Living with the Webers - Breakfast

Banana Bread or Muffins

Sarah — Tue, 28 Jan 2014 01:35:37 +0000

Delicious and moist banana bread or muffins that are perfect for breakfast. Makes one loaf or a dozen muffins. This is also a great base recipe for other muffins. Just leave out or replace the bananas with other fruit. Some variations are listed at the end of the recipe.

3 ripe bananas (with brown spots is extra good!)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup milk or soy milk
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup sugar (recommended to use less if the bananas are very ripe)
1 3/4 cups flour (I like it best with spelt flour, but a mix of whole wheat and white is good too)
1 tsp vinegar (I use apple cider vinegar)
Chocolate chips, chopped nuts, or other desired additions (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F.

Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl. It sometimes is useful to add all or part of the liquid ingredients to get the bananas fully mashed up.

Mix all ingredients together except for the vinegar. Once everything is well combined, add the vinegar and just briefly mix. The batter should bubble up from the vinegar reacting with the baking soda.

Pour batter into muffin tins or loaf pan. Bake. The muffins take about 15-20 minutes and the loaf about 40-50 minutes. Remove from your oven when a toothpick comes out clean.

Some variations I like:
Blueberry: Replace bananas with 1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries.

Apple Spice: Replace bananas with 2 grated apples. Add 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.

Pumpkin Spice: Replace bananas with 1 cup pumpkin purée (can also use butternut squash). Add 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon and 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice.

Carrot, Raisin and Nut: Replace bananas with 1 cup grated carrot. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of both raisins and chopped walnuts.

Zucchini and Nut: Replace bananas with 1 cup grated zucchini. Add 1/3 to 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts.

Almond Poppy Seed: Leave out bananas. Add approx 1 tsp almond extract (to taste) and 1/4 cup poppy seeds.

Recommended With

Chai

Chai Latte

Nantucket Granola a la Pia

Christoph — Tue, 02 Aug 2011 16:11:48 +0000

A variation of a delicious granola Pia found in a magazine years ago, which in turn is based on the traditional way granola is made on the island of Nantucket.

Serves:

4 cups of rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1 1/3 cups flaked or shredded coconut, preferably unsweetened
1 cup sliced almonds or shredded walnuts
1 cup unsalted sunflower seeds
1/2 cup olive oil or vegetable oil
1/2 cup cold water
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1/3 cup dried cherries
1/3 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup golden raisins

Preheat oven to 400ºF
Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl, leaving out the dried fruit (important, you don't want to bake those juicy bits!).
Pour oil and water over the dry ingredients. Stir until well coated.
Spread the mixture over the bottom of a large baking sheet with sides or a roasting pan.
Bake, stirring every 10 minutes until golden brown. Usually about 30 to 45 minutes.
Remove from oven and cool.
Stir in dried fruit.
Store in an airtight container for up to 4 weeks.

You can substitute any dried fruit you have at hand for variety. It helps if one of the varieties has some tartness, like the cranberries.

Saturday Morning Scones

Christoph — Sat, 20 Nov 2010 20:03:49 +0000

This is my take on the Corn Scones recipe from the Moosewood Restaurant Collective. I normally leave out their cornmeal, substituting it with our freshly ground spelt flour. The currants and lemon zest can be replaced with whatever you have on hand and feel like. In our kitchen we often use walnuts, dried cranberries or apricot paste (a thick sheet of fruit roll-up available at Arabian markets).
On weekends when we feel like something special for breakfast, this is our go-to recipe.

Serves:

1/4 cup butter (or 3 tbsp neutral oil)
1/2 cup whole milk or soy milk
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 cups whole spelt flour (or whole wheat or other whole grain, best if freshly ground)
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 cup currants
zest from 1/2 lemon

Preheat oven to 375 or 400 F. (Ours always needs more than what the books say - get to know yours.)
Melt the butter in a small pan. While the butter melts, combine flour, salt, baking powder and sugar in a bowl. If you use currants or other dried fruit, let them soak in warm water for a few minutes for even more delicious scones. Pour the milk and butter over the flour mixture, sprinkle the currants and lemon zest over it and stir until combined. You might need to knead just a little bit with a heavy spoon or your hands to make a nice, smooth dough, but don't go overboard.
If you aren't dying of hunger just yet, let the dough sit for a few minutes for less crumbly scones, otherwise proceed straight to baking.
Shape small round scones from lumps of the dough and place them on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes until puffed and golden.

Recommended With

Chai Latte

Any tea or coffee or hot chocolate.

Basic Bread

Christoph — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:48:43 +0000

The secret of this basic bread dough is that flour is added to the liquids, rather than the other way round, which is what most regular bread recipes call for. Adding flour into the liquid allows the gluten and fibers to absorb more water, and as a result you get a more pliable dough and a moister, less crumbly bread. In other words, your bread tastes better! We learned this technique through Patricia Wells' excellent book At Home in Provence. In our house we use freshly ground spelt flour, but any good quality bread flour will work. Be creative and try to add other grains than wheat or spelt. Just keep wheat or spelt to 50% or more to provide gluten which makes your bread springy.

Serves:

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1 1/3 cups lukewarm water (yeast is like you, it loves water at your body temperature or slightly warmer, so make it happy and it will work great for you)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt (we use sea salt)
about 4 cups of bread flour

Combine yeast, sugar and 1 cup of warm water and mix lightly. Let stand until foamy, about 5 minutes.
Add the remaining water and stir in the oil and salt.
Add the flour, a little at a time, mixing slowly until most of the flour has been absorbed and the dough forms a ball.
Transfer the dough to a clean, slightly floured work surface.
Knead the dough by pushing away from you, lengthening it.
Fold the dough over, turn it a quarter turn, and push it out again. Visualize that you are forming an intricate, crosswise network of gluten fibers to provide structure for your bread.
Knead in this manner for at least 5 minutes. Add flour if necessary to keep the dough from becoming overly sticky, but keep it soft and satiny, even slightly sticky. (Kneading bread dough is very therapeutic, which is why we don't use a machine in our house.)
Transfer the dough to a plastic bag or bowl (cover the bowl), and let the dough rise until doubled or tripled in size. You can let the dough rise overnight in your refrigerator, or 2 to 3 hours at room temperature. The overnight method yields a slightly smoother bread.
Punch down the dough, shape into bread loaves or rolls, place onto floured baking pan and let rise until double in bulk. If you are in a hurry you can put the breads into the cold oven and use the warm up period to accelerate the rising process.
Preheat the oven to 400 F. If you have a baking stone, put it in the oven to even out temperature and humidity.
Place bread into the oven, spray oven bottom and walls with water (use a garden mister), and spray a couple more times during the next few minutes.
Bake the bread until the crust is golden brown and the loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom, about 40 minutes from start for a medium size loaf.
Transfer to a rack and let cool. The bread continues to bake during the cooling period.