Meal Prepping Breakfast: Overnight Oats, Yogurt, and Smoothies

It has been what feels like a lifetime since I posted to this blog! I moved to Botswana for a year in July of 2014 and basically stopped cooking. That's not entirely true, but I only cooked or baked 1-2 times a month that year. Maybe 3-4, but I think that's a stretch unless spreading Black Cat Peanut Butter on toasted Brown Bread or sprinkling Muesli over Parmalat Passion Fruit yogurt counts as "cooking."

There came a point in Botswana when power was cut for "load shedding" each night at dinner time and so I was eating Phaphata (a griddle-grilled flat bread akin to a non-sourdough English Muffin) for USD $0.25 from the Hopsital cafeteria each morning while I drank a cup of tea, takeaway lunch from the local Nurses Union that I counted as a complete meal for USD $2.50 (2 pieces of grilled chicken, a grain, a vegetable, and a salad with a Stoney Ginger Beer when I really felt like splurging), and blue cheese slathered on ProVita whole grain crackers for dinner. If we wanted to cook dinner, we had to be done by 5 pm or we'd use our allotted "load" in no time and have our flat's power cut for a few hours. On the plus side, I read a lot during those last few months by candlelight, "torch" and headlamp! But my stomach started to bloat from all of the cheese I was eating and my arteries are probably still disappointed in me.

When I moved back from Botswana, sort-of-newly single and with really no idea of what to do with the rest of my life, I moved in with my parents. I assumed it would be temporary but it took me 7 months to find a job back in Wisconsin. Ok that's a stretch - it took me 5 months to decide I was going to stay in Wisconsin and not move away like I was desperately hoping to do before winter rolled in. Then it took another 2 months to start my new job (some HR kerfuffles). I spent those glorious 7 months eating chocolate-covered peanut-butter filled pretzels (thank you Trader Joe's) and hummus on tostadas. I supplemented that delightful diet with iced lattes and lemon scones from the various coffee shops that I frequented to give me space to write and job hunt. Luckily the twice a day yoga kept my waistline in check.

Then I started working again and totally overcommitted my time and my self to my job. I tried to start cooking, but it went in waves. I threw away a lot of food I intended to cook but couldn't get the motivation to actually prep (it sounded fun at the grocery store, but when I got home, I'd look at the tub of prepared hummus and it was over). I also felt like I was imposing - I didn't have my own kitchen stuff and had a couple little cupboards, so I basically only ever prepped my morning yogurt and cold brew coffee.

And then! Last October, I bought a house - surprise! Kitchen number 6 since starting this blog! And I love it - this kitchen is my happy place. I made so many quick breads, cinnamon rolls, and soups that first month but quickly got back into my hummus on tostadas habit. Cooking for one is hard - there's no way around it. I hate eating leftovers for a week straight unless those leftovers are enchiladas. And I couldn't stand all the waste I was producing. So much food packaging. So, in 2018, I've committed to going green(er) in the kitchen.

Step one: I bought microfiber towels to replace paper towels.
Step two: I found thrifted mason jars to use with reusable plastic caps for food storage.
Step three: I bought reusable cotton shopping bags and produce bags.
Step four: I reassessed my containers and assigned them to items I could buy from the bulk section.
Step five: I started meal-prepping and keeping a list on the side of the refrigerator with what meals I had the stuff in the fridge to make - rather than assigning it to a day, it allows my appetite to guide me without having to stand with the fridge open wondering, what should I make tonight?
Step six: I moved my roll of paper towels to the top of the fridge so that it's out of sight and I grab a cloth towel unless paper is necessary.
Step seven: I bought a set of brand new reusable cloth napkins from a thrift store.
Step eight: I switched from the "normal" to "Eco" air dry cycle of the dishwasher.
Step nine +: Stay tuned, as I'm not done yet!

Let's hone in on one new habit: Meal prep. And even farther: Meal prep for the most important meal of the day - breakfast. Cereal gets boring. Plus it's way over packaged (plastic and cardboard) and pretty overpriced for what I buy (organic cinnamon shredded wheat or organic corn puffs). Not to mention, I'm rarely hungry right when I wake up and I'm not going to lug cereal and milk to work. Enter: Overnight oats. I don't like cooked oatmeal - I'm sort of realizing that I don't love hot, cooked foods for most meals. I really like cold overnight oats. And I can start eating them at home, cap them when I'm done eating, and take the rest to work to finish when I'm actually ready for breakfast. Then, I bring along yogurt and toppings for my mid-morning snack. Both of these things last a few days, so if I don't eat them the next day, they aren't wasted.

Overnight Oats
In a small mason jar, layer:
1/2 banana, mushed or 1/4 apple, in cubes
1 to 2 tbsp. peanut butter or other nut butter
1/2 to 1 tbsp. hemp seeds or chia seeds or flax seed meal or some combination thereof
a sprinkle of cinnamon (optional - best with apple)
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup milk or don't measure fill the remaining space in the jar

Shake, cap, and refrigerate. Stir & eat.

Yogurt "Parfait"
Favorite flavors:  halved coconut yogurt with oats, sliced almonds, and chocolate or halved lime yogurt with oats, cashews, and dried flaked coconut.

1/2 container of flavored yogurt (coconut or lime)
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (this reduces the sweetness of the flavored yogurt)
*If I have fresh fruit, I use plain greek yogurt, fresh fruit, and a squirt of honey

Mix yogurts together and divide between a mason jar and the original small container. Place the original container into a small reusable container so that it doesn't spill. When ready to eat, stir in an oat topping (see below).

Oat Topping:
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup nuts/protein (eg. pecans, almonds, cashews, hemp seeds)
1-2 tbsp. something sweet (shredded coconut, mini chocolate chips)

In a reusable container, mix oats, nuts, and other mixins. Sprinkle over yogurt and stir in before eating.

I also discovered that if I make a smoothie on Sunday, or for dinner on a weeknight when I just want something light, I can make double and put half in the fridge to take for breakfast the next morning. I pour whatever is left in the blender into a mason jar and cap it so it won't spill (see picture above - tall jar with purple contents).

Smoothie

In a blender, puree until smooth:

1/4 cup plain greek yogurt

1/4 to 1/2 cup milk

1/3 cup raw spinach

1 tbsp. hemp seeds

(optional: 1/4 cup cucumber, 1/2" raw, peeled ginger, 1/2 apple, 1 small orange)

Add:

1 cup frozen berries (mix of strawberries, blueberries, and raspberries)

Blend again until smooth, adding milk as needed so that it whirls.

So, in about 20 minutes on Sunday morning, I prepped 2 smoothies, 2 jars of overnight oats, 4 days worth of yogurt for a total of 8 breakfasts or snacks! Bam! That frees up time on my weekday mornings so that I can make pour-over coffee and sip it from my chair, wrapped up in a cozy blanket, reading a book. That's a 10 minute morning tradition I've come to love.

Paper towels - out of sight, but accessible!

Orange Ricotta Muffins with Blueberries

Nearly three weeks after orange picking, I'm still on an orange kick. We lost one orange to mold, but the rest were eaten or juiced just in time to bring home 11 grapefruits. Don't worry, I don't foresee an inundation of grapefruit recipes any time soon. The last one I tried was a grapefruit meringue pie and while C maintained that it was good (and finished the pie), I thought it was disgusting. There's something about the flavor of grapefruits that I don't like--not the tartness, but the flavor. I'll stick to orange recipes! Today, that orange recipe is for orange ricotta muffins.

The last time I had leftover ricotta cheese I decided to bake muffins. I wanted to make lemon ricotta muffins with thyme and blueberries. I left out the blueberries and made Cooking Light's Tuscan Lemon Muffins but with a little barley flour and thyme sugar on top. I was out of olive oil, so I used canola. I think that might be why my muffins smelled and tasted fried. They were also a fairly dry. I was very disappointed. I left myself notes for how to try improving the recipe, but decided it would be best to just start over with a new recipe. I chose Orange Ricotta Chocolate Chip Muffins from Two Peas and Their Pod because Maria's recipe called for butter in place of oil. I hoped these would turn out better than just barely edible.

Objective
Use up leftover ricotta cheese to make muffins with homemade orange extract.

Materials
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup granulated white sugar
2 tbsp. brown sugar
zest from 1/2 lemon
1/2 cup ricotta
1/2 egg, beaten
2 tbsp. orange juice
1/2 tsp. orange extract
1 cup blueberries, frozen.
Topping:
2 tbsp. turbinado sugar
zest of 1 orange

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350º. Grease 8 muffin cups or line them with paper liners. Set aside.
2. Prepare the topping by combining the turbinado sugar and orange zest in a small bowl and rubbing the zest into the sugar (or use a mortar and pestle). Set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together flours, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the ricotta, beaten egg, orange juice, and orange extract. Stir in the flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the blueberries.
4. Divide the batter evenly between muffin cups. Sprinkle the sugar topping over the muffins.
5. Bake at 350º for 20-25 minutes (less if you used fresh berries) or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Set on a wire rack to cool completely.

Results
These muffins are airy, lightly sweet, and orangey with juicy bursts of blueberry. Best warm out of the oven.

Discussion and Future Directions
I almost didn't try this recipe in favor of a second batch of Clinton Street Baking Co.'s Sunshine Yogurt Muffins. I'm so glad I did because though the recipes are similar, they make very different muffins. The Sunshine Yogurt Muffins give you a burst of tangy, citrusy sunshine to get you moving in the morning (really, they named the muffin perfectly). These muffins are airy, lightly sweet, and orangey with juicy bursts of blueberries. They lack the tangy component imparted by the lemon/lime of the Sunshine Yogurt Muffins.

The combination of orange and blueberry is very tasty. I'd considered adding finely chopped hazelnuts or dried cranberries, but I'm glad I chose blueberries because of the juices they impart. I prefer to make blueberry muffins to blackberry or raspberry because they don't have annoying seeds that get stuck in your teeth. If I had fresh cranberries (or even better yet, sugared cranberries) on hand, they would have been a great alternative for a tangier muffin. Requiring just 1/2 cup of ricotta cheese, a batch of these muffins is a great way to use up leftover ricotta you find hanging out in your fridge!

Supplementary Materials

Orange Cream Scones

There's a cafe in Madison, Wisconsin called Lazy Jane's. It's in one of the neighborhoods that's retained some of Madison's Vietnam-era hippiness. Willy Street is home to a many brightly painted homes, food co-op, a bicycle shop, a chocolatier, a number of thrift stores, and a slew of unique bars, restaurants and cafes. It's a great place to grab coffee and breakfast. Lazy Jane's is a popular choice because their lemon cream scones are considered by many to be the best in Madison.

I first heard of Lazy Jane's lemon cream scones when I was an undergraduate. I met two of my best friends in an advanced language course during the spring semester of my freshman year. On the first day of class, I sat by a girl named Laura and we became friends instantly. Sitting along the wall to my right was a girl named Andrea. We didn't really talk much or get to know each other until the following semester when we took a summer class in La Fonética. The subsequent spring semester, we found ourselves learning La Lingüística together with a quirky visiting professor from the University of Hawaii. We're still hoping to take him up on his offer to tomar un café when we make it to Hawaii! Instead of Hawaii, we found ourselves in Guanajuato, Mexico through different summer programs. Shortly after Andrea arrived, we sat on a bench in the rain tomando un helado and reminiscing about the silly things that happened in Professor Chandler's class!

Fuimos de paseo por Guanajuato!

By the time we returned from Mexico, Andrea and I had one literature requirement each to satisfy our Spanish degrees. I took a course in classical Spanish theater and Andrea took a themed literature course about náufragos. It was in the time after our days as Spanish students that our friendship really developed. She always wanted to take me for lemon cream scones at Lazy Jane's, but that was during my 3.5 years on a gluten free diet and they didn't serve gluten-free scones back then. While I was home for the holidays just last month, we decided to meet for breakfast. I knew our reunion had to be at Lazy Jane's because after hearing Andrea rave about their lemon cream scones for the past 5 years, I was determined to try one!

At 7:45 on Christmas Eve morning, we braved the brisk -12 degree temperature and met at Lazy Jane's. Though I ordered a full breakfast instead of a scone, I got to try a sample. It was a scone that was so light and moist that it might change your stance on the scone. I wanted to order one on my way out but decided to pass after seeing the line to order during the 10:00 rush!  Instead, I would try to make my own version when I got back to Houston. I opted for orange cream scones instead of lemon to take advantage of the oranges we harvested at Flayler Fruit Farm. While I haven't eaten enough of Lazy Jane's scones to effectively compare mine to theirs, I'm going to consider these to be a pretty good alternative.

Objective
Adapt Apt. 2B Baking Co.'s Rhubarb & Rye Scones into orange cream scones. The idea to use orange marmalade as the filling came from Kim Boyce's Strawberry Barley Scones. The glaze came from Clinton Street Baking Co.'s Sunshine Yogurt Muffins.

Materials
Dough:
4.5 oz. rye flour
6 oz. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3 oz. granulated sugar
zest of one orange
zest of 1/2 lemon
4 oz. butter, cold and cut into small cubes
3 tbsp. freshly squeezed orange juice
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice
4-5 oz. heavy cream (8-10 tablespoons)

Filling:
1 tbsp. orange marmalade 

Glaze:
1 tbsp. orange juice (or lemon if you like tart)
1/3 cup powdered sugar

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, granulated sugar, and citrus zest. Use your fingers to rub the butter into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly with the butter well-distributed.
3. Pour in the orange and lemon juices and gently stir just to distribute the juices.
4. Pour the cream in slowly, about 2 ounces at a time, as you gently stir the dough. You only want to add enough cream to bring the flour together into a dough. Once you get there, stop. I used 4 ounces of cream.
5. Gather the dough together in a ball, give the dough a quick knead to incorporate any crumbs lingering in the bottom of the bowl, and slice the ball in half. Pat each slice of dough into to evenly sized 1" thick discs. Spread the top of one disc with orange marmalade, leaving 1/2 inch border at the edge. Set the second disc over the marmalade covered piece and press the edges together.
6. Cut the disc in half, then in half again, and finally, cut each of the quarters in half so that you finish with 8 triangles. Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet with at least 1" of space between them because they will expand while baking. Brush the tops of the scones with cream.
6. Bake the scones for 15-20 minutes or until lightly golden. Remove from the oven and place the scones, still on the baking sheet, on a wire rack and allow to cool for a few minutes while you prepare the glaze. 
7. Prepare the glaze by whisking the powdered sugar into the orange juice. Feel free to add a little zest for color/texture and/or use any pulp that made its way into the juice while reaming. Once you're done preparing the glaze, spread it over the tops of the warm scones and let the scones cool completely.
8. Best served fresh. Still very good if served after 24 hours of airtight storage, but after that, be sure to wrap and freeze them.

Results
Moist, tangy, orangey, and delicious. The marmalade adds flavor but also texture from the strips of rind. Better with the glaze than without because the glaze packs a citrusy punch.

Discussion and Future Directions
These scones are great with oranges, but I can't wait to try them with lemons. I added lemon juice and zest to the orange scones to add tartness because my oranges were very sweet. To take them to the next level, try using a combination of lemon, lime, and orange as with Clinton Street Baking Co.'s Sunshine Yogurt Muffins. To add more orange flavor, you could try adding about 1/2 tsp. orange extract (or lemon extract to up the tartness). The marmalade could easily be skipped but definitely adds a little something extra. You can find a recipe for 1-cup small batch of orange marmalade here. For lemon or lime scones, another jam, maybe blackberry or raspberry, could be substituted for the marmalade. The options are endless!

These scones are quick and easy to prepare making them an excellent treat for a weekend breakfast. I had the baking sheet of scones cooling even before C was ready to think about breakfast. He's a savory breakfast guy and I love sweet and savory breakfasts, so we ate our orange cream scones alongside sausage, egg and hash brown breakfast tacos. It was the perfect compromise to start to our weekend off right!

Supplementary Materials

Pumpkin Butter Cinnamon Rolls

With the holidays coming up, there's still plenty of time to treat yourself and loved ones to baked goods inspired by fall flavors. Overnight guests always warrant something extra special for breakfast and in my opinion, there are few better ways to wake up in the morning than to the smell of cinnamon rolls baking. Let me tell you how much I would have preferred waking up to these cinnamon rolls instead of waking up to my boyfriend crawling into bed at 5 am after he'd been paged into the children's hospital sometime after midnight. Unfortunately for him, after just a few hours of sleep, he had to head back to the hospital for morning rounds. Though he didn't get to wake up to the smell of freshly baked cinnamon rolls either, he did get to come home to the two we saved him (and breakfast tacos)!

Now, here's a trick. You can make these as sticky buns by putting the topping in the bottom of the pan and flipping the rolls out of the pan after baking. Alternatively, you can make them extra beautiful and clean-eating by pouring the topping over the rolls before baking. You can even make them in muffin tins (or prep bowls like I did) for lovely muffin-like edges.

Objective
Make cinnamon rolls with cushaw squash butter as the filling based on my Apple Butter Sticky Buns.

Materials
(This recipe makes 8 rolls)
Dough:
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream, light works fine)
1 1/2-2 1/2 cups bread flour (depending on the amount of moisture in your dough)
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
pinch ginger

Filling:
1/2 cup pumpkin/winter squash butter (see Supplementary Materials)
1/4 cup finely chopped pecans

Topping:
1 1/4 tsp. butter, melted
1/4 cup light Karo syrup
1/4 cup brown sugar
8 pecan halves

Methods
1. To prepare the dough: Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (120º-130ºF) and let proof for 5 minutes. Stir in squash puree, sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and sour cream. Gradually stir in 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, mixing well. If the dough is still very sticky (tacky is fine), add more flour (about 2 tbsp. at a time). You want the dough to be tacky, even a tiny bit sticky is ok. Knead it a few times to make a smooth ball. Move the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and rise to double (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Punch the dough down and rise to double again (about 1 hour). Pat the dough out to a 16" by 12" rectangle.

2. To prepare the topping: During the final rise, prepare the topping. Stir together the melted butter and the honey/syrup. Pour into an ungreased 8" cake pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. Set aside.

3. To make the rolls: Spread the dough with apple butter (leaving a 2 inch border along one long edge). Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough, starting with the long apple buttery edge to the edge with the 2" border. Use a knife to mark where to cut for 8 rolls. Then, use dental floss to cut the rolls. Slide a long piece of dental floss (about 12" should work) under the roll at one of your division marks. Switch each end to the other hand to form a loop, and pull. You should have a nice clean edge. Place a pecan on the clean edge and place the roll pecan-side down in your pan (for sticky buns) or up for cinnamon rolls, spacing the 8 rolls evenly over the prepared topping. Cover the rolls and let rise 30 minutes (if you're planning to bake them right away) or put them in the fridge to rise overnight. If you're chilling over night, make sure to take the buns out of the refrigerator at least 30 minutes prior to baking, but 60 minutes is better (you want to get the chill off and give the yeast a chance to increase its rate of metabolism).

4. To bake the rolls: Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the cake pan with risen rolls on a sheet pan to catch drips. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden on top. Take the pan out of the oven. If you made sticky buns, loosen the edge with a knife (you can skip this if you use a non-stick pan) and flip out onto a parchment paper-lined plate. If you made cinnamon rolls, they can cool in the pan. Cool 15-30 minutes before serving.

Results
The cinnamon rolls are golden brown and lightly sweet. The sticky buns are sweeter and (not surprisingly) sticky!


Discussion and Future Directions
Pumpkin butter has a unique flavor. It's similar to apple butter but has a hint of squash flavor. Consequently, these cinnamon rolls taste like cinnamon rolls with a hint of squash flavor with a strong pecan flavor. If you want to focus the flavor on pumpkin, leave the chopped pecans out of the filling. If you don't like pecans, other nuts could be substituted, maybe try walnuts or hazelnuts, but there's something special about a candied pecan baked into the top of these cinnamon rolls.

Supplementary Materials

Pumpkin/Winter Squash Butter
2 cups pureed winter squash
1/4 cup apple cider
1/2 cup light brown sugar
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/8 tsp. clove
Simmer all ingredients in a saucepan over low heat, stirring frequently. Once the mixture has thickened, take it off the heat and move it to a covered container. Store in the fridge. Lasts 3-4 weeks.

Review: Homemade Shredded Coconut [Oatmeal]

Did you know that you can make homemade unsweetened shredded coconut? You can! A few months ago when we had a friend in town, we went to the Mexican market to check out the produce.  The boys saw people walking around drinking coconuts and began to reflect on the spring break trip they took to Cancun their first year of college. They decided to get a coconut each for old times' sake. After they finished the coconut water, they had already cracked open coconuts that I refused to let go to waste. The last coconut we had went into Coconut Pancakes from the Homesick Texan. We've had a few flavors of pancakes this past year and coconut was my favorite by a long shot (C's favorite was Maple Chorizo Crumpets from Little Goat in Chicago; he frequently asks why I've never made them again).

However, our friend follows a strict diet that I can't really explain. All I know is that he doesn't eat grains or milk, so pancakes were out. I was planning a big Ethiopian meal, so I didn't really want to bake. I was determined not to let the boys throw the coconuts in the trash, so how could I preserve them? Shredded coconut! I got out the food processor and put in the shredding disc. I fed chunks of the coconut through the feeding tube and let the food processor do it's magic. To be honest, it wasn't as easy as I'd expected. While a portion of the coconut shredded, a significant amount got stuck in odd places. Anyway, I took about half of what was shredded, spread it out on a baking sheet lined with foil, and baked at 250º until the coconut started to desiccate (and brown a bit). I let it cool completely and stored it in a glass container with a tight seal. I've had it at room temperature for the past two months and it's still good. I froze the rest of the shredded coconut fresh to use for other things (um, pancakes).

I'm starting to worry about my homemade shredded coconut going bad (though with the amount of fat in coconut, it's probably not a huge concern). I stirred some into yogurt with granola, threw a little into a smoothie, used about 1/2 cup in a 9x9 pan of Dark Chocolate Chunk Oatmeal Bars from Half Baked Harvest, and added some to coconut oatmeal in an effort to use up coconut milk (see recipe below). I've still got about 1/2 cup that I think I'll save to use as topping to make something extra pretty. Because it's already a little toasted, it's extremely convenient!

Coconut Oatmeal For Two
Based on April Bloomfield's English Porridge
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup coconut milk (or other milk)
1/4 cup steel cut oats
1/4 cup old-fashioned oats
pinch salt
1 tbsp. flaxseed meal
2 tbsp. to  1/4 cup shredded coconut (why not homemade?!)
1 tsp. to 1 tbsp. brown sugar, to taste

Bring water and coconut milk to a boil. Add steel cut oats, old fashioned oats, and a pinch of salt. Simmer until the oatmeal thickens and reaches the consistency you desire. Stir in the flaxseed meal, shredded coconut, and brown sugar. Sprinkle with more shredded coconut and brown sugar before serving.

HOMEMADE SHREDDED COCONUT: The Verdict
If I bought a coconut for something and had leftover coconut, I would definitely do this again. The roasting/desiccating method produces pre-toasted unsweetened shredded coconut. From 2 coconuts, I had at least 3 cups of shredded coconut (and it gains volume when it dries). To buy that at the grocery store would cost an arm and a leg compared to my $3 coconuts! Freezing the coconut may be equally convenient for baking or cooking and is certainly easier to prepare, but wouldn't be best for the beautifully browned toasted bits that make everything prettier. This makes a great DIY day project!

Apple Butter Sticky Buns

As you know, we made a huge batch of apple butter. Surprisingly, we're already down to about 1/2 cup. I'm done making apple butter everything and will leave the rest for C to eat with toast. If I find that I absolutely have to make something else after he's finished it, we bought a backup jar at the farmers' market while we were in Madison that I'd be happy to open. The last thing on my list of things I had to make with apple butter this season was apple butter sticky buns. While I love cinnamon rolls with cream cheese frosting, I find that sticky buns are a lot more fail-proof. It can be hard to get just the right balance of sweet and tart when making cream cheese frosting. As soon as you add too much milk, you're stuck adding a mouth puckering amount of powdered sugar. Sticky buns, on the other hand, simply require adding the right amount of syrup and sugar and the baking process does the magic.

On Friday night, I started making dough as soon as I got home from work. By 7:30 p.m., the rolls were in the refrigerator for the final raise overnight. Saturday morning, they were out of the oven by 7:45 a.m.  so we could get on the road for a weekend trip to San Antonio.  Not 15 minutes after pulling them out of the oven, our roommate groggily walked to the kitchen and said "That is a wonderful smell to wake up to." I bet your loved ones would agree!

Objective
Make pecan sticky buns with apple butter filling. Finding apple butter recipes on the internet is easy. Finding recipes that use apple butter is a different story, let alone finding recipes for sticky buns that use apple butter. I found a few, but none of them  jumped out at me. I decided to use the dough from Orange Rolls on Pastry Affair (because it's so simple and very light and fluffy) and I improvised the filing and topping based on my sticky buns/cinnamon roll preferences.

Materials
(This recipe makes 8 rolls)
Dough:
1 tsp. yeast
1/4 cup warm water
2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tbsp. butter, melted
1 egg
1/4 cup greek yogurt (or sour cream, light works fine)
1 1/2-2 1/2 cups bread flour (depending on the amount of moisture in your dough)

Filling:
1/2 cup apple butter
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

Topping:
1 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. honey*
2 tbsp. maple syrup*
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup pecans, chopped

*Note: this makes a fairly thin sticky topping. If you want a thick, caramel-like topping, use 1/4 cup light Karo syrup, 1 1/2 tbsp. butter, 1/2 cup brown sugar, and 1/2 cup chopped pecans.

Methods
1. To prepare the dough: Dissolve the yeast in the warm water (120º-130ºF) and let proof for 5 minutes. Stir in sugar, salt, butter, eggs, and sour cream. Gradually stir in 1 1/2 cups of bread flour, mixing well. If the dough is still very sticky (tacky is fine), add more flour (about 2 tbsp. at a time). You want the dough to be tacky, even a tiny bit sticky is ok. Knead it a few times to make a smooth ball. Move the dough to a lightly greased bowl. Cover and rise to double (about 1 1/2 - 2 hours). Punch the dough down and rise to double again (about 1 hour). Pat the dough out to a 16" by 12" rectangle.

2. To prepare the topping: During the final rise, prepare the topping. Stir together the melted butter and the honey/syrup. Pour into an ungreased 8" cake pan. Sprinkle with brown sugar and pecans. Set aside.

3. To make the rolls: Spread the dough with apple butter (leaving a 2 inch border along one long edge). Sprinkle with the cinnamon and sugar. Roll the dough, starting with the long apple buttery edge to the edge with the 2" border. Use a knife to mark where to cut for 8 rolls. Then, use dental floss to cut the rolls. Slide a long piece of dental floss (about 12" should work) under the roll at one of your division marks. Switch each end to the other hand to form a loop, and pull. You should have a nice clean edge. Place the roll with this clean edge up in your pan, spacing the 8 rolls evenly over the prepared topping. Cover the rolls and let rise 30 minutes (if you're planning to bake them right away) or 15 minutes (if you're planning to refrigerate overnight. If you're ready to bake, proceed to step 4. If not, place the rolls in the refrigerator overnight. Make sure to take them out at least 30 minutes prior to baking, but 1-2 hours is better (you want to get the chill off and let the yeast start working again).

4. To bake the rolls: Preheat the oven to 350º. Place the cake pan with risen rolls on a sheet pan to catch drips. Bake 25-30 minutes or until golden on top. Take the pan out of the oven, loosen the edge with a knife (you can skip this if you use a non-stick pan) and flip out onto a parchment paper-lined plate. Cool 15 minutes before serving.

Results
Sweet, but a little tart (like a good apple). The sticky topping is more earthy than caramely sweet. The rolls are soft and fluffy with a bit of a crunch from the pecans.

Discussion and Future Directions
These are very good and make a great fall breakfast treat (as do the orange rolls I linked to above). The bread is extremely light and fluffy. I think that's due to the greek yogurt (which surprised me since I used 0% fat greek yogurt instead of sour cream and I would have suspected that the added fat would have been the key). I was also surprised the recipe called for bread flour as it contains more gluten which would make a tougher bread if over-worked.  My usual cinnamon roll recipe uses all-purpose flour and potato starch flour. It also makes a nice light bread, but not nearly as light as this recipe. For that reason (and that it's simple to throw together), this might be my new go-to bread dough.

The sticky buns weren't quite as appley as I was hoping, so I think that next time, I'd stir a few tablespoons apple butter into the topping. If you want a spiced roll, add a pinch each ginger, allspice, and clove to the filling with the cinnamon. I chose to use a combination of maple syrup and honey for the topping to make it more natural and earthy in taste rather than sweet and caramely like Karo syrup. I am pleased with that decision though it would be great either way. While there is no such thing as a healthy sticky bun, I feel like there are a few things about these that make them less bad as some of the others (just pretend you don't use as much sugar as you do)!

Supplementary Materials

Rhubarb and Sorrel Scones

Last weekend at the farmers' market, I saw bunches of sorrel for sale. I had no idea what it was. In my head, I thought it was a type a mushroom, but I could clearly see that it was a leafy green of some sort. I didn't think much of it. This weekend, I saw it again and decided I wanted to try it. I still had no idea what it was, but I knew there was a recipe for Rhubarb and Sorrel Crisp in the cookbook C gave me for Christmas, Simply in Season. However, in my mind, crisps are more of a fall food. So, how was I going to use this large bunch of sorrel?

I had a stalk of rhubarb leftover in the fridge from the Rhubarb Upside-Down Cake I made for Memorial Day. One end was starting to get mushy, so I knew I needed to use it or risk losing it. I also had about 3/4 cup cream in the fridge on its "Best By" date. My plan for the rhubarb and cream was to make scones. Since rhubarb and sorrel pair well for a fruit crisp, I didn't see why I couldn't put them together in a scone. Plenty of people make savory scones with spinach, so why not sorrel?

What is sorrel anyway? Sorrel is a perennial herb that is related to buckwheat and rhubarb. Like rhubarb leaves, it contains oxalic acid, which can cause kidney failure by chelating metals and precipitating crystals in the kidneys. Luckily, sorrel contains less oxalic acid than rhubarb leaves and is safe for consumption (but can be lethal if high quantities are eaten). Lots of foods we eat other than rhubarb, buckwheat, and sorrel contain moderate levels of oxalic acid, for example: black pepper, parsley, spinach, beets, nuts, berries, and beans.

Objective
Make Rhubarb & Rye Scones from Apt. 2B Baking Co. with chopped sorrel.

Materials
2 stalks rhubarb (~4.5 oz), chopped to 1/2" pieces
2 tbsp. granulated sugar
zest of 1 lime
1 oz. sorrel, cut in half lengthwise then chopped
4.5 oz. rye flour (or another whole grain flour: barley, whole wheat)
6 oz. unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup butter, cold and cut into 1/2" cubes
4-6 oz. heavy cream (1/2-3/4 cup)
2-3 tbsp. turbinado sugar (or other coarse sugar), for sprinkling

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 400ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a small bowl, mix the chopped rhubarb with 2 tbsp. white sugar and the zest of one lime. Place the chopped sorrel on top of the rhubarb, but don't mix it in.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking powder, salt, and 1/4 cup granulated sugar. Use a pastry blender to cut in the butter until the mixture is crumbly with the butter well-distributed.
4. Find your small bowl of rhubarb and sorrel. Give the mixture a stir to combine the sorrel and rhubarb and distribute the sugar and juices. Scape the vegetables (yes, they are both vegetables) with the sugary juice into the bowl with the dough and stir to mix.
5. Pour the cream in slowly as you gently stir the dough. You only want to add enough to bring the flour together into a dough. Once you get there, stop.
6. Gather the dough together in a ball. I suggest dumping the dough onto saran wrap and pulling the wrap up and around the dough to shape it into a ball. Then, still on the saran warp, flatten the ball to a 1" thick disc. Cut the disc in half, then continue making cuts until you have 8 triangles. Place the triangles on the prepared baking sheet with at least 1" of space around them (see the pictures in Supplementary Materials to see how much they expand). Brush the tops of the scones with cream and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
7. Bake for 15-20 minutes at 400ºF. If you can see unbaked dough in any of the cracks, continue to bake. When they are done, the tops should be lightly golden. Remove the scones from the oven. Slide the parchment paper from the pan onto a wire rack and allow the scones to cool. Best served fresh.

Results
The scones are very light and moist. The sugar topping adds a nice crunch. The sweet to tart ratio is great. The rhubarb broke down to "little jammy pockets" just as Yossy from Apt. 2B Baking Co. said it would! The sorrel lost its bright green hue and broke down quite a bit, but maintained its flavor. 

Discussion
I tried my first scone just a few months ago. I always thought scones were dense, dry, and hard. Maybe I was confusing them with biscotti, which I have had and do not like. I made a recipe for cardamom and orange scones with orange blossom water and honey mascarpone from Homemade Winter by Yvette van Boven. I learned that I do not like orange blossom water, but that I do like scones. They aren't the dry, dense little hockey pucks I thought they were. 

This recipe is even better than the cardamom and orange scones I made. The texture is amazing. The flavor is also very good. If you can't get sorrel, leave it out. Yossy's recipe is a keeper. So much so that I'm going to start craving scones. I like that the scones get all of their flavor from the flour, vegetables, and citrus zest. There are no spices. The scones have a crisp rhubarb flavor that is very refreshing (quite the opposite of the rhubarb cardamom combination I used when I was looking for a warm, comforting cake). I am so glad we came across sorrel today so that I could try this recipe, with my own little twist.

Since this recipe only used 1 oz. of sorrel, we still have quite a bit left. We had the scones for "second breakfast." For lunch, I made blue cheese and sorrel grilled cheese sandwiches from Seattle Times. Both sorrel and blue cheese have strong flavors. I felt like the blue cheese won the battle and I couldn't really taste the sorrel. Nevertheless, it was fun to try. I'm going to have to be creative to figure out how to use the rest!

Supplementary Materials

Zucchini and Egg Breakfast Tacos

Let's talk about farmers' markets. Growing up in Madison, Wisconsin, I grew up with the notion that Saturday mornings are for the farmers' market. The capitol square bustles with pedestrians, bicyclists, children in strollers, a kid being carried on dad's shoulders, adults pulling wagons full of flowers and produce, dogs happy to be amidst so much activity, The Raging Grannies peace activists, an Andean musical group, someone passing around a petition for something they care about, Tom Ryan playing his piccolo, [fill in your favorite Madisonians]. The capitol steps and lawn seat people resting from the flow to enjoy spicy cheese bread, pastries, fresh fruit and vegetables, a bag of fresh, squeaky cheese curds, beef jerky, or some form of honey. In between bites and conversation, they are people-watching to take in this Madison ritual. Across the sidewalk, the perimeter of the capitol square is lined with tents and tables where friendly locals sell their goods. Every block has at least one cheese maker offering samples and no one can resist a squeaky cheese curd that was made at 4:00 that very morning. This is just what you do on Saturday morning in Madison.

Yesterday, C took me to the Urban Harvest Farmers Market in Houston. He was excited to take me because he knows how much I love the one in Madison. The problem is, I've never been to another farmers' market that captures the energy of the one in Madison, let alone the size. Mercado Hidalgo in Guanajuato, MX is a two story building full of vendors seven days a week. It is a beautiful market, but has an overpowering meaty smell from the carniceria and the unfortunate upper story of vendors selling trinkets (rosaries, bags, GTO-labeled anything you can imagine). I walked through Mercado Embajadores everyday on my way to the University of Guanajuato. The fruit smelled amazing, but I was kind of freaked out by all of the clothing and DVD stands. The Historic Soulard Farmers' Market in St. Louis showed great promise until I saw pineapples for sale. It is a great place to buy cheap wholesale produce that will probably go bad within 48 hours, but takes more searching if you want local or organic produce. The Urban Harvest Farmers Market in Houston is like a very small version of the Dane County Farmer's Market. I appreciate that the vendors are local and diverse. There are vendors for vegetables, goat cheese, meats, soaps, plants (mostly vegetables and an out-of-place orchid stand), chocolate, macaroons, coffee, at least 3 breakfast stands, rescue dogs, etc. What it's missing: size, location, Madisonians, and good Wisconsin cheddar.

Nevertheless, we picked up a few things. I don't imagine that Madisonians are able to get strawberries, blackberries, blueberries and tree-ripe peaches before Memorial Day! (There are some perks to living in Texas!) Anyway, the market made me homesick and hungry. With that combination, we were edging on a hangry Abby. As we walked back to the car, we were considering going out for Indian breakfast, but as soon as I said "breakfast tacos," I knew C was sold. We made a quick stop at H.E.B. to get the things we couldn't find at the farmers' market (they didn't even have cilantro). When we got home, I made vegetarian breakfast tacos with zucchini. C was skeptical about my use of zucchini. He whipped up huevos rancheros for himself, but I think he was pleasantly surprised by how satisfying my tacos were! They were spicy and the texture was great (I used a tool for cutting the vegetables into perfect little cubes--larger cubes for onion and green pepper and smaller cubes for the zucchini).

Apparently we didn't curb my hanger quickly enough, because I was still out-of-sorts after breakfast. C decided to give me a gift he was saving for Memorial Day (our date-day this month): a cutting board the shape of Wisconsin with a heart cut-out for Madison. He said that he knew I missed Wisconsin, so maybe it would help. I can't wait to use it as a cheese board for our next batch of homemade cheese!

Zucchini and Egg Vegetarian Breakfast Tacos
Makes 4-6 tacos

Materials
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1/2 small zucchini, diced (up to 1/2 cup)
1/2 small green pepper, diced (up to 1/2 cup)
cumin, to taste
cayenne, to taste
salt and pepper, to taste
4 eggs, lightly beaten
Tortillas (your favorite kind)
1/2 cup refried black beans, heated through
Greek yogurt, to garnish
Shredded cheese, to garnish
Cilantro, to garnish

Methods
1. To prepare the vegetables: Heat 1/2 tbsp. olive oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add onions. Cook for 2-3 minutes until they just begin to soften. Add the zucchini and green pepper. Cook until the vegetables are soft. Season with cumin, cayenne, black, pepper, and salt, to taste. Remove vegetables from the pan to a bowl.
2.  To prepare the eggs: Heat the remaining 1/2 tbsp. of oil in the same skillet. Add the lightly beaten eggs to the pan. Stir occasionally until the eggs are cooked through. Remove from heat.
3. Assemble the tacos: Slather a tortilla with refried black beans. Add about a quarter cup each of the scrambled eggs and vegetable mixture. Sprinkle with cheese. Dollop with greek yogurt, sprinkle with cilantro. Serve immediately.

Berry Muffins with Whole Grains

Vegetables aren't my favorite, but C makes me eat them because he's a pediatrician and it's his job to make people eat vegetables (at least I think that's what he does on days when he has clinic). I like them with peanut sauce, but I can't eat them that way everyday. So for the other days, why not stick them in baked goods? (To give myself some credit, I think I ate a whole week's worth of vegetable servings yesterday, so I deserve something yummy today.) Yes, I understand that there's only one serving of veges in the entire recipe, but if I eat the whole batch... just kidding. To make it not seem so bad if I do eat the whole thing, I used lots of whole grains: whole wheat, barley, and steel-cut oats! The first recipe I tried using steel cut oats was banana muffins from The Kitchn and I loved them. When I think quick-bread or muffins, I think banana. If not banana, then blueberry. For some reason, C always makes raspberry muffins. I suspect it's a functional reason, because he keeps raspberries on hand for a raspberry mint drink that he makes with Bourbon and doesn't have other fruits in his freezer. So, since I made banana muffins last time (um, 2 nights ago), I thought I'd mix it up with blueberry. I only had a quarter cup of blueberries, so threw in some of C's raspberries.

Objective
Make muffins with steel cut oats and other grains, berries, and carrots. This recipe is based on Chew Out Loud's recipe which was based on this NY Times recipe.

Materials
Dry ingredients:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup barley flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tbsp. flaxseed meal
[2 tsp. baking powder--hmm, how did I forget that?]
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients:
2 eggs
1 1/3 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
1 tsp. vanilla

1 cup cooked steel-cut oats
1/2 cup grated carrot
1 cup berries (ex. blueberries, raspberries) tossed with 1 tbsp. flour
Turbinado/Raw sugar, for sprinkling.

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease muffin tin and set aside. I recommend making these into jumbo muffins for maximum moisture.
2. In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. Combine the wet ingredients (eggs through vanilla) in a blender. Mix until the mixture is homogenous. Add the cooked steel-cut oats and carrot. Pulse a few times to incorporate and break the steel-cut oats into slightly smaller pieces.
4. Fold the blended mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir in the berries.
5. Fill the muffin cups with batter. Sprinkle with sugar. Bake 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 10-15 minutes before moving the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in a sealed container to keep the muffins moist.

Results
Yum! These are hearty but still taste good. In flavor, they are reminiscent of bran muffins. They are denser than your average muffin, but lighter than a bran muffin. This is kind of funny because I tried substituting millet for bran in a banana muffin and it failed--maybe the combination of steel cut oats, barley, and whole wheat pastry flour is the secret.The muffins are very moist and even moister on the second day.

Discussion and Future Directions
I really like these in a why-don't-I-eat-muffins-for-breakfast-every-day sort of way. For whole grain muffins, the combination of cooked steel cut oats and barley ensures a moist product (not a hockey puck). Having had my share of gluten-free baked goods, I know how disappointing it is to make something so hard you think you might break your teeth. The texture is soft with a touch of chew from the oats. The carrot is not noticeable.

Next time, I would try to skip the maple syrup. I'm not a huge fan of maple syrup in baking. Even grade B just doesn't do it for me. And to be honest, it's too expensive and not sweet enough. Though I joke about it, I don't eat baked goods for health foods. I eat them as a treats. I would keep the refined sugar where it is, and eliminate the maple syrup. I think I would add more carrot or add zucchini if I had some on hand. Once in awhile, I crave a cupcake-like muffin and I have a recipe for that. When I'm looking for a less guilty recipe, this recipe and the banana muffin recipe I mentioned above will be perfect! I'm excited to play around with different mix-ins.

Strawberry Chocolate Chip Muffins

I'm not a huge fan of muffins (probably because I don't like the texture of cake). Nevertheless, for a morning baking date, muffins are the way to go. I love banana bread and quickbreads, but they take twice as long to bake. On Sunday morning, my friend Kelley came over to bake muffins. I'd given her three options based on the frozen fruits in my freezer: blueberry, cranberry or strawberry. She chose blueberry. I started wondering if people even make strawberry muffins. You can do a hundred other wonderful things with strawberries, like strawberry rhubarb pie or strawberry shortcake, so why make muffins? A quick search for strawberry muffin recipes yielded quite a few results.  Indeed, people do make strawberry muffins. However, the first strawberry muffin recipe that comes up in a Google search has one order of magnitude fewer reviews that the first blueberry muffin recipe, suggesting that people really love blueberry muffins. After I finished the last blueberry muffin, I decided I simply had to try strawberry muffins. With Valentine's day coming up, I decided chocolate had to be added. Recipe adapted from SoNo Baking Company Cookbook.

Objective
Adapt a blueberry muffin recipe to make strawberry chocolate chip muffins.

Materials
1 cup plus flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup (4 tbsp.) unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 large egg, room temperature
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup plain greek yogurt (substitute plain yogurt, sour cream, crème fraîche)
about 1 cup frozen (unthawed) strawberries, chopped and tossed in 1/2-1 tbsp. flour
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 375º. Prepare 9 muffin cups (grease the pan or use liners).
2. Whisk together flour, baking powder and baking soda. Set aside.
3. Beat butter, sugar, and salt on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. Add egg. Beat in vanilla.
4. With the mixer speed on low, slowly add the dry ingredients and continue mixing until flour is just incorporated. Add the greek yogurt and continue beating on low speed until incorporated. Beat in the strawberries until just incorporated. Gently fold in the chocolate with a rubber spatula. Note: the batter will be very thick.
5. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full (about 1/4 cup of batter per muffin cup). Sprinkle with additional sugar if desired (baker's sugar works well).
6. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, rotating the muffin pan after 10 minutes.  Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, or the muffin springs back when gently touched.
7. Cool the muffins completely in the pan on a wire rack.

Results
Yum! The strawberries are tart which is balanced by the sweetness of the chocolate. Perfectly light in texture and moist. Lightly golden brown.

Discussion and Future Directions
Both the blueberry and the strawberry muffins turned out well. I might be more inclined to make muffins again. They don't get the caramelized dark crust of a quickbread, but that keeps the whole product soft. For banana, I'll stick with bread. Since I didn't have much luck making blueberry quickbread, I think I will continue making these blueberry muffins. The berries did not all sink to the bottom, which is what happened with the really light batter of the blueberry quickbread. This batter is thick, but don't worry, the end product will turn out light and delicious!

This recipe could be easily adapted to other berries. If you leave out the chocolate, I suggest adding citrus zest (try 1 tsp) to add depth to the flavor. For raspberries or blueberries, use lemon zest; for blackberries, use lime zest; for cranberries or strawberries, use orange zest or 2 tablespoons of orange marmalade. If you try these muffins with a different flavor combination, please let me know how they turn out!

Supplementary Materials

Banana Bread Recipe Challenge

Objective
To make banana bread with leftover bananas and give crème fraîche another chance. I'm kind of particular when it comes to banana bread (ok fine, I'm kind of particular in general). I'm a lot better at knowing what I don't like than I am knowing what I do like. When it comes to banana bread, I don't like cinnamon and I don't like chocolate chips. I do, however, like nuts. My go-to recipe for years has been a one bowl, one spoon version from Simply Recipes. My biggest complaint is that the crust comes out super dark. I love that it doesn't require sifting or a mixer, which makes it accessible to everyone. The recipe I'm making here is a little more complicated in that it requires a sifter and, unless you want to whisk by hand for 10 minutes, an electric mixer. Recipe adpated from Flour's Famous Banana Bread Recipe. Makes one loaf.

Materials
1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt, heaping
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup canola oil
3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
2 tablespoons crème fraîche (for lower fat use sour cream)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2/3 cup pecans (or walnuts), chopped and toasted

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line the bottom of a 9"x5" loaf pan with parchment paper and grease the inside of the pan. 
2. Sift together flour, baking soda and salt. Set aside.
3. Beat sugar and eggs with a whisk until they are light and fluffy (I whisked them on medium speed on my mixer for 5 minutes). 
4. Keep whisking and drizzle in the oil.
5. Turn the mixer off. Mix in the bananas, crème fraîche and vanilla.
6. Fold in the dry ingredients and nuts.
7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake until a cake tester comes out clean (for me, at least 70-75 minutes, but I would start checking it around 50 minutes).

Results
The crust is very dark. The center is light and moist. The flavor is very banana-y and delicious!

Discussion and Future Directions
This banana bread is worth the extra effort! The flavor is wonderful, as is the texture. I visited some friends on Sunday night and took them half of the loaf because I knew it would be a bad idea to keep it in the house! The only real complaint I have is that the crust is borderline burned. I say borderline because as a kid, I would have called it burned, but as an adult I can tolerate the flavor a lot more. Next time I would try reducing the cooking time and making mini-loaves. I can't quite judge how many loaves to make because the batter did rise quite a bit in the oven (maybe 3 or 4 little loaves?). However, I think baking the batter into smaller loaves would help the middle cook more proportionately to the crust. With smaller loaves, I have some fear that the middle will dry out before the crust browns, but it's worth the risk. This will definitely be my new go-to banana bread recipe. Next time you have overripe bananas, give this a try! I promise you won't regret it (unless you eat the whole loaf in one sitting and make yourself sick)!

Supplementary Materials

Blueberry Quickbread with Crème Fraîche

Objective
To use crème fraîche in place of sour cream in quickbread. I have heard nothing but wonderful things about crème fraîche. It's widely popular in Europe, but you don't hear much about it in the United States. It is cultured like sour cream, but closer to 30% butterfat whereas sour cream is only up to about 20% butterfat. The flavor isn't quite as sour as sour cream.The texture of crème fraîche is much thicker than sour cream and the best description I can give is that it's "goopy." For you scientists out there, as I was stirring it, it reminded me of cell lysate, but not as cohesive. Needless to say, I quickly became skeptical. I elected a blueberry muffin recipe because I had fresh blueberries that needed eating and the combination of sour cream and blueberry is popular in baking. Adapted from Doris Greenspan's Baking with Julia.

Materials 

1 ¾ cup cake flour

2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon cream of tartar

1 teaspoon salt

1 pint fresh blueberries

¾ cup milk

¼ cup crème fraîche (could use full-fat sour cream)

1 stick (4 oz) unsalted butter, at room temperature

2/3 cup sugar

1 large egg, at room temp

1 large egg yolk, at room temp

Methods
1. Preheat the oven to 400° and grease two 8" x 2.75" loaf pans (or muffin tins if you prefer).
2. Sift the dry ingredients three times. Use two tablespoons of the flour mixture to coat the blueberries and set the blueberries and flour mixture aside. In a small bowl or liquid measuring cup, whisk together the milk and crème fraîche and set aside.
3. Cream the butter on medium speed until it is pale (I used speed 3 or 4 on my mixer and it took just under 3 minutes).
4. Add the sugar and continue to beat another 3 minutes.
5. Add the egg and egg yolk and beat 2 minutes until the mixture is light and fluffy.
6. Remove the bowl from the mixer. Add half of the dry ingredients and half of the milk/crème fraîche mixture and fold into the batter with a spatula until just incorporated. Repeat with the other half.
7. Gently fold in the blueberries.
8. Divide the batter evenly between prepared loaf pans (or muffin tins). Bake 10 minutes, or until the tops are just starting to brown, reduce the oven temperature to 350°, tent the loaves with foil, and continue baking another 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (less time for muffins).
9. Cool on a cooling rack 10 to 15 minutes before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely. Wrap tightly and store at room temperature.

Results
The bread is light and flimsy. All of the blueberries sunk to the bottom. The top is nicely browned. The texture is light. The flavor is rich, but not sweet.

Conclusions and Future Directions
The first two things I ever made from scratch were chocolate chip cookies and banana bread. These were my favorite baked goods growing up. Both are sweet, but not rich. This recipe for blueberry quickbread is rich, but not sweet. Because I was expecting something much sweeter, I'm hesitant to say that I didn't like the bread. It's simply not what I expected. The use of cake flour had me dreaming of a sweet, rich pound cake sprinkled with blueberries for a little tang. If that's what you're looking for, the richness is there, but increase the amount of sugar. I think the addition of brown sugar could do wonders!

That being said, the bread probably would have been sweet enough if the blueberries hadn't all sunk to the bottom. If they had been evenly distributed, it would have added sugar to each bite. The purpose of coating the blueberries with the flour mixture was to reduce sinking. It simply didn't work. I've read that some people swear by frozen berries coated in flour instead of fresh berries. The argument that ice is less dense and more buoyant doesn't work here--it's a weight thing. This batter is really light and airy. I think the batter simply can't withstand the weight of the berries. Making muffins might be the way to go because the shorter baking time might catch the berries in their fall so a few of them will be incorporated.

But, back to the point: crème fraîche! The point of adding sour cream or crème fraîche is moisture. These loaves are incredibly moist and tender, so the crème fraîche did its job! I don't think there will be a next time for this blueberry quickbread. Quickbreads and muffins with fruit always seem to disappoint me, unless that fruit is banana. I have 12 or so bananas sitting to ripen for an ice cream recipe I'm planning to make with a Mexican sugar called piloncillo. I think I'll use the extra bananas next weekend to give crème fraîche it's chance to shine in banana bread!

Supplementary Materials