Best Banana Bread

Best Banana Bread

Adapted from Maida Heatter by Blue Heron Kitchen

This recipe, the best banana bread I’ve ever made or tasted is adapted from the great Maida Heatter. 

Let's go bananas!

I’m publishing this recipe by weight measurement. If you require volume measurements, send me an email at blueheronkitchen@gmail.com.

But...

If you haven’t bought a kitchen scale, here’s a link to an inexpensive one in the U.S. It’s about $23. American, and worth the investment. An electronic kitchen scale is invaluable essential to becoming a rock star baker. You'll achieve excellent and consistent results. (Check out Wirecutter (thewirecutter.com) for "the best" products. It's a great resource.)

Weighing ingredients allows you to play around! The original recipe called for all-purpose flour; and I replaced 100 grams (roughly a third) with whole wheat pastry flour. I love how the nuttiness of whole wheat complements bananas, don’t you? Fooling around with different flours is fun, but only if you’re throwing them on the scale. But beware: don’t think you have carte blanche with all flours. Different flours (even wheat) have different properties (gluten) and will alter your product. I find this very interesting, but I also have a pantry stocked with ground teff, buckwheat, millet and sorghum.

Most banana breads call for over-ripened bananas. For this recipe, some exterior black streaks and little black freckles are perfect. If your bananas are black, the sugar content will be quite high, cloying for this bread.

Truc: Don’t mash the bananas fine. Leave them slightly lumpy.

Truc: Toast your pecans first. Cool them completely and then toss them in a spoonful of the 

prepped dry mix (flour).

Truc: Toast a few more ounces of pecans than are called for in the recipe and keep them in a small glass jar. Throw them into a salad or into your yoghurt or into your cooked grains.

Eggs, size large, at room temperature. Buttermilk too, at room temperature.

Excellent quality ingredients will produce an excellent cake.

Be confident and have fun. You’re the boss top banana.

The People vs.. Fielding Mellish

(isn't this Epstein vs. Epstein?)

peace and love,

jane

Banana Bread

Ingredients:

6 oz./178 grams whole toasted and cooled pecans

10.8 oz./306 grams all-purpose flour

            (or, 206 g. all-purpose and 100 g. whole wheat pastry flour.)

1 tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. kosher salt

½ tsp. ground cinnamon

1 ½ - 1 ¾ c./350-400g. mashed (lumpy) very ripe bananas (about 3 large or 4 small)

4 oz./113 g. unsalted butter, room temperature (European style recommended)

1 tsp. pure vanilla extract (Baldwin’s recommended)

11 oz./312 g. granulated sugar

2 eggs, size large, room temperature

¼ c./59 ml. buttermilk

Procedure:

mis en place:

Measure buttermilk and butter.

Preheat oven to 350º F. /176º C.

Place medium bowl on scale and tare. Weigh pecans.

Place pecans on a small, rimmed jelly roll pan (cookie sheet) and toast in oven approx. 5-6 minutes, just until you can smell them. Take care to not burn them. If you do, start over. Remove nuts from oven and cool completely. When cooled, take about a Tbsp. of flour mixture and toss the pecans until they’re coated with the flour.

Bring all cold ingredients to room temperature.

Take out your vanilla.

Prepare a long tea loaf pan or a large, wider loaf pan, or two smaller loaf pans by buttering and flouring (or spraying with release) and flouring.

Place large bowl on scale and tare. Measure flour(s) and remove. Add other dry ingredients to flour: baking soda, salt, cinnamon and whisk together. Set aside.

Place medium bowl on scale and tare. Measure sugar and set aside.

making the bread:

Preheat oven to 375º F./190º C.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar.

Add eggs and continue to mix until creamy consistency. Scrape down sides of bowl, as required. (I use a silicone beater blade and this step is barely required.)

Add vanilla extract and buttermilk. (Mixture will look slightly curdled – this is okay!)

Add ½ flour mixture and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down, as required.

Dump in the mashed banana and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down, if necessary.

Add remaining flour and mix until just incorporated.

Remove the bowl from mixer stand and fold in pecans, making sure that all ingredients are incorporated.

Fill prepared loaf pan(s) and place in oven and bake for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour (more or less, depending on your pan and your oven), until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Cool in pans for about 10 minutes and then invert and stand the loaves up straight on a baking rack to cool completely.

This loaf will keep for several days, wrapped well, at room temperature, a week in the fridge, or you can freeze it. But it’s really best eaten the second day, after the flavors have had their chance to dance together.

Masala Chai Ginger Scones

Masala Chai Ginger Scones

with ginger glaze

Adapted from Joanne Chang by Blue Heron Kitchen

If you live in America, you’ve been battling a severe winter. It’s cold and it won’t stop snowing. 

Today, forget snow and sleet and ice and that you can’t remember the last time you went for a walk. Add these ingredients to your Fresh Direct delivery. Warm your kitchen and make your weary friends, fam and snow blower angels happy with masala (that means ‘spice’) chai (that means ‘tea’) scones.

Ahead of time note: You will have to infuse your cream and buttermilk with the chai (tea) by heating and then re-chilling the liquids. (Go out and shovel.)

Truc: If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, to make it: Emeril Lagasse (!) published this on the Food Network. Easy, You’ll need milk and white vinegar or lemon juice.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/homemade-buttermilk-recipe.html

Chai: The chai that you use will flavor your scones. I'm a fan of UptonTeas. I buy my tea from these nice people online and their masala chai is lovely. I’ve had some masala chai teas that have a too much black pepper in them (ugh). If yours does, your scone will bite you. Fortnum and Mason’s masala chai is also gorgeous. But whatever chai you choose, DON’T use a sweetened chai.

It's important that the butter is cold and firm - that way when you mix it into your dry ingredients, some of the butter remains unmixed and is recognizable. This is the same technique when putting together a pate brisée (flakey pie crust). These unmixed little pieces of butter melt while baking, creating steam and air pockets! Result: (as long as you don't overdue it with mixing, which will also toughen your scones) light and flakey.

Adapted from Joanne Chang’s gorgeous book, Flour, I’m so happy to share this with you. (Pick up a copy of her book. It’s spectacular!)

The glaze for these scones can be refrigerated for about a week. If you want to freeze some of the unbaked scones (also, for about a week), you’ll have glaze on hand.

Let it snow rain in California!

peace and love,

jane

Masala Chai Ginger Scones

Ingredients for the scones:

2 ¾ cup (400 grams) all purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon ground ginger

1 Tbsp. Masala Chai tea  (Do not use sweetened tea!)
1/3 cup (70 grams) granulated sugar
½ cup (80 grams) finely chopped crystallized ginger
14 tablespoons (7 ounces; 200 grams) unsalted butter
½ cup (120 grams) buttermilk
½ cup (120 grams) heavy cream
1 egg, size large (cold)

  

Procedure:

Ahead of time note for Masala Chai Scones:

For masala chai scones: place ½ c. cream and ½ c. buttermilk in a small saucepan. Add 1 Tbsp. masala chai tea (Upton Tea), cover and bring to a simmer and turn to low. In the lowest heat, cook the chai for approx. 5-10 minutes. Remove from heat, strain into a measuring cup, replacing any evaporated liquid to measure 1 cup with buttermilk or cream or a combination. Place in fridge and chill.

Preheat oven to 350º F. and position rack in center of the oven. Line baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a stand mixer, using the paddle attachment, briefly mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, sugar, and crystallized ginger until combined.

Cut the butter into 8-10 pieces and add to the flour mixture; paddle for about 30 seconds on medium low speed until the butter is somewhat broken down but there are still pieces that are obvious and visible (about ½”).

Whisk together the chilled buttermilk/heavy cream and egg until thoroughly combined.

With the mixer running on low speed, pour in the liquid and continue to paddle for another 20-30 seconds until the dough comes together. There may be a little loose flour mixture at the bottom of the bowl. This is good.

Remove the bowl from the mixer. Gather and lift the dough in your hands and turn it over in the bowl so that it starts to pick up the loose flour at the bottom. Turn the dough over in the bowl several times until all of the loose flour is mixed in.

Dump the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface and gently roll (pat) out the dough about an inch thick.

Using a 3-inch round cookie cutter, cut out circles of scone dough, rerolling the scraps as necessary until they are all used up. (Truc: If you like, you can shape the dough into a long rectangle and cut on the angle, forming triangular scone.)

Truc: At this point the scones can be frozen, wrapped well, unbaked for up to a week. Add 5-10 minutes to baking time and proceed as
directed.

Bake for about 40-45 minutes until the scones are a light golden brown.

Cool on a cooling rack and when slightly cooled, spoon warm ginger glaze over each scone. The ginger glaze will set.

Scones are (always) best served the day they are baked; you may store them tightly wrapped for one day.

Yield 6-8 large scones

Ginger glaze

 

Ingredients:

2 ½  oz. (5 Tbsp./ 75g) butter, salted or unsalted (if you use unsalted, sprinkle in ¾ tsp. salt)

2 Tbsp. Lyle’s Golden Syrup (If you’re in the U.S., available at most supermarkets, markets with “International” aisles (it’s British) or online at Amazon.com)

3/4 c. (90g) 10X (powdered) sugar, sifted

1 Tbsp. powdered dried ginger

Procedure:

In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, melt butter, Golden Syrup together.

Add powder sugar and ginger and whisk together until glaze is smooth and liquid.