butterscotch-banana bread

Calling all banana bread lovers out there! Have I got an insanely delish banana bread for you. This banana bread will take you to a whole other banana bread level--yes it's that good! Why? Well, the flavor of the butterscotch is so gentle and melds so perfectly with the banana. I think the trick was finding the right amount of butterscotch to put in, and of course the mascarpone cheese adds a lot of smoothness. You know how the flavor of butterscotch chips is kind of strong and chemicaly-testing? Well, I added just the right amount of butterscotch chips to meld perfectly with the bananas, and cheese to give it a wonderful light-sugary, banana taste. The taste is so hard to describe, but trust me, this banana bread is fabulous. No butter or cream cream will be needed on your slice of this. The leftovers, I swear only get better with time. Seriously, you need to make this.





butterscotch-banana bread
kind of, sort of adapted from The Secrets of Baking
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2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ cup buttermilk
½ cup mascarpone cheese
6 ounce unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ tsp ground cinnamon
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
3 fully ripe bananas, mashed
½ cup butterscotch chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour a 9-x-5-3-inch loaf pan. (I did 2 of these). Make sure to grease and flour, do not skip this step!
Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a medium bowl and set aside.
Combine the buttermilk and mascarpone cheese in a small bowl and set aside. In a separate bowl beat eggs then combine them to the buttermilk & mascarpone mixture.
Using a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter with the cinnamon on high speed until soft and creamy, about 1 minute. Slowly add the sugar beating continuously on high speed.
The mixture should be light, fluffy and creamy white in color. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula.
Add one third of the flour mixture to the batter and beat until it is just incorporated.
Add one third of the mascarpone cheese mixture and mix until just incorporated.
Add the flour and mascarpone mixture in two more additions, mixing until addition is incorporated before adding the next.
Fold in the mashed bananas and butterscotch chips.
Pour the batter into prepared pan. Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes. (mine was done in an hour, so watch your bread as the hour-mark approaches, but I have a convection oven that seems to have a higher heat than most ovens; so your bread my take longer than an hour. always use a cake tester to judge if it's done or not).
Cool in the pan on a rack for 5-10 minutes, then remove from pan and set on rack to cool. Serve warm or at room temperature. Note: you might be tempted to add nuts to this - don't! I did and it just didn't taste the same.

hoisin glazed corned beef with hoisin-ginger reduction over spicy sauerkraut relish

Ok so I'm a little late posting for St. Patricks day. But I didn't make this until Sunday. We didn't get or rather have time for a meal on St. Patty's day. But this meal did turn out wonderful and I knew all my friends would love to see the photos and try it out as well.
I was inspired on this dish by a wonderful cook over at 5 Star Foodie Blog. She made the original dish and once I saw it I knew I had to make. I love hoisin-glazed salmon and just knew that a hoisin glaze must taste amazing on corned beef. I love corned beef, but sometimes it can be a little boring unless I put enough apple cider vinegar and horseradish on mine then it's good. So after seeing this recipe, I tossed it around in my head and decided to kick it up a few notches by adding my famous sauerkraut relish and a hoisin/ginger reduction. I did serve potatoes with it, but the potatoes were not pictured as they were camera shy.
But that charred top, the charred bits of ginger? Oh heavens -- so good. So so so good.

hoisin glazed corned beef w/ hoisin-ginger reduction

inspired by 5 star foodie
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corned beef:
2 or 4 lbs. corned beef brisket
2 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon pickling spice
1 tablespoon whole peppercorns

glaze & reduction:
1/4 cup Hoisin sauce
1/4 cup honey
2 TB Soy sauce
1 ts fresh ginger, minced
couple dashes of pepper

In a large stew pot, combine water, brisket, garlic, pickling spices and peppercorns. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer for about 2 or 2 1/2 hours, or until meat tenders.
In a small bowl, mix hoisin sauce, honey, soy sauce, pepper, and ginger together. Take half of this glaze and reduce it down in a small saucepan till it's a bit thicker (you can add more honey of you want it thicker). After it's reduced, strain sauce through a mesh to remove any big chunks of ginger left; set back in small saucepan to keep warm.
Preheat the oven to broil. Remove brisket from cooking liquid, and place fat side up in a high-temp safe baking dish or cast iron pan. Spread some of the hoisin glaze all over the brisket. Put under broiler until a nice crispy top is achieved, I'd say about 4 minutes or until your likeness.
Put a nice amount of sauerkraut relish on plate, then top with a good slice of corned beef, then pour some reduction sauce on the sides. Serve with potatoes or whatever you like; remember to always slice corned beef against the grain.

sauerkraut relish

1 1/2 - 2 cups sauerkraut, drained really well (I used whole foods brand)
4-5 TB ketchup
3 TB dark brown sugar
Couple dashes of hot sauce (about 5 to 7),optional but wonderful
1 TB Worcheshire sauce
A couple pinches of celery seeds

In a medium saucepan combine the well-drained sauerkraut, ketchup, hot sauce, dark brown sugar, worcheshire sauce, and celery seeds. Heat through.
The sauce should thicken up, if not just let it reduce for a while on low heat. Makes about 2 cups; I'm certain halving this recipe is ok.

coconut cream cheese cookies

Coconut kick. It's a term and a lifestyle for me lately. Just been loving coconut lately, and still wanting to bake with it like crazy. Orignially I wanted to try a coconut cheesecake, but the oven I have in our rental is so old and so not reliable. I have to save that recipe for when we move into our own home (yes, we hope that's coming soon too!). So instead I tried (first time) coconut cream cheese cookies. I found these little gems over at CI (cooks illustrated). I love CI. Wouldn't it be fun to spend like a weekend retreat over at the test kitchens and just bake all weekend long; creating new recipes, tweaking old ones and perfecting the brand new recipes?
Cooking Notes: I made some with pecans as well, put on the top. Just thought this cookie needed a crunch to it. Keep in mind these cookies cook fast. They should not turn golden brown, only slightly light brown; they do burn fast! My changes are in parenthesis.

coconut-cream cheese cookies
adapted from BakingBlonde (original recipe from Cooks Illustrated)
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2 cups plus 3 TB all-purpose flour
1/2 ts baking soda
1/2 ts salt
12 TB (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted & cooled until room temp
5-6 oz. cream cheese softened (I used 8 oz)
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 ts vanilla extract
2 cups coconut toasted (I used 2 & 1/2 cups)

Adjust oven racks to upper & lower -middle positions & heat oven to 325. Line a large rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Spread coconut evenly on baking sheet.
Once oven is preheated place coconut in oven. Bake for 10-20 minutes stirring every 5minutes for even toasting. Remove from oven when light brown. Do NOT burn. Remove from oven. Allow to cool completely before adding to dough.
Re-line cookie sheets with parchment paper.
Whisk dry ingredients together; set aside. With electric mixer, or by hand mix butter and cream cheese together with a mixer until smooth. Add sugars and beat until thoroughly combined.
Beat in vanilla until combined.
Add dry ingredients & beat at low speed just until combined. Stir in cooled coconut.
Chill dough overnight.
When ready to bake cookies preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Drop dough onto parchment lined baking sheets and bake for 12-14 minutes or until edges are set and bottoms are light brown. Do NOT overbake!
Cool cookies on sheets until able to lift without breaking and place on wire rack to cool.

can't-stop-eating moroccan roasted chickpeas

I love experimenting with spices, don't you? Can I just say while these chickpeas were roasting, the smell in the house was wonderful. It brought me back to those many days of summer I would spend living with my friend, who lived on st. marks street (8th street) of nyc. During my many walks up and down st. marks street, in the hot thick air of summer I would always smell curry, coming from any random walkout or open basement door. I love all the random food smells on any given sidewalk in the city. It was wonderful and comforting at the same time, even though the temperature in the summertime in the middle of the city would be close to 90 degrees. That smell of curry would just make me forget how hot and humid it really was. Even as a kid I've always loved the smell of curry, and I love the taste of it too. I never had a problem eating hot curry in the hot days of summer--oh that taste was so worth the burn. The original recipe of these Moroccan chickpeas does not call for curry, but when I taste-tested the spice mix it was begging for a pinch of curry to be put in. And it made a world of difference. For those of you that like spices you might like these. I love plain roasted chickpeas too, have made them with a bit of salt & pepper and some olive oil and a pinch of sugar, but never made them this way. Make sure to see my changes in parenthesis; you may or may not want to do what I did, since I don't know what level of "spice-love" you have.

moroccan roasted chickpeas
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1 can of chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
1 TB olive oil
½ ts Moroccan Spice Mix (I used one and a half teaspoons (ts) of this)
salt to taste (I used about 1/2 tsp sea salt)

Moroccan Spice Mix:
2 ts ground cumin
1 ts ground coriander
1/2 ts chile powder (did not use this, didn’t have any)
1/2 ts sweet paprika
1/2 ts ground cinnamon
1/4 ts ground allspice
1/4 ts ground ginger powder
1/8 ts cayenne pepper (I used ½ ts)
a pinch ground cloves
1/2 ts sugar (I used 1 ts)
1 ts curry powder (this is my own addition)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Drain the chickpeas into a colander and rinse well with cold water until no more foam appears. Let beans drain for 5-10 minutes, then pat dry with a cloth or paper towel if they still look wet.
While the chickpeas drain, make the spice mix. (store leftover spice mix in an airtight container for other uses.)
When the chickpeas are well-drained and dry, toss them together with the olive oil, spice mix, and salt. Arrange in single layer on baking sheet.
Roast 40-50 minutes, (my chickpeas were done in 40 minutes) or until they are slightly browned and make a rattling sound when you shake the baking sheet. Serve warm or cool.

chocolate muffins with toasted coconut

Are you fussy, like me, when it comes to muffins? I cannot understand how people eat those muffins from Dunkin Donuts. Have you ever had one? I had a blueberry muffin from there once and being the curious foodie that I am, I actually took it apart to see what those supposed blueberry thingee/nuggets were. They weren't blueberries, they were some sort of sweet, blue sticky like dots. I know dots is a bad example, but I could not figure out what they were. Also, the muffin was so high and full of air. How did they get it so fluffy and full of air to make it look like a muffin?
So I'm always on the search for good muffins when hitting up bakeries. Most times I don't find any good ones since living on Cape Cod the choices for bakeries are slim.

So the muffin making is done at home. Muffin recipes that deliver the goods are also hard to find unless you create your own. A lot of times I will go with an old standby (like this one). Muffins are fattening, so if I'm going to have a muffin with a ton of calories it better be a good one.

What is a good muffin? Well, one that has a good muffin top: crispy-crumbly over-lapping edges and a bit of crunch on the top. The inside is nice and cake-like but not dense, moist indeed, sweet, but not overly sweet and just the right ratio of fruits and nuts. The person who finally invented the jumbo muffin pans and muffin-top pans was pure genius. If I had to pick my top two muffins that I like (a lot) it would be blueberry and morning glory. But in all honesty I have yet to find a really good morning glory muffin. My blueberry muffins are pretty good. The times when I go to NYC I have had a good blueberry muffin there; can't remember the bakery though as there are so many good bakeries in NYC. But on this post, I give you another muffin I do like--very much so. I found this recipe over at King Arthur and of course had to kick it up a few notches. Plus I'm still on my coconut kick and wanted to put coconut on the tops of these muffins as the end result would be a nice toasty coconut topping.



chocolate-coconut muffins
muffin base from King Arthur
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2/3 cup (2 ounces) Dutch-process cocoa
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups light brown sugar (not packed)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1-2 ts espresso powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
½ cup milk choco chips & ½ cup bittersweet choco chips
2 eggs
1 cup light cream or half & half
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
4 ounces (1 stick) butter, melted
½ cup +/- of shredded coconut flakes

Cook Notes: the original recipe calls for no coconut. What? I knew the muffin base would be perfect for a little toasted coconut topping, so I just had to add it in. If you want no coconut in there then don't add it.

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Line a large/jumbo muffin pan with paper or silicone muffin cups, and grease the cups.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the cocoa, flour, sugar, baking powder, espresso powder, baking soda, salt and chocolate chips. Set aside.
In a large measuring cup or medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, milk, vanilla and vinegar. Add the wet ingredients, along with the melted butter, to the dry ingredients, stirring to blend; there's no need to beat these muffins, just make sure everything is well-combined.
Scoop the batter into the prepared muffin tin; the cups will be heaped with batter, and the muffin will bake into a "mushroom" shape. Sprinkle with pearl sugar, if desired.
Bake the muffins for about 9 minutes then add some of the coconut to the tops of the muffins, and back into oven to finish baking for another 10 minutes. The original recipe says the muffins take about 20 to 25 minutes total time to cook. Mine only took about 18 minutes, so watch over the muffins; all depends on your oven. You can always see if they’re done with a cake tester inserted in the center of a muffin comes out clean.
Remove the muffins from the oven, and after 5 minutes remove them from the pan, allowing them to cool for about 15 minutes on a rack before peeling off the muffin papers or silicone cups.
Should make about 8 – 10 jumbo muffins. (I tried baking them in regular size muffins but they tasted so dry, so I made them using the jumbo muffins tins, much better).