Banana Cereal Muffins

So, Lil set me up for this by mentioning the four bananas in the freezer.  This recipe only (only?!) uses three.  It's a good followup to the Anadama bread because there is also a stovetop element to this one.

I adapted this recipe from a cookbook the lovely Emeric Harney gifted our bread efforts.  You can find Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce with Amy Scattergood at the new Harney & Sons tea shop in Soho (on Broome by Crosby).

Fair warning: this recipe calls for a half cup cooked hot cereal but asks you to start with a half cup dry and cook it.  What I am telling you is that you'll end up with some extra cereal.  Either plan your breakfast accordingly or put it in the fridge and warm for tomorrows breakfast.

Banana Cereal Muffins adapted from Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce
(Printable Recipe)
Yields 15 muffins
Prep time 30 minutes
Bake time 35-40 minutes

1/2 cup cracked-multigrain hot cereal (I used Bob's Red Mill 10 grain)
pinch of salt
1 cup rye flour
1 cup oat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
6 tablespoons yogurt (I used fat free French Vanilla because that's what we had around)
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 very ripe bananas
2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses
1 egg

1. Bring 1 1/2 cups of water to a boil on the stovetop.
2. Add 1/2 cup of hot cereal and pinch of salt.  Whisk to avoid clumping.
3. Simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally until the cereal is tender (about 15 minutes).  Cover and let sit until cool.
4. Preheat the oven to 350 and butter your muffin tins.
5. Combine the dry ingredients.
6. In a separate bowl, mix together the sugar and yogurt with a hand mixer or other electronic if you have it.  Mix for about two minutes until it's really combined.
7. Add in the cereal, bananas, molasses and egg and mix thoroughly (about one more minute).
8. Add dry ingredients and continue to mix.
9. Fill muffin tins to the rim for a nice dome top.  Optional: Sprinkle with wheat germ and sugar in the raw.  And, about halfway through filling add chopped pecans to the batter and on on top for some plain some banana-pecan cereal muffins!
10. Bake for 35-40 minutes turning halfway through for even baking.

Delicious warm from the oven! I am eating one as I type with one hand..

 That one.

Happy Snow Day!
Sarah

Banilla Banana Bread

At school we always seem to receive more bananas for snack than the children (and I) can consume.   I am totally okay with this and do NOT plan on informing the kitchen.  I just carry the overripe bananas from Madison Avenue to York (very carefully), stick them in the freezer, and daydream about banana treats like the muffins I made before and this Mark Bittman inspired banana bread.

Banilla Banana Bread with inspiration from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian

(Printable Recipe)

Prep time 15 minutes

Cook time 1 hour

1 cup pastry/cake flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup white whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup sugar

8 tablespoons Stonyfield Banilla Yogurt (personal favorite flavor)

2 eggs
3 very/overripe bananas mashed with a fork until smooth
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
optional:
1/4+ cup chopped pecans (or walnuts)
1/2 cup shredded dried coconut** this is Mark Bittman's not-so-secret ingredient

Preheat oven to 350F and grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.
Mix the dry ingredients together.  Add wet ingredients (yogurt, eggs, bananas, vanilla) slowly, stirring.  Once you have a somewhat consistent mixture (it's okay if there are some chunks) gently fold in the pecans, coconut, or other dried fruit to your liking.
Pour the batter into your well greased loaf pan and bake for 50-70 minutes.  The classic toothpick test and nice golden browning will tell you when it's done.  Allow to cool in the pan for 15 minutes before removing.

For the full fat version use butter instead of yogurt.

Due to some sort of oven malfunction I actually made this banana bread twice in a matter of 72 hours.  Some of the center of the first batch was undercooked.  Check out the area right in the center of the loaf:

By undercooked I mean to say that it was basically raw.  Which I find rather bizarre because I cooked the second loaf for approximately the same 65 minutes at 350 and found it to be just right if not a tad overdone...  Anyways, oven issues aside, here's a weird picture of the second batch spooning with two left over bananas:

Pre-baked and post-baked bananas living in harmony on the Upper Yeast Side.
The second loaf was much more successful.  The best part is that I actually had enough bananas in the freezer, freshly, overripe brought-home-from-school bananas on the counter to have extra after two loaves of bread.  Wild.

Do doo do do do bana-muh-nah
Do doo do do,
Sarah

The Geography of Whole Wheat RAISED Waffles

Yeasted is not a word.  But let's not get nit-picky.  Let's talk geography, not grammar.

What American's know as a "Belgian Waffle" in Belgium is actually called the Brussels Waffle.  Belgian waffles, like Belgian draft horses, are different from your average breed of waffle in that they are super tall.    The trick to a true Belgian waffle is that the bread-er uses yeast to raise the waffles.  I don't think that's what the breeder uses to make the horses over a ton but who knows.  Everything is bigger in Belgium.  (?!)  This Belgian, Maurice Vermersch (I don't know how big he was.  Probably huge if he went along with the horses/waffles trend), introduced the waffle during the 1964 NY World's Fair and decided to call it the Belgian waffle upon observing the poor geographical skills of Americans.

The world according to The New Yorker (and perhaps even an understatement of how New Yorkers see it):

AND Manhattan is getting BIGGER according to this NYTimes article on the new subway maps!

Whole Wheat Raised Waffles  Adapted from Orangette - who got the recipe from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book

(Printable Recipe)
Yields about 4-5 batches of waffles (depends on size and configuration of waffle maker)

1/2 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)

1 teaspoon sugar

2 cups whole milk

1 stick unsalted butter, melted*

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup all purpose flour

2 large eggs, beaten

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

The night before, mix the water, yeast and sugar and let stand for 5-10 minutes.

Measure and mix the milk, butter, salt and flours.

Combine with yeast and let stand overnight.  Use a large mixing bowl since the batter will double in size.

In the morning, preheat your waffle maker.

Just before cooking, beat 2 eggs with baking soda and mix into batter.

Cut fruits (we used banana, blueberry, strawberry and apple) can be added on top of the batter after it has been poured into the waffle iron.  

Fruit is optional, but highly recommended.  It's your thing, do what you wanna do.  If you get some fruit stick-age to the iron just let it be part of the next waffle if you cannot remove it gently.

*The next time I use this recipe I will substitute 3/4 cup apple sauce and use only 1/4 stick (2 tablespoons) of butter.  They were delicious and crispy BUT we don't need need to raise cholesterol for raised waffles.

We bought a new waffle iron for my dad as an early fathers day gift.  I had read the Cook's Illustrated waffle iron reviews without consulting my mother.  Both of us went out shopping without communicating and fortunately, only she was successful.  Worst case scenario, we would have had to make space for a waffle maker in our tiny UES apartment.  God forbid.

But anyways, my mom found the Food Network Signature Series waffle maker.  So Aaron and I presented it to my dad, because we love him, and so that I would have an excuse to take the maiden voyage with the waffle maker.  Much of making good waffles is in knowing your waffle maker.  The first few came out a little bit soft to our liking and so we learned to ignore the first "beeeeep" for the second.  There was some talk about how perhaps the trick is when you stop getting steam and that if you are adding fruit, be sure to leave the waffle on (without peeking) for a bit longer.  It's hard to ignore, especially for notoriously impatient New Yorkers, but well worth the wait.

New Yorkers are so rushed that tourists get their own sidewalk lane:

This post is happening from my country home on Freund's Farm in Connecticut.  Although we live in New York now, Lil and I were both raised in the beautiful Northwest corner of CT (aka the NWC).  I think at least part of our patience for bread can be attributed to our country roots because it definitely has nothing to do with trying to squeeze onto the 6 train at 8AM (the 2nd avenue subway is coming!!!)

For those loyal NYC reader(s), just wondering, do you know about the Wafels and Dinges truck?  (And is it weird to ask a question to cyberspace?)  I see it up by 116th on the West Side occasionally.  Just smelling the waffles is at least 2000 calories.  The owner makes them so authentic that he even spells them "wafels" instead of waffles.  Pretty legitimate.  For my melting pot taste buds, these buttery whole wheat raised waffles were fantastic.

Thank for sharing your waffles, Belgium.  Sorry American's tend to not care where in the world you are.  I suppose if you wanted us to know, you should have kept the waffle to yourself so we'd have to travel for them.  No going back now.

- Sarah

P.S. Belgium borders the Netherlands, Germany, and France.  The capital city, Brussels, is essentially due East of London.  Start at home and practice your USA geography:

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Banana Sourdough Pancakes

Alternate Post Titles:

"When turning a ruined loaf into breadcrumbs isn't enough: How to make up for your over-salting of the would-have-been awesome multigrain bread to your best-friend/roommate"

OR

"Another suggestion of what to do with your sourdough starter instead of throwing it out: The sequel to Sourdough Pizza"

Banana Sourdough Pancakes seems more succinct.

Before I get into the pancakes, here are some things I have learned about caring for your sourdough starter in the refrigerator...

• Stir daily.
• Feed once weekly -- 8 oz warm water and 8 oz unbleached all-purpose flour if you have a kitchen scale. By volume, about 1 cup water to 2 cups flour.
• Allow your starter to work for at least 2 hours after each weekly feeding before popping it back into the fridge.
• Be patient. Every week this starter smells increasingly "winey" and produces a more "sour" dough.

Here's the little lactobacillus after it's weekly feeding...

...but before mixing and resting out of the fridge.

Now for the Banana Sourdough pancakes. For the whole recipe you need: flour (whole wheat and all-purpose), starter, water, sugar, baking soda, salt, buttermilk (or milk+vinegar), and banana. It takes about 15 minutes in the morning but you need to start the sponge the night before.

Start by making this sponge the night before:

1/2 cup starter straight from the fridge

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 cup buttermilk (I used milk with a 1/2 tsp of white vinegar because we didn't have buttermilk around)

1 tablespoon sugar

The batter should be thick

Let it sleep overnight in the fridge while you dream about Sourdough Pancakes.

In the morning, add:

1 large egg

2 tablespoons applesauce**

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

**You can use butter or vegetable oil in place of the applesauce. If you use applesauce, make sure to butter (unsalted) or spray your griddle with a nonstick spray.

Mix all the ingredients together. Then, chop up a banana right into the batter. Fold it in gently.

Mind blowing fact (don't think about this while you are chopping because you might cut off a finger): BANANAS ARE THE WORLDS LARGEST HERB. This has to do with the fact that the banana "tree" is technically regarded as an herbaceous plant, not a tree, since the stem isn't wood. The yellow thing you love, peel, and eat is undoubtedly a fruit containing seeds (i.e. tomato) but commercially grown banana plants are sterile so the seeds are reduced to little black specks.

That being said, adding banana is totally optional. I used one banana for this batch but could have gone much heavier on it. My ideal pancake is 51% fruit. I exercised restraint only because I wanted to taste the sourdough pancake on it's own. In my opinion, adding fruit (or herbs, in this case) to pancakes exponentially increases their deliciousness. If I was feeling really sweet I would have added some chocolate chips too.

When adding fruit to pancakes you have to ask yourself the age old question: To stir into the batter or to drop onto the half cooked griddlecake? Personally, I go back and forth. I waffle, if you will. Sometimes I stir the fruit into my batter and other times I drop it on top. Depends on my mood and whether or not everybody in my pancake eating party wants fruit. Sometimes (especially if I am dropping bananas or larger sliced strawberries on top) I put small drops of batter on top of each banana slice exposed -- by doing that I have found that post-flip the fruity-sugars don't burn onto the pan before the cake is cooked.

Unspoken Perfect Pancake Rule: ONLY FLIP ONCE. Cook your pancakes on a low-medium heat until they are full of those bubbles. Having your griddle at the right temperature is crucial. I check if the griddle is hot by letting a drop of water fall onto the pan. If it sizzles I know my surface is warm enough. I like them to be lightly golden around the edges before I go in for the big flip.

Serve with a cup of Hot Cinnamon Spice Harney Tea

If you are too financially unstable for real Vermont Maple Syrup (no shame) these were awesome with cinnamon-sugar.

This recipe yields four, fluffy Sourdough Pancakes that were about 6 inches in diameter (bigger than my face). Lily and I had to take a break between pancakes in order to finish them. It was a royal way to start a Tuesday.

I adapted this recipe from several that I had read but mostly this King Arthur Flour Waffle recipe. You could definitely use this Pancake recipe in your waffle iron. Try it! And let us know how it goes.

Happy Tuesday!

-Sar

P.S. As for the bread mishap that turned into a bread crumb project-- look for a post from Lil on that in the near future.