Banana Bread and Pecan Waffles

As I was about to put the two very ripe bananas into the freezer for use at a later date, the thought of using them to make waffles instead of banana bread occurred to me. So that is what I did!

The batter was thicker than usual thanks to the addition of the bananas, but this resulted in a slightly cakier waffle, hence the name banana bread waffles. I added pecans for crunch, and spiced the batter with cinnamon and nutmeg. I usually sprinkle the pecans onto each waffle when I put the batter into the waffle maker, as some of us (the dog) can't have nuts.

This was a great breakfast, and was well appreciated by all, the dog included! I made 5 waffles from this recipe.

Start by plugging the waffle maker in so that it is nice and hot when the batter is ready. Lightly grease it if needed.

Measure the dry ingredients:

2 cups flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg

Using a hand blender, puree:

2 ripe bananas

Add enough milk to the bananas to give you a total liquid amount of 2 cups. Whisk in:

2 egg yolks (reserve the whites)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients.

Whisk the 2 reserved egg whites to firm peaks.

Gently fold the egg whites into the batter.

Place the batter into your waffle iron, and sprinkle with chopped pecans.

Close the waffle maker and allow it to cook until golden and crisp on the outside.






Serve the waffles hot, with butter and maple syrup. Extra sliced bananas, or other fresh fruit, can also be served with the waffles.

• If you would prefer chunks of bananas in your waffles, then don't puree them, and use 2 cups of milk for your liquid. Fold the chunks, or slices, of banana into the batter before cooking.
• The pecans, or any other nut you choose to use, can also be folded into the batter. As I mentioned, I add them to the batter once it is in the waffle maker, so that people can choose whether or not they want nuts.
• Any fruit can be used instead of bananas...pureed pumpkin, butternut squash, sweet potatoes, peaches, pears, applesauce to name a few options.
• Try adding pumpkin pie spice, fresh or ground ginger, aniseed, lemon or orange zest for a different flavour.
• Whip soft butter with maple syrup or honey to serve with the hot waffles.
• Serve them as dessert by adding fresh fruit and ice cream.
• Extra waffles can be frozen, and heated up by popping them into the toaster or back into the hot waffle maker.

Pear Muffins with Cinnamon Streusel

Pears, so sweet, juicy and delicious when they are perfectly ripe but give them a day or two more and it's cook with them or throw them out. Sometimes they seem to ripen way too quickly for me to eat them!

That's when a muffin recipe like this comes in handy...moist and cakey, with chunks of sweet pear and a cinnamon streusel topping these used the ripe pears, as well as some yoghurt and half a fresh lemon.

They were a hit for breakfast this morning!

To make the streusel, combine the dry ingredients:

3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder

Add:

1/3 cup melted butter

Stir with a fork or use your fingertips, until you have mixed all of the butter in and have a crumbly mixture.

Set aside until needed.







Heat the oven to 350F and lightly grease a muffin tin. This recipe only makes 8 muffins, so grease only the amount of muffin cups needed.

To make the muffin batter, beat until light and fluffy:

2/3 cup softened butter
3/4 cup sugar
zest of half a lemon

Add:

1 egg

Mix until well combined.

Add half of the dry ingredients. For the full amount of dry ingredients you will need:

1 3/4 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda

When the first half of the dry ingredients is combined, add the wet ingredients:

Juice of half a lemon
1 tablespoon Greek yoghurt
Milk to bring the total liquid to 1/2 cup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla






When the wet ingredients are incorporated add the remaining half of the dry ingredients and mix until just combined.

Place a slightly heaped tablespoon of batter into each greased muffin cup...

Top this with peeled and chopped pear. I used:

1 ripe pear

Divide the remaining batter between the muffin cups, gently spreading it over the pears.

Divide the reserved streusel between the 8 muffins, gently pressing it into the batter.

Bake until the muffins are firm to the touch, the streusel is golden and a skewer inserted into the centre of a muffin comes out clean.

This took about 35 - 40 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow the muffins to cool before carefully removing from the pan. Enjoy warm or at room temperature, with morning coffee or as a quick and easy breakfast.

• This is a basic streusel recipe and can be added to if you want more crunch or layers of flavour. Things like chopped nuts or oats, brown sugar, spices such as ground or fresh ginger, lemon or orange zest will all do just that.
• Extra streusel can be made and frozen for your next batch of muffins.
• Do not limit your fruit choice to pears. Other fruits that can be used to make these delicious muffins include apples, peaches, berries, rhubarb.
• Instead of greasing your muffins cups, use paper liners. This makes taking them out of the pan easier, makes clean up easier and allows you to take the muffins as a meal or snack on the go.
• The recipe can be adapted to make mini loaves if you have the pans. These make great hostess, Christmas or teacher gifts.
• The muffins can be frozen.

Wholewheat Loaf with Rosemary, Shallot, Pinenuts and Raisins

I have been making our bread for the last 26 years, with the odd exception when we buy something for a treat, and now that I don't have to satisfy four different palates, or make sandwhiches for school each day, I have decided it's time to make some more fun breads for our lunches. Not that there's anything wrong with the Multigrain Bread I usually make, but sometimes a change is good.

I have made a sourdough starter, and make sourdough about once a week, but wanted something a bit more flavourful and rustic. This fit the bill...rosemary was a definite, due to my fresh rosemary bush. I had a few shallots, and about a tablespoon of pinenuts so those went in, as well raisins...just because!

This loaf has a chewy crust, soft crumb and is slightly spicy from the black pepper I added, and then there's the sweetness of the raisins...it made a lovely ham sandwhich, let me tell you. I'm sure the rest will be used for toast...yum.

Measure out your flavourings:

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 tablespoon toasted pinenuts
1 large shallot, minced
1/2 - 2/3 cup dark raisins
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground black pepper

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine:

1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 cup warm water
1/2 cup warm milk

Leave until the yeast has dissolved and starts to foam and rise to the surface.

Add:

the prepared flavourings
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
1/4 cup cornmeal
1 cup wholewheat flour

Mix on low speed with the dough hook until combined.

With the mixer running on low speed, continue to add:

1 1/2 - 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

Add flour until a ball of dough forms around the dough hook.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and continue to knead until it is smooth and elastic, adding small amounts of flour as needed to prevent the dough from sticking.

Form the dough into a ball, and cover with plastic wrap.

Leave to rest for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, gently knead the dough for another couple of minutes.

Form into a ball again, and place in a lightly greased bowl.

Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm place to rise until doubled in size, about 1 1/2 hours.

Remove the dough from the bowl, punch down lightly and form into a ball for the final time.

This will be your loaf. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet.

Cover with a clean towel and leave to rise until almost doubled in size, about 45 minutes - 1 hour.

Heat the oven to 350F.

Brush the top of the loaf with water.

Slash the top with a sharp knife.

Bake for 45 minutes.

The loaf will be golden and crusty, and it should sound hollow when turned over and tapped on the bottom.

Remove from the tray onto a wire rack and leave to cool.





Serve this bread with soup, for breakfast as toast or use it to make sandwhiches for lunch.

• When making wholewheat bread I like to use no more than half of the flour as wholewheat. That being said, feel free to adjust the ratio to suit your taste.
• Flavourings can be played around with. Instead of raisins try dried cranberries, figs or dates. Omit the pinenuts or replace with walnuts or pecans. Green onion, red onion or chives can be used to replace the shallots. No rosemary? Use thyme, parsley, basil or oregano. Add grated or crumbled cheese if you wish.
• The sweetness of the dried fruit makes this loaf a perfect match for ham or turkey sandwhiches, toast or adding to a cheese board with blue cheese.
• For something more savoury, replace the raisins with chopped olives or sundried tomatoes. This will be a great partner for soup or pasta, as well as for making sandwhiches.
• The loaf can be shaped into a longer oval, or be placed into a loaf pan for a more traditional sandwhich loaf.

Fingerling Potato Hash with Sausage, Broccolini and Red Peppers

Once again I cooked too many potatoes, but that's not really a problem as using them up to make hash is always a popular meal in our house. It also lends itself to a good fridge cleanout, in this case 2 sausages and some green onions.

Hash is always best made with cold potatoes, so if you are planning on making it, cook them ahead of time and chill them well. They tend to stick less, crisp up more and absorb less oil this way, not to mention they're a lot easier to cut!

I added in broccolini as it is currently one of my favourite vegetables, and I had just bought some. And of course, I topped it all off with a soft poached egg...the yolk makes a lovely sauce for the potatoes.

Start off by cooking fingerling potatoes in lightly salted boiling water until just tender. Drain and cool completely.

Cut the broccolini into smaller lengths, and cook until just tender in lightly salted boiling water. Remove from the water and set aside until needed.

Reserve the water for poaching the eggs.

Thinly slice:

1 large sweet red pepper
the cooled potatoes

Set aside.

Slice 2 sausages into 1/2" pieces, and cook in some olive oil in a hot pan.

Start off with a medium low heat, allowing the fat from the sausages to release...this adds to the flavour and crispiness of the potatoes.

When the sausage is half cooked (still a bit pink in the middle), add the sliced potatoes.

Season with salt and pepper, and increase the heat. Continue to cook, stirring often, until the sausage is fully cooked and the potatoes start to brown.

At this point, add the sliced red peppers.

Season as needed, and continue to cook over a medium high heat for another couple of minutes, stirring often.

Add the broccolini, and start to poach your eggs while it heats through.

When the eggs are cooked to your liking, remove them from the water.

Add the green onions to the hash, and cook for another minute. You will need:

6 green onions, thinly sliced





Taste and adjust seasoning one more time. Serve the hash in a bowl, topped with the poached egg. Bon appetit!

• I used fingerling potatoes, but any potato that is more waxy than starchy can be used. If you have boiled or roasted too many, save the leftovers and make a hash! This is a great meal for breakfast, lunch or dinner.
• Sweet potatoes can also be used to make hash.
• The egg is optional; grated cheese can be used as well or instead of the egg.
• The choice of vegetables depends on you and what you have available. I have used onions, leeks, corn, grape tomatoes, zucchini, sundried tomatoes, olives and mushrooms, to name a few.
• I used a roasted red pepper and asiago sausage...breakfast sausage is a good choice if you are making this for breakfast; spicy sausage such as chorizo adds a lot of flavour. Other meats such as bacon, ham, pulled pork can also be used.
• The soft boiled egg provides sauce in the form of the runny yolk, but other sauces such as barbecue, tomato, salsa or hollandaise can be used.

Ancho Chili Chocolate Syrup for Mochas

 

I made this spiced chocolate syrup to use for mochas; neither of us is a fan of the overly sweet syrups that are available to buy. By making the syrup yourself, it is easy to control the sweetness...in our case just a hint.

My original plan was to make cocoa as it was cold outside yesterday, but then I found the espresso machine in one of the unpacked boxes downstairs. I decided that mochas were the order of the day, and it progressed from there.

I had half a bag of chocolate tea in the cupboard. I had purchased it at the local farmers market, and it was basically cocoa nibs and shells that imparted their flavour once steeped.. I decided to use this as the base of my syrup. I'm definitely more of a coffee person!

In a spice grinder, combine:

1/3 cup chocolate tea
1/3 cup cocoa nibs
1/2 cinnamon stick
1/8 teaspoon ancho chili powder

Grind until fine.

Place the ground mixture into a heavy bottomed saucepan, and add:

1/3 cup sugar

Whisk to combine.

Stir in:

2/3 cup cold water

Slowly bring to a boil, stirring to make sure that the sugar dissolves.

Boil for 30 seconds. Remove from the heat and leave for about 2 hours to steep.






The mixture will be grainy at this stage; if that is okay with you, ignore the next step. If you are not a fan of the texture, however, proceed as follows:

Add 1/3 cup water and bring to a boil again. Stir in 1/2 teaspoon vanilla.

Remove from the heat and strain through a fine strainer ( a tea strainer works well), pressing gently but firmly on the solids to extract as much of the liquid as you can.

You will have a very rich, chocolatey syrup with a hint of sugar and spice.

This is a thin syrup as it has less sugar than a traditional sugar syrup does. It makes up for that with flavour!





Store the syrup in the fridge, tightly covered for up to a week. Use it to flavour coffee or hot chocolate. Enjoy!

To make a large mocha, use:

 2 tablespoons of syrup...

... for each shot of espresso ...

... and top with steamed milk...

• The syrup as I made it only has a hint of sweetness, and a lovely, deep bittersweet chocolate flavour. If you prefer a sweeter syrup for your coffee, double the amount of sugar.
• If you do not have chocolate tea, either double the amount of cocoa nibs, or use 2 tablespoons cocoa instead of the tea.
• Dark chocolate can be exchanged for the cocoa nibs...chips, shavings or finely chopped. Dark chocolate will keep the bittersweet intensity of the cocoa nibs; semi sweet chocolate will cut the bitterness a bit.
• Instead of adding the final 1/3 cup of water, considering adding rum or brandy.
• Use the syrup in coffee, hot chocolate, cocktails or drizzle it over ice cream.