Banana Chocolate Bread

I really enjoy reading the book BakeWise by Shirley O. Corriher and there are tons of recipes that I want to try out. Most of the ones that I have tried out so far have been incredible so I was exited to try the banana bread recipe. As always I used coconut sugar instead of white sugar and I added 1 cup of chocolate chips because. The original recipe uses baking powder as well as baking soda, so I substituted the baking powder with more baking soda (not one to one as baking soda is 4 times more powerful).

1 3/4 cups of flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups coconut sugar
1/2 cups canola oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
4 mashed very ripe bananas (about 2 cups)
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup whipping cream
Mix together flour, baking soda, salt and sugar.
In a second bowl, mix together canola oil, vanilla extract, eggs, buttermilk and bananas until well combined. Then add chocolate chips and roasted nuts.
Make a mold in the dry ingredients and add the banana mix.
In a third bowl whip the whipping cream until soft peaks form. Then fold the cream into the batter.
Bake in a 8 x 4.5 x 2.5 inch (20 x 11 x 6 cm) loaf pan at 375F / 190C for about 35 minutes until the center springs back when touched and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.

As I didn't have a loaf pan I used an 8 x 8 inches square baking pan. The result was disastrous. After 35 minutes the batter was still very liquid and after another 30 hour the outside began to burn while a knife inserted in the center still came out smeared with uncooked batter.
So I took it out of the oven, cut it in half and tried saving it by frying it on the stove. The result looked very sad.
On the plus side it did taste quite good and was happily received as a sweet breakfast addition on our camping trip.

Next time I would still use my square baking pan but only make half of the batter. I don't know how all this batter can fit in a loaf pan and not overflow when it rises during baking!

Pelmeni

This Russian national dish is easy to make, albeit I suspect no one would call it quick, but everyone likes it.

For the dough I used this recipe from a German website. Then I made a beef filling and a vegetarian filling.

Dough
400 g flour
2 eggs
150 ml warm water
1/2 tsp salt
Add the salt to the flour then add warm water to the flour and begin mixing. Then add the eggs and knead until all ingredients are well combined. Cover with a wet cloth and let the dough sit for 20-30 min.

Beef filling
1 lb ground beef
1.5-2 onions, blended
2 tbsp soft butter
salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, parsley
Combine all ingredients. Done.

Potato filling
boiled potatoes
milk
butter
1/2 onion
salt, pepper
Cut the onion in little pieces and fry until golden/translucent. Mash potatoes with a bit of the water they were boiled in, add milk, butter, onion, salt and pepper.

To form the Pelmeni separate the dough in half and make about 1.5-2 inch thick rolls. Then cut 1.5-2 inch pieces off, roll them into balls, use flour to dust the table and roll the dough balls out into very flat circles.
Then place filling onto a circle, fold it in half making sure to pinch the outer line of the half circle together. Then fold the edges together. (See picture)
Cook for about 10 minutes. Serve with butter and or sour cream.

Cookie Butter Mug Cake

10 seconds after I saw this video I was already mixing together butter, cookie butter, sugar and so on. Every since I heard of microwave cakes I was intrigued! My first attempts to make brownies in the microwave were all quite disappointing as they were all quite spongy, even when the recipes claimed they wouldn't be.
This cake was a pleasant surprise and I call it a success! It still can't compete with a real cake, but for 3 minutes of work it is a worthy little snack.
I added chocolate chips :)

2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp cookie butter
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tbsp sugar
4 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/3 cup dark chocolate chips
pinch of salt
In a 2 cup Pyrex dish, melt the butter in the microwave. Add the remaining ingredients and combine well.
"Bake" in the microwave for 90 seconds.
Serve hot with whipped cream on top.

Gluten Free Chocolate Cake

This recipe is another one that I have learned at the community kitchen. The recipe we made at the community kitchen was adapted from this chocolate cake recipe. We used less garbanzo beans and less sugar.
The result was a very light and fluffy chocolate cake that had a little, not altogether unpleasant, garbanzo bean taste.
So I changed the recipe yet again. Instead of garbanzo beans I used lima beans (thanks to Sarah for this idea!) and instead of white sugar I used ...coconut sugar! As coconut sugar has a more distinct taste than white sugar, I hoped it would help mask the taste of beans even more.

1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips
15 oz cooked baby lima beans
4 eggs
1/2 cup coconut sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla extract
powdered sugar for dusting
Meld chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave.
Combine beans and eggs in a blender until smooth. Add sugar, baking powder and blend again. Then add melted chocolate.
Make for 40-45 minutes at 350F / 180C until knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
Dust with powdered sugar after cooling.

Tortillas

A couple of weeks ago I was invited to learn how to make tortillas. It was a great experience and made me want to try it at home, too.
I had some left over white corn meal and eagerly mixed the 4 needed ingredients together. The result couldn't have been more different. My white corn meal was very coarse and instead of a nice dough I had a kind of mush and it was impossible to shape it into anything. Not quite willing to give it up I used a spoon to pour the mixture onto the frying pan and made a couple of sad looking, hard oval shaped ..things. I am resolved to try again with yellow corn flour some day.

yellow corn flour
water
olive oil
salt
Maria from Bolivia showed us how to mix yellow corn flour with water, add a little bit of olive oil and salt until the texture of the dough is just right and can be formed to tortillas. We made our hands wet so that the dough wouldn't stick to our hands (which it shouldn't do too much either way). First we made little balls out of the dough, then formed them into little sombrero shapes using the thumb and index finger, finally flattening out the sombrero into a nice round shape, about 1/4 inch thick.
Then we fried the tortillas in a dry frying pan and ate them with beans, salad, guacamole, cheese, and salsa.

Vegetarian Bulgur Burgers

We made flavorful and moist vegetarian/vegan burger at the community kitchen. It is adapted from The Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home cookbook.
These burger patties are faster to prepare than most vegetarian burgers and we ate them with home made preserved carrots (left overs from last months community kitchen preserved in vinegar!) and salad.

3 cups boiling water
2 garlic cloves
1 1/2 cups bulgur
2 tbsp canola oil
1/2 cup chopped scallions
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup tahini
2 tbsp tomato paste
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 cup mashed pinto beans (e.g. from a can)
(optional) 1 egg
salt and pepper
Sauté garlic and bulgur in a pan for about 2 min. Add boiling water and simmer for 15-18 minutes until the bulgur is soft.
Stir in the remaining ingredients.
With wet hands, form 8 burger patties.
Either bake the patties for 20 min at 375F / 190C, or fry them for about 5 minutes from each side.
Serve on a bun with tomatoes, mayonnaise, mustard, cheese, pickled carrots or other additions.

Lentils and Vegetables Indian Style

This recipe was an emergency vegetable saver as I had quite a few squash that were going bad after a weekend away. It was also my first try at makeing an Indian dish.

lentils
onion
garlic
ginger
turmeric
cayenne pepper
chili flakes
salt and pepper
leek
carrots
squash
Cook the lentils in water with a bit of salt.
In a frying pan, heat up oil and fry the onions. After a couple of minutes, add garlic and ginger. Add the spices.
Add leek and carrots. After a couple of minutes, add squash. Add spices if necessary.
When almost done, add the lentils and cook until done.

I liked the flavorful result, but it wasn't as spicy as I had hoped, I might have been too careful with the chili flakes. Next time I want to follow an actual recipe to make an Indian dish :)

Spinach Puffs

I started going to a community kitchen event that happens once a week. It's a great way to learn new recipes, the people are very welcoming and the huge kitchen is great, too!

These spinach puffs might just become my favorite recipe. They are easy to make and although I usually don't like feta cheese too much, it adds a lot to the spinach and puff pastry taste AND I can use my muffin pan for yet another non-muffin recipe!

2/3 cups thawed spinach, well squeezed to get as much water out as possible
1/2 cup feta cheese
1 onion
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dill
salt and pepper
2 eggs
frozen puff pastry (4"/10cm squares)
Mix spinach, feta, chopped onion, garlic, olive oil, dill, salt and pepper, and one of the eggs.
Place puff pastry squares into muffin pan molds.
Fill puff pastry with spinach mix.
Fold pastry corners so that they meet in the center.
Beat the second egg and brush the pastry with it.
Bake at 400F/200C for about 25 min until golden.

I could imagine changing the salmon roll recipe to fit into puff pastry cups instead of a roll! Mmmh!