Showing posts with label quick breads. Show all posts
Showing posts with label quick breads. Show all posts
I had some over-ripe bananas that needed using up and so I decided to make a banana bread with them. I have baked many banana breads on here, all of them very good. Today I decided to go back to my tried, true and trusted recipe.
It is a recipe from my old Purity Cook Book. This is a cookbook I have had since the late 1970's. It has withstood the test of time and traveled with me all over the world.
How can you tell that a cookbook is a good one. Other than trying the recipes you can tell a cookbook is a really good one by looking at it. If it's all tattered and torn . . . if the pages are all splattered with time.
The pages well worn and almost falling apart . . . then you know that you have a winner of a cookbook on your hands. This book is a winner of a cookbook.
I have been baking this particular banana bread for about 40 years now. It has no bells and whistles. It is not overly sweet. Its quite plain.
It is moist and delicious however, filled with lots of banana flavor and plenty of chopped nuts. In short, a real winner of a banana bread.
Another one of my favorite banana breads is the Sour Cream Banana Loaf I always baked for the Mr. when I worked at the Manor.
He loved it sliced and toasted until golden brown and spread with oodles of sweet butter. Another good banana bread recipe I bake is this one which comes from a cookbook called Bread by Dean Brettschneider. It has oats scattered across the top.
I also have a few smaller recipes such as this Banana Nut Loaf for Two. It is perfectly sized for the smaller family.
This Marbled Banana Bread is also a real favorite. It is a Cooking Light Recipe and is marbled through with ribbons of chocolate batter. Yum!!
As I said up top, this banana bread has no bells and whistles. There is nothing spectacular about it. Its just a simple banana bread.
And you are going to love it. I can promise you. If you are a fan of simple things, then you will be a fan of this.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE BANANA NUT BREAD
Ordinary simple kitchen ingredients. Nothing spectacular outside of the ripe bananas.
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped nuts
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (3 bananas) mashed bananas (very ripe)
The right kind of bananas you need for a banana bread are bananas that have gone past their best eating stage. You want a banana with a skin that is well peppered with brown discolorations. The browner the better.
The riper the banana the sweeter it is. Don't ever throw an over-ripe banana away! They are perfect for baking with! Cakes, loaves, cookies . . .
HOW TO MAKE BANANA NUT BREAD
Preheat the oven to 350*F/ 180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper with an overhang on two sides for ease of lifting out the baked loaf.
Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Stir in the nuts. (You can toast the nuts first if you wish.
To toast them, spread your nuts out on a baking sheet and pop them into a moderate oven. (350*F/180*C) 8 to 10 minutes will do it. Let cool before using.
Whisk together the mashed banana, milk, oil, and egg. Add to the dry ingredients and mix both together just to combine. Batter will be lumpy.
Turn into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and run a knife down the middle.
This is a really good, simple banana bread. I love to enjoy it cut into thick slices and spread with butter. Real butter. I am betting it would also be great spread with Nutella, if you like Nutella.
Toasted, spread with butter or creamed honey. Again, delicious.
Because the bread is not overly sweet any number of toppings go very well with it. It also goes great in a bread pudding if it happens to go stale. You can sprinkle chocolate chips amongst the bread for this lush dessert. Its fabulous served warm with some vanilla ice cream on top!
In any case the next time you have some ripe bananas that need using up I highly recommend this simple Banana Nut bread. You can't go wrong!
Banana Nut Bread
Yield: 1 (9 X 5 X 3) loaf
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 H & 10 MTotal time: 1 H & 20 M
Delicious old fashioned. No bells and whistles. Not too sweet. Just perfect.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped nuts
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (3 bananas) mashed bananas
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/ 180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper with an overhang on two sides for ease of lifting out the baked loaf.
- Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Stir in the nuts.
- Whisk together the mashed banana, milk, oil, and egg. Add to the dry ingredients and mix both together just to combine. Batter will be lumpy.
- Turn into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and run a knife down the middle.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
This is my quality control guy. I think he's pretty special, don't you? Hello Nutmeg!
I love my Tea Bag Holder. It was a Christmas gift from my friend Paula. She knows I love bees and I just adore this! So pretty! Thanks Paula! xo
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
Its a lot colder today than it was yesterday. Talk about feast or famine! Yesterday I didn't have to keep the heat on all day. Today I have.
My next door neighbor brought me a dandelion in bloom yesterday to show me. I dare say that dandelion has lost its bloom today!
I decided to heat myself up a bowl of soup for my dinner today. Usually I like to have crackers with my soup, but I didn't have any in the cupboard.
I wasn't wanting to go out into the cold to the shops to get any either and so I did the next best thing. I decided to bake myself some biscuits to go along with the soup.
I wasn't, however, willing to bake a whole batch of biscuits because, well, there is really only me to eat them.
I decided to see if I couldn't make a much smaller batch of biscuits. I came across this recipe for Simple Drop Biscuits in a cookbook I have entitled, The Complete Cooking For Two Cookbook by America's Test Kitchen.
You cannot go wrong with an ATK cookbook. Those recipes have been worked and hashed out to perfection. I trust them implicitly!
I wish to put to rest the differences between Scones and Biscuits once and for all. I have the same comments made each and every time. Most people think that they are the same thing, but they truly are not. I promise you.
In the UK, they call cookies biscuits. These are not them. These are not cookies. Nor are they scones.
They are North American Biscuits. Biscuits have more butter and acidity (often from the use of buttermilk), making them extra fluffy and flaky. Scones rely on richer, denser, ingredients like heavy cream and eggs to get a sturdy, yet crumbly, pastry.
They are two completely different things. People thinking that there is no difference between the two things is a Pet Peeve of mine. It really is.
They also differ a great deal in how they are put together. With biscuits, the fat most usually is cut in using either a pastry blender or two round bladed knives.
With scones the fat is rubbed into the flour using your finger tips. This method along with the use of eggs and or cream form the major difference in texture.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE DROP BISCUITS FOR TWO
Nothing too out of the ordinary here.
- 1 cup (140g) plain all purpose flour
- 3/4 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda (bicarbonate of soda)
- 1/8 tsp sugar
- 1/8 tsp salt
- 1/3 cup (80ml) cold buttermilk
- 2 TBS butter, melted and hot
- Additional melted butter to brush on top of the finished biscuits
Don't worry if you do not have any buttermilk. I know sometimes, especially in the UK, it can be hard to find. You can very easily make your own.
Here is what always works for me. You can whisk together equal parts of full fat plain yogurt and whole milk, or even sour cream and milk.
You can also put 1 TBS of lemon juice or white vinegar into a measuring cup and add whole milk to the measure you need. Leave it to sit for five minutes to clabber.
This works perfectly as a replacement.
HOW TO MAKE SIMPLE DROP BISCUITS
Nothing could be easier to make. There is no faffing about with having to pat them out or cut them into rounds or squares. You just mix together, drop and bake. Easy peazy.
You will want to bake these in a hot oven, so preheat your oven to 450*F/ 230*C. I use a very small baking sheet. It is only about 5 by 8 inches in size. You could use a pie dish, or any size baking dish. All you need is a dish large enough to hold them with space around for spreading/rising.
Sift your flour, soda and baking powder into a bowl. The reason I sift them is so that the leavening is mixed equally into the flour. Nobody wants a mouthful of baking powder when they bite into something.
It also helps to aerate the flour giving your baked result a bit more lift. Stir in the sugar and salt.
As with most quick breads, the wet ingredients are stirred together and then added to the dry. In this case you want cold buttermilk and hot melted butter.
When the butter hits the cold buttermilk, it clumps. This is exactly what you want. Little beads or clumps of butter. The clumps of butter melt and turn to steam when the biscuits are baking making for a lovely light and fluffy interior.
Stir the wet and dry ingredients together with a round bladed knife or a rubber spatula, taking care not to over mix. (Overmixing will give you a tougher biscuit.) You want a soft claggy dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
Drop by heaped spoonsful onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of space in between for spreading, about 1 1/2 inches.
Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the sheet halfway through the bake time. When they are done they will be nicely puffed, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center should come out clean. Brush the tops of the hot biscuits with additional melted butter and serve immediately.
There is no shortage of biscuit recipes on here (as they are one of my favorite things.) Some of my absolute favorite biscuit recipes are:
And that is just the tip of the iceberg. You can find an extensive list here.
Their surface is covered with nice crisp craggy buttery bits. Light, fluffy and incredibly delicious. Its probably a good thing there is only four or I might be tempted to overdo it!!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
I found myself with a huge container of sour milk this morning. I had bought two liters when my son was here the other week and hardly any of it got used.
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
They didn't really have cereal or anything, or even coffees in the morning, and I am a person who hardly ever consumes milk at all. I will buy 1 liter and it lasts me a couple weeks unless I am cooking.
So anyways, I had all this sour milk. I knew I would not be able to use all of it up, but I thought I could at least use some of it up so I went on a search for things to do with it that I hadn't tried before.
I have a Sour Milk Chocolate Cake recipe which I make that is excellent eating, but I was not in the mood for a cake just now. We will be eating enough Christmas sweets next week.
The recipe I am sharing with you today I adapted from a page called Nourishing Joy, who adapted from a recipe in the book, Baking at Home by the Culinary Institute of America.
I am not sure if the original recipe used buttermilk or sour milk. but no matter, I am sure both would work the same way. I was very pleased with how these turned out.
As you can see they achieved a really lovely high rise and the texture was beautiful. These were everything a good biscuit should be.
Light and fluffy inside, tall and crisp golden brown on the tops and bottoms. I was really, really happy with them!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE SOUR MILK BISCUITS
Just a few simple ingredients are needed. Nothing too extraordinary.
- plain all purpose flour
- baking powder
- salt (I use fine sea salt)
- cold butter (I used salted)
- sour milk (you can also use buttermilk, or I tell you how to sour your own milk)
- whole milk (full fat)
- liquid honey
I know some people can be really intimidated by making biscuits. They may feel that they never turn out for them, and maybe they don't.
I have never had a problem with biscuits, generally speaking, and that's because I follow several rules when I am making them. If you follow these, there is no reason why you shouldn't also achieve biscuit baking success!
First of all sift your dry ingredients together. This helps to make sure that all of the leavening is evenly distributed through the flour. If you are adding sugar or salt, this can get stirred in after you have sifted the flour, etc.
Make sure your fat is cold. Cold fat will not melt as easily as warm fat would when you are rubbing/cutting the fat into the flour.
Also don't cut the fat into the flour until its really fine. Make sure you leave some pea-sized bits of fat throughout. These little bits of fat will melt and leave nice airy little pockets in your finished biscuit!
A light touch is best when mixing up, patting/rolling your biscuits. Over-handling makes for a much tougher result. So do not over mix/pat/roll them out.
When mixing wet ingredients into the butter and dough mixture use a well technique, much like pasta. Depending on the weather, use more or less flour. For humid days use more flour and cut back a bit on dry, hot days.
Bu the well technique I mean make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and then pour the wet ingredients into the well. Generally speaking I use a fork to mix the two together, taking care not to overmix. Its okay if its a bit lumpy.
Try to work on a cold surface and with cold hands. You don't want to melt the fat with the warmth of your hands, so hand contact should be as little as possible.
When you tip the dough out onto the surface don't over-flour it. A little bit goes a long way. Basically you just want to be able to keep the dough from sticking to the countertop and the rolling pin if you are using one.
Patting out the dough, folding it in half, patting it out again and repeating this process a few times with give you lots of nice airy flaky layers in your biscuits.
About three times should suffice, and then you should be ready to cut your biscuits out. Today I used a 3 inch round metal cutter. Make sure when you are cutting them out you use a sharp up and down tapping motion.
Don't twist the cutter. Twisting can cause your biscuits to be lopsided. You may end up with some that are lopsided anyways, but generally speaking you won't if you employ a sharp tap up and down.
Also, try to get as many cuts out of the first roll/pat out as you can. Any ones cut from the repatted/rolled scraps will not be as nice to look at or rise as high.
They will still taste really good however, and be perfectly edible. They just won't look as pretty! And that's it really. There's no reason why you can't have good biscuits if you employ those hints and tips!
The majority of these have been packed into a freezer bag to take out when my son is visiting over Christmas, but I couldn't help having one myself today. Split and spread with butter with some jam spooned over top.
Oh my but these are some good biscuits. I can give them two thumbs up. I think you are going to really like these! I really do!
Some other biscuit recipes that you might also enjoy are Mile High Greek Yogurt Biscuits, Cinnamon and Jam Biscuits, and Cheddar, Bacon & Chive Biscuits. All are excellent!
Sour Milk Biscuits
Yield: 12
Prep time: 25 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 45 Min
These biscuits are a wonderfully tasty way to use up milk that has gone sour. Alternately you can use buttermilk in the place of the sour milk. They rise like a dream and have a beautiful light texture. Crisp on the outside, fluffy inside.
Ingredients
- 3 cups (420g) all purpose plain flour
- 1 1/2 TBS baking powder (yes this is correct)
- 1 tsp fine salt
- 8 TBS cold butter
- 2/3 cup (180ml) sour milk or buttermilk
- 1/2 cup (120ml) whole milk
- 2 1/2 TBS honey
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 400*F/ 200*C/ gas mark 6. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, salt and baking powder into a bowl. Drop in the butter and cut it in with a pastry blender until you have a mixture resembling small peas. It should also hold together loosely if you press some of it together between your fingers.
- Whisk together the sour milk (buttermilk), whole milk and honey. Add all at once to the dry ingredients and mix together quickly with a fork just to combine into a soft dough. (Don't overmix.)
- Pat out on a lightly floured surface to a rectangle about 1 inch thick. Fold in half, turn and roll out again. Fold in half once more, turn and roll out. Repeat this process several times. You want a final thickness of 1 inch.
- Using a 3 inch sharp round cutter, stamp out rounds, taking care not to twist the cutter. Place onto the baking sheet. Try to get as many rounds as you can from this first cutting.
- Gather the scraps, re-pat and cut as needed, until you have 12 rounds.
- Bake for 15 to 18 minutes until well risen and golden brown. Scoop off onto a wire rack to cool.
Notes
If you are lacking in buttermilk and or sour milk, mix 1/2 cup (120ml) milk with 2 TBS lemon juice and let sit for several minutes until it clabbers.
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