Strawberry, Banana, Coconut and Chia Bread

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I am now an empty nester and over a week can go by without a word from my two oldest children. I have friends whose kids call them several times a day. When I ask them what their kids call about, they say it could be for help editing their essays, choosing a brand of canned tuna to buy or even just advice about laundry. Huh?

I waver between two alternative thoughts regarding how well I did raising my own children. Either:

1. I failed miserably in creating the bond or attachment that these other mothers have done so astonishingly well with. OR:

2. I have been wildly successful in raising my children to be independent thinkers and problem solvers.

Of course the truth, as always. lies somewhere in between these two ends of the spectrum.

When my first born moved out, we only heard from him when he needed money. Now he keeps in touch with us by Spot Connect, a GPS device that sends us a message showing us where he is and that he is ok. Sort of like “Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego.” To be fair, he is an outdoor educator and is often in remote spots without cell service. It gives us great peace of mind. And lately he has been calling just to say hi and catch up on the latest news.

When my second born moved out I would only hear from her if she was sick, needed money or some other horrible disaster had befallen her. However, in the past year she now calls me with cooking questions and texts me with links to great blogs, and photos of something delicious she has cooked or baked. It makes me so happy.

When the third born moved out, I moved in with him for the first week! But that’s a story for another time.

Last week my daughter called for advice on baking times. She had a recipe for a loaf that she was making as muffins instead. She needed to know how much to reduce the cooking time by. She excitedly burbled about this amazing recipe for Strawberry Banana Coconut Bread created by the charming Monique of ambitiouskitchen.com. When she was done she texted this picture.We texted back and forth about the muffins. She said they had chia seeds in them and wanted to know if I had ever heard about them. Have I heard about them?? Can you say “Ch-ch-ch-chia?” They were my very first pet! I grew up growing my own chia seeds! If you are of a certain vintage, you will fondly remember this commercial:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzY7qQFij_M

Apparently, chia seeds are this year’s new “superfood”. According to The Huffington Post there are 11 reasons to include Chia seeds in your diet. High in fibre, omega-3, calcium, manganese, phosphorous, iron and calcium, these little seeds help fight diabetes, belly fat and heart disease and are excellent at regulating your appetite.

Truthfully the strawberry banana combo didn’t really appeal to me. It is a duo found commonly in smoothies and I am not a huge smoothie fan. I would rather eat the fruit than drink it. But her muffins and Monique’s loaf looked so pretty and I was curious to revisit Chia seeds!

The raw loaf just looks so pretty before it goes into the oven. I slightly adapted the original recipe. I substituted about 1/3 whole wheat flour for some of the all purpose flour. I also boosted the fat from 1 tablespoon coconut oil to 3 tablespoons coconut oil, as I found the first loaf I made a bit dry.It bakes up high and golden brown.

Strawberry Banana Coconut Bread Download

Springtime Farro Salad and Delusion

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I wish this was the blog post that told you how much I have always hated quinoa, that is until I tried “this” salad. Then I would go on to swear that even if you too are a quinoa hater, this one recipe will change all that and you may now join the righteous and good quinoa lovers of the world. But sadly, this is not the case. I have tried this salad, this one, and that one too. I have not tried it all these ways, but I do believe I have given it a fair shake, and I just don’t like it. It tastes like like a toxic combination of sand and gravel to me. I can’t deal with those tiny grains. They just mush all together in my mouth. There is no chew to them.

The first time I tried quinoa, no one told me that Mother Nature, in all her infinite wisdom, created a bitter coating of saponins over each grain so that the birds would not eat it all up. It needs to be rinsed before cooking. Apparently I am not on Mother Nature’s mailing list so we ended up having to throw dinner in the garbage that night.

I really do want to like quinoa. It has been given the prestigious title of “Superfood”, given it’s incredibly high nutritional value. It is a source of complete protein, a good source of fibre, phosphorous, magnesium, iron and calcium. I just can’t stand it, so I do the next best thing to eating it. I choose a different grain to substitute in all those salads and delude myself into thinking that it has just as much nutritional value as quinoa. Hey, it works for me. I am excellent at deluding myself about all kinds of things.

Lately my grain of choice has been farro. I have written about farro here and here.

I know it’s almost summer, but the Farmer’s Market, where I live, has not gotten the memo yet. Radishes, spring onions and mint are about the only local veggies to have bravely popped their heads out of the recently frozen earth. So a Springtime Salad it is. This gorgeous salad is the creation of Eric Vellend, food editor at Canadian House and Home magazine. You could substitute barley, wheat berries or even, dare I say it, quinoa. Hey I won’t judge.

I adore the hefty chew that farro brings to this dish. The sugar snap peas, barely blanched add sweetness and crunch. The radishes and green onion add a balancing bitterness and sharp bite to the nutty farro. Mint and lemon add the final notes of freshness.

Click here to print recipe for Springtime Farro Salad.

Dilled Green Bean Salad

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Last Monday morning I woke up with a killer Cronut hangover. For the uninitiated, a Cronut is an amazing pastry from Dominique Ansel Bakery on Spring St. in SoHo. Imagine if you will a cream filled donut hooking up with a croissant, falling in love and mating. (Hey, it could happen, ever watch those eHarmony commercials?) The Cronut would be the love child of that union.They take a croissant type dough and form it into a donut shape. Then they deep fry it and pump it full of a Tahitian Vanilla pastry cream. They enrobe it in a rose flavoured glaze, tint it the palest, prettiest pink imaginable, and then, bedazzle it with candied rose petals.

This creation is based on the traditional Breton butter pastry, known in Brittany as Kouign Amann. People are lining up for them as early as 6:00 a.m., because they sell out so quickly. There are even rumours that Cronuts are being scalped on Craigslist. They just launched a lemon maple variety for the month of June and a Dulce de Leche variety is in the works for July!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vswiimBEvCk

I first heard about Cronuts on Serious Eats. I knew that in the wrong hands, (MINE), a Cronut could be a dangerous thing. But I needed to find out if they were really all that and a bag of chips. So, I figured I’d do the next best thing to actually eating it myself. I would get my friend to try them, and give me the lowdown.

My girlfriend Paula and her husband were heading to NYC, so I forwarded the Cronut link to her and asked her to go check them out and report back to me. She e-mailed me back that she would do one better; she would bring me back some to try myself. Apparently they sell out very quickly, so she went online, ordered them and on Sunday afternoon, schlepped her husband down to SoHo to pick them up. He stopped complaining once she shoved a Cronut in his mouth. She managed to get them through Newark Security and even through Customs unscathed, although I suspect a Cronut or two were sacrificed as bribes to ease their entry into Canada. We take Cronut importation seriously in this nation.

Now you may be thinking, “What a great friend Paula is, to bring these all the way back from NYC”. Or you may be wondering if she isn’t just a sneaky closet enabler, trying to fatten up her friend.

Sunday night, around 8:30 p.m., our doorbell rang. It was Paula, on her way home from the airport with the box of Cronuts. She said that we had to eat them right away. I didn’t want to be rude, so I took a small bite. Crispy flaky light layers of buttery croissant gave way to a silky pastry cream filling flecked with vanilla bean seeds.I am sure I moaned as I thanked her profusely. I really was planning to have just a little bite, so I could say I had tried them. However, once she left, an evil voice from somewhere deep inside my head commanded me to finish the entire thing. So I did. And then, once my husband and daughter went upstairs, I scarfed down a second Cronut; hence the Cronut hangover on Monday morning.

I felt vaguely nauseous from all that sugar and butter I had ingested, so I figured that the perfect antidote was something green and acidic. I remember reading somewhere that apple cider vinegar is a great digestive aid. I had some fresh green beans, so I got to creating with what was in my fridge.Cookbook author and griller extraordinaire, Chris Schlessinger, once said, “Green bean recipes are like movies: You always think there are lots of good ones around until you’re ready for one, then you can’t find any you really like.” Here’s a fantastic one for whenever over-indulging makes you feel the need to be virtuous. (At least until the next binge!)

Click here to print the recipe for Dilled Green Bean, Celery and Pepper Salad.

Infidelity and a Pineapple Mint Mojito

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Now that my racy title got your attention, I must fess up and admit that I have not been unfaithful to my husband with another man. However, he has been away for 18 days and I will admit that in his absence I have been gorging on pineapple. But more about pineapple in a moment.

I should explain that my husband and daughter took a “Lord of the Rings” (LOTR) journey to New Zealand. Apparently the movies were filmed there. They are both a little obsessed with all things LOTR! My husband and daughter were whispering just before they left and I suspect they may be coming home with their second tattoo. They bonded last summer when they went together to get their first tattoos!

So, back to pineapple. My husband has a food sensitivity to pineapple, so being the kind and considerate wife that I am, I avoid using it in my cooking. However, I love it! So while he has been away, I have probably consumed half my body weight in pineapple. I made an amazing Cuban Avocado, Watercress and Pineapple Salad, a spicy pineapple-jalapeño salsa to eat with halibut, a big batch of tangy pineapple sherbet and lots of fresh pineapple just mixed in with my morning yogurt and favourite granola.

And then, yesterday, as I was flipping through the May issue of Bon Appetit, I came across a recipe for Pineapple Mint Mojitos. Until recently, I was not really a mojito fan. My husband used to accuse me of sucking all the joy out of his love of mojitos by telling him how much sugar was in them. But that nasty habit came to an abrupt halt last December, when we were on holiday and were served an entire pitcher of mojitos. I had my very own Dr. Seuss moment and discovered that, “Saaaay, I do like Mojitos!”

I could only imagine how much I would like a mojito with pineapple in it. Begin heating sugar and water to make a simple syrup. After the sugar is dissolved in the water, add some mint and let it infuse it’s minty goodness for several hours until it cools. Strain the mixture and add it to some pureed pineapple.

Click here to print recipe for Pineapple Mint Mojito.

The pineapple adds a delicious tropical fragrant sweetness. It is a wonderful variation to the classic cocktail.

Atlantic Beach Pie

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Yesterday at spin class, when I climbed down off my bike after an especially gruelling 55 minute class, I noticed a few drops of water under my bike. I checked to see if my water bottle was leaking, but no, the lid was screwed on tight. Suddenly it dawned on me that the liquid on the ground was my own sweat. If you are not a spinner, you may not realize the significance of this discovery. It is the athletic equivalent to a Bar or Bat Mitzvah.

There is a right of passage in the Jewish religion known as a Bar or Bat Mitzvah. When a young boy turns 13 he has a Bar Mitzvah and we say “Today you are a man.” For girls the age is 12 and it is called a Bat Mitzvah (we mature faster!).

Today, after spinning consistently 3-4 times a week, for the past 6 months, I have finally worked hard enough to produce an actual puddle of sweat, albeit small, under my bike. I would have shouted, “Today I am a spinner” but I had not one ounce of energy left to even utter mazel-tov.

When I got home, all I could think of was celebrating with something sweet and salty to replace all those precious calories I sweated away. And then I remembered the “Oh My God” pie recipe my friend Marla had sent me. It seemed a fitting way to commemorate this milestone in my life.

Marla found this recipe on NPR’s series, Found Recipes. Cooks, bakers and food writers share dishes that have surprised or delighted them. Katie Workman, author of “The Mom Cookbook: 100 Recipes Every Mom Needs in her Back Pocket”, shared Chef Bill Smith’s recipe for Atlantic Beach Pie.

This is a traditional pie, served all up and down the North Carolina Coast. Similar to a key lime or lemon meringue pie, but with a twist. The difference is in the crust. Instead of a traditional pastry or graham wafer crust, this crust is made from saltine crackers. Bill parted with tradition and topped his simply, with whipped cream, instead of the traditional meringue topping.

Bill said that when he was growing up it was common knowledge in his part of the world that you would get very sick if you ate dessert after a seafood dinner. This pie was the only exception and it was served in all the seafood restaurants on the North Carolina coast.

Recently, Katie was dining at Bill’s Chapel Hill North Carolina restaurant, Cook’s Corner. After an amazing dinner of shrimp and grits, fried oysters and hush puppies, Katie says she was stuffed and had no room for another bite. But then Bill brought out a slice of this pie. Katie took one bite and had her “When Harry met Sally” moment. All she could utter, between bites, was “Oh my god, Oh my god, Oh my god!”

What makes this pie so outstanding is the crust. Crushed saltines, a bit of sugar and softened butter are transformed into a thick, dense, crispy, salty crust. No dough rolling, just press it into a pan and pre-bake the shell, while you prepare the filling.

The filling is made with lime (or lemon) juice, sweetened condensed milk and egg yolks.I learned a great trick for whipping cream ahead of time from pastry chef Anna Olsen. Her secret is to add 1 tablespoon of skim milk powder for each cup of whipping cream at any point during the whipping process to stabilize it. She says, “It doesn’t impact the taste or texture, but it stabilizes the whipped cream. You can pipe it, you can dollop it, every swirl and swish will stay in place for a full 24 hours. If you ice a cake you can cut it and you get these clean perfect slices and the whipped cream stays whipped.” I decided to get fancy with my whipped cream and I put it into a piping bag, fitted with a star tip, to top the pie. You could just spread the whipped cream over the pie with a knife, or even serve it on the side, with a slice.

This pie is a study in contrasts. The crispy crust is in perfect balance with the silky creamy filling and the billowy whipped cream topping. The saltiness in the crust is utterly complemented by the tanginess of the lime and the sweetness of the condensed milk. This is beautiful harmony in a pie. Click here to print recipe for Oh My God Pie.

Asparagus Panzanella Salad

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I promise that this asparagus post (unlike my previous one) will not offend anyone by mentioning any bodily functions, so feel safe to read on. This post is all about the unabashed joy of celebrating all things green this spring.

The classic panzanella salad originated in Tuscany. It was a way to use up stale bread and highlight tomatoes at the pinnacle of their summertime glory. Often onions, cucumber and basil are added. The texture of the bread in traditional panzanella is not supposed to be crunchy or chewy or crusty like croutons. If you have ever eaten this salad in Italy, you will recall that the bread is light, a bit wet, airy, just short of mushy. I was shocked when I had it a few years ago on the Amalfi Coast, and to be frank, was less than enthused. It sort of had the texture of fluffy torn-up matzoh balls. There is a very fine line between lightly moistened and unpleasantly soggy. Although I love the classics, in my panzanella salad, I want the bread to have a bit of chew and crunch.

The inspiration for this spring panzanella came from Chef Michael Symon. Asparagus and green peas get top billing in this version of panzanella. Out of season tomatoes need not apply for entry into this salad. Like Michael, I grilled my asparagus, but I also shaved a few raw spears with my vegetable peeler to get some fresh crunch.I used a half a loaf of Ciabatta bread I had in the freezer. I thawed it and then tore it into chunks, rather than cutting it into neat cubes. Tearing it gives a more rustic appearance and all those craggy surfaces have a better chance of soaking up the flavourful dressing.

If fresh peas in a pod are available where you live, go ahead and indulge. I used frozen peas since we are at least a month away from fresh here. I really love frozen peas. It seems to be a family thing. My daughter used to eat frozen peas as her afternoon snack every day when she was about 4 years old. Peas are one of the few vegetables that are actually better frozen. Unless you have green-peas growing in your backyard or access to a Farmer’s Market, you really are better off buying frozen. Cook’s Illustrated explains why this is so:

“Fresh peas have very little stamina. They lose a substantial portion of their nutrients within 24 hours of being picked This rapid deterioration is the reason for the starchy, bland flavor of most “fresh” peas found at the grocery store. These not-so-fresh peas might be several days old, depending on where they came from and how long they were kept in the cooler. Frozen peas, on the other hand, are picked, cleaned, sorted, and frozen within several hours of harvest, which helps to preserve their delicate sugars and flavours “

I finished the salad off with some crumbled Ricotta Salata cheese (a firm ricotta). If you can’t find it, Feta would work just as well. Ricotta salata is a sheep’s milk cheese that has been pressed, dried and salted. It has a dense, slightly spongy texture and fresh milky flavour.

A quick dressing is made with garlic, dijon, sherry or red wine vinegar and olive oil. Fresh chopped mint gets sprinkled over the whole dish. This is a delicious addictive salad. I was home alone the day I made this and polished off the entire platter after photographing it. The contrast of the soft grilled asparagus was really wonderful against the crunch of the fresh shaved raw asparagus ribbons. The peas, barely cooked gave a great pop of green brightness. I mixed everything together and let the salad sit for at least 20 minutes. By the time I ate it the croutons had time to soak up the dressing and they were chewy but still just a bit crunchy. Perfect.

Click here to print recipe for Asparagus and Panzanella Salad.

I had a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with this salad. Asparagus is quite difficult to pair with wine, as certain chemicals in asparagus can make your wine taste vegetal, grassy, or just plain rotten. A crisp and refreshing Sauvignon Blanc is a perfect match. I am currently crushing on New Zealand Dog Point Sauvignon Blanc. It has a juicy acidity and crisp finish that pairs perfectly with this salad.

If you are curious about learning more regarding food and wine pairings, check out Natalie MacLean’s Great Canadian Wine Match. Natalie is a certified sommelier and was named the World’s Best Wine Writer at the World Food Media Awards.

This is the first People’s Choice Competition for Canadian food and wine pairings. A real on-line battle of the bottles! The search for Canada’s best wine and food pairings launched on May 8. Wine drinkers from coast to coast are rallying behind their favourite Canadian pairings in this first grassroots, “bottoms up” competition.

Wine lovers can nominate and vote for their favourite Canadian wines as pairings in six Canadian food categories: cheese, chicken, beef, seafood, pizza and dessert. Voting ends May 20 when the top five wines in each category move to the showdown finalist phase. Wines from each region in Canada will vie to be named the best wine with a particular Canadian dish.

“This is a coast to coast toast to celebrate our own wine and food ,” says MacLean. “I think we can all drink to that.”

Happy Birthday with Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

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My baby recently turned 20! Kind of scary and yet also awesome at the same time to realize that I am no longer the parent of teenage children. I have made the exact same Chocolate Cake for him for the past 19 years. To say that he is a child that does not handle change well is putting it mildly. For the first 3 years of his life he cried every year on his birthday when we sang happy birthday to him. The more he cried, the louder his older brother and sister would sing. Whether it was to drown out his crying or antagonize him even further, I am not quite sure, but I have my suspicions!

Thankfully, for the next several years, the crying stopped but he would still get sad on his birthday. We just learned to keep things low key. Finally, on his 9th birthday he said he wanted to have a party with friends, balloons and streamers. I was thrilled and we went all out with the decorations. I even suggested that perhaps we make a special cake, maybe a train cake, or a swimming pool cake or even a rocket ship cake, like I had made for his brother and sister in past years.

Those suggestions were met with a stony stare and then he informed me that he would like his regular chocolate cake with chocolate icing please. Hey, at least he said please! So as the saying goes, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” So, I continued to make his favourite cake every year. However, as a food blogger, I have found this to be quite frustrating. I needed new material to blog about!

When I saw this photo of Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Mousse Filling on Serious Eats, I became transfixed. I could not stop thinking about it and began having serious cravings. This looked like the consummate birthday cake for my son. He loves the combo of chocolate and peanut butter. I showed him a picture of the cake and asked if this could be his birthday cake this year. He shocked me by saying, sure!I adapted the original recipe in several ways. The first thing I did was double the cake recipe. This chocolate cake recipe uses both bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened cocoa powder. Buttermilk and coffee round out the flavours to produce a fantastic moist, rich and fudgy cake. I wanted more cake in relation to the peanut butter mousse filling. The peanut butter mousse filling gets a bit of tang from cream cheese and then the whole thing is lightened with some whipped cream.

The original recipe called for a ganache frosting, but I swapped in my favourite Chocolate Coffee Buttercream instead. The slight bitterness of the coffee was a great counterpoint for the sweet cake. The final change I made was adding a dusting of peanut praline to the outside of the cake. I liked the textural crunch it added to the final bite. Without the praline I found it was just too many smooth textures in your mouth from the mousse and the buttercream.

Click here to print recipe for Chocolate and Peanut Butter Mousse Cake

Rösti topped with Poached Eggs and Asparagus Dippers

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It’s entirely possible that I may be jumping the gun a bit by writing about asparagus during the end of April. Here in Ottawa we will not be seeing any local crops until mid-May at the earliest. However, given the winter that we recently crawled out of, I hope I can be forgiven for buying California asparagus at Costco last week. I could not wait any longer.

Perhaps like you, I have a love hate relationship with asparagus. I love it when I eat it, but not so much about 15 minutes later when I pee. Up until recently it was believed that everybodys urine has that pungent aroma after eating asparagus, but not everyone can smell it.

It should be noted that the effect of asparagus on urine odour has been around for several hundred years. Apparently one British men’s club is said to have put up a sign reading, “During the asparagus season, members are requested not to relieve themselves in the hat stand.” I would have hoped that men would always have the good sense to never relieve themselves in the hat stand, but perhaps that’s just asking too much of that gender.

More recent scientific studies on what I like to call “The Great Asparagus Pee Mystery” (yes folks, there are some freaky scientists out there actually studying it) have now theorized that there are really two factors at play here; the ability to produce the aroma and the ability to detect the aroma. Both are determined by genetics.

Let’s deal first with the ability to produce the aroma. Asparagus contains a sulphurous compound called mercaptan. Enzymes in your digestive system break down the mercaptan and certain by-products are released that cause the offensive odour. But, here’s where it gets interesting. Not everyone has the gene for that enzyme. If you are part of the 54% of the population whose DNA lacks the gene for this enzyme, then you will not produce smelly urine after eating asparagus.

Now, what about the ability to detect the aroma? It has been theorized that depending on your DNA, you may or may not have the olfactory receptors to detect the scent. Some of us are “super-smellers” and others are just “smell-blind” when it comes to asparagus pee.

To simplify things I have created a chart!

If you are one of those with a malfunctioning olfactory sense, I envy you. Although looking on the bright side, when I am old and my memory is failing, I will always be able to remember that I had asparagus for dinner!

A word to the wise should you happen to find yourself at the Spargelfest (Asparagus festival) in Beelitzer Germany or any of these other Asparagus Festivals, this spring. If you are a super smeller, you may want to hold your breath when you enter the bathroom stalls!

The fact that I am a stinker and a smeller does not hold me back from eating asparagus when it is in season. One of my favourite ways to enjoy it is to simply steam it and serve it with poached eggs. I love to dip the spears into the runny golden egg yolk. Last week, I served the poached eggs on top of Rösti potatoes, with the asparagus dippers on the side. A perfect spring dinner!Rösti potatoes, also known as shredded potato cake, is not the same thing as latkes. Latkes are made with shredded raw potatoes, whereas Rösti are made with shredded par-boiled potatoes. Yukon Gold or Idaho potatoes are perfect for this dish.

Once the potatoes are parboiled, they should be allowed to chill in the fridge for several hours, or even up to a day, before they are peeled and shredded. This is the secret to getting the a crispy golden crust on the outside of the potato cake and having a fluffy and tender inside.The shredded potato is mixed with some salt and pepper and gets pressed into a hot cast iron skillet, with a little bit of both butter and vegetable oil.Patience is required here. Turn the heat down to medium low and let it get brown. This will take at least 15 minutes. When the underside is brown, flip the cake out into a large plate, browned side up. Add more oil and butter to the pan and slide the cake back into the pan, pale side down. Brown the second side.

While the Rösti potato cake is cooking, steam or boil asparagus and poach eggs. If you are at all intimidated about making poached eggs, please know that you are not alone, and there is help. Serious Eats posted a fool-proof method for poaching eggs, that is really quite genius, and actually works! Click on the link above to view the video if you are planning top poach eggs.

Click here to print recipe for Rösti topped with Poached Eggs and Asparagus Dippers.

A Modern Banana Bread

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I had a friend in seventh grade whose long straight shiny hair I envied. It reached down to her lower back and was a beautiful shade of butterscotch. I had short, wiry, curly black hair and would have given anything for hair like hers. She seemed so exotic to me. As I spent more time at her house I came to appreciate how different our families were. She only had one sibling and her mom was quite involved in all aspects of her life. I had 5 siblings and my mom was busy just trying to keep all our names straight.

One of the strangest things about my friend’s mom was that every week she would buy a huge bunch of bananas and leave them in a pretty bowl on the kitchen table. By the end of the week, they would be ripe and almost black and she would throw the bunch away and buy a fresh one to replace it. No one in their family liked the taste of bananas, yet her mom just loved how they looked, so she continued to buy them.At the time it never occurred to me that you could make banana bread with ripe bananas. In our house, banana cake came from Sara Lee. Oh how I loved the icing on those frozen cakes!I only came to discover the joy of homemade banana bread many years later, during my University years, when I worked part-time as a Cuisinart demonstrator. I was given Noreen Gilletz’s book “The Pleasures of your Food Processor” as a gift. And there on page 208 was a banana bread recipe so perfect that it became my gold standard by which I judged all other banana breads for the next 30 years.

My mom was a student of the “more is more” school, and she revised Noreen’s recipe by using 5 or 6 bananas, instead of the 3 called for in the recipe. We dubbed her version, “Banana Brick.” It was wet and heavy.

Little did my mom know that with her addition of more bananas, she was onto something big here. She wanted to intensify the banana flavour but she just lacked the correct technique to do it without ending up with a sodden heavy mess.

Cook’s Illustrated Magazine figured out a way to ramp up the banana flavour without introducing too much additional moisture. They started with five very ripe bananas (versus the usual three in most typical recipes) and proceeded to microwave them to release their juices. The next step was to drain all the juices that had accumulated during microwaving and simmer that liquid in a saucepan until it reduced.

This reduced liquid is then added to the batter, a sort of intensified banana essence.

Cooks Illustrated decided to further boost the banana flavour by adding a sixth banana, sliced thin and caramelized on top of the loaf gave this banana bread an enticingly crisp, crunchy top.

I tasted the bread warm from the oven and to be honest, I wasn’t sure I liked it better than my classic recipe from Noreen. But I went back for a second taste after it had cooled for about 6 hours and I was astounded at how different it tasted. All the buttery goodness was now front and center. It was moist, but not wet. The slices, heavy for their size, had the perfect density.

There were several layers of sweetness to this banana bread. It tasted of bananas but the sweetness was not overpowering. The addition of brown sugar to this version added a molasses undertone that helped balance the sweetness. Cook’s Illustrated called for walnuts in their recipe and not being a walnut lover, I hesitated over this addition. In the end, I added them and their slight bitterness provided just the right contrast with the sweet bananas.

The sliced bananas and granulated sugar on top of the bread caramelized and they added a crunch to the top that was such a nice surprise and contrast to the moist interior. This banana bread continued to improve over the next 3 days, much like a fruitcake. Sometimes it does pay to mess with the classics! I think even Noreen Gilletz would approve.

Click here to print recipe for Ultimate Banana Bread.

Delicious Gluten Free Bagels… An Oxymoron?

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I consider myself to be something of a bagel aficionado. Partly because I have eaten my fair share (and perhaps several others fair shares as well) over my life span, and partly because I have baked hundreds of bagels myself, after learning the craft when I participated in the Bread Baker’s Apprentice Challenge.

I will not delve into the hotly contested debate of New York vs. Montreal style bagels, because really, that argument is laden with trash talking and never ends well. For those not familiar with the difference between the two styles, a little bagel primer here.

Montreal bagels are thin, a little sweet and quite chewy. They are boiled and then baked in a wood fired oven. They are really only good within the first few hours of being baked. After that, they get quite tough and leathery. New York bagels are bigger, doughier and fluffier than Montreal style bagels. They are also boiled first and then baked, but not usually in a wood fired oven.

One’s bagel preference is imprinted on them early in childhood and it’s extremely tough to shake it. Personally, I do not care for either Montreal or New York bagels. I grew up in Toronto, and for me, bagel bliss is a Bagel World Twister. Weighing in at 8 ounces, these behemoths are chewy in the center and heavily seeded with poppy to create an extreme crunch on the outside. Twisters are spiralled by hand; the dough is literally twisted before the loop is closed to form the bagel. The result is that the baked bagels tear apart in beautiful little sections. All the better to slather on salted butter.Bagel World realized that it is a hazard to your health to eat twisters on a regular basis, so they created Twister flagels (flat bagels). I do not care for them quite as much as a regular twister since the chewy middle part has all but been eliminated. Sadly, I no longer live in Toronto and here in Ottawa bagels are made in the Montreal style. Blech!

I’ll be so bold as to bring a different species of bagel into this discussion: The Gluten-Free Bagel. Are delicious gluten-free bagels possible, or is that an oxymoron? Up until about 5 years ago, I would have said that gluten-free bagels should not even be allowed in the same conversation as regular bagels. We put out youngest son on a gluten free diet about 12 years ago, and one of the hardest things for him to give up were bagels. I tried buying commercially made gluten-free bagels and truthfully, they were awful. The vast majority of them were made from a combination of rice flour and tapioca starch. The texture was quite gluey.

Then, a friend of mine, who suffers from Celiac disease, gave me a recipe for gluten-free bagels that he discovered in the magazine “Living Without.” I was sceptical, but when I read the list of ingredients, I was intrigued. These bagels incorporate 6 different types of flour (Garbanzo-fava bean flour, brown rice flour, arrowroot flour, potato starch, tapioca flour and amaranth flour) to create a multi-grain flour blend. In addition, the recipe also calls for flax meal (ground up flax seeds). All these ingredients combine together to create a bagel with some heft and chew. I will be honest and tell you that they are best toasted, but if you are unable to have gluten, these really are a delicious substitute.

I make them regularly for my son and decided to blog about it, since gluten-free diets seem to be gaining in popularity. Today I made a batch of seeded (poppy and sesame) and a second batch of cheddar jalapeno gluten-free bagels. The dough for regular flour bagels needs to spend a night or even two in the fridge to allow the gluten and flavours to develop. Since these are gluten-free, they can be made quite quickly.

This is quite a sticky dough, so it is best made in a stand mixer. Start out with the paddle attachment and then switch to the dough hook after several minutes of mixing. A plastic pastry scraper will make it easier to get the dough out of the bowl and a metal bench scraper makes portioning the dough easier.

The seeds are sprinkled on after boiling and before baking.For the cheddar jalapeño bagels, I mixed in some shredded cheddar and finely diced pickled jalapeño peppers. After 10 minutes in the oven, they get topped with some additional cheddar, for the the last 10 minutes of baking.