I just can't keep my hands off my new purple mixer! I was pawing through my fridge today and found the container of sour cream I bought a few weeks ago to make Alice'scardamom banana bread with pistachios. Lo and behold, it hadn't yet expired, and I also had everything else I needed right on hand! The title says it all -- starring in this recipe are cardamom, bananas, and pistachios. How Middle Eastern! I won't bother re-typing the recipe -- you can check it out on your own. Would you believe I didn't change a thing? I used exactly what it called for, including white flour and white sugar! Eek! I added just a couple of my own touches -- I used freshly ground cardamom for that extra pungency, and I lightly toasted the pistachios before using them. Plus, I left the nuts rather coarsely chopped, and maybe used just a bit more than the recipe called for... so maybe that constitutes a change to the recipe... but a very small one!
I have to tell you, it felt a bit odd mixing quick bread in a mixer. I couldn't help but feel like I was overmixing the batter. I'm so used to feeling what I'm doing when I make muffins and quick breads! But this turned out great. God, I love cardamom!
Another reason to love the purple mixer: long before the banana bread even thought about coming out of the oven, I had a batch of cookies mixed, and two pans' worth of dough all scooped out and ready to go in the oven! But I'll save that story for tomorrow.
Borealis olive bread, Raye's Downeast Schooner Mustard, and provolone cheese, toasted at 425 until cheese is brown, bubbly, and ooey-gooey. Painfully simple, but so satisfying.
*I'm pretty sure Kevin and I heard Sara Moulton say this, or something very close to it, on her show one day. It's become an often-chanted mantra for us.
Every town has its "institutions." One of Bangor's is Frank's Bake Shop. It's a family-owned bakery and catering service that's been around since 1945. It's most famous for things like doughnuts, turkey pot pies, and (most importantly!) fresh raspberry tarts -- available only when wild raspberries are in season locally!
Unfortunately, the recipe for the tarts is top-secret. But I do have the recipe for "Frank's Bake Shop's Lowfat Blueberry Raspberry Muffins." Not one to leave a recipe alone, I decided to kick this one up a bit and make cranberry-raspberry muffins, and substitute whole-wheat flour for a good portion of the all-purpose flour. Here's what happened...
Cran-Razz Muffins
2-1/3 cups whole-wheat flour
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup Sucanat
2 tbsp baking powder
1-1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
pinch of nutmeg
1-2/3 cups low fat milk (I had 1% in the house)
1/3 cup canola oil
1/2 cup applesauce
2 large eggs
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (no need to thaw frozen berries)
1 cup fresh or frozen raspberries (no need to thaw frozen berries)
Preheat oven to 350.
In a large mixing bowl, sift together dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, mix together wet ingredients. Add wet to dry, mixing just until combined. Gently fold in fruit. Spoon into prepared muffin pans. Bake 20 – 25 minutes, or until golden brown.
Makes approximately 18 standard-sized muffins.
They're pretty darn good, if I do say so myself. The berries (my two favorites) work very well together, and are wonderfully sweet-tart. The muffins are tender, light and fluffy, and just a bit crusty on the top. The only disappointment is that the muffin base isn't quite as sweet as maybe it could be. I'm not saying that the berries are too tart -- they're not! -- but the muffin should be just a bit sweeter. Next time I will probably use another 1/4 - 1/3 cup of Sucanat. And there definitely will be a next time! I think that a little toasting, butter and honey will probably fix what ails them for now. =)
PS: If you're absolutely dying for Frank's original recipe, here it is:
Oops! Sorry. Styx flashback. Yes, I love them -- even the "Kilroy was Here" album. But that's neither here nor there.
The time that came today was the time to FINALLY use my new purple mixer!!! I really should give my "Little House" books a rest one of these days, because reading them always makes me want to bake something. Today, "Little House by Boston Bay" made me want cookies. But what a perfect opportunity to use my new purple mixer! I couldn't resist... but what to make... to allrecipes.com! As I so often do when I visit that site, I found the perfect recipe for today: Whole-Wheat Snickerdoodles. I'll let you find the original recipe on your own, but here's how I had my way with it (this will be a pretty photo-heavy entry for me, because the excitement was just too much to contain!)...
INGREDIENTS:
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1-1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Bakewell Cream
2 tablespoons Sucanat
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Cream butter and sugar till fluffy.
There it is: an action shot of the very first time my purple mixer mixed something!!! You can't begin to imagine how excited I was.
Add egg and vanilla. Beat well.
How beautifully light and fluffy is that?!?
Add dry ingredients.
Pouring guide attached... adding flour ever so carefully...
The dough is done!
Shape dough into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar cinnamon mixture. Place 2 inches apart on ungreased cookie sheets.
Ready for the oven...
Bake at 375 degrees F (190 degrees C) for 8-10 minutes.
Cookie heaven!
These cookies are so great in so many ways. First of all, they're a very New England cookie. Next, I love that this recipe calls for whole-wheat flour instead of refined flour. It adds a nice nuttiness, a little extra texture, and it's so much healthier than white flour! I know, there's a lot of butter there, and a fair amount of sugar, but I'll take what I can get. =) They're buttery, crispy on the outside, slightly chewy in the center, and oh-so-cinnamon-y! I imagine they'll be wonderful with a nice cup of hot cocoa...
And let me just tell you: I love love LOVE my new purple mixer!!! That probably goes without saying. But I had to say it anyway. =)
The past few New Year's Eves have been spent at home, very quietly, because I always had to work in the pre-dawn hours of New Year's Day. Last year, for example, I made some nice sesame-crusted tofu, fruit salsa, and herb-roasted potatoes (I will do that meal sometime soon and post the recipes!). Kevin and I celebrated "midnight" on European time -- 6pm here. We went to bed early, and I got up at 2:30 the next morning for work. This year, as most of you know, I'M NOT WORKING! YAY!!! But Kevin is. Until 11:30. In Boston. And I'm home in Maine. I could have gone down there, but it just would have been too crazy. He's working so late, his station is in the middle of downtown Boston, the crowds would drive me crazy... plus, I have that extra added bonus this year of being sick. I just don't feel like doing anything. So tonight, it's just me, the cats, and some Olive Garden minestrone (yum!). I also dragged myself to Borders this afternoon to take advantage of the 50% off all calendars sale, and picked up a copy of "Cooking for Mr. Latte" on a complete whim. I've seen several other food bloggers mention it, but I really don't know much about it. Is it completely insipid and sappy? I am extremely choosy about what I read... can anyone reassure me that I won't be sorry I made this purchase? I just finished "The Time Traveler's Wife" and loved it. I don't want this one to be a letdown!
In the meantime, I hope you're having a wonderful evening, wherever you are and whatever you're doing. No fancy parties for me tonight... so have some extra fun in my honor! Happy New Year!!!
