2012 Happy New Year

The Wait is Officially Over

For anyone who has ever wondered what a loaf of banana bread looks like spinning on a cake rack in a light box surrounded by a random collection of origami, the wait is officially over.

For anyone who is just looking for a reliable recipe for a perfectly moist and flavorful banana bread, the wait is also officially over. I usually do this as a large loaf, but it also makes great muffins, cake layers, and best of all, an upside down cake. For an upside down cake, cream 1/3 cup butter and 1 cup brown sugar and spread in the bottom of a well-buttered tube pan. Top with sliced bananas and cover with the batter and bake. One other variation:  use a heavy duty nonstick pan (loaf, Bundt), butter heavily, and then dust with Turbinado sugar. For an upside down cake or a sugar-crusted cake, be sure to turn it out of the pan within a couple of minutes after taking the cake from the oven. 

And now, the recipe:

1/3 cup butter

1 1/4 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 cup mashed very ripe bananas, with 2 tablespoons of rum added

1 1/2 cups flour

3/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup sour milk (add 1 tbs cider or plain vinegar to 1/2 cup milk and let stand 10-15 minutes)

1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 375. Grease the pan well. Stir together dry ingredients. Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs, vanilla, and bananas. Add half of dry ingredients, stir until moistened. Add milk and vanilla, and remaining dry ingredients. Stir just until dry ingredients are incorporated. Bake for 35-55 minutes, depending on size of pan, until center is fully set. 

Steamed Orange Pudding

Against anyone who doubts that the lowliest ingredients can make the mightiest difference, this Steamed Orange Pudding is proof to the contrary. The main ingredient is breadcrumbs. Homemade bread crumbs. I save in the freezer all the scraps from my various loaves of bread during the year, and when I have a good supply I set them on a sheet pan in a 200 degree oven for about 90 minutes, until they are just showing a bit of color. Then I run them through the food processor, and back in the freezer they go. The pudding cracked slightly as I was turning it out of the mold, and I didn't get around to taking pictures of the pudding in pieces, since it doesn't look much different than it does whole and I was too busy eating it plain for snacking. This isn't exactly a showpiece, but it is mighty delicious. It keeps well for a few days wrapped in plastic, and I think it would make a perfect finish after a winter dinner, with a bit of custard or hard sauce or even a scoop of vanilla ice cream. It is sort like a bread pudding, only wonderful.

A couple of slight modifications:  The recipe says to steam for about two hours, but I found it was done after barely one hour. Also I added a couple tablespoons of Cointreau. Finally, as several of the reviewers at Epicurious noted, this makes a scant four cups, and to fill a regular mold it will make sense to increase the recipe by half.

Sour Cream Coffee Cake

Last week I had tacos for dinner. I softened some corn tortillas and filled them with some rice and black beans and then added some improvised pico de gallo, diced avocado, shredded iceberg lettuce, fresh cheese, and salsa verde. But really the whole point was the dollop of sour cream that finished them off.

The general supplies for the tacos lasted three days, and I still had a full cup of sour cream left over. So the search was on for a method to put the good stuff to good use. I've been on a roll with snacking cakes, or perhaps I should call them comfort cakes, so I gave this "Sour Cream Coffee Cake" from Rose Levy Beranbaum's Cake Bible a try.

I've had this book since the day it was published, and it still continues to give up new treasures. The recipe is a touch fussy, but not in a bad way. The cake is delicate and dense and richer than the average sour cream coffee cake. It is more in the style I think of a crumb cake. Over the streusel filling I added one granny smith apple, diced fairly fine. The moisture and tartness of the apple rounded out perfectly the texture of the cake.