-size chunks in the dough.  Second, I used too much liquid from the iced water and apple cider vinegar which obscured that the butter needed to be worked more.  I promptly ordered a pastry cutter following this effort so I can work the cold butter in faster and more uniformly, and not end up with a tough unappetizing baked crust.

On the upside, the flavor of the pie was very good and unique thanks to the included carrot juice, which added a sweet yet earthly flavor to the pumpkin.  Thank you my favorite pie book from the Elsen sisters!  However, to finish off the set of disasters, the custard didn't fully set even after 58 minutes of baking which I think might be due to an oven calibration issue.  So that's another thing to fix before my next pie attempt!