Moving this blog to Wordpress

To those who followed me here, please follow me instead at the new blog location:  http://recipesbybarb.wordpress.com/.  Sorry for the inconvenience, but Blogger doesn't do everything I'd like the blog to do.

Banana Waffles

If you like light and crispy waffles, these aren’t for you.  These are rich, filling, and super satisfying after a good workout.  If you want them more light and crispy, you can separate the eggs and fold in the beaten whites at the end.

3 eggs

1 c milk

¼  c butter, melted

3 bananas, mashed

1 ½ c whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 tsp salt

2 tsp baking powder

Beat eggs in a bowl until thick.  Beat in milk and butter.  In a separate bowl, mix dry ingredients.  Sift into egg mixture and mix well.  Stir in bananas.  Adjust texture – should be thick but pourable (use milk to thin or flour to thicken).  Cook according to waffle iron instructions.

Serve with maple syrup.  No need for butter – they are rich enough without it!

Makes about 12 big waffles.

Tip for pancakes and waffles:  Freeze any leftovers (in a single layer or with something like parchment or clean milk bags in between layers).  To re-heat, toast in toaster.  This makes them crisper than the first time around.

Toffee Sauce

I almost wish I hadn't learned how to make this.  It tastes a little too good to be good for my health.  It is fab on Christmas Pudding, but also over ice cream.  Or straight out of the jar.  If you are serving a whole Christmas Pudding at once, you’ll need another batch of sauce.  A regular batch makes a bit more than a pint.  We’ve never been able to resist having some as some as soon as it’s made, and the remainder fits in a small jar.

1 c whipping cream

1/2 c butter

1 1/3 c Demerara sugar

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

Pour the cream in a small heavy bottomed sauce pan.  Add butter and sugar, and stir over medium heat until the butter and sugar melt.  Simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla.  Refrigerate any leftovers.

Christmas Pudding

This is a labour of love.  I make white bread once a year specifically to make this pudding for Christmas.  I also like to make my own candied citrus peel so that I can avoid pesticides by using organic oranges and lemons.  Because of this, making the pudding is a three day process.  It is laborious, to say the least, but really worthwhile.

Makes pudding to fill a 2L pudding pan, about 15 servings.

1 c sultanas or golden raisins

1 c Thompson raisins

1 c dried cranberries, chopped

1 c dried cherries, chopped

1 c dates, chopped

¾ c candied citrus peel

1 ½ tsp cinnamon

½ tsp nutmeg

½ tsp ginger

1 tsp allspice

½ tsp cloves

juice of one orange

½ c beer

½ c brandy

Marinate above ingredients overnight.

2 apples, peeled and grated

1 c all purpose flour

½ c ground almonds

½ c butter, melted

½ c Demerara sugar

2 c white bread crumbs (from actual bread, not premade)

2 eggs, beaten

Mix above in a large bowl, being careful to mix the eggs in quickly so you don’t cook them by accident.  Mix in fruit and marinade.

Steam pudding for 8 hours and then cool and refrigerate.  On the day you want to serve it, steam 2 more hours.  Let stand for 15 minutes, then unmold.  Warm 1/8 c brandy for 30-60 seconds in a microwave.  Pour over the pudding and ignite at arms length if you want to keep your eyebrows.

I highly recommend using a real pudding pan to simplify the steaming.  Mine has a lid that snaps shut, so there is no string to mess about with.  Be sure to generously butter the pan before filling it.  To steam, use boiling water to fill a pot big enough to hold the pudding pan so that the water comes up halfway on it.  Keep the water at this level, and keep it simmering for the whole steaming time.

Slice the pudding to serve, and top liberally with toffee sauce (tomorrow’s recipe!).

Whole Wheat Bread

Filling your home with the smell of fresh baked bread is simply wonderful.  This recipe makes three hearty and flavourful loaves.  If you are pressed for time, you can skip the sponge stage, but the bread won’t taste quite as good, or develop quite as much texture.  It’s best to choose a day to make this when you will be home most of the day, and dinner doesn’t need to be baked.  Humid summer days really speed up the rising times, but having the oven on may not be ideal. The density of whole wheat flour is quite variable, so it is hard to specify exactly how much you’ll need.

This bread will keep for about 10 days, but you might want to freeze one loaf so that it doesn’t dry out too much in the winter, or go mouldy in the summer.  I’ve never got the point of baking one loaf at a time, or the assumption that day old bread isn’t edible.  Some bread that is very low in fat will dry out quickly and taste stale, but this recipe includes enough fat for the bread to stay fresh for a fairly long time.  It won’t be great for sandwiches after a week of sitting out, but it will still make great toast.

¼ cup butter

1 cup milk

¼ cup molasses

2 tsp salt

1 cup cold water

1 cup lukewarm water (about 70 ^oF)

1 tsp sugar or honey

1 heaped tbsp of active dry yeast (not the instant kind)

5-8 cups hard whole wheat flour

Place the butter, milk, molasses and salt in a small pot and heat until butter melts.  Stir in the cup of cold water and set aside to cool.

Mix the sugar/honey into the warm water in a large bowl.  Sprinkle yeast over surface, and let sit for about 10 minutes, until it’s foamy.

Check the contents of the pot to make sure they are not too hot - otherwise adding it will kill the yeast.  When it’s ready, add the pot contents to the big bowl.

Stir in 1 cup of flour at a time, until the mixture has the texture of thick mud.  This usually takes about 2 and half cups of flour.  Cover with a damp tea towel, and let sit in a warm place that is free of drafts.  I usually put it in the oven.  If it’s cold in the house, I turn on the oven light for a bit to make it warm in there.  This is called letting it sponge.  Leave it at least 2 hours, but not more than 24.

Stir in more flour until using a spoon doesn’t work.  Turn the dough out onto a floured surface, and knead in more flour until it has the right texture - not too sticky, and yields to pressure about like belly fat does.  Kneading usually takes about ten minutes.

Wash the bowl, dry it, and butter it with your hands.  Use your hands to rub a bit of butter all over the dough.  Cover it with a damp tea towel, and let rise in a warm place with no drafts until it has doubled in size, usually 1-2 hours.

Knead the dough through ten times, and divide it into three loaves.  Cover it with the towel and let the dough rest while you prepare the pans.  Butter the pans with your fingers, being sure to get right into the corners as well as over the tops and down the sides a bit, so that as the dough rises over the top of the pans it won’t stick.  Press the dough into the pans, and cover with the towel again, re-dampening it if necessary.  Let rise until doubled, up over the tops of the pans, usually 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400^oF.  Bake for 30 minutes.  Loaves will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom when they are done.  Remove loaves from pans, and cool on a wire rack.