Feather Banana Bread

Rose calls Feather Banana Bread the 

lightest texture of all her breads.

Working with the dense, sticky dough, I would 

not have thought it possible!

But stay the course and

once again the alchemy of

flour, water, yeast, honey,

dried milk and banana

transform into the softest dough,

very reminiscent of the lovely Golden Panettone.

A month ago I had an over abundance of frozen ripe bananas,

went on a clearing out spree and only saved three.

Those three were spoken for in 

The Banana Split Chiffon Cake.

So I tried something new before going on a grocery

store hunt.

See the yellow bananas with the darkened

one beside it?  They were all of the same bunch.

I popped one into a paper bag, turned the oven

on low, left it warming for an hour, turned the oven off

and left the banana overnight.

Voila!

This is what I found this morning.

Perfectly softened and overly ripened.

Flour mixture to blanket the sponge

I truly enjoy stirring and whisking by hand.

Something so calming and meditative.

Never tire of the sponge breaking through the 

blanket of flour

Time to add the banana and tiny bit of butter

and on to the dough hook

The lump of very tacky and sticky dough

lightened up into puffy dough

First business fold before the warm rise

Magic!

After the rise

Made it over the top

of the ten inch pan

Such a beautiful color,

even sans top crust

The bottom crust was fine.

This bread is just amazing.

The texture and lightness is like nothing

I have ever tasted before.

No one can believe it!

Once again, Rose makes me

look like a baking genius.

Taste always wins over perfection.

There is a definite difference between day 

one and day two

but there is this:

Can't take credit;

my daughter thought of it.

~

The Bread Bible

by 

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Banana Split Chiffon Cake

The humidity weather report

is not something that I normally seek out

but since the Alpha Bakers are making a chiffon cake,

I certainly did today.

Why you might wonder?

Humidity does not generally bode well 

for chiffon and angel food cakes.

A thunderstorm rolled into the valley last night

which we have not seen for quite a long while.

Humidity held at 36% 

Onward with baking!

First on the agenda was searching

through the freezer for errant overly over-ripe

bananas that have been languishing for months.

I found three and it made exactly the requisite cup.

Rose calls for bananas, egg yolks, oils,

lemon juice and vanilla to be blitzed

in the food processor.

Everything fit tidily into the mini Cuisinart.

I'm always so happy when I get by

with my little work horse.

Flour and sugar are mixed with

the banana puree 

and then stiffly beaten egg whites

folded into the mixture.

You know that moment when

you realize you've made a colossal error

and a few swear words echo around the kitchen?

I realized too late the cream of tarter was to be

beaten with the egg whites, not added to the dry ingredients.

Nothing to do but carry on.

It didn't seem to cause any harm. 

The cake stayed put upside down in the pan

whilst cooling.

Always a hold your breath moment with this step.

I had a plan though.  If it fell out

it was going to be turned into a triffle.

I thought the top was prettier

with the golden crust

but flipped it over.

Drizzled with chocolate ganache sauce,

soft caramel sauce, whipping cream and nuts,

it's quite a fancy dessert for a deliciously flavored banana chiffon cake.

I also like it plain.

The light banana flavor is refreshingly simple.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Mud Turtle Pie

Just one taste of this pecan pie and

the flavor profile completely caught me

off guard.

I mean, really, haven't we all had 

far too many overly sweet pecan pies in our lifetime,

smiling through gritted teeth at our Thanksgiving host?

Those days are over.

Rose is so on point

combining Muscavado sugar with Lyle's Golden Syrup,

butter and vanilla.  The eggs and cream hold it all together with

another layer of richness.

Notice Kahlua 

crashed this party.

There's something so appealing to me

flavor wise adding Kahlua;

I was converted after the 

Frozen Pecan Tartlettes.

It breaks through any cloying sweetness.

Such an easy recipe and actually 

quite soothing;

standing and stirring the filling 

until warm enough to pour 

over the pecans

waiting in the pre baked pie shell.

It's a great Autumn mixture.

My imagination ran a bit wild, wondering

what it would be like over apples,

poured over a pumpkin cake

or bubbling in a fondue pot?

The chocolate ganache topping 

is a blend of white and dark chocolate.

Rather than spreading it over the pie,

I kept it on the side 

and poured it for those that wanted 

the full Mud Turtle Pie experience.

I need a couple of these

The white and dark chocolate ganache topping is good.

It would make delicious truffles.

The milk chocolate is lighter, 

letting the flavor of the pie filling shine through. 

This ganache was made with chocolate which had

caramel filling and it worked great,

playing off the caramel undertones of the pie.

Increasing the ratio of cream to milk chocolate

kept it from being too sweet.

Actually I would prefer Rose's  filling

poured over mine

Rave reviews so far!

And it's even better the next day.

~~~~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Berenbaum

Honey Cake for a Sweet New Year

Rose's Honey Cake for Rosh Hashana

has so many flavors that honey is but a faint note in the background.

This suits me just fine.  I am not a great fan

of honey in pastries of any sort.

I am a fan of spice cakes and of chocolate cakes.

This cake has both.

It reminds me of the mayonnaise date cake

my mom used to make back in the day.

I actually think dates would be quite good in this cake,

along with Lyle's Golden Syrup and cardamom,

but I held firm to the recipe,

this time. 

Loads of ingredients.

The flour and coffee are off to the side.

Such an easy cake to make;

the dry ingredients in one bowl,

the wet in another with the sugar

and then combined together with honey.

I used Grand Marnier because that is 

what is left in the cupboard.

Can't believe my baking drinks cabinet is bare;.

had quite a Rose collection going there for awhile.

The oranges weren't particularly flavorful

so I added 1/2 teaspoon orange oil.

This is the soupiest cake batter

I have ever come across.

It's absolute alchemy how it 

all bakes up together.

While looking for my bundt pan,

I noticed this old one piece Angel Food cake pan.

It must have come from my mother in law's

when we closed down her house.

I can't bare to see cake pans tossed.

I wish they could tell me their stories. 

I like this cake.

It seems old fashioned and homey, 

just the sort of cake for a special family holiday.

The Grand Marnier and orange oil play well

against the orange juice.

The coffee and cocoa powder play off each other.

And the honey?

It ties the spices together in a subtle way.

We could all use a Sweet New Year. 

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Pepparkakors

Pepparkakors sounded so peculiar

to me over thirty years ago.

While exploring a cute town with 

Swedish origins called

Kingsburg

in central California,

I kept coming across 

"pepper cookies".

Kingsburg, 

home of the water tower turned

into a giant Swedish coffee pot.

And best of all,

abelskivers!

I ended up with a tin of

Pepparkakors 

and we loved them.

My daughter reminded me

that her Kristen American Girl

cookbook has

a Peppakaor recipe.

Kristen uses shortening.

Rose's recipe uses butter and couldn't be simpler.

In fact, it was so simple

I had to keep re-reading the recipe

to see if I forgot anything.

The only difficult thing about 

this recipe is finding

Grandma's mild molasses

and Swedish Pearl Sugar.

I opted for Brerr Rabbit's mild molasses

and drove across town to the Italian market

for Pearl Sugar.

Swedish Pearl sugar is smaller in size than

Belgium Pearl Sugar, 

which is used in Liege Waffles,

the authentic Belgian Waffle.

It all has something to do with

the caramelizing ability.

Butter and sugar are creamed together, then 

the dry ingredients stirred in by hand with

the flat beater.

The very soft dough is patted into a rectangle,

wrapped in plastic and chilled.

And then the fiddly part; rolling the dough

into a log, re-wrapping and forcing it inside a paper towel

cardboard roll.

I shoved the entire log into one paper towel roll,

opting not to cut it into smaller logs.

After freezing, it came apart easily, just like

those Pillsbury cinnamon roll canisters.

Using a very sharp metal dough scrapper,

the tube is sliced into rounds, sprinkled with sugar

and popped into the oven for a quick bake.

This little cookie is quite an aromatic gem.

Another one for the Christmas cookie line up.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Luscious Apple Pie

I've had pie on my mind

after watching the new PBS documentary,

A Few Good Pie Places

Rose's Luscious Apple Pie

was an all day venture.

From letting the apples macerate and release their juices

to the multiple dough chillings.

First off was making Rose's cream cheese pie dough.

I used Nancy's tip to grate in the butter and

it worked like a charm.

Flour with butter and cream cheese

Apples macerating patiently

for the full three hours. 

Thickening apple cider with corn starch

insured an added flavor boost for the

sliced apples.

Apple season just opened and the fresh

ciders haven't really come into the markets.

I found one store with one brand.

The concern has been with the extreme drought,

apples might not be up to par this year.

Surprisingly, the first reports from 

local mountain orchards indicate

they are bigger and sweeter than ever.

The macerated juices are brought to a boil 

with butter.

Lovely aroma, this!

Apples tucked into the pie crust and soused with

these wonderful apple-y sauces,

ready for the oven

I have no idea why this pie took so long to bake.

A good hour past Rose's time.

I tented the pie lest it over brown.

I ran into the same problem I had with 

the cherry pie.

The instruction to bake until the juices bubble through the slits,

just doesn't work for me.  

This pie baked and baked and baked.

I need the exact internal temperature to measure.

I googled and found out it should have reached 175 degrees F

but I'm not certain that is correct.

It didn't occur to me that unless the apples' juices boiled as it baked,

the corn starch added to the apple slices

would not thicken unless it reached 212 degrees F.

And that's what happened.

The crust and apples were more than done, the juices were slightly bubbling but I cut into apple pie soup,

even though the pie had cooled for hours.

I drained as much as I could and brought it to 212 F on the stove.

I've become Thermapen co-dependent! 

Letting it cool and spooning over slices, it is amazing,

even if it doesn't exactly look pretty.

This was the first time I grated nutmeg

to add with the cinnamon.

I love how I learn new things with Rose. 

And then I made more buttery apple cider sauce!

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum

Basic Hearth Bread

                                                       Making this bread made me happy.
                                  It's an easy recipe, that's for sure, but I think it is more than that.

                                      The mystery of bread baking seems to be less mysterious.
                              Instead of being racked with nerves,  today I found it relaxing.

                            This happened while briefly needing the dough ever so slightly
                                      and placing it into the bowl for the first rising.

                         Letting the dough hook do all the kneading is my modus operendi.

I don't have the "touch" or "feel" for bread dough that other fortunate Alpha Bakers do.  I'm so puzzled by this simple thing.   But today, I think I might be starting to understand.
                  And while this sounds insignificant,  for me it is a major milestone.

                         Not growing up among bread bakers, I have zero reference point.

                                        Still, one of my most indelible memories is a
                               second grade school field trip to Wonder Bread Bakery.

                                             The smell was intoxicating.
                  The building full of machinery turning out hundreds and hundreds of loaves.
                      Men pushing horse trough size tubs of dough into the proofing room.
              Watching loaves of bread climb up up and up into the oven and then out the other side.

          And finally, the perfectly packaged miniature loaf of bread they gave to each of us children.
        Every time we passed the old Wonder Bread Bakery while zooming down the freeway,
                            we rolled down the windows for that intoxicating aroma
until the city council passed a ridiculous ordinance to curtail any escaping yeasty fumes.
                                         What has happened to people?
                                   Who doesn't want to smell bread baking?
                                   

Sadly Wonder Bread closed down this baking facility and it stands empty, falling into rack and ruin.

       Bread flour, whole wheat flour, yeast, water and honey are whisked together for the sponge.
                   More flour and yeast are then mixed together to blanket the dough.
                                          I never tire of this step Rose uses.
                                            Here it bubbled for the full four hours.

                                          After a quick mix the salt is added.
                         It had quite a rubbery consistency but after a mere seven minute rest,
                                it lightened up considerably, downright fluffy by comparison.
          Whacked around by the dough hook, it turned back into a rather dense, tacky mass.
                                        Into the bowl for a nice warm rise.

This dough is amazing.  

One warm rise and it puffed up beautifully.

Time to be gently formed into a round loaf

for the final rise under a bowl.

Good enough!

Here's my new little foil contraption for

getting ice cubes into the tray

Rose has us set up on the floor of the oven

for a burst of steam.

The cubes slide down the foil shoot into the pan.

My other half thinks

it's the best bread he's ever eaten.

High praise coming from an Italian.

~

The Bread Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum