Whole Grain Banana Bread

We always have good intentions in our house of actually eating the bananas as…well bananas.  But more often than not, we wind up letting them get brown and mushy–absolutely perfect for banana bread.  This is an adaptation of the classic Better Homes and Gardens recipe for Banana Bread.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/4 cup milled flax
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsps baking powder
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 eggs beaten
• 2 cups mashed bananas (about 6 medium)
• 1 1/2 cup Splenda
• 1/2 cup applesauce

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Spray the bottom and sides of a large loaf pan (I think mine is like 9×6x3 or so)
3. In a large bowl combine flour, flax, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Make a well in the center and set aside.
4. In another bowl, combine the egg, ananas, Splenda, and applesauce.
5. Add wet mixture all at once to the dry.
6. Stir until just moistened (batter will be lumpy)
7. Spoon batter into prepared pan.   Bake at 350 for 55 minutes or until wooden toothpick inserted near center comes out clean.
8. Cool in pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove loaf from pan and col on rack.  The cookbook says to wrap and store overnight before slicing but that absolutely never happens in this house.

Philly Cheese Steak Calzones

Still on the “what to do with leftover pizza dough” kick.  As Philly Cheese Steak Sloppy Joes a la Rachael Ray are a huge favorite in our house, but we were out of rolls, I decided to try the filling as calzones.  This was a supurb inspiration–all the tasty of the philly cheese steak sloppy joes, with none (or less) of the mess (the original recipe has a habit of falling off the bun).  There’s no pic because, hey, calzones all pretty much look like calzones regardless of what’s in them.

Ingredients:

• Pizza dough

Filling:

• 1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• 1 pound extra-lean ground sirloin or ground all-white-meat chicken
• 1 softball-size onion, chopped
• 1/4 cup steak sauce
• 1 cup beef stock
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup provolone cheese, shredded

Directions:

In large skillet over medium-high heat with one turn of the pan of EVOO, brown the ground meat, about 5-6 minutes. Add the onion and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until the onion starts to get tender. Stir in the steak sauce and beef stock, season with salt and pepper, bring up to a bubble and cook for about 2 minutes.

Split open the rolls and toast them under the broiler, keeping an eye on them so that they don’t burn!

While the meat is cooking, melt the butter in a medium size skillet over medium-high heat. Stir in the flour and cook for about 1 minute. Whisk in the milk, then bring up to a bubble and let thicken, about 2 minutes. Turn off the heat and stir in the cheese in a figure-eight motion until it is all incorporated.

Roll your dough out as large as desired (for these I made them about 8 inches square-ish).  Scoop meat mixture onto one side, top with cheese sauce.  Fold the dough over and pinch closed.  Bake at 425 for 18 minutes.  Enjoy!

Cinnamon Nuggets

We made calzones the other night and I’ve got an enormous amount of pizza dough left over.  I wasn’t planning on making more pizza, and I haven’t really been in the mood to make homemade hot pockets, so today I decided to try making homemade cinna-stix.  Or nuggets rather.

Ingredients

• pizza dough
• splenda
• cinnamon
• buttery spray (I like Parkay)

Directions

1. Take your pizza dough (however much you’ve got left) and roll out into a log shape.
2. Cut your nuggets (should be about 1″ around)
3. Spray each nugget with buttery spray, flip, repeat.
4. Mix Splenda and cinnamon (however strong you like) in a ziplock baggie.
5. Toss nuggets in the baggie about two at a time and shake until coated.
6. Lay them out on a baking sheet or pizza stone and bake at 400 degrees for 13 minutes.
7. Enjoy!

Pita Pizzas

In the name of trying to cut back on our fat intake, yet still keep some of our favorite foods on the menu, I decided to try a mini version of pizza.  It’s not the real deal (you can’t beat real, homemade crust), but it’s darn good considering.  I did use my pizza sauce and some of the fresh basil growing outside.  Served it up with a spinach salad, topped with slow roasted tomatoes and avocado–delish–and the appropriate serving size.  If you load up your pizza with veggies as toppings you can go a long way toward getting your 5-9 servings of veggies and really keep down your fat content or even go meatless.

Ingredients:

• whole wheat pita bread rounds (not precut)
• pizza sauce
• shredded part-skim mozzarella
• fresh basil
• other toppings of your choice (turkey pepperoni; fresh, slow roasted, or sun-dried tomatoes; olives; mushrooms; grilled chicken; roasted red peppers; zucchini; whatever…)

Directions: Layer ingredients in order of your preference.  Bake at 425 for 10-15 minutes or until cheese is golden brown.

I revisit these with another cooking method here.

Perfect Pizza Dough

(These pics are from DH’s latest calzone efforts!)

Ingredients:

• 1 (.25 oz) package active dry yeast
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• 1/3 cup honey
• 2.5 cups warm water (110 degrees F)
• 2 Tbsps olive oil
• 1 Tbsp salt
• 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup milled flax
• 4 cups bread flour

Directions:

1. In a large mixing bowl, dissolve yeast, sugar, and honey in the warm water. Let sit about 10 minutes or until cloudy.
2. Stir in the olive oil, whole wheat flour, milled flax, and salt. Mix in the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time, stirring after each addition until incorporated. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a slightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic (don’t skip this step–it’s what holds the dough together–which is especially important if you’re making calzones) about 8 minutes. Lightly oil a large mixing bowl. Place ball of dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and put in a warm place to rise until doubled in volume (about an hour). I like to put mine in the oven with the light on.
3. Deflate the dough and turn it out on to a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces and form into rounds. Cover the rounds and let them rest for about 10 minutes. If you aren’t planning on using all the dough at once, you may place each round in a quart or gallon size bag and refrigerate. I’ve had them still rise properly up to 1 week.
4. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.
5. Using a rolling pin (or your hands if you prefer), roll the dough into the desired shape, then place on a pre-warmed pizza stone (use corn meal to prevent sticking), cover with your favorite toppings, and bake at 450 degrees for approximately 18 minutes on a pizza stone, or until the crust and cheese are golden brown.

Favorite toppings in our house include roma tomatoes, fresh basil, turkey pepperoni, and mushrooms.

Cran-Almond Oatmeal Cookies

This is a variation of a recipe for chocolate chip oatmeal cookies (courtesy of The Mixer Bible) that came about because I had no chocolate chips.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups unbleached, all purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ¼ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cup unsalted butter, softened (or 1 stick of butter flavored Crisco)
• 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar (or 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar Splenda)
• ½ cup granulated sugar or Splenda
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 ½ cups oats
• 1 cup slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries

1. In a medium bowl whisk together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and nutmeg
2. Place butter in mixer bowl. Set to speed 4 and beat until creamy. Increase to speed 6 and beat in brown sugar and granulated sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs 1 at a time, then vanilla. Reduce speed to stir and mix in flour mixture in 3 additions. Mix in almonds, cranberries and oats until evenly incorporated.
3. Drop by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven (350 degrees). Cool 5 minutes on sheets, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Cook’s Note: If you go lower cal and use Brown Sugar Splenda, your dough will be a bit more moist, so you’ll need to bake for 12-14 minutes. Also, you’ll want to do a criss cross flatten with the tines of a fork (like peanut butter cookies), as they don’t tend to melt and flatten as they cook.

Whole Grain Sourdough Bread

Sourdough bread is a huge favorite in our house. I’ve played with recipes over the years, adapting my mom’s recipe to be lower fat and lower calories (substituting applesauce for oil and Splenda for sugar), and adding in whole wheat flour (up to 50% typically doesn’t affect the rising). But earlier this holiday season I went in search of a new recipe that could be made in one day rather than over two because, frankly, spending 2 days on bread is a lot of work and doesn’t always fit into my schedule. So I stumbled across this recipe at allrecipes.com and adapted it. I already had my own starter, which I simply had to take the time to double in order to have enough, as this recipe calls for 2 cups of starter rather than the one I was accustomed to. But there’s no “cheating” by adding fresh yeast as a leavening agent. Rather than maintaining an enormous 2 pint jar of starter, when I get ready to feed the starter and bake, I stir the starter well, dump 1 cup into my 4 cup glass measuring cup and then feed each batch of starter with 1 cup of warm water (100-110 degrees F), 3 Tbsp sugar, 3 Tbsp instant potato flakes. I then cover the measuring cup with some plastic wrap and let it do its thing. A few hours later I’ve got happy, active starter for bread.

1. To the starter, add enough warm water (100-110 degrees F) to make 3 1/2 cups of liquid. Add to a large non-metal bowl.

2. To the liquid add:

• 2 Tbsp melted margarine
• 1/4 cup non-fat milk powder
• 2 Tbsp Splenda
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/4 cup milled flax seed (excellent source of Omega 3 fatty acids)
• 1/4 cup wheat germ
• 2 1/2 cups of whole wheat flour (I prefer stone ground)
• 2 cups bread flour

3. Stir with a wooden spoon until ingredients come together to form a soft dough. Depending on the humidity in your region, the dough is liable to be very moist. That’s okay. Do not knead (this is my favorite part of this recipe, as I hate kneading). Set in a warm place to rise until doubled, about 1 1/2 hours.

4. After the dough has doubled in size, punch it down, but again, don’t knead. In my experience, the dough is going to be very moist and sticky at this stage. I normally take about 1/2 cup of flour to sprinkle down over the dough as I divide it in half. I take each half of the dough and set it in a greased and floured loaf pan, then set it to rise another half hour. Remember to preheat your oven to 350 toward the end of that half hour.

5. Bake loaves at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Brush the tops of the loaves with cold water. Bake another 35 minutes then remove to wire cooling racks.

This recipe makes 2 very moist, dense loaves of whole grain bread. My husband–the picky eater–declares he likes this better than my regular (i.e. non-wheat) sourdough, so that’s high praise indeed. It’s fabulous served with stews or simply with a little bit of margarine when fresh from the oven. Feel free to experiment with the flours. There are a lot of different types of flour out there–I’ve added in brown rice flour with good results. Please be aware that the more whole grain flours you add in place of regular white bread flour, the less the loaves seem to rise. This may depend on your starter, but that’s been my experience. We don’t do a lot of sandwiches in our house, so that’s okay with us. If you find a combination of flours you like, check back in and let me know! I’m always up for experimentation.

Cornbread Dressin’ Just Like Grandma Used To Make

It really is just like my grandmother used to make. This is her recipe. It took me years to pin it down, since she’s absolutely one of those women who never measures anything.

Ingredients:

• 2 medium onions, diced
• 1 cup of diced celery
• 1 can cream of chicken soup (I use 98% fat free)
• 1 can cream of mushroom soup (also 98% fat free)
• 5-6 slices of white bread, torn into pieces
• 2 pans good, homemade cornbread (if you go with a mix, do NOT under any circumstances buy sweet cornbread–it DOES NOT WORK for this recipe–STEP AWAY FROM THE JIFFY MIX–find a mix that says buttermilk cornbread–and for heaven’s sake, use a cast iron skillet to cook it. You only do this once a year, so do it right.)
• 1 pinch (1/8th tsp) poultry seasoning
• good chicken stock (either roast your own chicken and boil the skin and bones, or buy a rotisserie one at the grocery, have a couple meals off of it, and boil the skin and bones of that–see my post about batch cooking for how to make your own chicken stock).
• 3 eggs
• 3/4ths cup Egg Beaters (or just use 6 whole eggs if you don’t care about fat and calories)

Crumble the cornbread into a large bowl. Add the 2 cans of soup and mix well. Add the onions and celery and the eggs/Egg Beaters. Mix well. Add the white bread. Mix well. Add enough chicken stock to make the consistency just on the soupy side of moist. Add poultry seasoning. Mix well. Please note there is NO SAGE in this recipe. It overpowers the other flavors. Don’t use it. Pour the mixture into a 9×13 casserole dish. You may freeze the dressin at this point if you’re making it ahead of time. Just be sure to thaw completely before popping it in the oven at 350 degrees for 35-45 minutes. The edges should be golden brown. If you like moister dressin’ (and I’m from Mississippi…there is no “g” on the end), drizzle more chicken stock over the dressin before baking. If you like it dryer, don’t add as much. Serve with turkey and giblet gravy (if you’re into giblet gravy…I’m not…the rest of my family is).