Alton Brown's Banana Bread

Here at SFW, the students get three delicious meals a day. Lunch and dinner are always served with a side of fruit. But not all the fruit gets eaten and not all the fruit is unblemished and edible. So I always have my eye on those neglected pieces so that I can transform them into something delicious. Last week, the second year students kidnapped the remaining box of apples and I turned it into Apple Crumble Pie. When one of the girls had another craving for banana, she dutifully nabbed all the brown bananas and I turned it into this homey Banana Bread, a recipe from my guru's I'm Just Here for More Food (Baking). Brown's version calls for two things I've never before seen called for in such a recipe: almond extract and oat flour. I just ground some quick cooking oats in a food processor as I had no flour on hand. The almond extract wasnt noticeable at all but I suppose it was meant to heighten the flavor of the bananas. It did a good job at that because this banana bread was one of the best I've ever had- moist and tender with a clean and unadulterated banana flavor. I omitted the nuts and requisite chocolate as to allow the banana to shine. This fared so well with the girls that it was finished before a plate of Brownie Shortbread Bars. Whoever picks banana over chocolate?! Go figure. In an effort to be healthier, I substituted oil for the margarine.

Banana Bread

adapted from Alton Brown

340 grams overripe bananas

210 grams sugar

220 grams flour

35 grams oat flour, or quick cookings oats ground in a food processor

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

113 grams oil

2 eggs

1 tsp almond extract

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan. Set aside.
In a bowl, place all of the dry ingredients. Whisk and set aside.
Place the bananas and sugar in a bowl.
Mash and mix until evenly mashed and mixed. I use a plastic sandwich bag to cover my hand while doing this job.
Add the eggs, extract and oil.
Blend.
Add the dry ingredients,
and gently mix until combined. Do not overmix! You need a light touch here.
Pour the batter into the pan.
Bake for 50-60 minutes or until a thermometer registers 210 degrees. Allow to cool fifteen minutes before depanning. Cool on rack.
Slice, plate and serve!

Congo Bars

So much has happened in these last couple of days. For starters, yesterday I had my first day back at university. Honestly, I was dreading it and was filled with panic and anxiety. I stepped off the bus and was shocked to feel the intense heat. I had half forgotten what it was like over there and half expected it to be more wintery in the Ramat Gan area than Jerusalem, as it is October (what was I thinking?!). When I got onto campus I actually felt better and when I started to see my friends and former classmates and get into classes, I felt a lot more optimistic about how the year would go and I felt a strong inner reassurance that with all my time spent with the girls at SFW I would need the time away, even if that time is being spent on a university campus. More importantly than that, this Shabbat I spent with the school in one of Israel's four holy cities, namely Chevron. To say that this Shabbat was the most meaningful, uplifting, rejuvenating, inspiring Shabbat would be a gross understatement. But it was all of those things. Filled with intense singing and words of Torah and a tour of the city, that weekend will stay with me and I'm sure my girls for a lifetime. On Friday night, after dinner, we had what's called a tisch. Led by the amazing Rav N, we had a gathering of all the girls and sang songs and heard words of wisdom. Only a single girl left the gathering the whole time. In any case, these Congo Bars were the bars that I made for the tisch. Unfortunately, I heard complaints that not everyone got and the truth is I didnt make enough at all. These bars come from Flo Braker's Baking for All Occasions. As I was making them to travel I omitted the glaze and also the walnuts, just because I felt like it. They came out sooooo moist and chewy, with the brownie being the star, as the flavor of the bottom couldnt really stand up to the flavor of the chocolate. I see myself baking these again and funking up the additions to it to make them really shine. Truly though, these were delicious and I love the look of the double layer.

Congo Bars

from Baking for All Occasions

Congo Layer:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

3 ounces margarine, melted and cooled

1 1/4 cups brown sugar

1 egg

1 egg white

1 tsp vanilla

Brownie Layer:

1 cup plus 2 tbsp all purpose flour

1/4 cup dutch process cocoa

1/8 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

4 ounces margarine

4 ounces unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate

1 1/3 cups sugar

2 eggs

1 egg yolk

2 tsp pure vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x13 inch pan with parchment paper. Grease the paper and set aside the pan.

Combine the flour, salt, and leavening on a sheet of parchment and set aside.

Place the margarine, sugar, eggs and vanilla in a large bowl.

Stir just until combined.

Add the dry ingredients,

and stir just until blended.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan- using an offset spatula is very helpful.

Bake for about twenty minutes. Remove from the oven and allow to cool while you make the second batter.

Combine all the dry ingredients for the brownie batter. Set aside.

Over medium low heat, melt the margarine and chocolate until smooth and shiny.

Add the sugar,

and stir until blended.

Add the eggs and vanilla,

and stir until smooth.

Add the dry ingredients,

and stir just until all the flour is evenly moistened. Dont overmix!

Using an offset spatula, spread the brownie batter over the baked blondies. Bake for about twenty five minutes. Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack. The cookies will set as they cool.

Score the blondies with a bench scraper to portion them as you wish.

Stack on a plate and serve! Love those two tone bars!

Adventures with Rye Part 5: Sourdough Rye Bread

This is my most recent rye bread, made with the addition of my newly revived sourdough. I recently decided to make the switch from liquid starter to stiff, the upsides of the change being, less smelly, gross liquid to deal with, and being able to track fermentation more easily. (However, I do foresee needing to switch back and forth being a bit annoying. But Ill cross that bridge when I get there.) The recipe comes from The Bread Bible (Rose's, of course) and I've been meaning to make this sourdough version ever since I made the regular rye. I got too lazy to follow her directions so I just fed my starter as usual, let it ferment, and then measured out the amount called for, with no issues. The rest of the process was pretty smooth sailing- kneading dough, fermentation, a stretch and fold here and there, and regular baking. No surprises here. The dough kneaded beautifully and turned out to be silky smooth. I wasn't in the mood to wait for the dough to finish its fermentation so I just baked it and was rewarded with nice oven spring and a beautiful crumb anyway. Although the sourdough flavor wasn't readily apparent, it was just barely detectable. Of course the bread was so yummy and full of caraway goodness. The texture was nice and soft and the crumb was creamy and open. I baked with steam, but I think I need to figure out a more effective steaming technique to use in my toaster oven. Although the crust was superb, I would like the look to be a bit more..... artisan-al, I suppose. Next time. Check out this week's Yeastspotting for more yeasty goodness! Have a good weekend!

Sourdough Rye Bread

adapted a bit from The Bread Bible

360 grams ripe stiff sourdough starter

230 grams all purpose or bread flour

95 grams whole rye flour

232 grams water, at room temperature

14 grams caraway seeds

10.5 grams salt

Tear the sourdough starter into four pieces and place in a mixing bowl. Add the water. Stir to dissolve the starter as much as possible.Add the remaining dry ingredients but taking care to reserve a few tablespoons of flour for kneading.

Mix the dough and give it a rest for about ten minutes. Knead the dough until it is smooth and silky, tacky but not sticky. Use the reserved flour to help you knead, if necessary.

Set it aside in a clean bowl to rise for one hour.

Remove the dough from the bowl and give it two stretches and folds. Return to the bowl and let it rise one hour more.

Shape the dough into a round and place it on a sheet of parchment. Place the parchment on a baking sheet.

Allow the dough to proof for a few hours. Towards the end of proofing time, preheat the oven to 450 and prepare the oven for steam. Slash the bread decoratively.

Bake the loaf with steam for five minutes. Turn the temperature down to 400 and continue baking for fifteen minutes. Open the oven door and place the loaf directly on the baking stone. Bake for an additional thirty five minutes until a thermometer inserted registers 190 degrees. Remove from the oven and let cool on a rack.

Slice and enjoy....

Maple Shortbread

The girls are back!! Break is over and that means that the hallways of the SFW dormitory are once again filled with noise- I'm so over the eerie silence that fills the place on vacation days. With school in full swing again, so is prompt twelve am curfew which on a few nights a week is accompanied by sweet treats. (I hope this doesn't mean bread is on the back burner...) The girls followed their noses down our hallway until they arrived at our room, wondering what smelled of maple syrup and waffles. The answer? This batch of maple shortbread that I made using the remains of my prized maple sugar brought from the states on my last trip. Extremely easy to whip up and delightful in the simplicity of its ingredients, shortbread is always a winner. Add some maple to the mix and... you can finish that sentence. The prepared pans are dusted with maple sugar and topped with it too, adding a nice crunchy crust. The recipe calls for a full teaspoon of salt. I thought this made the dough itself a bit salty, but the end product was well balanced, not salty at all. The cookies are buttery and ethereally good. Be sure to cut them right when they come out of the oven while they are still warm; leaving them to harden and then trying to cut them wont be easy, it just results in crumbled, broken cookies. Cut them thin to yield more. (I didnt get a shot of the final product-- all the girls had invaded the room and I couldnt whip out the camera without having to explain...)

Maple Shortbread

KAF Cookie Companion

3/4 cup maple sugar

1 cup unsalted butter or margarine

1 tsp salt

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1-2 tsp maple extract

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 1/3 cups all purpose flour

Preheat the oven to 300. Lightly grease two nine inch round pans.

Sprinkle each pan with a tablespoon of maple sugar.

Place 1/2 cup maple sugar and all of the ingredients except the flour in a large bowl.

Cream until light.Add the flour,

and beat to incorporate.

Portion the dough evenly among two pans and pat it out to fill them.

Dock the dough--- attractively or otherwise. Sprinkle each pan with a tbsp of maple sugar. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until its golden brown around the edges. Remove from the oven and run a knife around the edges to loosen the edges. Using a wire rack to help you, turn out the cookies onto a wire rack in one piece. Place them on a smooth, even surface. Using a knife or a pizza wheel, cut the cookies into wedges. Return to the rack to cool.

All that was left....

Pullman Style Toast Bread

Now that the chagim are over, I am happy to say that I am starting to bake bread again. Although that might be speaking to soon what with school starting in a week (enjoying my last week of freedom here, people!). Who knows how much baking I'll be doing all together. I hope that I can make bread once a week but I think that's being a tad optimistic. Anyway, even though I've successfully sourdough starter, I still haven't really put it to much use, but at least I'm baking bread. I decided for my next attempt, I didn't want anything complicated- so I decided on this Toast Bread, a straight dough bread from Hamelman's Bread book. It seems these days, I turn to this book first, and with my brand new escali scale that measures in decimals, it's now a breeze to make his breads! Anyway, his book is just a very good one and it belongs in every serious bread baker's library. This bread was an easy bread to put together and rose really nicely. The recipe states that it will yield one Pullman loaf and a small loaf pan. Here in Israel, they dont sell Pullman pans but they do have what they call English Cake pans that are about the same length but slanted, like a regular loaf pan, and without a lid. So I improvised and weighed down the tops with my baking sheets. So, Im guessing the irregular pan size is the reason it yielded two loaves. Sadly though, because they werent perfect pans, the slices werent perfect squares. Oh well. Cant win em all. The bread itself was really simple, but really good, and had great texture. I enjoyed it plain and with some eggplant spread. Like it's name, it's also pretty awesome toasted.

Toast Bread

adapted from Bread

2 pounds all purpose flour

21.1 ounces water

2 tsp sugar

1 tbsp canola oil

1 tbsp salt

2 tsp instant yeast

In a bowl, place the flour, sugar, salt and yeast.

Stir to combine thoroughly.

Pour the oil over the top and then add the water.

Stir to make a shaggy dough. Once all or most of the flour is moistened, allow to autolyse for about fifteen minutes.

Knead the dough until it is tacky but not sticky and firm. Place in a bowl and set aside in a warm place to rise. Allow to rise one hour.

When one hour has elapsed, give the dough a stretch and fold. Allow to rise for one more hour.

Prepare to loaf pans by greasing them. Portion the dough and form into logs. Place into the prepared pans to proof. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees when the loaves are halfway proofed.

Here are the proofed loaves. If you would like the loaves to be Pullman style and dont have a cover, grease the bottom of a heavy duty cookie sheet and place atop the breads. Weigh down with more cookie sheets. Trust me, yeast is stronger than you think.

Bake the breads for about 40 or so minutes or until a thermometer registers about 190-200 degrees. Depan and cool on a wire rack. Enjoy!

Between all my roommates and some guests, one loaf was devoured in minutes, and the second is well on its way to gone!