Banana Bread

There's no denying Banana Bread is a classic.

Its one of the first things your mommy teaches you how to make in the kitchen.

A friend of mine has a picture of her daughter when she was around four or five years old.

 The mother was in her chef's coat and her daughter was helping her make something.  Her daughter was at the counter, standing on a stool, wearing an apron, a shirt, and her panties.  Its one of the cutest pictures I've ever seen.

Not to mention, it makes the perfect afternoon snack. 

Its those simple things in life that make it enjoyable.  Banana Bread is one of those things that you don't consider to be an essential.  But when you can't eat it all of a sudden, you realize you miss those simple things, such as Banana Bread. 

In other words, its a comfort food.  We all need comfort food. 

This is the first recipes I successfully converted.  The recipe is simple, like Banana Bread, but scrumptious.  I like that word, "scrumptious" :-). 

I found the recipe here: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/old-fashioned-banana-bread.  If you do use the orginal recipe, I suggest you ditch the powdered sugar, it just simply doesn't need it.  And I would add a tbsp of vanilla extract.

GF DF Banana Bread 

-1 1/4 cup Bob's Redmill All-purpose
-3/4 tsp Xanthan Gum
-1 tsp Baking Soda
-1/4 tsp Salt (about)
-2 large Eggs (lightly beated)
-1/2 cup Canola Oil
-1 cup White Sugar
-1 tbsp Vanilla Extract
-2 large overly ripe Bananas (mashed)

Preheat oven 350F.  Combine flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt.  In a seperate bowl combine eggs, oil, sugar, vanilla extract,  and the mashed banana's.  Slowly add to dry mixure.  Pour into a 9*5 inch loaf pan.  Bake for 50min or until inserted knife comes out clean.  Or into a 8*8 inch ceramic pan for about 25mins or until golden brown.

A Trip to the South

You, my dear friend, have no idea...of how long...I've been craving soul food.  Really.  You have no idea. 

Omg, just the words themselves: "ribs," "catfish," "cornbread," "greens," "mac n' cheese," "peach cobbler," "sweet potato pie." Ah!  Shier torture!  But, alas, its happening.  Finally! 

My mother has agreed.  I'm so happy! 

So tonight for dinner we're having fried catfish, cornbread, beet greens, and sweet potato pie. 

I'm in charge of the cornbread and sweet potato pie.  Haven't attempted either yet.  HOPEFULLY it'll turn out.  My resources are limited at the moment, so I'll be using Trader Joe's GF Pancake Mix.  For the cornbread and  the pie crust.

After reading that you probably just thought of something along the lines of, "Oh..."  And my response to that is, "Yeah...I know."  If it doesn't turn out I'm going to go by Julia Child's words, "No apologies!  No excuses!"

What can I say?  I will have tried my best.  And besides, you can't make discoveries without experimenting.  Am I not correct...?

                        Fortunately enough for me, the cornbread was delish! 
This is the original: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/golden-sweet-cornbread/detail.aspx.  Here's my version...my family really, really liked it :-).  *If you use the pancake mix don't add xanthan gum. 

GF DF Sweet Cornbread

-1 cup GF Pancake Mix
-1 cup Yellow Cornmeal
-2/3 cup White Sugar
-1 tsp Salt
-3 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
-1 Egg
-1 cup Almond Milk
-1/3 cup Vegetable Oil

Preheat oven 400F.  Combine GF mix, cornmeal, sugar, and baking powder.  In a separate bowl combine the egg, almond milk, and vegetable oil.  Combine oil mixture with cornmeal mixture.  Pour into a 8*8 square inch pan.  Bake 20-25 mins.

Now for the pie...

 I learned something new today and perhaps humbled a little. I hear how it’s such a challenge to make a good GF pie crust. I basically thought to myself “what’s so hard about it? It’s like anything else.”

Wrong. When I made a tart crust for a quiche I had used Bob’s Redmill, which acts like wheat four when it comes to pie dough.

For this particular pie I wanted something that would carry more of a buttery flavor. Bean flours don’t. So I thought I would use the pancake mix from Trader Joe’s...because that's all I had. Ha.

1) Different flours react differently. That should have been a no brainer for me.

2) You need to check the ingredients of any prepackaged GF flour mix. Not just for xanthan gum but for baking soda and salt too.

But everything turned out! I would have to say that this pie has a nice combo of a smooth yet powerful filling, resting on top of a fluffy and very light crust. Yuuummmm!!!

I have to be honest with you guys. And some of you may hate me for it, but I must confess. I do not like Martha Stewart. I’m sorry, I just don’t! There’s just something about her I just don’t like…

But her recipes are the BOM! One day, my mom wanted a recipe for a quick Chili con Carne. She couldn’t find what she was looking for. I suggested Martha’s web. She didn’t think she would find anything but went anyways. And lo and behold, bam, there it was: “Quick Chili con Carne.” When in doubt, Martha Stewart will figure it out.

Not crazy about her but you gota hand it to the woman, she’s got this whole foodie network thing figured out. You may think, “Well, yeeeah duuhh…She’s Martha Stewart...” I have no comment in response to that. I mention Martha because we’re going to be using one of her recipes for Sweet Potato Pie :-) 





http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/sweet-potato-pie But I’m here to share a GF DF version with you. Just an FYI moment: My pie crust is completely different from hers. Good Stuff.

GF DF Sweet Potato Pie

Crust

-1 ½ cup GF All-purposed Flour (use something with neutral flavors) ***
-1/2 tsp xanthan gum
-1/4 cup sugar
-9 tbsp Earth Balance (cold)
-2 Egg Yolks
-2 tbsp Almond Milk

Filling

-2 large Sweet Potatoes (or canned in light syrup 29oz.)
-1/2 cup Earth Balance room temp
-2 Eggs
-1/2 tsp Allspice
-1 tsp ground Cinnamon
-1/2 freshly ground Nutmeg
-2 tsp Vanilla Extract
-juice of half a Lemon

Preheat oven to 375. In a food processor combine flour and sugar until blended. Add butter and blend until it becomes a coarse consistency. Add yolks, process for 30 seconds and then add milk. Process until it just becomes smooth. Spread into a 9 inch pie pan. Poke with fork to allow venting. Bake until the pie shell is firm. Approximately 20 min. or until an inserted knife comes out clean.

If you actually bought the whole, raw sweet potato I wouldn’t waste my time with the entire steaming process. Just zap them in the microwave. Once cooked or from the can, in a mixer beat until they’re well mashed and the stringy fibers have wrapped around the attachment. Clean attachment. On low speed add the butter until combined and slightly cooled. Slowly add sugar. Once combined add spices, vanilla extract and lemon juice. Pour into crust and bake for 45-50 min. or until the center has set.

***If you use the Trader Joe’s Pancake Mix don’t add xanathan gum. It already has it.

GF Cinnamon Swirl (Kind of...)

There's a few things I would like to share with you today.  First of all, I probably won't be baking anything for the next two weeks...maybe.  Unless I end up making something for my friend when we have our movie night. 

Remember when I told you that I kind of drive my parent's crazy with all my baking?  Well, I'm beginning to live in the kitchen.  I want to be able to update my blog with a baking creation in the future.  So I need to pace myself.

 But keep checking up on me! You never know, right?  I'll probably have some news to share regarding some culinary inspiration! ;-)
Second order of business.  There are those of you out there who don't have very adventurous taste buds.

 When I tell people what we had for dinner the night before, I get the reaction, "Oh, my, gosh."  Which is a good reaction.  My mom is an amazing cook by the way.  She always whips up some pretty divine dishes :-).  But then a lot of the time I get the reaction, "Eww."  It's not "eww."  It's delish.  Food is a gift.

 Especially to have the ability to be able to create something with it.  So here's my proposition:  Expand your horizon!  Try something new!  Instead of going to Sombrero's, go to an authentic Mexican restaurant.  Try REAL Greek food.  What about Indian food?  Have you ever had Eritrean food? What about French?  Instead of Chinese, go for Vietnamese!  "We don't have those restaurant's where I live."  Pish posh! No excuses!  Then make it! :-)  My mom made Vietnamese for dinner the other night.  We had Pho.  Pho is really hot, flavorful, beef broth that's filled with rice noodles and bean sprouts, cilantro, basil, lime and beef.  In fact, the beef is so thinly cut that when you pour the broth on top of all of your goodies, it instantly cooks the beef. Its ultra tasty.  Sriracha is an asian hot sauce. 

Its hot.  Really, really hot.  So, please, for me, be careful with it. Hahaha.
I, uh, have more to share with you :-) hehe. 

I'll get to what you want in a minute, I promise.  Ok.  So, Tinkyada is the bomb.  It really is.  All of you gluten-ees will never be able to tell the difference.  And I know I have my living proof out there...you know who are ;-). 
Ok!! I'm at the best part now. Sigh.  Finally :-). 

Right now, what occupies my mind is the CST's.  State testing is long, boring, and just...blah.  All of you who are in High School, I'm quite sure you agree with me.  I came home feeling like, "YES!!!  It's over!" ...At least for today.  But then it was like, I don't have any homework and I'm all studied up, so that means only one thing...baaakiingg timmmee!  But what?  What would I make?  That's the big question... What would I make.  I was in the mood for biscotti's but I don't have any almonds, chocolate, or orange extract the house.  So Operation Biscotti was out of the picture. 

Then I thought...COFFEE CAKE.  Everyone loves coffee cake, right? Right.  So coffee cake it is.  But I wanted to make it more of a cakey consistency.  So then I thought...pound cake.  Why not combine a couple ideas and convert a recipe?  If you've read the title of this post you may have noticed that it ends with "Kind of..."

 That's because, as you'll see in the pictures that the swirl isn't that defined.  I'm only seventeen!  I'm still perfecting my skillzz.  I'll get better, I promise.  After I baked it I realized you need to pour a thin layer of batter before you do your checker board.  That way the cinnamonny goodness won't sink to the bottom.  I hope the pictures help :-/. It tasted really good though. My little sister even said so!  She was sneaking for seconds and thirds.  Now, when your little sis is sneaking around to get some more, THAT'S what you call success!

The original pound cake is found here:   http://www.joyofbaking.com/PoundCake.html  But I changed it up, as usual.  And oh, almost forgot.  Most people who have a problem with dairy can handle plain yogurt.  If you can't, just substitute it with almond milk.  And I used Sofella (I get mine at Fresh and Easy), but you can you use any all-purposed gf mix, just don't forget your 1 tsp of xanthan gum.

GF Cinnamon Swirl

• 13 tbsp Earth Balance
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1/2 cup plain yogurt
• 1tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cup Sofella All-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 salt
• 6 tbsp Earth Balance
• 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tbsp cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Cream "butter" and sugar until fluffy.  Add eggs.  Once combined add yogurt and vanilla.  In a separate bowl combine flour, baking powder, and salt.  Slowly add to yogurt mixture until well blended.  In a separate bowl dump brown and white sugars with butter and cinnamon.  With a fork mix until coarse crumbs form.  Line a 9*5*3 inch loaf with foil and spray with nonstick oil.  Pour a thin layer of batter at the bottom.  Dollop batter in a corner of the pan.  Directly next to it fill with cinnamon mixture.  Continue until full.  Take a large spoon and slowly turn the batter into the cinnamon mixture to form the swirls.  I hope the pictures help.