Black And Blueberry Banana Bread

The berries are washed. The walnuts are pre-baked 10

min @ 325 F and chopped. The pumpkin seeds are Pre-baked 45 

min @ 325 F, then weighed up and ground in the 

coffee grinder.

  

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1/4 cup ground pumpkin seed (40 g)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Mixed with a whisk and set aside.

7 tablespoons coconut oil

2 tablespoons buttermilk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blended together then combined first with 

1 cup packed brown sugar then

2 large eggs and blended until smooth

These are combined with the flour/spice mixture

and blended well.

3 med sized very ripe bananas mashed a bit

1/2 cup blue berries half of them mashed a bit

1/2 cup black berries (cut up if huge)

1/2 cup semisweet chocolate morsels (chips)

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans

Blended into the batter ( don't annihilate the bananas)

For a topping, the damp of the brown sugar makes the cinnamon stick to the Turbinado sugar.

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 tablespoons Turbinado sugar

Banging down on it with the whisk helps it stay mixed.

Spread along the tops the extra sweet really helped with these somewhat tart blackberries.

Baked @ 350 F for 10 minutes the toothpick came out a sticky mess (probably due to all the extra moisture in the blackberries). At fifteen minutes the toothpick came out dry.

 They were allowed to cool 10 minutes in the pans, then dried and cooled another 15 minutes under the ceiling fan leaned against each other (to expose their bottoms). Then they were bagged three at a time and frozen. This is our first batch of black and blueberry banana nut bread mini loaves (they're hardly delicious at all), but I doubt they'll get a chance to stay in the freezer more than a week.

Having eaten 2 now, the tart of the blackberries is almost a nice as the seeds are weird, but the blueberries rule. Despite some strong opinions to the contrary, I think a batch with 1 cup of blueberries and no chocolate is definitely coming soon.    

Portable Cornbread

Sparks in the dark

Unwilling to plunge down the drain-like side tunnel in their rotten, leaky boats, the rest of the "Yucatants" (former Yucatan ant mummies) took their torches and pushed onward into the darkness.







 These cornbread cracker go great with a sandwich or on a salad. Ours included baked, ground pumpkin seeds and coconut oil (corn oil also works well). These buttermilk cornbread crackers get all their moisture from the grated fresh onion, grated fresh corn and diced, pickled jalapenos.

1/2 medium large onion
1/2 ear fresh (or drained canned, chopped) corn
3 tablespoons coconut oil (or corn oil)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk cornmeal mix
1/4 cup ground pumpkin seed baked 45 min @ 325 f
1/2 grated extra sharp cheddar cheese
1/4 cup diced pickled nacho sliced jalapenos

Even after mixing well, the dough resembles coarse moist crumbs until it's been kneaded.  Unlike some dough, this dough shouldn't sit around. Don't mix it up until you're ready to bake it off.








I've been working my dough on the dining table so I roll mine out on pan-sized pieces of parchment between sheets of wax paper instead of scattering flour to keep it from sticking to my rolling pin.

   I used an extra long rolling pin. I made one out of bamboo. The three layers of grey cardboard on each side of the parchment kept the dough from thinning on the ends so much. After herding the slab out to near full width it is sometimes easier to flip it over and move the parchment to keep the dough centered. Spanning the roller across the guides and rolling it out to the ends then rolling it back from the ends makes it wider in stages.

Home made cookie cutters gave the corn bread crackers a distinctive look.
The cornmeal mix had plenty of salt in it so I didn't salt the tops at all.

These baked @ 425 F for 7 min then the pans got spun and shuffled (this picture was at 7 min). These needed 4 or 5 more minutes, before both the ends darkened. Watch closely at this stage. As soon as the color is just right open the door and turn off the oven. Leave the door open but keep an eye on them as they cool and crisp up. If they get any darker open the door all the way and slide the racks out some.

                                                                                  Once they cooled, we bagged ours in 6 or 7 zip-locks (about 45 g each) and froze them. In a normal freezer, they should be good for a couple of weeks.    Ours are usually gone before that. This picture is of some horseradish-dill crackers put up yesterday. The cornbread  crackers are already et. 

Rotten Old Boats, Snappy New Cookies

The mass of huge, hot stones and rubble blocking the way back was also cutting off the wind through the cavern. Soon even the rotten, old boats looked more promising than standing around in the dark. However when the lead boat and most of the under ground river plunged suddenly down a narrow side tunnel, boating lost much of it's appeal.

I intend to get a better laid out more detailed recipe and some process pictures but for now these are too good to wait.


This trio of cookies (ginger upper right) all include  baked pumpkin seeds  and coconut oil and buttermilk.


The pumpkin seeds were baked @ 325 F for 45 min, then weighed up and ground with the cloves in a coffee grinder.

 

The pumpkin seeds and cloves were, combined with the ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. These were sifted together, stirred with a whisk and set aside. The coconut oil and buttermilk were blended together until smooth then first the sugar then the molasses and egg were blended in. When the dry ingredients were added the resulting batter/dough was fairly stiff.

  I used the teaspoon scoop and with a plastic bag over my other hand to make rounded the balls of dough for a cookie ball of about 2 teaspoons. Brown sugar Turbinado sugar and cinnamon made a good coating to roll them in. Baked @ 375 f for 12 min they slumped and spread. Their tops cracked and they were slightly crisp but not hard like a lot of ginger snaps. This batch made 3 dozen.

No, Darker Than Chocolate

 Even the arrival of a mummified onyx space chili might have gone unnoticed, it was a very dark night.

But when it struck the tiny pyramid, it hit so hard that many of the casing stones were crushed and scattered. A roaring cloud of red dust and sparkling onyx splinters blasted through every tiny space in the rapidly collapsing temple. Many of the ant mummies were thrown from their sarcophagi into the spicy, sparkly darkness. Suddenly awakened and covered with sparkling chili powder, there was no time to wonder how. Those who could fell back from the rapidly advancing  wall of fire.

 Clutching their hastily improvised torches they plunged deeper into the catacombs leaning into the cold wind rushing up and back toward the flames.  With their torches held low against the wind, the fortunate few passed beneath the ring wall and into the long abandoned, limestone labyrinth below.     

Chocolate cherry molasses spice cookie is a lot of name for such small cookies. Like a lot of my favorite recipes, this is a variation on a King Arthur Flour recipe. Unlike the Spiced Chocolate Molasses Buttons they resemble somewhat, this cookie  has no butter and some of the flour is replaced by baked, ground, pumpkin seeds.

Since it's just about my favorite, I've made this cookie a lot. Three kinds of chocolate and tart Monterrey cherries are a great compliment to the somewhat loud spice profile. Sometimes I've used the allspice listed in the King Arthur recipe instead of the ground cloves listed in my recipe. I like them both ways.

  The ground, baked pumpkin seed is a bit likely to clump even when whisked. Sifting makes it and the ground cloves separate better. Beat the coconut oil, buttermilk, and vanilla mixture before adding the sugar. Once they're well mixed, add the molasses and egg and mix until smooth. Add the flour/spice mixture and mix well, then finish up with the cherries and chocolate chips.

*Cover and refrigerate the dough for 2 hours.

Using a tablespoon scoop distribute the dough balls about 1 1/4 apart. These cookies didn't always slump so I mashed them some.

I liked them best a little soft, and 10 to 12 min @ 350 F worked well in my oven.