Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

How have you been? I have been on hiatus trying to learn to make sourdough. You can definitely emphasize the "trying to learn." I have been successful with sourdough in the bread maker, but then that is cheating, sort of. So anyway, I will soldier on. I am sure I can master it. Meanwhile, so the family didn't starve, I made a pile of brown bananas into banana chocolate chip muffins. If I put enough chocolate in baked goods, my family will eat it, and I had never posted banana muffins before, so here you go. 

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Makes 12 or more muffins (regular muffin tin size)

Ingredients: 

3/4 cup softened butter

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

4 ripe bananas, mashed

1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips tossed with a tablespoon flour

extra chocolate chips for tops of muffins

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350°F.  

In a large mixing bowl add granulated sugar, brown sugar, and softened butter. Use an electric mixer and cream the butter and the sugar for a minute on medium speed.

Then add to the bowl the vanilla, the 2 large eggs, and combine them with the butter and sugar on medium speed. Now in a separate bowl mash the four ripe bananas. Then add them to the batter bowl. Now add the dry ingredients; all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt and mix them into the batter. Take the chocolate chips in a separate bowl and toss with a tablespoon of flour to prevent them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins while baking. The fold them in with a spatula. Pour the batter into regular muffin tins, lined with parchment cups if you prefer and top with extra chocolate chips. Bake at 350° F for 20-24 minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean of the batter.

 

Recipe adapted from: simplyhomecooked.com 

 

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry 

 

Moody Fall

These are actually outtakes from last year. I have been busy baking and practicing my skills in the kitchen, so I found these and thought I would post.

Moody and fall go together. It has also been cloudy so it was perfect.

In Victory,
Sherry

Raspberry Jam and Nectarine Crumble

Several years ago I found a crumble recipe for a crumble with a crumble crust and crumble topping. This recipe sort of ruined all my attempts at making crumble, unless I used this formula of making the crumble crust and topping. So here is yet another version of this recipe with seasonal fruit. This is also another way to use the Raspberry Jam in the bread maker recipe I shared a few weeks back.

Raspberry and Nectarine Crumble

Serves:8

Ingredients:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
8 tablespoons (4 oz.) unsalted butter, melted 
1/4 cup seedless raspberry preserves
2 1/2 cups nectarines, peeled and sliced
Crumble topping:
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
pinch of salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
4 tablespoons (2 oz.) unsalted butter, melted

Directions:
Place an oven rack in the middle position.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.  (190 degrees C).  Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 9-inch tart pan. I baked this in an 8" x 9 1/2" retro enamelware baking dish lined with parchment paper.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, salt, and cinnamon.  Add the butter and use pastry cutter until moist crumbs form. Dump the crumb mixture into the pan and press firmly it into the bottom and up the sides.  
Spread the 1/4 cup raspberry preserves over the tart crust. Then top with the nectarines.  In a medium bowl combine the crumble topping dry ingredients.  Add the butter and mix until the  moist crumbs form.  Sprinkle the crumb topping over the nectarines.  Bake 25-45 minutes.  Let cool 20 minutes on a wire rack.  
Serve with a topping of ice cream or whip cream if desired.
Makes: one 8-9 inch tart
Recipe adapted from: Leite's Culinaria

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry

Peach Pie

I have wanted to make this lattice-top pie for years. The lattice top is a little more time-consuming and I do all of my cooking at a fast pace, so making time for a pie was not at the top of the list. As I watered the garden, I noticed there were some flowers that were perfect for what I had planned to do with this pie, so I made the time to get this done. 

Peach Pie

Makes a 9-inch pie

Ingredients:

2 pounds of fresh ripe peaches, peeled, sliced, and chopped

1/2 cup sugar

pinch of nutmeg

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/3 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1 Pillsbury pie crust (or recipe for double crust pie)

1 tablespoon butter

1-2 teaspoons sugar, for sprinkling on top of pie

Egg wash

1 egg white plus 1 tablespoon water, beaten with fork 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C)

Cut the peaches and place in a large bowl with sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, lemon, salt, flour, and cornstarch. Stir and lightly coat the fruit with all these ingredients.

Place the room temperature pie crust into the pie plate and pierce the bottom with fork tines. 

Spoon the pie filling into the bottom pie crust in the pie pan. Dot the top of the fruit with little pieces of the butter. With the remaining pie dough, I laid it out on a pastry cloth and cut my lattice pieces. Lay the lattice top as the pattern shows. weaving the pieces over and under as is customary with this type of pie. when finished, I used the remaining dough or another pie crust from another box of Pillsbury pie crust and placed the dough strips into a pie crust mold to make the woven edge. Use a small ramekin with warm water and take your finger dipped in the water to seal the woven edge over the edge of the pie without crushing the design. 

Bake for 20 minutes at 425°F. I also put a pie crust guard on the edge at this time (It can be made with aluminum foil). Reduce heat to 375°F (190°C) and bake for 25 minutes more.

When that time is up, take the pie out and sprinkle the top with sugar. Take the pie crust guard off at this time and continue baking at 350°F for 5-10 minutes more. When you see the filling is bubbling between the lattice top, it is done. Remove pie and place on cooling rack to rest for at least and hour or more before serving. I take the flowers off and serve with whipped topping.

Recipe adapted from : Art of the Pie by Kate McDermott

Flowers used were: roses, pansies, zinnias, statice, and Veronica. 

Pie crust mold and pie crust cutting tool.

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry

The Shortening Days

The days are now getting shorter in the Northern Hemisphere. Can you feel it? You know summer is just weeks away from ending.

And yet, the baby birds are still slumbering in my garden. Yet another sparrow has made an eye-level nest at the top of a tomato.

There is still so much beauty everywhere, and yet I know it is going to change soon.

“Just ask the animals, and they will teach you.
    Ask the birds of the sky, and they will tell you.
 Speak to the earth, and it will instruct you.
    Let the fish in the sea speak to you.
 For they all know...

Job 12:7-9

In Victory, 
Sherry

Orange Marmalade with a Breadmaker

There are two more jams I made this summer with the bread maker, one being this orange marmalade. I have a family member that loves this marmalade, so I found some beautiful oranges on sale and went to work. I did not realize that oranges are in season right now. I was thinking they were more of a late fall crop, but they are in season and plentiful right now in the stores.

Orange Marmalade in the Breadmaker

servings: 20 ounces

1 1/2 pounds of oranges (organic if possible)

1 1/2 cup of granular sugar

3 tablespoons of pectin

1 teaspoon of butter (optional)

Instructions:

Wash your oranges and dry. Cut them in halve and juice them with a juicer. Remove as much of the pulp as you can without any pith. Cut the orange skin into thin strips of about 1/5th inch. Place the orange juice with pulp, the orange peel strips, sugar, pectin and, butter into the bread machine pan. Select the "Jam" cycle and hit sart. It takes about 1 hour 20 minutes. Once jam is done, let cool in pan for one hour and then transfer to sterilized jars, or preferred storage container. The jam stores in the refrigerator 3 weeks and in the freezer for one year.

*I have a Hamilton Beach  breadmaker.

Recipe adapted from: culinaryshades.com 

I went in search of ways to use my marmalade once I had preserved it, and I found a recipe for a Marmalade Pound Cake, which turned out delicious! Ten years ago on this blog I also made an orange marmalade cake, here is the link.

This cake came from Marisa McClellan, who wrote Food in Jars. I believe I got the recipe out of The Food in Jars Kitchen: 140 Ways to Cook, Bake, Plate, and Share Your Homemade Pantry. This recipe used the marmalade in the cake and the glaze. She had some great recipes for using preserved food in this cookbook! 

Enjoy!

In Victory,

Sherry