Gluten-Free Double Chocolate Banana Bread

When the freezer rains bananas, I know it's time to make a banana bread. 

We buy bananas just about every week, eat most, but inevitably have one hanging around long enough to turn brown. I hate food waste, so I usually tuck the little fella into the freezer. There's got to be a dozen bananas in there right now, in every available crevice. Sometimes they throw themselves at me when I open the freezer door to grab an ice cube or ponder the evening's dinner possibilities. The other day, three different bananas suicided themselves, so I put them on the counter to thaw. 

When frozen bananas thaw, they become rather liquidy, which makes them perfect for smoothies. But also banana bread. Most recipes call for very ripe bananas which need to be mashed with a fork. Personally, I prefer using near-liquid banana. It doesn't need to be mashed, just stirred in, which produces sweet little pockets of soft fruit in the finished product. If you're a fan of a more homogenized texture, then by all means mash some never-frozen but overripe nanners for this recipe.

Oh yeah, the recipe. I usually put walnuts and chocolate chips in my banana bread, but I've been craving chocolate recently (I probably need more magnesium). I consulted the Google and found a chocolate chocolate banana bread recipe that was essentially Martha Stewart's non-chocolate recipe, with a couple of random tweaks. I happen to think Martha's recipe is the very best, so I consulted her web site and used her recipe, with two changes. Her recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups of AP flour, but I wanted to make this gluten-free and add cocoa powder. Cocoa is fairly similar to flour in heft and texture, so I swapped out a half cup of flour for a half cup of cocoa. The rest of the flour was replaced by oat flour. You may use any gluten free flour you wish, but I strongly suggest adding 1/4 teaspoon of xantham gum per cup of gf flour. You may leave it out, but the gum makes a big difference in the texture of the bread. Honestly, I cannot tell that I didn't use regular flour. I'm not your mother, so do as you please, but don't come crying to me afterward. The one other thing I changed was to add more sour cream. A quarter cup is good, but a half cup is better. It makes the texture outrageously moist. (Greek yogurt works here, too.)

If you make this, let me know in the comments. I'm going to go cut myself another slice to go with my coffee.

GF Double Chocolate Banana Bread

1/2 cup cocoa powder

1 cup oat flour

1/4 t xanthan gum

1 t baking soda

1/4 t kosher salt

1/2 cup butter, or dairy-free butter substitute, melted

2/3 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup sour cream

1 t vanilla extract

3 super-ripe bananas, mashed if fresh, thawed if frozen

1 cup milk chocolate chips

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

 

Preheat oven to 350º.

Spray the inside of a 9 x 5 loaf pan with Pam or similar release spray. Borrow a tablespoon or so of the cocoa powder and sprinkle it over the Pam, shaking and banging the sides of the pan to make sure every surface is coated with both release spray and cocoa. Knock out any excess cocoa.

Combine the rest of the cocoa, oat flour, xanthan gum, baking soda, and salt and stir well with a fork to distribute ingredients. If you're fussy, you could sift it, but I don't see the need to dirty a sieve or sifter.

In a large bowl, combine the melted butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream, and vanilla. If your bananas were frozen, you can basically pour them into the bowl, otherwise, scrape in the mashed bananas and give it a good stir.

Dump the dry ingredients into the wet and stir well. You don't want any streaks of flour. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts. 

Scrape batter into baking pan and bake for 1 hour, or until toothpick comes out clean. You might have to try a few spots, in case you stab a melted chocolate chip.

Cool in the pan on a rack for 20 minutes. Run a paring knife around the edge of the pan to loosen bread, then turn over onto the rack. Put another rack on top and flip the bread over, so the top is...on top. Allow to cool completely before slicing. You can, of course, ignore this direction, but I can't guarantee the bread won't fall apart when you slice it.

Posted on Minxeats.com.

Loaded Baked Potatoes

Your idea of a loaded baked potato might be entirely different than mine. In fact, I can pretty much guarantee it. Bacon and cheese, while tasty, is just so done, you know?

A potato is a blank canvas that can accept pretty much any combination of toppings. And it's a great way to use up dribs and drabs of things that are leftover from other meals. Like those random sausage links, half dozen shrimp, and that wee bit of corn (or peas) that are cluttering up the freezer. Make room for another half gallon (actually 3.5 quarts) of ice cream by getting rid of those plastic bags of tidbits and putting them to use in a tasty and filling dinner. You still want to add bacon and shredded cheese on top? Fine. Anything goes, really, except maybe leftover mac and cheese or risotto, unless, of course, you really really like carbs.

Loaded Baked Potatoes a la Minx

2 Russet potatoes
Oil
1/2 medium onion, sliced
(2) 3-4 ounce links of your favorite raw pork sausage (Italian, chorizo), removed from casings
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
Honey, to taste
1/2 cup corn kernels
6 medium shrimp, shelled, deveined, and chopped
Salt, pepper, and hot sauce, to taste
3 tablespoons sour cream
Adobo sauce from canned chipotle peppers (optional)

Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Scrub the potatoes and rub them with a little vegetable oil. Place them directly on the oven grates and bake for one hour, until tender.

While the potatoes are baking, add a little oil to a skillet and cook the onion and sausage over medium heat. Break up the sausage into small chunks as you're cooking it. When the sausage pieces are well-browned, stir in the garlic and cook for an additional minute or two. Then add the vinegar and honey. Stir in the corn and the shrimp and cook until the shrimp are opaque. Season with salt, pepper, and hot sauce. The mixture is going over a bland baked potato, so it should be strongly flavored.

Stir a little adobo sauce into the sour cream to give it a little flavor, if you wish.

When potatoes are done, cut an X into the tops of each and smush the potato a bit by holding the outside edges in both hands and pushing toward the center. (This breaks up the potato flesh.) Top with some of the sausage filling and a dollop of sour cream.

Eat with knife and fork. You may have extra filling, which will be tasty on a salad for lunch the next day.



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Spiced Peach Cake

Today is my brother's birthday, so I thought it would be appropriate to post a cake recipe. Happy birthday, Dave!

Peach season is almost over, unfortunately, and I have been loving all the sweet juicy ones we are getting from either the farmer's market or in our weekly Washington's Green Grocer delivery. I am sadly allergic to raw peaches, but if I cook them a little bit, they give me no problems (same with plums, cherries, nectarines). Ordinarily, I chop up a peach or two and put them in a microwave-safe bowl, nuke for 2 minutes, and let them cool before shoveling them in. This time, I had several more very ripe peaches than I could comfortably eat in one day. Mr Minx is not a fan of crisps or cobblers, so I decided to make a cake.

Half my life ago, I worked at Gordon's Booksellers at the Rotunda with a bunch of terrific people, many of whom are still among my closest and dearest friends. One year, we had a staff Christmas party at my house. Everyone who worked at the store was invited; we also invited one of our favorite customers. Jay worked next door at Maryland Casualty, but he dropped into the bookstore every morning to buy a newspaper and shoot the shit. He was fun and we figured he was as much a part of the Gordon's experience as any of the rest of us.

The party was pot luck, and Jay brought a loaf cake studded with peaches. Because the peaches had been canned in syrup, each piece was in a juicy little pocket of cake. I loved the texture variation, and asked him for the recipe. He complied, I put it away for safe keeping, and never used it. So this cake, while not the same as Jay's, was made with him in mind.

Spiced Peach Cake

2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1/2 cup sour cream or plain yogurt
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 pound peaches, peeled and sliced

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a standard bundt cake pan.

Combine flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a bowl. Set aside.

Cream the butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the sour cream and vanilla. Add the flour mixture, beating only until combined. Stir in the walnuts by hand.

Put about a third of the batter in the bottom of the pan. Cover with a layer of the peaches. Repeat batter and peach layers, ending with batter.

Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean. Because of the peaches, there may be pockets of moisture here and there, so try the toothpick in several areas. Don't overbake!



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Super Moist Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

The last time I was in my brother's apartment, he plied me with a package of bacon and a big container of sour cream. The bacon would come in handy later in the year when I made a big batch of bacon jam for holiday gift giving, so that went directly in the freezer. The sour cream, however, needed to be used much sooner. The sell by date was nigh; by the time I had the opportunity to open the container, it had passed. But only by one day, so the stuff was still plenty fine. (I'm still alive, aren't I?)

I like sour cream, but how was I going to use up two cups of it immediately? Who said "baked potatoes!" Nah. I don't like sour cream on my baked potatoes. Butter all the way for me. But sour cream goes well in chocolate cake. It makes it nice and light and moist. I wasn't going to be able to use the entire container of sour cream, but I could at least employ half of it.

This cake is very moist and tender. You could glaze it, I suppose, but powdered sugar is really all it needs. Oh, and maybe a scoop of your favorite ice cream or a cold glass of milk or cup of coffee.

Chocolate Sour Cream Bundt Cake

1 cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup cocoa powder
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons liqueur of your choice (I used Kahlua)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 large eggs
1 cup sour cream
2 teaspoons vanilla

Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour a 10 cup Bundt pan.

Combine the butter, cocoa, salt, and 1 cup of tap water in a saucepan over medium heat. Cook only until butter is melted and mixture is completely combined. Stir in the liqueur.

Place the flour, sugar, and baking soda in a large bowl. Pour in the chocolate butter mixture in 2 or three batches, stirring between each to combine. Beat the eggs with the sour cream and vanilla and stir into the flour mixture. Whisk until fully incorporated.

Pour batter into the bundt pan and bake for 40-45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Place pan on a wire rack. After 20 minutes or so, invert the cake onto the rack to cool completely.

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Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food

I received several cookbooks for Christmas, and hope to talk a little about each of them here. First up is Jamie Oliver's new one, Comfort Food: the Ultimate Weekend Cookbook.

The book is thick and heavy, so it might seem that there are hundreds of recipes included. Rather, the bulk of the book is food porn--lots of pretty pictures of the various recipes included. And when I say "various," I mean the recipes are all over the place. Oliver's idea of comfort food includes dishes from India and Indonesia as well as British favorites like toad in the hole, sticky toffee pudding, and beans on toast.

I've bookmarked several recipes to try, including the three mentioned above, plus one called Bloody Mary Beef, which seems like a good thing to cook up on a cold winter day, as it spends 5 or so hours in the oven.

The first recipe to strike my fancy, however, was for quesadillas made with brussels sprouts. Unusual? Yes. But also quite good. I would never have thought of this combination, but it worked very well.

The recipe is pretty simple. I can't share it exactly as written, but it's not rocket science.

Slice up a large onion and half a pound of brussels sprouts (I added a handful of sliced mushrooms, too, because I had them). Toss them in a large saute pan with a pat of butter, or, use a glug of olive oil, as I did. Sprinkle in 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds, the leaves from 3-4 sprigs of fresh thyme, and a big pinch of salt. Cover pan and cook over medium-high heat for about ten minutes, stirring frequently. Remove lid and cook for another ten minutes or so, until onions and sprouts caramelize nicely. Turn off the heat, hit with a squeeze of lime juice, and scrape into a bowl. Wipe out the skillet and spray it with release spray.

Lay a large flour tortilla out onto a plate or cutting board. Top with enough of the brussels sprouts mixture to cover almost to the edges. Sprinkle with a handful of grated pecorino cheese (as per recipe), or your favorite combo of melting cheeses. I added some shredded sharp cheddar, too, since I had some. Top with a second tortilla.

Heat pan and carefully transfer filled tortillas, making sure not to slop filling into the pan. Cook over medium heat until browned and crisp on the bottom, 2-3 minutes. Flip gently and repeat on second side.

Transfer quesadilla to a cutting board and cut into 6-8 wedges. Serve with sour cream, salsa, guac, chopped green onion, whatever floats your boat. I whipped up a quick sauce with ground chipotle pepper, a dash of agave syrup, pinch of salt, and a squeeze of lime stirred into sour cream.

A brussels sprout quesadilla might seem weird, but it was really very delicious. Both Mr Minx and I love brussels sprouts in pretty much any form, so this was a big hit. We made two quesadillas for dinner and had enough sprouts and onions (and mushrooms) left over to make another one a couple days later.

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"Tartar" Sauce

While in a recent Indian food mindset, I thought I'd play around with adding Indian flavors to a local specialty - the crab cake. I've had varying success with adding non-traditional flavorings to a mound of fried crab meat but ultimately I think I prefer the tried and true - Old Bay. So rather than noodle around with the main event, I thought I could come up with an alternative to the ubiquitous tartar sauce.

Is tartar sauce a speciality of the Tartar people? Is it related to steak tartare in any way? Who knows?  Who cares? Whatever the origin, I think it's mayonnaise-y quality works well with fried seafood. For my Indian-esque version, I added sour cream to mayo and stirred in odds and ends gleaned from the rather large condiment collection in my fridge. The result - a bit spicy, a bit sweet, and very creamy - was a perfect accompaniment to even a classic Old Bay-spiced crab cake.

Indian-esque "Tartar" Sauce

3 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon mayonnaise
1 tablespoon mango chutney
2 teaspoons garlic relish
1 teaspoon chopped cilantro
1 teaspoon chopped scallion
1 teaspoon fresh lemon or lime juice
salt to taste

Mix all ingredients in a small bowl. Chill for at least an hour to blend flavors. Serve with crabcakes or fried fish.

Posted by theminx on Minxeats.com.

Salmon, Succotash, Parsnip Latkes

Nobody could ever accuse me of being a seasonal cook. While I think it's a fine idea, and I use as much fresh local produce as I can afford in the summertime (afford being the key word here - farmers' market prices are often a wee bit too high for my pocketbook), I still need to eat vegetables in the winter. And when the weather turns cold, somehow I am able to find fresh yellow corn in the supermarket. I have no idea where it comes from, but it's sweet and actually tastes like corn (unlike the white stuff the region seems to favor). Four ears of yellow corn were calling to me from the fridge and begging to be made into the summertime dish of succotash.

I'm no fan of lima beans, so frozen edamame were called to duty as a stand-in. I also had a bunch of non-local asparagus on hand, a lone roasted red pepper in a jar, and half a package of bacon.

Once I had decided on succotash, I had to then determine the meal's protein and starch components, because that's how we roll in the Minx household. Three medium-sized parsnips were languishing in the crisper and I decided to use them in my first ever placki - latkes to the rest of the world. My grandma used to make potato placki all the time. All. The. Time. Honestly, I won't even eat them anymore. But parsnips are different - rooty, sweet, carroty.

My first-ever placki

With the somewhat complicated veg and starch decided, it seemed only right to make a rather plain protein. Frozen salmon fillets from Trader Joe's were popped under the broiler and topped with a much needed acid bite of sour cream mixed with lemon.

Succotash

8 slices bacon, fried crisp, 1 tablespoon bacon fat reserved
3 tablespoons onion, chopped
2 cups fresh corn
1 roasted red bell pepper, chopped
1 clove garlic
1 cup shelled edamame
1/2 cup chopped asparagus

Parsnip Latkes

2 cups peeled and grated parsnips
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs, beaten
2 tablespoons chopped chives or scallions
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Peel and grate parsnips and carrots, then in a large bowl, toss with flour. Add eggs, scallions, parsley, salt and pepper. Mix thoroughly. Heat ¼-inch of oil in a sauté pan until it is barely smoking. Drop batter by tablespoons into the pan and flatten. Fry on both sides until brown. Drain on paper towels, then serve.
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While everything was tasty enough, I felt the dishes had too much of a bland sameness about them. Mr Minx said the placki and succotash should have been served apart from one another - placki and plain asparagus and salmon, or salmon and succotash and mashed potatoes - because they both had a similar lumpy-bumpy texture. I had to agree.