in the midst

Banana bread is so wonderful. Fluffy and banana-y, with the addition of walnuts and raisins, maybe a splash of rum. Yum. I love it. This time I made it in my mini bundt pan, and came out with six adorable mini bundt banana bread cakes.

Half a dozen mini bundt cakes.

Could you believe that bundt isn’t built into the dictionary in Firefox? Gosh, what has the world come to? Anyway, I thought it would add to the cuteness if I sliced up one of them like one would slice the normal size bundt cakes. So here is the outcome. Adorable, no? Or perhaps, I’m just one of those odd foodies. You can see the run soaked raisins in the cross section, and the fluffiness, and wonderful colour.

Mini bundt cakey goodness.

I feel like this post is lacking. So I have for you today, more fruit! I can here the shocked gasps already. What can I say? I love fruit. I have fruit and yoghurt for breakfast every day, so there’s always the opportunity for it to turnout beautifully and thus I want to take a photo.

Today I have for you a gala apple, green grapes, and pineapple slices.

As a side note, the recipe for the banana bread came from the book How to be a Domestic Goddess, by Nigella Lawson. I altered it slightly to suit what is in my pantry and dietary preference.

Banana Bread

(this recipe calls for using a 9 x 5 loaf pan, I used the mini bundt pan with no complications)

scant 1/2 cup raisins (original called for golden raisins)
3 ounces dark rum (or bourbon)
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons (10 ounces) whole wheat bread flour (original called for all purpose white flour)
2 tablespoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup natural cane sugar
2 large eggs
4 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Put the raisins and rum in a smallish saucepan and bring to a boil. Remove from the heat, cover, and leave for at least an hour to allow the raisins to absorb as much liquid as possible. Then drain.
Preheat the oven to 325°F and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium-sized bowl and combine well. In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, stir in the walnuts, drained raisins, and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into the loaf pan (or as I did, use a spring loaded ice cream scoop for the mini bundts) and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1 1/4 hours (I cut the time to 40-50 minutes). When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick should come out cleanish. Leave in the panuntil cool to the touch, and then turn out onto a rack.

Makes 8-10 slices, or 6-10 mini bunt cakes. (I over filled my pan this time, next time I imagine to get 8-10 out of it.)

So for my birthday I decided to make lemon meringue pie tartelettes. I was content with the outcome, considering I had not made lemon meringue pie or tartelettes before. I used my new tartelette moulds.

Two dozen tartlette moulds, plus a bonus.

I messed up on the crusts. I used frozen butter so initially I was left with a dough that didn’t want to clump. Mental note to never use frozen butter for pie crust. A few hours in the refrigerator and problem solved, luckily.

One dozen crusts, straight from the oven.

Next step is the lemon curd. Pretty straightforward. Separating egg yolks and whites is a really blah task but I succeeded with 70% accuracy, meaning that I had a few that didn’t separate well and thus my dad ate eggs that night, I do believe. But he likes eggs. And he didn’t have to crack them, how easy. The recipe said to cover the curd after pouring into the crust, I think this was meant for a full size pie, in order to keep a skin from forming. I’m pretty sure the ones that I didn’t cover had no skin. Lesson learned. I used my spring-action ice cream scoop for putting the curd into the crusts. It has a thumb button to release whatever is in the scoop, très nifty. It’s also good for cupcake batter, perhaps waffle batter.

It looks suffocating.

The meringue was…sticky. And it smelled like eggs as I made it which was ew since I don’t like eggs. It tasted unegglike after baking, more like sugar. Sugar and fluff. I piped the meringue onto the tartelettes, and banished them into the oven yet again.

And the outcome.

My grandmother was pleased upon being surprised with lemon meringue pie. So pleased, in fact, that she asked for more. buahaha. Though she didn’t like the crust, perhaps because there is more crust surface area as compared to larger pies, or because they contain whole wheat flour. Whole wheat flour, you ask? Indeed. Whole wheat pastry flour to be precise. Perfect for things such as pastries.

I totally skimped on the meringue in the half-eaten one.

Lemon Meringue Pie
recipe courtesy of Wanda’s Pie in the Sky by Wanda Beaver, 2002: Makes one 10-inch (25 cm) pie. (I made twelve 2.5-inch minis and two odd sized.)

For the Crust:
¾ cup (180 mL) cold butter; cut into ½-inch (1.2 cm) pieces
2 cups (475 mL) all-purpose flour
¼ cup (60 mL) granulated sugar
¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
⅓ cup (80 mL) ice water

For the Filling:
2 cups (475 mL) water
1 cup (240 mL) granulated sugar
½ cup (120 mL) cornstarch
5 egg yolks, beaten
¼ cup (60 mL) butter
¾ cup (180 mL) fresh lemon juice
1 tbsp (15 mL) lemon zest
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract

For the Meringue:
5 egg whites, room temperature
½ tsp (2.5 mL) cream of tartar
¼ tsp (1.2 mL) salt
½ tsp (2.5 mL) vanilla extract
¾ cup (180 mL) granulated sugar

For the Crust:
*Make sure all ingredients are as cold as possible. Using a food processor or pastry cutter and a large bowl, combine the butter, flour, sugar and salt. Process or cut in until the mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together.

*Sprinkle with water, let rest 30 seconds and then either process very briefly or cut in with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter, just until the dough begins to stick together and come away from the sides of the bowl. Turn onto a lightly floured work surface and press together to form a disk. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 20 minutes.
*Allow the dough to warm slightly to room temperature if it is too hard to roll. On a lightly floured board (or countertop) roll the disk to a thickness of ⅛ inch (.3 cm). Cut a circle about 2 inches (5 cm) larger than the pie plate and transfer the pastry into the plate by folding it in half or by rolling it onto the rolling pin. Turn the pastry under, leaving an edge that hangs over the plate about ½ inch (1.2 cm). Flute decoratively. Chill for 30 minutes.
*Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Line the crust with foil and fill with metal pie weights or dried beans. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and continue baking for 10 to 15 minutes, until golden. Cool completely before filling.

For the Filling:
*Bring the water to a boil in a large, heavy saucepan. Remove from the heat and let rest 5 minutes. Whisk the sugar and cornstarch together. Add the mixture gradually to the hot water, whisking until completely incorporated.
*Return to the heat and cook over medium heat, whisking constantly until the mixture comes to a boil. The mixture will be very thick.

*Add about 1 cup (240 mL) of the hot mixture to the beaten egg yolks, whisking until smooth. Whisking vigorously, add the warmed yolks to the pot and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil. Remove from the heat and stir in butter until incorporated.

*Add the lemon juice, zest and vanilla, stirring until combined. Pour into the prepared crust. Cover with plastic wrap to prevent a skin from forming on the surface, and cool to room temperature.

For the Meringue:
*Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190ºC). Using an electric mixer beat the egg whites with the cream of tartar, salt and vanilla extract until soft peaks form.

*Add the sugar gradually, beating until it forms stiff, glossy peaks. Pile onto the cooled pie, bringing the meringue all the way over to the edge of the crust to seal it completely. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until golden. Cool on a rack. Serve within 6 hours to avoid a soggy crust.

Inspired by the blog at Tartelette.

Banana, pineapple,mango, blueberries, plus soy yoghurt and ground flax seeds. The perfect breakfast. I was energised for my Yoga session and shopping for lemon meringue pie ingredients. I will be posting about them shortly.

Yum.

Last Friday I made pizza dough, it was light and fluffy yet still crisp. Extremely vague recipe at the end of this post. Baking on a baking stone make a big difference. We had one on the stone and one on a plain baking sheet. The one on a baking sheet had a chewy crust. This one didn’t.

Fresh out of the oven.

Pizza Dough
4½ cups unbleached high-gluten, bread, or all-purpose flour ( I used 2¼ cups whole wheat bread flour, 2¼ cups all-purpose flour)
1¾ teaspoons salt
1 packet instant yeast (8 grams/.28 ounces)
¼ cup olive oil
1¾ cups warm water

Mix dry ingredients together, and wet ingredients, separately. Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients. mix until a clumping dough is formed. Knead dough for five minutes. Allow to rise for an hour. Push down dough before spreading into pizza shape. Add topping ingredients. Place on a round baking stone and bake at 450° Fahrenheit until browned and crisp.
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I made this recipe one time, so don’t hold a grudge if it doesn’t work out for you… Bake at your own risk.

edit: So I realised that I left out a very important part of my recipe. It would be a good idea to put the topping ingredients on the dough before baking.