I am loving the after Christmas clearances at the grocery stores.  I don’t know how it is where you are but apparently people around here did not bake, cook, or buy as much as usual because there are a ton of things clearanced.

I scored fresh cranberries for 50 cents a bag at the store the other day.  Cranberries are quite the popular item here so I bought enough to make cranberry whatever at least a couple of times a month from now until November.  Cranberries freeze really well, if you didn’t know that.  Just toss the bags in the freezer.

Anyway, I normally make cranberry bread during the holiday season, but I also had a mushy banana so I made cranberry banana bread.  I liked it a lot because the mellow sweetness of the banana tempers the sharp tartness of the cranberries.  Nice.

Look, if you are going to the trouble to make cranberry bread don;t be cheap with the cranberries or nuts if you add them).  Add enough to make it look like there are more than three in the recipe!  I have seen cranberry bread that looks like it is literally “cranBERRY” bread…I always want to suggest that the person try using more than one finely chopped berry the next time.

The best way to chop the cranberries for cranberry bread is by hand.  The food processor grinds them too much in my opinion.  Cranberries are best when they are chopped in fourths or eights. More or less I mean, I don’t take hours with it.

Cranberry Banana Bread

• 1/4 c unsalted butter
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 cups flour
• 3 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• Grated rind of 1 orange
• 1 cup mashed banana
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 1/2 cup cranberries coarsely chopped
• 1 cup pecans chopped, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease and flour a loaf pan
3. Cream butter and sugar
4. Beat in egg
5. Combine dry ingredients
6. Sprinkle about two tablespoons of the dry ingredients over the cranberries and toss
7. Combine orange rind, banana, and milk
8. Add dry ingredients to sugar mixture alternately with the milk mixture
9. Fold in cranberries and pecans
10. Bake for about one to one and a fourth hours
11. Cool

Image:Marye Audet (c)2009, all rights reserved

Post from: Baking Delights

My dad was a banana addict. He was born in 1917 and grew up during those hard years which culminated in WW2. As you can imagine, living in a rural area in Michigan he didn’t have many bananas. Well he made up for it when he became an adult. The man had at least one banana every day of his life that I can remember and passed his banana infatuation on to his grandchildren, who can make a case of bananas disappear in one day.

These are excellent. I used a recipe from That’s My Home and made a few small changes. I am not totally happy with the texture, to me it is too cakey for what I am looking for. Next time I am going to leave out the leavening and see what happens- if I get a chewier result. In any case these disappeared rapidly.

Use ripe but firm bananas in this. You don’t want the overripe mush that is perfect for good banana bread. The banana needs to be deliciously ripe yet still hold it’s shape in a small dice.

1-1/2 C. all-purpose flour

1/2 t. baking powder (I am going to omit this next time for a chewier brownie)
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c unsalted butter

1-3/4 C. packed brown sugar
1 tbs. vanilla
3 eggs
1-1/4 C.Heath toffee bits or 6 chopped heath bars
1-1/4 C chopped pecans
1 C. finely diced banana (1/4-inch cubes)
1/2 c milk chocolate chips for drizzling.
Line a 13×9″ pan with parchment or waxed paper. Grease and flour paper and sides of pan.
Whisk flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar with a mixer until fluffy. Add vanilla. Beat in eggs briefly, one at a time, until blended.

Add flour mixture a little at a time, beating on low speed just until blended. By hand, stir in 1 cup toffee bits, 1 c pecans, and banana.

Pour into prepared pan.
Bake at 350° F. for 30 minutes .

Make Praline Glaze:

melt 1/4 c unsalted butter in a sauce pan and stir in 1/4 c brown sugar, whisking until it loses it’s graininess and thickens. Spread over Blondies, then sprinkle top with remaining 1/4 c toffee bits and 1′4 c chopped pecans. Melt 1/2 c milk chocolate chips and drizzle over all.

Post from: Baking Delights

  This morning I decided to treat everyone to doughnuts. I used my normal recipe with some adjustments and these were really good. The kids said they tasted like that candy, Circus Peanuts, but I don’t think so.    Do you spell it donut or doughnut? Both are correct but I am seeing the first spelling more and more! Donut,doughnut…as long as they taste great who cares?

  The only trick to making really good doughnuts is a clean oil, temp 375F, and a dough that is so soft it is nearly, but not quite, impossible to work. Oh! And cut straight through the dough, twisting deflates it some even though it is not yeast risen.

 Banana Cake Doughnuts

      about 3 dozen plus doughnut holes (or donut holes if you are making donuts)

4 eggs beaten

2/3 c sugar

1/3 c buttermilk

1/3 c butter-melted

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp banana flavor (Frontier does a good one)

3 1/2 c flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg (FRESHLY GRATED!!!)

Combine eggs and sugar, beat until smooth and light. Add  buttermilk, cooled butter, vanilla, and banana flavor.  Sift dry ingredients. Add egg mixture and beat until smooth. Chill ( don’t chill the dough…it does make it MUCH easier to work. I just never have time)

  Roll out about 1/3 inch thick. cut with floured cutter. Let stand about 10 minutes.

   While waiting make icing:

1 c confectioners

1/4 c butter

1/2 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp banana

mix thoroughly and ad a little buttermilk to thin if needed or add more confectioners to thicken.

Drop doughnuts in 375 oil. Fry only a couple at a time. I have a large fryer and I do 4-5 at a time.  Turn when one side is golden.  Fry until done. Drain and place on absorbant surface (this is how I recycle my brown paper bags..) Glaze while still warm.

Post from: Baking Delights

I will post pictures of this in a bit. You see, there has apparently been a mutiny in techni-land and my computer is not speaking to my camera. Even my husband, who is the computer fixer in our family, has been unable to mediate between the two. He has graciously and wonderfully volunteered to take my camera to work and load the pictures on his laptop when he has time and then emailing them to me. As soon as that happens pictures will magically appear on today’s recipe. Life is good.
Anyway. In my shopping the other day I found a nice, slightly overripe papaya that had been marked down. I snagged it and was thinking about what I would like to use it in…the different flavors, etc. I came up with this tropical fruit tart which has a summery/vacation in the Bahamas type of flavor and is very easy and relatively quick. The presentation is beautiful, as you will see when the pictures come up, and the pastry was buttery-crumbly perfection and held up well out of the tart pan. The rum glaze added a faint pina colada type flavor which complimented the fruit and filling nicely. I would not add the fruit to this more than about 2 hours ahead and, as the glaze got a bit cloudy as it chills, I would glaze the tart right before serving. If you are making ahead and not glazing brush the bananas with lemon to prevent browning. This should serve 8-10 depending on the generousity of your slices.

Tropical Fruit Tart with Rum Glaze

Tart pastry

1 1/4 c flour
2 Tbs sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 c butter
1/4 c organic shortening
about 4 tbs ice water
Bowl of ice water

Mix together dry ingredients.
Blend butter and shortening well and chill a few minutes in freezer.
Put fingers in bowl ice water, shake off excess water and cut butter mixture into flour mixture until it looks like coarse crumbs, keeping fingers cold by dipping into the bowl of ice water as needed.
Add the 1/4 c ice water and toss together until dough holds together well.
Turn pastry out on a floured surface and roll to size.
Place in tart or pie pan, and, using a small ball of leftover dough, press gently into pan.
Prick with fork all over.
Sprinkle with sugar and bake at 400 until golden..about 10 minutes
Set tart pastry aside to cool completely. you may remove it completely from the pan when it is cooled or finish in the pan. I removed mine.

Filling
1 lb cream cheese at room temp
1/2 c cream of coconut ( Coco Lopez)
1/3 c sugar
1 c toasted coconut
1/4 c finely chopped crystallized ginger

Beat cream cheese and cream of coconut together until fluffy.
Add sugar, beating until smooth and not grainy.
Add coconut and ginger and mix well.
Spoon into cooled crust and smooth.

May be refridgerated at this point and finished later.

Topping
I/2 ripe papaya
1 banana
1 ripe strawberry, hulled
3 mint leaves

Slice papaya thinly in a horizontal (across the narrow) direction to make petals.
Lay the papaya petals around the edge of the tart, overlapping slightly.
Slice the banana about 1/2 inch thick on a sligh diagonal.
Lay the banana slices around with tips overlapping the papaya row, just slightly.
There should be a small space in the middle of the tart at this point.
Take the strawberry and carefully with a sharp knife cut oval *petals* without cutting through the base..continue as long as you can, 4 around the outside and then some in the middle.
Gently peel back the petals to open up the strawberry flower.
Place in the center of the tart.

Glaze

1/3 c cream of coconut
1 tbs butter
1/4 c sugar
1/4 tsp rum extract..
cook first three ingredients, stirring, until sugar is no longer grainy and butter is melted.
Add extract.
Cool slightly and brush over fruit.
Garnish Tart with mint leaves before serving.

Post from: Baking Delights