Graham Cracker Banana Raisin Bread

Photo by Uncle Worm

There are many things you can always find in the corner of mine and Becky's kitchen counter: a lemon or two, a stack of Luna Bars (Peppermint for Beck, Oatmeal Raisin for me), miscellaneous chocolate, and probably a bottle cap from Music Man's last beer.

The one thing you'll never find?

Ripe bananas.

In fact, even yellow bananas are a rarity in this house. NYC supermarkets don't sell anything other than neon green ones, and Becky and I love bananas so much, we gobble them up as soon as any bit of yellow pokes through.

But our gobbling up the bananas means we never have any left to toss into super yummy banana recipes. It's a rough life here in the K&B abode.

So you can imagine my elation when while at home in Cali recently, I discovered not one, not two, but FIVE ripe bananas sitting in the fruit bowl!

I was so excited, I actually skipped to the pantry while my imagination went off on some kind of banana baking brainstorm extravaganza. Banana pancakes! Banana nut muffins! Peanut Butter Banana Biscotti! Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies!  

WHAT was I going to make?!

Well, first things first. I grabbed me some Bisquick, whipped up some banana pancakes, and had me a nice breakfast. One banana down.

Next, I called up JW House - would they mind if I baked some Oatmeal Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies? Nope. They sure didn't. Two bananas down.

Two bananas left. Back to the pantry I skipped. And I saw THIS staring at me:

It's a recipe for Banana Raisin Bread on the side of a graham cracker crumbs box. It was obviously speaking directly to me, saying "choose me for your last two bananas! Choose me!"

So I did. I was slightly skeptical at first, because it feels a little weird to use ground-up crackers as an ingredient in bread, but I figured I love graham crackers and I love bananas, so what's not to love about putting them together with some sugar and oil and milk and raisins?

The bread baked up beautifully, with that magnificent crack down the middle that I'm always praying for in my quick breads. It's a sturdy bread, excellent for slicing and toasting, and even more tasty with butter and honey drizzled on top. Everyone in the house kept asking me when we could slice it.

This guy even showed up asking for some:

Do you think I could have just a little?

What if I sit pretty? Huh? Huh? Look how pretty I am!

So the next time you have some ripe bananas on your counter, grab some graham cracker crumbs and work a little graham cracker banana magic. Then please send some to me and Beck, since we seem to lack the self control to buy bananas and NOT eat them before they are ripe enough to bake with. Oh, and Boomerang The Dog would probably like some too. :-)

-Katie

Graham Cracker Banana Raisin Bread

From the side of the Honey Grahams graham cracker crumb box
Makes 1 loaf (about 16 slices)
 
1 2/3 c graham cracker crumbs
1 1/2 c flour
3/4 c sugar
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/3 c vegetable oil
2 large bananas, mashed (about 1 c)
1 c seedless raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan.

2. Mix graham cracker crumbs, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl; set aside.

3. Beat eggs, milk and oil in medium bowl with wire whisk until well blended. Stir in bananas.

4. Add to flour mixture; stir until just blended. Stir in raisins. Spoon into greased loaf pan.

5. Bake 1 hour to 1 hour 10 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool in pan on wire rack 10 minutes. Remove from pan; cool completely. Cut into 16 slices to serve.

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Photo by Uncle Worm

There are only a handful of treats Becky and I make over and over again: Oatmeal lemon creme bars, Friend E's chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal carmelitas, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies (post coming soon!). These are the recipes we can make in our sleep, and that disappear immediately when we put them out for others.

This Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake is another of those recipes because it's easy to put together and even easier to gobble up. The first time I made this recipe was for me, Beck, and the Music Man on a lazy Saturday morning. The three of us devoured it all in about an hour.

The second time I made this coffee cake was on a girls' weekend with our best friends from college. The six of us gals finished off the whole thing in less than an hour.

The third time I made this coffee cake was just this past Friday while at home for a family reunion. Our twelve or so aunts, uncles, and cousins inhaled it in what seemed like minutes.

Are you starting to see a pattern?

At this point, Becky and I decided this recipe was too good to keep to ourselves; we had to put it here on the blog. So, we made the cake for a fourth time, a mere 24 hours after its previous appearance. We got the cake in the oven and then I ran out on an errand, leaving Beck with strict instructions to not let anyone dig in until she got some photos.

I couldn't have been gone much more than a hour, but when I came back, there was only one teeny tiny piece left for me. It's like magic, really, how fast this coffee cake disappears.

Besides the fact that it's an excuse to eat dessert for breakfast, I love this coffee cake because it's adaptable. Don't have raspberry jam? Use strawberry. Use blueberry. Use lemon curd. Have some fresh fruit on hand? Throw that in, too.

This cake is also free form, which I love, because it's pretty darn hard to mess up the presentation when you're not aiming for a specific shape or size. And even if the finished cake isn't pretty, it tastes so good that nobody seems to care if it's ugly - they'll gobble it up no matter what.

Photo by Uncle Worm

But, to quote good old LeVar Burton, you don't have to take my word for it:

"Yummm!!!" – Cousin Rick (that's three m's AND three !'s)

"The first one was perfect. The second one was even better." – Cousin Gae

"I didn’t have any because it was GONE!" – DaddyBob

"I got goosebumps (really!) during the first bite." – Uncle Worm

"I couldn't wait for you to make it the second day!" - Cousin Don

"Are you moving back here?" - Mama B

"Affentitten geil!" which translates literally to "Ape-[bleep] good!", or figuratively to "As good as it can get!" - Aunt Daggi from Germany

Guten appetit!

- Katie

Raspberry Cream Cheese Coffee Cake

Adapted from Chickens in the Road

Coffee Cake:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/3 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar*
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter cut into small pieces and chilled
3/4 cup milk
4 ounces cream cheese
4 ounces raspberry jam

Note: To use a baking mix such as Bisquick, replace first five ingredients with 2 cups baking mix, adding a tablespoon of sugar.

*we've also used baking soda in a pinch

Powdered Sugar Glaze:

1/2 cup powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1-2 teaspoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Sprinkle generously with flour.

2. Place flour, baking powder, sugar, cream of tartar, and salt (or 2 cups baking mix plus 1 tbsp sugar) in a large bowl. Using a pastry cutter, cut in the butter until dough resembles course crumbs.

3. Add milk and stir until evenly moistened. Dough will be quite sticky.

4. Place dough on floured cookie sheet. Sprinkle generously with flour and pat or roll into a rectangle approximately 16" x 6".

5. Spread cream cheese down the center, then top with jam.

6. Using a sharp knife, make cuts from center of dough (where cream cheese and jam are) outward, about an inch and a half apart, all along both long sides of the dough.

7. Fold strips of dough up over the top of the jam. Pinch ends to seal.

8. Brush extra flour off parchment. Bake for 25 minutes or until nicely browned. Remove from oven and allow to cool 15 minutes.

9. While coffee cake cools, whisk together powdered sugar, vanilla, and one teaspoon milk. Continue to add milk until glaze reaches drizzling consistency.

10. Drizzle glaze over coffee cake in criss cross pattern. Slice cake along center of filling, then crosswise to cut into squares. Serve warm or at room temperature.

11. Store leftover coffee cake in the fridge (if there are any leftovers, which there won't be!)

Caramel Sticky Buns

These buns are not light.  They do not involve strawberries or blueberries or raspberries or cherries, or any other fruit, for that matter.  They require you to heat your oven to 400 degrees.  If you eat half the pan, I guarantee you will not look better in your swimsuit than you did before.

In short, there is nothing summery about these rolls.

But Beck and I figured that if they were good enough for the King Arthur Flour people to post in the middle of June, they were good enough for us.

These were very simple to whip up, though the cleanup was a bit involved, what with the pastry mat, several measuring spoons and cups, and a sugary baking pan and sheet.  But in the end, I'd say it was definitely worth it.

Although he will deny ever uttering the words, Music Man described these as having a "nice, soft, delicate texture."  Who knew he was such a food critic?

Caramel Sticky Buns
Adapted from Baking Banter
Makes 12 buns

Topping

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup dark corn syrup or maple syrup
• 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

Dough

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/4 cups lukewarm buttermilk*
• 4 tablespoons melted butter
• *Substitute 1/4 cup buttermilk powder + 1 1/4 cups lukewarm water, if desired.

Filling

• 1/2 cup brown sugar

1) Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease a 9" x 2" round cake pan.

2) To make the topping: Combine the melted butter and brown sugar, stirring to combine.

3) Stir in the syrup.

4) Pour the topping into the prepared pan, spreading it to the edges. Sprinkle the nuts (if you're using them) atop the topping. Set the pan aside.

5) To make the dough: Stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Note: If you're using buttermilk powder in place of buttermilk, add it here.

6) Pour the lukewarm buttermilk (or lukewarm water, if you're using buttermilk powder) and melted butter into the bowl with the dry ingredients

7) Stir to combine. The dough will look very shaggy.

8) Transfer the dough to a floured surface, and knead very briefly, just to smooth it out a bit.

9) Roll the dough into a 9" x 12" rectangle.

10) Brush the dough with water, and sprinkle with brown sugar, leaving a bare edge on one of the longer sides.

11) Roll the dough into a log, starting with the longer edge that's covered with filling. Pinch the seam closed as well as you can; it'll be a bit messy, with filling spilling out. That's OK.

12) Using dental floss or a serrated knife, cut the log into 12 slices.

13) Lay the slices in the prepared pan, atop the topping.

14) Place the cake pan on a baking sheet (to catch any sugar that bubbles over), and bake for 23 to 25 minutes, until they're golden brown.

15) Remove from the oven, and immediately invert the pan onto a serving plate. Let it sit for about 15 seconds, then remove the pan, scraping out any nuts or syrup that's stuck in the pan, and spreading it back onto the buns.

16) Serve warm (but not hot!).

Happy Zucchini Bread Day!

Did you know April 25 is National Zucchini Bread Day?
 

There is really only one proper way to celebrate this most blessed of holidays, so Beck and I tried our hands at zucchini bread.  And when I say "Beck and I," what I really mean is Beck.  The I half was serving 500+ heaping spoonfuls of spanish rice to hungry folks at CHIPS in Brooklyn - an excellent organization you should check out if you have a chance.  Beck has been feeling a bit under the weather so she stayed home.  Spanish rice + boogers isn't appetizing, no matter how hungry you are.

Zucchini Bread Day aside, I've been wanting to try this quick bread for approximately two years and 11 months, ever since I first breathed in the aroma of my boss's daily slice of home baked zucchini bread toasting in her (illegal-per-building-codes) office toaster.

Two years and 11 months later, my boss no longer eats zucchini bread on a daily basis.  Then again, maybe she does...I hardly ever make it into the office early enough to catch her in her illegal toasting anymore, so I suppose I'm out of touch with her breakfast habits. But whether or not she still enjoys it, the national holiday was the extra motivation I needed to move this recipe from my "to try" recipe pile to the "been there done that" pile.

Beck did a great job with this bread (and the photos!), even though the bread didn't rise as much as we would have liked.  This is a family recipe for pumpkin bread, with zucchini substituted for the pumpkin.


Mama B's Pumpkin Zucchini Bread
adapted from Betty Crocker circa mid 1960's, we think
Makes two loaves, or 24ish muffins, or lots o' mini muffins (probably 48+)

2/3 c shortening
2 2/3 c granulated sugar
4 eggs
3 c shredded zucchini (about 3 medium)
2/3 c water
3 1/2 c all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
2/3 c coarsely chopped nuts (we used walnuts)
2/3 c raisins (we subbed currants this time)

1.  Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease bottoms only of two loaf pans or spray muffin pans (or line with paper liners).

2.  In large bowl, mix shortening and sugar.  Add eggs, water, and zucchini.

3.  Blend in flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves.  Stir in raisins and nuts.

4.  Pour into pans.  Bake until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 50 minutes.  Cool slightly on rack (about 15-20 minutes).

5.  Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans to cooling racks.  Cool completely.

6.  To store, wrap in two layers of plastic wrap and refrigerate no longer than 10 days.  Also freezes well.  Defrost loaves in the refrigerator for 24 hours before serving.

Happy Zucchini Bread Day!