A Banananana loaf/muffin to make basically anytime.

I hoard bananas in my freezer. Gone now are the days when I needed them as an egg substitute, but I still feel wasteful if they get to that perfect mottled ripeness and don't get eaten, so in the freezer they go. While in the summer they make a great smoothie, in the winter you need something less chilly. Before I know it I have a stash enough to make several loaves of banana bread, which is delicious and always consumed quickly. Yes, I always end up making more than one loaf because I feel wasteful (again) of the oven space. Or less often I make muffins. Either form is quick and very easily adapted-- add nuts, chocolate, coconut, even sub gluten-free flour. Everything else is probably already in your pantry -- which is part of why this recipe comes together so easily; there are no eggs or dairy to worry about picking up from the store.

Easiest Banana Loaves or Muffins
Makes 2 8 1/2 x 4 loaves or about 20 regular-sized muffins -- coat pans lightly with cooking spray or line with paper.

Dry ingredients: Whisk until combined:
I usually do 1 1/2 cups (180 g) whole wheat flour and 2 cups (240 g) regular all-purpose flour because I like the taste, and the fiber/nutrition boost. 
1 1/3 cups (235 g) sugar -- again, you can do part brown sugar or all muscovado or coconut sugar.
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt

Wet ingredients: 2/3 cup (160 ml) oil -- coconut, corn, etc.

2 1/2 cups bananas (if previously frozen, they pretty much peel themselves thawed)

 Vanilla extract, lemon/lime/orange zest or extract, nuts, chips, etc. can go in too.

If you use a mixer, put the wet ingredients in first and mix on low until the bananas are smooth. Add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. If the bananas were very ripe, you should have a batter that holds a trail when a spatula is run through:

If it is too stiff, adjust the thickness with coconut or regular milk, or water.

 Divide evenly between the pans. It will come about halfway up or a little more.

Bake loaves at 350 about 40 minutes, turning halfway through time. They are done when a skewer or toothpick comes out clean from the middle, or with a few moist crumbs. Muffins will take about 12-15 minutes, depending on size.

Store covered at room temperature -- the loaves go quickly if you leave a table knife handy. Muffins freeze well in a zip-close bag, to be thawed individually for a portable breakfast. (spread with Nutella, they are gone even faster. But not at our [still nut-allergic] house.)

sourdough potato bread color experiments...

Fun with spuds! This idea had been playing around in my head for awhile, and when there were some beautiful purple fingerlings in a mixed bag I knew it was a sign that this 3-color potato bread needed making, in time to tweak a bit before Easter.
I started with the same potato/sweet potato bread used to make the hotdog buns -- by now a mere cousin of RLB's Bread Bible and blog version. I doubled the potato and used high-gluten flour in the main dough to compensate, and added some liquid starter for flavor and ease of shaping. (I don't use the milk powder or butter for allergy reasons.)

This makes one showy loaf  about 14 inches long but relatively flat, as braids go. (If you want a deeper/taller slice, you could rise and bake this in a pan, or make the ropes shorter and fatter.)
First the potatoes: boiled a regular (white) potato and the purple Vilotte (i think, they weren't labelled) fingerlings until tender, then drained and mashed. The sweet potato i cooked like i normally do: in the microwave, then mashed. I ended up with about 70-80 g of each.

Cooked and mashed potato varieties. They are in matchy bowls because i can. :D

 The sponge is mixed as normal and risen, using the potato cooking water. I then completed the dough as one, then divided it in three parts to knead in the colors of potatoes, but you might find it easier to divide the sponge into three bowls and add the other ingredients to form separate colored doughs.

The completed doughs -- kneading in the potato and oil or vegan butter. It's unintentionally a big smiley.

Shape each into a ball  then let rise covered until doubled. I put them right on a nonstick mat.

Before the first rise, and after the second.

Punch down and envelope fold, then rise another time; it should take about 45 minutes each time.

To shape, press one round into an oval, then roll up and pinch the seam so you have a tube with pointed ends, like a football... press out any big gas bubbles as you roll. Elongate the rope slightly, but keep the middle a bit thicker and the ends pointed. Do the same with the other two colors, lay them side by side, and start braiding from the middle.

Press the ends together and tuck them in. Flip the pan and braid the other end the opposite way, keeping the tension even... this keeps the shape consistent.

Cover (I use another pan to make sure there won't be sticking) and let the braid rise until it about doubles, about another 40 minutes. It should feel puffy, almost wobbly, when pressed with a fingertip.

Bake at 375 about 30 minutes. (I don't like eggwashing savory breads that don't have egg in them, especially ones that color well on their own, but you do you!)  It's done if you hear a hollow sound when tapping lightly underneath. 

Nicely colored! As you can see the white and purple strands broke a little as they rose and oven-sprang... 

The braid will have a crunchy crust when it comes out, but that will soften as it cools and the moisture distributes evenly.
My braid looked fine when it went into the oven, but as it rose and baked, the regular and purple ropes kind of fell out compared to the orange. It might be because of extra moisture from boiling, so next time I'll cook all the potato types by the same method and give up having cooking liquid in favor of ropes that keep their shape. (Of course, there will be an update when I accomplish that!)

Let the braid cool to the touch before you slice... even with the potato, it's a delicate crumb that will crush and gum up if it's too hot. But look how pretty! 

hotdog buns 2.0!

I seem to pick long holiday weekends to do my potato bun testing... this will be a short post, because it's just a tweak of the original. But I do have pictures!

Sourdough sweet potato hotdog buns that are vegan (dairy and egg-free), soft and have a bit of a protein boost. I incorporated some tweaks from last time: besan flour, which is ground-up beans, has 7 grams of protein per ounce, and a nice pale gold color; sweet potatoes, which aside from giving the dough color, provide a bit more moisture and sweetness; freshly-fed active sourdough starter and reduced amount of yeast; and white whole wheat flour and high-gluten flour.
The tweaked proportions:
Make Sponge: Mix together in a mixer bowl:

150 g. cooking water, 10 g. dry yeast, 100 g. besan flour, 100 g. white whole wheat flour.
Let sit at least an hour. Add:

300 g. high-gluten flour
100 g. white whole wheat flour
Mix just until incorporated, then let rest 20 minutes. Add:

365 g. active starter (6 hours after feeding)
365 g. mashed boiled sweet potato (two medium-sized potatoes)
60 g. kosher margarine
15 g. salt
50 g. dark brown sugar
Switch to the dough hook and mix 10 minutes on low speed. At first it will look too wet, but as the moisture distributes and the gluten develops, the dough will come together round the hook and clean itself off the bowl. If it doesn't after about 5 minutes, add a handful more of either white or whole wheat flour.
Once it's smooth and silky and passes the windowpane test, round it out and cooking spray the top or brush with margarine. Cover and let rise 2 hours, turn out and give two 3-folds, then let rise another 2 hours (or what I did: ferment 1 hour, 2 3-folds, then overnight in the fridge.)

We made mostly hot dog buns, 75 g. each, but also two burger buns (4 ounces/ 113 g. each) and two soft pretzels.

Let them rise, covered with a towel... 

it only took about 30 minutes -- they should just touch....

and into the oven. 

Bake at 360 until nicely golden.

Look how yummy and golden!!!

Nice and soft, but substantial enough to hold up against juicy burgers and condiments. The buns, minus two which we just had to sample, get to live in the freezer for hot lunches... yum!

because... well, why not? Hotdog buns worth the trouble.

Vegan Potato Whole wheat Hot dog buns!

 We love hotdogs as a treat in this house, but not so much the fluffy buns which  usually have milk and high fructose corn syrup. The sturdier potato buns are more expensive, and some have egg. So I took on the challenge this holiday weekend of substantial-but-soft, flavorful allergy-friendly hot dog buns. This is an amalgamation of a few recipes -- RLB's potato buns (a shaping variation on the Potato Flatbread Pizza in the Bread Bible), this one, and my own sourdough sandwich bread. Potato buns have been on my list of to-try since yeast loves the starch, and they supposedly add a nice moist, tender quality. Sourdough for flavor and better keeping qualities -- I used/fed mine two days before and left it out, so it's not at peak rising power, but still within a good time frame.

First, potato water, yeast, mashed potatoes and some whole wheat flour, then the starter. After a 30-minute rise, more flour, salt, and sweetener and a bit of fat for tenderness. After about 45 minutes' rise (it was hot today), the dough looks promising!

Knocked down then scaled into 75 g each and rounded... the dough is a bit sticky but I didn't want to add too much flour so the pre-shape is on a nonstick mat.

Once they are benched, I just shaped like you would a (tiny!) batard... about 1 x 6 inches. I spaced them so the sides would touch. (I used a nonstick mat and perforated sheetpan, but parchment would probably work fine.) Covered, risen about 25-30 minutes, then baked. No wash or steam, because we want them soft. They took about 20 minutes at 375 to get nicely colored on both top and bottom. They were a good color and internal temp but seemed a bit wet or heavy still,  so I turned off the oven and let them dry out a bit before removing to a rack to cool.

Perfect for lunch the next day! Lightly toasted,  they hold up well to loading up with condiments. Happy nomming!

This quantity makes 21 normal-sized buns, approximately 2  x 6 1/2 inches -- it's a good-sized batch for a KitchenAid mixer, and this type of bread freezes well anyway.

 You'll need 1 large baking potato, about 250 g/half pound before cooking; I just poked it all over with a knife, covered with water and boiled in the skin until the knife went through easily, and let cool until I could handle it. Peel and mash (with a little energetic help from a 6-year-old), saving the warm cooking liquid.

Potato sponge: Measure 227 g./1 cup of the potato water and sprinkle with 15 g. dry yeast. Let sit until it sinks, then whisk in. Measure 240 g/1 generous cup of cooked potato into a mixer bowl and paddle it until free of lumps. Add yeast water and 200 g/1 2/3 cups whole wheat flour, mix until smooth. Add 365 g/1 1/2 cups liquid (50/50) starter, mix until smooth again. Remove the paddle, cover and let rise until puffy and light. (I just leave it in the mixer and cover the whole thing with a towel.) 

Completing the dough: Mix together 350 g/3 cups unbleached AP flour, 50 g/1/3 cup ww flour, 15 g/2 1/4 tsp. sea salt, 50 g/1/4 cup raw sugar. Add to the bowl together with 60 g/1/4 cup chilled coconut oil or kosher margarine (you can use another oil, but the dough will be softer); if you want to use a liquid sweetener like agave or honey, add it with the oil. Mix with the hook until the dough is very smooth and elastic, a good 5-7 minutes. It will pull up from the sides; if it doesn't, add a handful more AP flour. 

Push down with a scraper and turn the dough out onto the counter. Fold and knead a few times to combine and distribute the moisture evenly, then lightly spray or grease the mixer bowl and return the dough to the bowl. Cover and let rise, then follow above!

(I fit 17 on a half-sheet pan, and 4 on another pan, with them completely touching once risen and fused together but easily separated once cooled. If you want them with more defined sides, better off doing 10 or 11 on each of two pans.)

This batch is enough for 4-5 more meals for us! Yay stocking up. To try next: cut back on yeast and use peak sourdough, equal parts Yukon gold and sweet potatoes, some besan flour for extra nutrition, and sesame oil/mustard; then perhaps a gluten-free version.

veg of glory, rainbow edition!

How do vegetables and fruit that is in all different colors get made into yummy snacks? We made muffins!

Before I had this blog, I've been tinkering about making Morning Glory muffins without the egg. It is a thing in our house, and I make them in my allergy-friendly bake sale class. So today, a riff on that: all the colors in one muffin!  

The eggplant was the only thing I was iffy about, so we only used a little and chopped it up small. But carrots, apple, zucchini all grated up nicely in the food processor. I think it works out as long as it's roughly the same volume.

yummy, healthy, and best of all they'll be eaten for snacks for a few days. so hard to get Kikay to eat varied foods, but she's learning about nutrition in school so maybe a breakthrough soon.

  

 Color Veg of Glory Muffins! 

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour, or 1 cup apf and 1 1/4 cups wholewheat flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. xanthan gum
1 cup sugar (brown can be used, but it makes the muffins really dark)

Grated in processor:
1 1/2 -2 cups carrots (about 2 medium?)
1 apple, not peeled
1 zucchini
1 small japanese eggplant, seeds removed

 1 cup (8 oz can) crushed pineapple in juice -- you can also use fresh
1 cup (7 oz) canola oil
1 cup coconut
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup blueberries

Mix all together, then scoop out and bake at 375 about 15 minutes.
This makes 24 cupcake-size muffins, or 12 large (Texas type) ones.