Ba na na na na na na bread

I was bored over break and decided to bake something I love!

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 tablespoon milk

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, or to taste
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
  Directions

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan, preferably glass.
2. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a bowl. Stir bananas, milk, and cinnamon in another bowl. Beat butter and sugar in a third bowl until light and fluffy. Add eggs to butter mixture, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir banana mixture into butter mixture. Stir in dry mixture until blended. Fold in chocolate chips until just combined. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
3. Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 70 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack before slicing

The Bread turned out great. There is this distinct texture and moisture in banana bread that I favor only in banana bread and strongly dislike in others. I mean who would want a soggy bread, but banana bread to me taste a bit like a muffin. It was light and delightful and also had the taste of banana in them. The smell of opening the oven door just placed me in my comfort zone. The aroma had the rich smell of fresh bananas, and the chocolate chip morsels just topped it off. When I first bit into it, it was hot!

      

     Taste: After tasting the bread, it had a heaping full of banana taste in it which is a good thing. The bread was rich in flavor, moist, and dense like a cake. The bread was airy and the gas produced, produced holes that are nice and fluffy. Since the bread was very moist, it got me craving something crunchy and dry. 
     Texture: The bread, felt very dense and cold. I let the bread sit for awhile and it left the bread cold and soft. The bread was moist and had banana traces in it. The crust of the bread was not so delectable as some would say, it was very bland with a hint of banana.
     Smell: The smell of the banana bread was filling the house with the smell of bananas. It was a very rich and sweet scent that was very delightful and made me hungry for banana bread. The smell of opening the oven door and boom, a whiff of the tropical islands of Hawaii
    Appearance: The bread looked very delicate. Cutting the bread, it was not uniform in shape. The bread fell nice onto the parchment paper and was displayed as picture-worthy. Inside you can see the bread is yellow and that it is filled with small chunks of banana. 
     I really enjoyed following this recipe because it was simple and easy. Although the bread was somewhat burnt, it still felt like grandmas home made banana bread. I would give this product a 4 out of 5 because of it just being burned in the corners. Also, the bottom stuck to the pan, so that kind of messed the good part up. But everything went alright, and I would try adding less sugar next time. I learned a new recipe to try at home, a sweet and savory bread. I would make this bread again and make it to share, because it is something worth getting out there. I learned that the pan used affects the uneven heating while your baking. The corners were burnt and the bread cascaded when we were cutting it, so I would give it more time to chill out and find the right pan to use.

Alex S, Hour 2 March Assignment

Chocolate Chip Scones

While at home on spring break, I decided to make homemade scones, coffee cake, and cookies. However, I will be evaluating on the scones that I made. I used the recipe from http://www.joyofbaking.com/SconesChocChip.html, but I did not use dried cherries in the recipe. The recipe was slightly different from the ones we made in class, but the final product was very similar. I used the biscuit method as the recipe calls for.

Recipe:

2 Cups (260 grams) All-Purpose Flour

1/4 Cup (50 grams) Sugar

1 1/4 Teaspoons Baking Powder

1/4 Teaspoon Baking Soda

1/4 Teaspoon Salt

1/2 Cup (113 grams, 1 stick) Unsalted Butter

1/2 Cup (90 grams) Chocolate Chips

1 Teaspoon Vanilla Extract

3/4 Cup Buttermilk

The scones actually turned out very well, despite the few things that could have made them taste better or have a better texture. I used the biscuit method, but I do not have a pastry blender so I had to cut the butter into small pieces and then add it to the dry mixture. The recipe called the mixture to resemble coarse crumbs, but the pieces that I had cut in were about the size of peas instead and I did my best to make them smaller, but I do not think the mixture was exactly how it was supposed to be. I also used Salted butter instead of unsalted butter, so that may have made the taste a little more sweet, but I do not think it made a big impact on the scones. After the mixture of buttermilk and vanilla extract were added, the recipe said to add more flour or buttermilk to achieve correct texture, without over-mixing. While I believe I had the correct amounts of flour and buttermilk, the dough was very sticky and I think I over-mixed because the dough was very stretchy. I struggled to cut it into triangles after patting it into a circle. 

Aside from the mistakes I may have made, the scones turned out delicious. The inviting aroma when I walked into the kitchen after baking the scones lingered throughout the house luring family members into the kitchen for breakfast. The texture was very unique with a crispy outside and tender inside with melted chocolate chips right out of the oven. They were a light, golden brown color with delicious chocolate chunks evenly distributed throughout. Inside was a tender, light, and fluffy bread substance that tasted even better. While the scones we made in class had a very bitter after-taste and were very sweet, the scones I made at home are more bland with a hint of sweet from the chocolate chips. There was no bitter after-taste, leaving one wanting more. They were more tender than they were supposed to be because the butter chunks in my dry mixture were bigger than crumbs, but I believe it made the scones even more delicious with the tender inside and crispy outside.

Pancakes - April

Butter Milk Pancakes

1 1/4 c. flour

1 egg

1 1/4 c. buttermilk

1/4 c. granulated sugar

1 heaping t. baking powder

1 t. baking soda

1/4 c. cooking oil

Pinch salt

Preheat a skillet or a griddle over medium heat,

Use a non-stick surface or spray oil.

With a mixer, combine all ingredients until smooth. 

Pour batter onto hot surface, forming five inch circles

When edges appear to harden, flip pancakes.

They should be golden brown.

Cook pancakes on the other side for the same amount of time until golden brown.

Makes 8-10 pancakes.

          That recipe above is copied verbatim from a recipe that my dad got from his workplace Starkey’s. Every winter, they have this annual breakfast where all the employees get to bring their family and have a bite to eat. And every time, my mom compliments the pancakes on how good they taste and how she can never make anything that tastes the same at home. Well one day my dad brought home the recipe he got from one of the cooks, and I decided to make it for our home cooking assignment.

          As you read the recipe, you notice how it states to mix all the ingredients at once, and that it should be smooth. However, from previously making pancakes in class, I knew that the recipe was wrong and what to do to make it the right way. So I started off mixing the wet and dry ingredients separately. This is because I knew the muffin method, of how the two shouldn't meet until the very end. I also had the knowledge of not stirring until it was smooth. In the end I only stirred it enough to combine everything and it looked like batter. After that, it was just cooking them on the griddle, flipping it, and finishing the other side. Now I served my whole family them, and this time, my mom commented on how they tasted just like the ones at my dad’s workplace, so I knew I made them right. They looked like perfect little golden brown circles. They were the perfect color, because I waited the right amount of time to flip them, so they wouldn't be too dark or too light. When I tasted them, I knew I did a good job. They were so light and moist and have trace of sweetness to them. Overall, I think I did a good job following the recipe and completing the directions to make a great baked product. 

          

Monthly Cooking Assignment - Cassandra Hour 1-

     For my monthly cooking assignment, I decided to make empanadas. Empanadas are basically a sweet pastry that you can stuff with almost anything. I stuffed mine with chicken, vegetables, and seasonings.
      To make the the dough I used the biscuit method. It was identical to the one we learned in class. For example, we had to sift the flour and mix it with the salt. We also had to cut-in the shortening into the dry ingredients mixture. Adding small amounts of water into the dough mixture was another similarity.
     I did notice a few mistakes. First of all, the recipe said you may need to add a few extra tablespoons of water. I'm almost positive I used too much water. Another mistake was that the recipe said to refrigerate the kneaded dough for about one hour. I only put it in there for half an hour. I also put too much of the chicken filling inside the dough and it ended up leaking out the sides. Overall, the few mistakes I did make, didn't majorly effect the final product.
     When I read over this recipe, I knew right away there were a few things I wanted to take out, and a few things I wanted to add in. The ingredients that caught my eye were the hard boiled eggs and the green olives. Instead of those, I added black olives, cilantro, and green chilies. The ingredients I added ended up making the empanadas taste amazing.
        The empanadas had a golden color and they were also a bit shiny. I'm guessing that was from the egg wash. They tasted salty from the seasonings, and sweet from the dough and the caramelized onions. They smelled so good! The aroma was sweet, but still a bit spicy . Overall, I would definitely make them again. I learned that just because a recipe says you may need to add extra water, doesn't mean you actually have to.

    

Dough Ingredients:

• 4 cups flour
• 1-2 teaspoons salt
• 2-3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 tablespoons butter, chilled
• 12 tablespoons lard or vegetable shortening, chilled
• 3/4 - 1 cup water
• 2 egg yolks

Preparation:

1. Sift the flour into a bowl. Stir in the salt and the sugar.
   
2. Blend the butter and shortening (or lard) into the flour mixture with a pastry cutter or with two knives, until fairly well blended.
   
3. Whisk the egg yolks wiht 3/4 cups water. Stir in the 1/2 cup of water/egg mixture, a little at a time until the dough starts to come together smoothly. Keep kneading the dough, adding more water/egg a little bit at a time as necessary (you made need a few tablespoons extra of water), until the dough is smooth. The dough will seem a bit shaggy until it has thoroughly chilled.
   
4. Cover the dough with saran wrap and refrigerate for about an hour. (Dough can also be kept overnight (or a couple of days) in the refrigerator) Dough should be soft and smooth, and not elastic - if you poke a hole in it with your finger, the indentation should remain.
   
5. Turn dough out onto a floured surface, and roll into desired thickness.)

Empanada Filling:

1. 2-3 chicken breasts (or 2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken)
2. 1 bay leaf
3. 1 chicken bouillon cube
4. 1/4 cup vegetable oil
5. 2 large onions, chopped
6. 1 tablespoon paprika
7. 1 teaspoon cumin
8. 1/2 teaspoon chili powder (or to taste)
9. 1.5 tablespoons sugar
10. salt and pepper
11. 3 hard boiled eggs, chopped
12. 1/2 cup green olives, sliced
13. 1 egg yolk
14. 1 tablespoon water

Preparation:

1. Prepare empanada dough and chill.
   
2. Poach the chicken: Place the chicken breasts in a pot with the bouillon and bay leaf, and cover with water or chicken broth.
   
3. Bring to a boil, and simmer over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until chicken is cooked through. Let cool in the broth.
   
4. Shred chicken into small pieces, and moisten with 1 or 2 tablespoons of the broth. Set aside.
   
5. Heat oil in a skillet. Add chopped onions, paprika, cumin, chile powder, sugar, and salt and pepper to taste.
   
6. Cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until onions are soft and clear, and mixture is golden brown.
   
7. Remove from heat and stir in the chicken. For best flavor, refrigerate filling until the next day.
   
8. Stir chopped hard boiled egg and olives into filling mixture.
   
9. Separate empanada dough into golf ball size pieces, and roll each one into a smooth ball. Let rest 5 minutes.
   
10. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
    
11. On a floured surface, roll each ball of dough into a circle about 6 inches in diameter.
    
12. Spoon 2-3 tablespoons of filling in the middle of the circle. Brush the edges of the dough along the bottom half of the circle lightly with water.
    
13. Fold the top half of the circle of dough over the filling to form a semicircle, and press edges together firmly to seal.
    
14. Brush the pressed edge with a little bit of water, and fold the edge over itself, pinching and crimping as you go to make a braid-like effect. (see Tips and Techniques for Beautiful Empanadas). Place empanadas on a baking sheet.
    
15. Mix egg yolk with water and brush mixture lightly over entire surface of each empanada.
    
16. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until golden brown and slightly puffed.