Banana Bread

Before I had kids, I would occasionally phone work before I headed out the door and ask them to turn on the oven to 180C.  Roughly fifteen minutes of brisk walking later, I'd carry a 2lb baking tin full of banana bread batter into the staff room and pop it in the hot oven so that by the time morning tea break arrived, the loaf would be ready and the smell of baking would waft through the office. Needless to say, this made many people there happy. Colleagues would leave spotty bananas on my desk, and collections for supplies were made in my name. This somewhat confused the late night workers, as all the crumbs had disappeared by the time they arrived.

Pretty much everyone I know who bakes has made banana bread at some point in their lives.  It is such a staple comfort food, making you feel thrifty in your refusal to bin brown bananas. My husband eats most things, but he hates bananas, so I do try to make it when he is out of the house, or at least for occasions held elsewhere.  I have had the recipe requested many times, as the loaf ends up fairly light in texture compared to most banana loaves out there, but far be it from me to say this is the best one.  I did it with pecans because I had some I wanted to use up, but I think I prefer walnuts as they give a bit more bite and contrast better with the bread.

I started by putting flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda together.

Then in a different bowl, I put butter and sugar.

I mixed them.  No, I didn't use a mixer, I used a fancy wooden spoon that I got from Williams Sonoma that I love.

Then, rather than adding eggs now, you add the flour.

And you mix it all together.  I use my pastry blender.  I had to go online to get one of these in the UK, as I hunted through all the cookshops within the city boundaries and couldn't one.  That said, baking supplies are a lot easier to find now that the Great British Bake Off has come along.  Apparently stand mixers have seen their sales increase dramatically, and I find it easier to find things like loaf tin liners that had all but disappeared from shop shelves a couple years ago.

I cracked open a couple eggs,

And whisked them with a mini whisk that used to be attached to a hand mixer that died many moons ago.

In went the eggs.

And I mixed them all up to make a fairly stiff batter.

Then I looked at my bananas.  I had wanted to make this a day earlier, but discovered I had no sugar.  I didn't discover this until I had peeled the bananas, though, so they had been sitting out for a while.  The one on the bottom is approaching fermentation quickly.

Mush mush mush. I didn't know until I had kids that mushed bananas could stain clothes.

In goes the banana mush.  Ew.

Um, I wish I could say this looks better, but, uh...

Let's just throw some nuts on, hm?

Oh, uh, I guess just scrape it out and put it somewhere else.

Yes, there looks good.  So yes - a few years ago, several shops stopped stocking these liners, but now...everywhere has them.  They are awfully handy.  Right, so then I stuck this ugly beast in the oven.

And it came out like this!

Hooray!  I don't know whether I prefer it hot out of the oven, or cooled and more cleanly sliced later on with tea.  Best have it both ways, I guess.

Banana Bread from Joy of Cooking

An unusual mixing method produces a tender cakey loaf with
excellent banana flavour.

Have all ingredients ready at room temperature.  Position a rack
at the lower third of the oven.  Preheat oven to 180 degrees C. 
Line a 1.5 litre loaf tin.

Whisk together thoroughly:
185g plain flour
3/4 tsp salt 
1/2 tsp Bic Soda
1/4 tsp baking powder

In a large bowl, beat until light and fluffy:
75g unsalted butter
120g sugar

Cut in the flour mixture until blended and the consistency of
brown sugar.  Gradually mix in 
2 eggs, slightly beaten

Fold in, until just combined:
2 large (or 3 small) very ripe bananas, mashed
60g chopped walnuts

Scrape the batter into the tin and spread evenly.  Bake until
toothpick inserted in centre comes out clean, 50-60 minutes. 
Let cool in the tin on a rack for 5-10 minutes before turning
out to cool completely on the rack.

Pumpkin Cheesecake

Well, today was a big day, people.  My baking got me invited to a party.  This cooking is opening doors, my friends.  Party doors with pumpkins on them.

Because it was a pumpkin tasting party!

I was under strict instructions only to make something if I wanted to.

Well, of course I wanted to.  I mean, who needs another excuse to cook pumpkin in October?  Not me, certainly.

I opted for pumpkin cheesecake, a dessert I now prefer over pumpkin pie.

So I got the essentials.  Out of frame is a huge bag of candied ginger that my mom sent with the request that it feature in a blog post.  Don't worry, you'll see it later on.

First I made the base - ginger nuts/snaps were pulverised in the food processor.

Then in went some pecans and crystallized ginger.  Sugar was supposed to go in too, oops.

Just a few pulses so there would still be lumps of it...

And then in went some melted butter.

I lightly pressed it into the tin.  My recipe then said to bake it, but I ignored the recipe and just set the assembled base aside.

On to the cheesecake filling.  I whipped up some cream cheese and added brown sugar, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, and cinnamon.

I never worry about a few specks of brown sugar showing up, as they'll just melt into nice sugary syrup within.

And in went some eggs too

Over the years, it has been tricky getting consistent supplies of this baby.  When I first moved here pureed pumpkins myself, which is a big, watery hassle (but admittedly turned out to be very tasty).  Then I found suppliers of the canned variety in out of the way places.  Then Libby's had a bad couple years of harvests and they actually limited the exports of this stuff, making it truly prized amongst us expats.

I'm happy to report it is a plentiful year for pumpkin, with Libby's now gracing multiple supermarket shelves and jack-o-lantern pumpkins a'plenty on the shelves too.

In goes the orange stuff

And into the tin it goes.

I stuck it in a water bath just to make sure it stayed smooth.  Just as well, as I forgot to turn the fan off on my oven so I cooked it at a higher heat than I intended.  And thankfully I have a habit of checking stuff when it is 3/4 of the way through what the directions indicate is the correct length of baking time.

So it came out looking like this.  It went into the fridge for a day and a half.

Then I added some whipped cream with a bit of vanilla, icing sugar, and ginger with a couple pieces of crystallized ginger.

And then I carried down the stairs in a vintage orange tupperware container and dropped it while stupidly trying to put gloves on, managing to smear whipped cream all over my coat in the process. A little voice inside my head had been trying to warn me it was a dumb idea, but who really listens to that voice, anyway?  I don't have a photo of the dented mess (thankfully at least it got on me and not the floor) as I didn't have anything with me that can take photos (my phone is an 8 year old Nokia) but I did still offer it to others and they ate it.  

WAIT, someone else took a photo with a fancy camera after its cosmetic repairs:

Try this recipe, you know you want to.

Pumpkin Cheesecake (adapted from TLC Cooking)

CRUST
1‑1/4	cups gingersnap (ginger nuts in the UK) cookie crumbs
1/3	cup pecans, very finely chopped
	handful of crystallized ginger
1/4	cup butter, melted
FILLING
	24 oz cream cheese
1	cup packed light brown sugar
1	teaspoon cinnamon
1/2	teaspoon ground ginger
1/4	teaspoon ground nutmeg 1/4 tsp ground cloves
2	eggs
2	egg yolks
1	cup solid-pack pumpkin

PREPARATION:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. For crust, combine cookie crumbs, pecans, sugar and butter in medium bowl; mix well. Press crumb mixture evenly on bottom of ungreased 9-inch springform pan. 
2. Meanwhile for filling, beat cream cheese in bowl with electric mixer at medium speed until fluffy. Add brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg; beat until well blended. Beat in eggs and egg yolks, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in pumpkin.
3. Pour mixture into crust.  Wrap outside of tin in foil to prevent leaks, then place in bain marie (a big tray filled with boiling water - it's easiest to put tray in oven, add tin, then pour boiling water around it)  Bake around 1 hour (start checking after 40 mins) or until edges are set but center is still moist, it should jiggle like jello in the middle. Turn off oven; let cheesecake stand in oven with door ajar 30 minutes. Transfer to wire rack. To prevent cracking, loosen edges of cake from rim of pan with thin metal spatula; cool completely.
4. Cover; refrigerate at least 24 hours or up to 48 hours before serving
5. Whip some double cream and when it forms soft peaks add a spoonful of icing sugar, a sprinkling of ground ginger and a dash of vanilla and stir into cream.  Pipe onto cheesecake just prior to serving.