Blueberry Banana Bread

Overripe bananas seem to beg for salvation in the form of banana bread, don't they? And, I still have about a gallon bag full of frozen blueberries picked last season. Since the blueberry season is around the corner, I wanted to use them up as well. That's how this scrumptious bread came about.

This is a fairly reduced fat version where I used (0 trans fat) Canola Oil and brown sugar instead of butter and white sugar, without compromising the taste and texture. To give it a fairly rich aroma, I greased the pan with butter.

Ingredients
dry:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
wet:
½ cup canola oil
2 eggs beaten
2 or 3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 heaping cup of frozen blueberries
1 Tbsp butter

Preparation

1. Heat oven to 350°F
2. grease a loaf pan with butter
3. combine the dry ingredients in a bowl; stir in the oil and the beaten eggs till well incorporated; fold in the mashed bananas and frozen blueberries
4. pour into the greased loaf pan and bake in 350°F oven for about 1 hour or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Garden Rhubarb Scones

Spring is almost over and Summer is around the corner, still it is pretty nippy here and our vegetable garden is just beginning to wake up... the first fresh stalks of spring rhubarb are the best and the juiciest; and, just like last year, I didn't want to miss using them fresh from the garden this year.

Rather than the usual triangular/pie-slice-like shaped scones, I went for a smallish roundish more like cookie shape. The texture turned out better than I expected and the hint of rhubarb seemed just right, not overpowering.

And since this is my garden's first bounty this year, I'd like to send this post out for WHB: Weekend Herb Blogging started by Kalyn of Kalyn's Kitchen fame, hosted this week by Cate from Sweetnicks.

Ingredients
2-3 cups self-rising flour*
¼ cup rolled oats (optional)
½ cup butter, melted
¼ cup sugar
buttermilk, as needed
2 eggs
1 cup raisins or dried currants or dried cranberries
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)
1 teaspoon baking powder
2-3 cups peeled and coarsely chopped rhubarb

*self-rising flour is just all-purpose flour plus baking powder: can use 3 cups all-purpose flour + 3 tsp baking powder, if self-rising flour is not handy

Preparation

1. heat the oven to 400°F
2. microwave the rhubarb till a little mushy (no extra water needed)
3. mix the dry ingredients - start with 2½ cups of flour, baking powder and oats - then slowly cut in the butter; beat the eggs and add them in; add the cooked and mushy rhubarb; then add a little buttermilk at a time till the dough comes together to an almost cookie-dough-like (dropping) consistency
4. adjust the flour and buttermilk to get the right consistency - not quite as stiffly elastic as pizza dough, and not too loose like cupcake dough
5. either roll to about an inch thick round and cut into wedges, or roughly shape into triangles for a traditional look; I simply dropped lumps with a large spoon onto the cookie sheet, like I do for cookies; alternately, can be baked in mini-muffin pan
6. bake for about 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean

Queen Cupcakes

This recipe, again, is based on the one in Cupcakes book by Susanna Tee. This time, I had a reason for baking them: for my parents' wedding anniversary!

After 3 years, my parents are here with me again to help with my newborn and I wanted to celebrate by baking them some simple cupcakes. I baked this as a surprise in the middle of the night between feedings and had it set up in the morning on the table so that when my dad wakes up at 5 a.m for his morning coffee, he would see it :)

Ingredients
½ cup sugar
8 Tbsp butter
2 large eggs, beaten
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1¼ cup self-rising flour
2-4 Tbsp milk, if needed
chopped dried fruits, walnuts as desired
(I used store-bought multicolored chopped fruits)

frosting is optional - I used store-bought frosting leftover from baking a cake for Ana.

Preparation

1. Heat the oven to 375°F; prepare a muffin pan or place paper baking cases on a cookie sheet
2. Beat the butter and sugar till light and fluffy; then beat in the eggs and lemon juice; then add the flour a little at a time and fold it in till well incorporated; add a little milk if needed to make the batter into dropping consistency
3. Spoon the batter into the prepared paper baking cases or muffin pan and bake in 375°F oven for about 15 minutes or till a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
4. frosting is optional - I just decided to add a free-hand touch of frosting to these:)

Aapam Ishtew

Aapam is one of the dishes I liked better when made by my mom, or even some street vendors in Kerala... and I didn't feel like making it at home until now as I felt it needed a special contraption to cook it.

Aapam has a thick spongy center and a thin dosai-like edge - the shape sort of resembles vintage flying saucers :)

My mom gifted me this little non-stick aapam pan-of-sorts recently and I decided to try it out. The batter is my version of it, I am still experimenting with proportions, but this batch was quite good.

Aapam turned out quite spongy and tasty, even though the center was not as thick as I wanted them to be. It is cooked only on one side usually, sort of like Injeras that I make. The batter needs to ferment a bit and get fluffy just like for injera, but rather than buckwheat or tef or all-purpose flour that I use for injeras, appam is made with a rice-based batter.

Fermentation is easy enough in hot places, but, since it is still pretty cold here, I warm up my oven to 200°F, turn it off, and leave the batter in there to ferment. Additionally, I add some yeast to the batter to help the fermentation.

Aapam is usually served with some sort of a stew ("ishtew", in local lingo), so I made a mixed vegetable stew with coconut milk.

Ingredients
batter:
2 cups par-boiled rice
2 cups plain white rice
¼ cup urad dal
1 Tbsp fenugreek seeds (optional)
1 Tbsp rapid rise yeast (optional)

stew:
vegetables like potatoes, peas, carrots, green beans
½ tsp turmeric powder (optional)
3-4 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp grated ginger
1 medium onion diced
1 can light coconut milk
2 Tbsp canola oil or coconut oil

salt to taste

Preparation

1. batter: soak the batter ingredients overnight and grind to a fine batter; add some yeast and leave in a warm place to rise for a few hours
2. stew: heat oil in a pan and sauté the ginger and garlic, then add the onions, turmeric powder and some salt, allow it to sweat a bit; then add the veggies and a little bit of water and steam the veggies; then add the coconut milk, cover and simmer to desired thickness; adjust salt to taste
3. aapam: add some salt to the fermented batter, stir; heat the aapam pan over medium heat; pour a ladleful of batter in the center of the pan, pick up the pan and swirl it a bit to allow the batter to coat the sides of the pan, cover and cook till holes form on the top and the center lump of batter is cooked through

apple streusel cupcake

After a long time I decided to make cupcakes, for no particular reason.

I was looking for a way to use up the unsweetened applesauce I had bought for Ana about 2 months ago. The large 47oz jar of tart organic applesauce was such a welcome addiction when we bought it but gradually Ana got tired of it and wouldn't even look at anything resembling applesauce...

There was just about 2½ cups left and rather than gulping it down myself as I do with all of Ana's leftovers, I thought I should make a simple treat of some sort using it. I know... I know... I should be working hard to lose the pregnancy weight but I was off sweets and was on a strict low-carb diet during my third trimester that I feel I deserve a little something once in a while :)

This recipe is based on the one in Cupcakes book by Susanna Tee. As usual, I didn't follow the recipe closely but it turned out alright, so am writing this down. The quantity here makes 12 large cupcakes.

Ingredients

wet: 1½ cups applesauce (unsweetened) 4 Tbsp butter (softened) ½ cup raw brown sugar 1 large egg, lightly beaten

dry: ½ tsp baking soda 1¼ cup self-rising* flour (* or, 1¼ cups all-purpose flour + 1½ tsp baking powder) ½ tsp ground cinnamon ½ tsp ground nutmeg

topping: ¼ cup all purpose flour ¼ cup brown sugar ¼ tsp ground cinnamon ¼ tsp ground nutmeg 2 Tbsp butter

Preparation

1. heat the oven to 350°F ; grease a muffin tin or use 12 paper baking cases on a baking sheet
2. topping: combine all but butter in a bowl, slowly rub in the butter to form crumbs, set aside
3. batter: combine the wet ingredients and beat on low with a mixer till light and fluffy (say 2 minutes); then gradually sift in the dry ingredients and fold them in till well-incorporated
4. spoon the batter into the paper baking cases and sprinkle the topping over each cupcake and press down gently
5. bake in 350°F oven for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean
6. allow to cool a few minutes before serving