for the time-starved or curious culinary adventurer
Elvis was onto something.
Not that it was news to me, but peanut butter and banana will always be a magic combo. This bread just emphasizes the point. That’s right, friends, we’re talking about peanut butter banana bread today!
I’ve gotten to the point where I now just buy bananas every couple weeks, knowing full well I have no intention of actually eating them while they’re good. So expect some more tasty banana treats coming your way!
This recipe is…there are no words for how good these scones are.
No. Words.
I’m a noted lover of scones (as seen here, here, and here), and there are very few flavor combinations I love more than cherry and almond. So as I was poring over various cherry recipes to use my plethora of fresh cherries (and awesome new cherry pitter), I came across this one and it immediately jumped to the top of the “must make” list.
I made a few small tweaks to the original recipe, most notably cutting way back on the glaze. I don’t think they need a ton, just enough to get a bit of extra sweet and a punch of almond flavor. I’m well known for adding almond extract to EVERYTHING.
Every time I go to Chicago for work lately, I’ve stayed at The Godfrey for convenience, and had a lovely run along the River Walk in the early morning. Then, as a reward, I’ve stopped at Beatrix and gotten the biggest latte they have a morning bun. Their morning buns are an inspiration, like a cinnamon roll’s way cooler cousin…dough that’s slightly sweet with some lamination and a hint of orange zest, a cinnamon-sugar filling that’s positively gooey inside, and some sugar on the outside. No frosting, nothing overly sickly. Perfection.
So I’ve been lingering on this particular recipe on Pinterest lately, since it ticks the same flavor boxes as my beloved morning buns. I finally decided to tackle it a couple weeks ago and was SO happy I did!
One of the biggest changes I made was adding orange zest into the dough itself, versus just in the glaze. That slight hint of orange in the dough with a subtle cinnamon-sugar filling is just sublime. Additionally, I adapted the glaze by eliminating the butter and decreasing the amount quite a bit. I think the changes work SUPER well and make it a little less sweet, which is more my style.
I’d also recommend not being daunted by the number of steps in the recipe. It’s not a difficult recipe, and other than braiding the split layered dough ropes (it’s a bit messy!), it’s totally doable as long as you have the time. Don’t rush it and it’ll be a breeze!
Now isn’t *that* a match made in heaven?!
I feel bad because it’s been challenging getting new posts up as regularly as I normally would. I could blame it on travel schedules, the new job, and the continual process of settling into the new house. And all of that is 100% true. But you know the real reason?? I’ve just had trouble finding recipes that taste as good as they should when I make them. It’s not that I haven’t been baking and cooking, but rather that the recipes I’ve tried in the last month have all been fairly underwhelming—and not something I want to share with you.
Until this, that is.
I don’t know why I’ve been slightly obsessed with the idea of biscotti lately. It’s off-season, to be honest…more of a fall and winter food in my mind. But for some strange reason every time I see a new biscotti flavor combo, I’m smitten. So I finally decided to try a new one out. There was an orange, apricot, and almond recipe I’d been wanting to try, but I swapped in pistachios (and toasted them for more flavor) since that’s what I had on hand.
I was pretty skeptical about the recipe not having any fats, or any liquid except the egg and orange juice. But the more I thought about it, it made sense…a fat would make it more moist and soft, and that’s the opposite of a good biscotti. The orange zest and juice bring a brightness here, while the apricots bring the sweet. I’m glad it’s only lightly sweet, since that lets the fruit flavors really linger on your tongue. This one’s a winner for sure.
Oh hello there!
Yes, I know it’s been a hot minute since last we met here. But things have been a little insane around here, due to relocating (in my tiny Corolla), living in a temporary furnished apartment for a couple months (with the WORST kitchen supplies! Also, the cats were not fans…), house hunting, finalizing my move from Atlanta, and closing on a house here in Louisville. Oh yeah, and starting a major new job. So yeah, a lot’s been happening.
But I have a mountain of deliciousness to make it up to you today.
The great news is that I’m back in a fully-functioning kitchen and raring to go. I had to have them pipe in a propane line and install a new gas range because I was not dealing with that electric stove nonsense. Isn’t she pretty????
So that’s where I’ve been hiding for the last couple months. And without further ado, I bring you the yummiest stuffed challah bread you’ve ever had. Butter and walnuts and cinnamon and brown sugar meld into a magical mess inside a soft enriched dough (yes, I’ve been watching GBBO). But it’s surprisingly easy to pull together and got rave reviews from my co-workers. Totally worth the little bit of extra effort.
My mom and sisters were in town last weekend, which means I cooked and baked my face off all weekend. It was a great excuse to try a bunch of new recipes and generally stuff ourselves!
On Saturday morning we decided to make some eggs and bacon, and then wanted some kind of bread. We thought about pancakes or waffles, but my mom suggested some kind of scones. Since I didn’t feel up to the effort that pumpkin scones require, I thought it was a great chance to try a new scone recipe.
I had frozen blueberries on-hand, so that worked just fine—blueberry scones it is! While this wasn’t my favorite scone recipe I’ve ever tried, it was a great one to have in the repertoire.
I’m a breakfast proponent. Not because I love eating so early in the morning, but because it’s one of the best things you can do for keeping your blood sugar and energy up all day. Normally I just go for fiber-y cereal or instant oatmeal, or the smoothies I’ve been doing lately, but I found this idea from Pinterest intriguing. I’ve seen several of my co-workers cook up eggs in a pan ahead of time and make a McMuffin-type breakfast when they get to work, but this was a little different—the egg ends up almost poached.
You can make them plain or throw some veggies or cheese in as well. I had some sweet peppers and summer squash leftover from my CSA box last week, so I used those, and threw in some spinach that was about to go bad. I forgot cheese, but would totally put a little on next time.
I posted an awesome pineapple spinach smoothie I’d been trying out for breakfast every day a couple weeks ago. On a few of the smoothie websites I’d read that you should mix it up, not just always do the same fruits and veggies, to get the most out of the nutrients. So I switched up a few of the ingredients for the past week and made this pear, mango, & kale smoothie. Just as good, though I think I prefer the spinach one from a texture standpoint.
What I’ve been doing is making this in the morning, drinking part of it on my way to work, then putting it in the fridge while I have my normal coffee and such. Then I pull it out of the fridge around 10:30 and have breakfast part deux.
I’ve been feeling the need to detox a little. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not doing any of that crazy stuff like drinking only lemon juice and cayenne pepper or anything. It’s just that between the long work hours, lack of sleep, some weekend trips, and general meh-ness, I’ve been feeling pretty blah lately.
I was browsing Pinterest for recipes and found a bunch of different smoothies, which just struck my fancy for some reason. This spinach pineapple smoothie in particular jumped out at me, which is weird because I’ve never had a green smoothie. And I know the spinach makes it looks so weird, but it’s actually really good. The pineapple and banana are plenty sweet and you don’t taste the spinach at all. So I’ve been drinking it every day for over a week, and am loving it.
And now for the good news:
When blended really well, the combination of low calorie foods mixed with fiber and antioxidant-rich ingredients means your body doesn’t need to work as much because the food is already broken down. This allows key nutrients to flood the body better than if the food were eaten whole and separately. Additionally, spinach is a nutritional powerhouse full of vitamins A and K, as well as iron, folate, calcium, and lutein. The pineapple is a vitamin C star, which helps the body absorb the iron in the spinach—which for someone like me who is always low on iron & vitamin C, it’s a 1-2 punch of awesome. Sign me up!
I’ve always kind of had an irrational fear of making frittatas (or frittate as the Italians would say). I think it probably stems from the time I made a quiche for my breakfast day at work, and realized once I got ready to serve it that the egg was still runny. So, panicked, I ran to the kitchen and threw the entire quiches (yes, there were two) in the microwave and started re-cooking them. Suffice to say, it was a bit stressful and I was terrified I’d make all my co-workers sick with partially-cooked egg.
But I’m realizing how silly it is to be scared of frittatas, because they’re about the best, easiest, most versatile food you can make. It’s basically an open-face omelette—in fact, “frittata” comes from the Italian word for “to fry”. What’s truly excellent about it is that it’s what I call a “kitchen sink” food—meaning you have a basic base (in this case eggs, a little milk, seasoning, & cheese) and then you can add whatever you happen to have on hand to finish it off.
In this case I am still trying to use up the gobs of summer squash and scallions that came in my CSA box a week and a half ago, and I had some lovely tomatoes sitting around as well. But you could put whatever you want in here…zucchini, peppers, any other veggie, different types of cheese, fresh herbs (yes please!). The biggest thing is determining which things need sauteed first. Good rule of thumb: if it won’t be cooked to the right consistency with about 10 minutes in an egg mixture in the oven (tomato, for instance), you should cook it up first. You can saute it, or roast the veggies to add some lovely flavor, or if you have leftover cooked veggies you can throw them in too.
