Banana Bread

What do little Italian men love most of all ?

Really though, what do you think ?

Perfume ?   Pasta ?  Wine…breadsticks…music…candlelight…Milan….

Well, no.  I hate to break it to you, but the real way to the heart of a wee italian man is with BANANA BREAD.  Yes, Petri, this one’s for you.

For the past month and a half (give or take), we’ve had the pleasure of hosting the famous Petri Dish in our apartment.  I arrived in late August, mentally preparing myself for a semester of ESTROGEN when POP !  Out of nowhere this charismatic, loud, and endearing italiano appeared on the scene, fully moved in (yes, toothbrush and all).  Skeptical at first (a who living in my what ?!), Petri quickly grew on me.  He is a walking party and always greets me with a “Hello Lizzzzzz, how are you ?” spoken as if my answer is actually important (Petri, if it isn’t important, don’t tell me.  I want to continue romanticising you).

It is slightly intimidating, living with an italian, because they cook so well.  Sometimes, I would come home from class and the apartment would smell divine – Petri was making homemade vegetable broth, a smell I associate with home.  (To my credit, I insisted on bay leaf usage.  This little american lends a hand every now and then).  I watched him make pasta, pasta, pasta, risotto, pasta, pasta and tiramisù.  Being the fellow chef in the kitchen, it was fun to have some cooking banter flying about this college setting.

At one point, Petri revealed his love (obsession ?) with banana bread, which surprised me.  Often, Europeans are “not convinced” of putting fruits/vegetables in quickbreads (carrots, zukes, sweet potato, banana, pumpkin…) as it just seems contrary to tradition.  Or something.

I decided that before he left, I’d make him banana bread.  I think it’s safe to say my bread passed muster.  Pietro, we’re going to miss you !  Here’s the recipe I used (and perhaps you’ll woo an italian, too) !

Petri’s Banana Bread

1 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 ripe bananas
2 eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 tbsp cream (or buttermilk, or greek yogurt, or sour cream)
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
Dash cinnamon/nutmeg/cloves.  Just a sprinkle.

Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease or line the bottom of a standard loaf pan with parchment paper.  Set aside.  I prepared two but only used one (not enough time to cook a double batch !)

Peel the bananas and place them in a large bowl.  Mash with a fork (or a masher) until nice and squishy – it will look rather disturbing as a texture – you want the lumps no bigger than chickpeas.

Add the sugar and the oil to the mashed bananas, whisking to combine.  I will admit, the batter for banana bread is probably the most disgusting thing you’ll ever see.  Persevere, because it tastes awesome when cooked.

Add the eggs and vanilla, whisking again to incorporate.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.  Stir together to combine – you wouldn’t want random patches of baking soda, would you ?  So give it a good stir.

Add the flour mixture and the cream (or dairy product of choice…) and mix well – the batter shouldn’t have any flour clumps hiding about.

Pour into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 1h20 minutes – it takes a long time to cook, but you’ll know it’s almost done when the top splits.  Let cool 10 minutes before removing from the loaf pan.

Feed to your favorite [italian] housemate(s) and buon appetito !  🙂

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Well, it happened.  I’m a senior, wading through my final year of university, and joys of syllabus week are, alas, but wee specks in the my rearview mirror.  Homework, late nights, and crunchy leaves pretty much mean that I should be  putting “ma main à la pâte” in a figurative sense…however all I seem to do is literally put my hand to the dough and whip up the fall classic – chocolate chip cookies.

I think I learned how to cook making these cookies.  My mom would let me measure the chocolate chips.  Well, I don’t know if she let me, or if I just did it…because let’s face it, who doesn’t want to sample those delicious morsels of cacao bean delight ?  Also, a five-year-old can’t really mess up that part of the cookie making…unless she eats too many chips…whoops.

Once I’d mastered that, I could  pack down the brown sugar…add the white sugar…even (eventually) measuring out enough flour (“Liz, fill it to the top of the P” – we had Pyrex 2-cup measuring cups, and I suppose the top of the P was approximately 2 1/4 cups of flour…) for the recipe.  We had (and still have) this rickety metal stepladder on which I’d place the ingredients I’d measured…and then I’d (of course) climb on it to watch all the ingredients go swirling, whirling, twirling around in the MixMaster (Kitchenaid, for those those versed in proper kitchen vocab).  The best part came when I could sample the dough.

I don’t think anything tops cookie dough batter.  I always wanted to just nibble it raw…but mom would chide, “No Liz !  There are raw eggs in there !  You could get sick !”

She is probably right, but when I make it all on my lonesome, I’m not going to lie, I take a hearty nibble-nom-nom out of whatever “pâte” I’ve put my “main” in.

This recipe is a little bit different than your back-of-the-chocolate-chip-bag variation BUT I think it’s the secret to the perfectly balanced SUPERCOOKIE : add molasses.  It sounds surprising, however the molasses renders the cookie soft and “nuanced,” to borrow some wine-bottle diction.  Just trust me, expert choco-chip cookie master since the age of 5.  Get out of class, whip these up, and forget about your application woes while munching on this old-school afternoon snack.  🙂

Ingredients :

2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt (only add if using unsalted butter)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter; softened
1 cup brown sugar; packed
1/4 cup white sugar
1/4 cup molasses
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 bag (12 oz approx.) chocolate chips (you can feel this one out – if you want less, just add bit by bit)

Start by creaming the butter in a large mixing bowl.  If you have an electric mixer, go ahead and fire it up.  If not, get ready to whisk like it’s your job.  You want to make sure the butter is nice and uniform so that the sugar will mix in evenly.  Also, the softening of the butter allows more sugar/ingredients to “dissolve” into the fat, making for a smoother, creamier batter.  (“Liz, soften the butter” “Mom, how ?”  “In the microwave.”  “Mom, what if I melted some of it…”)

Fun fact courtesy of the padre: if your butter didn’t get soft enough, wrap a warm towel around the mixing bowl.  This will help the butter to soften – it’s particularly effective with a metal mixing vessel.

When the butter is light and the whisk/beaters make pretty swirly shapes in the mixture, begin to add the brown sugar.  Beat until the mixture lightens in color.  Add the white sugar and the molasses, beating again until lightened in color.  It should look like very grainy buttercream frosting.  Scrape down the side with a spatula, and mix once again.  (“Mom, can I taste it?”  “Liz, it’s just sugar and butter !  You already know what that tastes like !”)

 

Add the vanilla to the eggs, dropping them in one by one (“Liz, I never add the eggs one by one, it takes too long. I just throw them in there with the vanilla”) beating after each addition.  You can skip this step, as my mom always does, but I like to beat them in one by one – I get to personally make sure each one gets whipped into shape.

In a separate bowl, combine the remaining dry ingredients – flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon – stirring well to incorporate evenly.  Carefully add this to the butter mixture (“Liz, don’t add it so fast !  You’re going to make a mess !”), reducing the mixer speed or using a spatula to combine.  If you go too quickly, the flour will explode in your face and probably make you sneeze.  It’s not worth it.  Take your time AND as an added bonus, play this game :  How little flour/mess can you make in the kitchen ?  It’a really fun game – and worthwhile, too !  Why ?  Because it’s less to clean up later, silly !  Oh, I am brilliant at times.  🙂

Finally, add the chocolate chips and stir to combine.

“Mommmmm, can I taste it now ??”

Yes, yes yes yes.  Take a nice good sample of your cookie dough, for this is, arguably, the best part.

On a large cookie sheet, drop the batter by tablespoons full (“I never bother with spoons, I just sort of eyeball it and use my fingers”) and shape into balls.  I use a big spoon and my fingers and just try to make sure each cookies is approximately the same size.  I really wouldn’t fuss over the size of your balls (“…”) and just have fun plopping misshapen cookie blobs on the baking sheet.  Make sure they are spaced about 2 inches apart from each other, as these cookies like to spread out.

Cook for about 12 minutes per sheet, or until a nice golden brown.  “Light and gooey and yummy and chewy,” as my sibling and I would chant. We take cookies seriously in this household….and this apt.

Remove and let cool on a rack (if you can wait that long) or place directly on a plate and devour immediately !

Happy munching, and bon appétit ! 🙂

Three-layer Peach, Raspberry and Brown Sugar Pavlova

One would have no idea summer is winding down here in D.C.  The heat and humidity loping through the campus turn us all lethargic and in need of a dunk in the ocean.  Alas, schoolwork and projects beckon, and rather than exercise my need for R&R, I’ve settled on food as an escape.

Not entirely surprising, is it ?

In any case, PEACHES have been my ambroisia of oubli, and with a weekly farmer’s market, they aren’t difficult to procure.  Most recently, I re-made Nora Ephron’s Peach Pie (click the link for the recipe), and it disappeared in a day.  This is the problem with having roommates: as the cook, you want to share !  But BAMPOOFPOW – it’s all gone !  It’s definitely “bittersweet,” shall we say.  In any case, before I left my little town, I attended our local peach festival (yes, we have one of those) with a friend of mine.  While picking peaches, I declared that I would make SOMETHING with these gems that wasn’t a peach pie.  This mixed fruit pavlova is the “fruit” of said declaration.

Pavlova is a meringue-based dessert that is very light and fruity.  Because it’s all egg whites, there is no added fat (eg butter/oil), so if you are “reducin’,” as my grandmother would say, it’s a nice choice for dessert.  Each pancake of meringue sits on a bed of whipped cream (you don’t need this part if you’re not partial to chantilly) and cut fruit (such as mixed berries, peaches, nectarines, plums, etc).  Rather like a trifle, this dessert needs to be eaten the night you prepare it, or else it will get soggy.  It’s an excuse to devour an entire treat in one sitting…right ?  And it’s covered in fruit !  Fruit is healthy !

Grab some peaches before the season really ends and whip up (literally) this lesser-known dessert as one final tribute to the groove of summer.

For the meringue :

Confectioners’ sugar (for dusting)
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 tsp distillled white vinegar
3/4 cups egg whites (5 to 6 large eggs)

Directions :  Preheat the oven to 275F with rack placed in the middle of the oven.  Line three 8” round cake pans with parchment paper, dusting the sides with confectioners’ sugar.

Pulse the sugar, brown sugar, and constarch in a food processor until well combined.  You can also whisk these ingredients together if you, like me, are often sans fancy kitchen appliances.

Stir together the vanilla and white vinegar.  Don’t smell it…you won’t be pleased.

Beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt using an electric mixer (or your brute strength, however you like) until they hold soft peaks.  Increase the speed to medium-high and add the sugar mixture 1 tbsp at a time.  It doesn’t have to be a perfect tbsp – think of that measurement as a speedbump – as you just don’t want to add the sugar too quickly.

After all the sugar has been incorporated, beat for 1 minute more.  Add the vinegar mixxture, then beat at high speed until meringue is glossy and holds stuff peaks: about five minutes.  Spoon meringue into pans and smooth the tops.  I used a pastry bag, but this is not at all necessary (unless you feel like a perfectionist).

Bake the meringues until they have a crisp crust and feel dry to the touch – about 1 hour.  Meringues may sink while cooling – but have no fear !  It just means more space for berries and cream !

Turn oven off, prop door open with a wooden spoon (or ruler tool), and cool the meringues for 1 hour in the oven.  You want to keep them in a dry environment so that they don’t go all soggy…and the oven is the closest thing to the desert one has in a kitchen….except maybe for the brisker, but everyone knows briskers often carry a strange scent after re-crisping one too many boxes of crackers.

Run a knife around the edges of the cake pans and remove gently.  MERINGUES ARE FRAGILE.  BE CAREFUL.  (But not too careful…because who doesn’t love to mop up the crumbs ?)

For the fruit topping :

2 white peaches
2 golden peaches
1-2 cups raspberries
1 cup blueberries (if desired)
A little liqueur – I like “peche” but cassis, chambord/framboise or a blueberry syrup would be delicious as well.  Do not add sugar to the berries if you use a “berry” sweet liqueur (Brian, that one is for you).

This part is really quite simple:  Peel the peaches (if desired) and cut them into sections.

You don’t need to cut them into smaller chunks, but I did simply because it makes the fruit more uniform.  Place into a bowl and add the raspberries and blueberries.  Give it a quick stir and drizzle some liqueur over the top, if desired.

For the whipped cream:

1 1/3 cups heavy cream
Sugar (just a tablespoon or two will do)
Vanilla – a dash

Whisk until thick, creamy, billowy, delicious, and…well…whipped !  I used an electric mixer and added the sugar just as the cream began to thicken.

Assembly :

Start by placing one layer of meringue on your cake plate.  Place it flat side down – this will ensure overall stability of the pavlova palace you are about to craft.

On top of this, spread a nice layer of whipped cream.  Top with berries (I forgot this step !)

Place the next layer of meringue on top and follow the same pattern : whipped cream followed by fruit.

Serve very soon after preparation as those meringues won’t last long surrounded by fruits.  It may not be the most elegant dessert, but it is marvelously tasty.

Bon appétit ! 🙂