Baked oatmeal

As you can see, my frequency of posting is a variable with no control. As usual, that doesn't mean I'm not baking as much as I possibly can. I recently moved in with my boyfriend, with whom I share the passion for food and cooking. Over the past few months, he's turned me into a spicy food lover and I've convinced him that there's many pastries worth making at home. He's the cooking master, I'm the baking master. Really, we're not masters at all, but we like to pretend. One of our favorite things is homemade weekend breakfast/brunch. We try not to repeat recipes, but ever since we tried this baked oatmeal, we've been making it over and over. With tons of summer fruit available, it's a quick, healthy way of eating a hearty breakfast.

One of the times we made this, I took pictures of the process. So you're about to see the boy at work. Or at least his hands.

Baked oatmeal

2 bananas sliced + 1 1/2 cup of blueberries (or any combination of fruit you can think of that will roast well)
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 cup rolled oats (not quick cooking)
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 egg
1 cup unsweetened rice milk (or some other milk you like best)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Step 1: Spread about 3/4 of your fruits (for us, all the bananas and 1 cup of blueberries) on the bottom of an 8x8 inch roasting pan coated with some butter or non-stick spray. Roast your fruits at 375 F for 15-20 minutes. This batch is blueberries + bananas, we've also done just bananas and we tried peaches as well. I bet you could try with apricots, nectarines or strawberries.

Step 2: Combine oats, sugar, baking powder, salt and nuts and spread on top of the still hot roasted fruit.

Step 3: In a bowl, mix the egg, vanilla extract and milk and pour it over the fruit and oats.

Step 4: Add the remainder of the fruit on top and bake at 375 for 30 minutes or until the oatmeal is set.

This keeps well for about a week in the fridge, although I doubt it'll last that long.

Banana everything blondies and things to do in Portland

Yay! first post in... forever! Sorry guys... grad school is intense. Actually, my life's been pretty intense in the last two months. I don't know how, but way more things that I could think of, happened in the last two months. I know, you're curious...

Let's see... I started grad school which means teaching and a bunch of classes. I met about 20 new people from my department, plus about another 20 new people from outside of school. I made friends with some of those people. In fact, some of those people are a fundamental part of my mental survival these days.

With those new friends, I've seen a good amount of bars and coffee places in Portland that I highly recommend. Let's see... right next to school there's Momo's, which has a great patio with picnic tables. Now that it's cold, they have heaters so you can enjoy your drinks and not freeze outside. For a great sports watching experience, a.k.a seeing the Giants win the world series, Claudia's Sports Pub & Grill. Giant screen and great food. If you want even more awesome food, or the best wings in Portland plus dirty, unhealthy but extremely yummy fried oreos, Fire on the Mountain is the place to go (check out their site, it's mad cool!). If after lots of wings and beer, you're hangover and need a coffee, Little t american baker is waiting for you. They even make those cute foam shapes on your cappuccino.

Besides eating and drinking, there's been other activities. My friends convinced me to start hulahooping. I know, sounds like kids games, but it's extremely fun! Add to it the city sport in Portland, or what could be it. Frisbee. Ultimate frisbee, frisbee golf? make your pick! I'm all for frisbee golf at McIver state park which is a beautiful place to spend a Saturday or Sunday morning, even if you don't 'folf'. On the way there, you're gonna want to stop at Bob's Red Mill Whole Grain Store, that's right, it's the true Bob's Red Mill and it's located right outside the city. (In fact we're pretty positive we saw Bob himself!). And not only is there a factory but also a great restaurant. I highly recommend their biscuits and gravy or their grits. Which are two things I discovered this last two months as well!

So I made friends and we went places. I also liked someone, dated that someone for a while and it didn't work out. But that's life and it just keeps rolling. So last weekend I got together with some of my buddies and made these blondies. They are sort of an accident. While I was completely positive I'd bought chocolate chips, I was greatly surprised when I opened the bag and saw they were in fact butterscotch chips. So my originally intended banana bread for my friend Joe, turned into bananas + butterscotch and why not some of the leftover coconut milk I was using for my curry. To top it off, some peanut butter swirl on top. Done and done! and delicious! 

So, what have you guys done lately? and most importantly, what have you baked? 

The everything blondies

2 very ripe bananas mashed

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/2 cup coconut milk

4 tablespoons butter, melted

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup butterscotch chips

About 3 tablespoons peanut butter for the swirl

Preheat your oven at 350 F

In a bowl, beat together the melted butter and the sugar. Add the banana and mix until creamy and then stir in the coconut milk and the egg. Mix the flour until just combined and add the butterscotch chips. Pour the batter in a greased large baking pan (13 x 9 in) and flatten it up with a spatula. Add a couple tablespoons of peanut butter on top and swirl with a knife. Bake for 20 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Wait until the blondies are cooled down to cut them.

Banana chocolate chip oatmeal bread and teaching

 

Yes! I'm still here! busy but baking and trying to post. This past two weeks have been insane. My exam at OHSU on Friday night (yes yes, Fri-day night), was the end of this crazy days of just studying. Granted I need to bake when I take a break, otherwise I'd be going insane. For real.

Anyway, other than classes, what keeps me busy is teaching. My little kiddos, or not so little, since a lot of them are decades older than me. I teach general chemistry lab. It's fun, it's a lot of work. Sometimes it's really frustrating but in general it's a dream come true. 

I honestly believe that if you can get people excited about what they do in a lab, everything becomes much easier when they go back to the textbook. I have to say, I'm a lucky gal. I had wonderful T.A's (for those who are not familiar with the terminology, teacher assistant). I loved my lab classes and I'm still really good friends with some of my teachers. 

I have to admit that I already have my favorite kids. The ones who are really interested in the class, that are excited about learning and are a pain in my ass asking questions all the time. And then obviously there's the stereotypes. Cute girl who doesn't listen to me, hot guy who thinks his 'goodlookingness' is gonna give him a good grade, smart guys who don't need any help or give me any trouble... and so on and so forth. 

The worst part is the grading. You should see my desk. Full of reports with millions of corrections. They are scary those reports. You would think that by this time, in college, students would know some grammar. Don't be fooled, they don't. I guess we'll have to teach them how to write. Right?

Anyway, the one thing I didn't expect when I started teaching was the exhaustion and the hunger. After my Wednesday evening class, which ends at 8PM, I just want to eat a dinosaur and go to bed. The key to prevent myself from starving is making big pots of soups and stews during the weekend so I can just come home and eat. Not sleep. That's not allowed yet. 

This banana bread was what happened a few days ago, when I really needed a break from grading. It was sort of a birthday gift to my friend Ali, who's birthday was around that date. It's not a cake, but it made her really happy. I'm sure you'll love it. Lots of oats, whole wheat flour, bananas and the kick of chocolate chips. Mixed and baked in an hour, self made recipe!. Too easy not to make. 

Banana oatmeal chocolate chip bread

1 3/4 cups whole wheat flour

3/4 cups brown sugar

1 cup old-fashioned oats

2 tsp baking powder

2 eggs

1 stick of butter

2 large bananas mashed

1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

Preheat your oven to 350 F

In a bowl, cream the sugar and the butter. Add the eggs and mix until combined. Stir in the bananas and mix until creamy. Mix in the flour and baking powder. Add the oats and chocolate chips and combine with a spatula until homogeneous. If desired, top the bread with a few banana slices to make it prettier. Bake for about 40 min, until a toothpick inserted in the center of the bread comes out clean. Let it cool before slicing so the chocolate chips remain intact.

BBD #33: Banana bourbon cinnamon rolls

Hi there! Long time, no see! I apologize for the disappearance! I must confess it’s been crazy over here. I’m currently in my dad’s hometown, recovering from a week of crazy fun, lots of work and not enough sleep.

Last week we celebrated the town holidays. Putting in words what we do over here when that happens, it’s sort of complicated, but I’ll try my best. The holidays are called ‘Los toros’, literally, the bulls. There’s no animal sacrifice of any kind, but there’s bulls and cows involved. The animals are put in a ‘plaza’, people run in front of them, they run after the people. Sometimes people get caught and it isn’t pretty, but usually everything works out just fine.

Even though that’s one of the main activities, there’s many others. The ‘cuadrillas’, which are groups of friends around the same age, get together and party all day long. At night there’s the ‘charanga’. That’s a popular procession around the town, following the town’s band, asking (literally) for water. No joke. The idea is to get totally soaked with the water that people throw down their balconies while dancing around and singing traditional songs. After midnight, there’s always dancing of some kind and ‘toro embolao’ which feels too complicated to explain.

In addition to the regular lack of sleep, this year, my group of friends, were organizing the holidays. That means assembling tons of stuff, setting up tables, serving drinks and controlling that all the rules are followed when there’s bulls involved. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been totally worth it. There’s no better way to bond with your friends than staying awake day after day, past dawn and looking at each other with tired eyes and a smile on your face.

Like I said, it’s hard to put into words what’s been going on. What isn’t hard to make or enjoy are these bourbon banana rolls. They’re made with a simple sweet dough and filled with bourbon cooked bananas mashed with some cinnamon. One could say they are bananas flambé inside a brioche. I got the sweet dough recipe from ‘Artisan baking’. The process is quite long but totally worth it. You’ll get the softest rolls you could imagine.
This is my contribution to the BBD# 33: Breads with booze which I have the pleasure to host this month. There’s still plenty of time to participate, so go for it!

BOURBON BANANA CINNAMON ROLLS
For the sweet dough
From ‘Artisan Baking’
Makes  18 rolls

½ cup milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 2/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
3 eggs
1 ½ teaspoons table salt
6 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ cup unsalted butter

Microwave the milk for 4 min or heat it in a pan until bubbles form around the edges and the milk smells cooked. Let it cool to 105 F and dissolve the yeast in the milk. (Scalding the milk denatures the proteins that prevent gluten formation). Let it stand for 10 minutes.

In a large bowl, add the flour and then the yeast mixture and eggs. With a wooden spoon or your hand, mix until combined. Cover the bowl with plastic and let it stand for 15 to 20 min.
Add the salt to the dough and mix until combined. Take the dough out of the bowl  and knead until smooth, for about 10 min. The salt will incorporate just fine. Add half the sugar and keep kneading, then add the other half. Finally, add the butter in 2 additions and knead it into the dough until this is satiny and soft.

Place the dough in a covered container in the fridge, for at least 8 hrs and up to 48.

For the filling
Makes 9 rolls

4 very ripe bananas
½ cup bourbon
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Cut the bananas into big chunks and cook in a pan with the bourbon until all the liquid is absorbed. Transfer the bananas to a bowl and mash together with the cinnamon. Let the filling cool.

To assemble the rolls

Roll the sweet dough into a rectangle, ½ inch in thickness. Spread the cooled banana filing and roll the dough like you would do with a swiss roll. Cut the dough into 1 to 1 ½ inch pieces and place them in a round pan. Let them rise for 30 min. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 325 F. Brush the rolls with egg wash. Bake them for 30-35 minutes or until golden brown on top. Let them cool slightly before eating.

Marbled banana bread

First of all, I hope you like the new design for the blog... I can't wait to hear your feedback!

Sunday afternoon... what better than a bit of banana bread and a cup of coffee to wrap it up? And what about we add chocolate to that banana bread? Yum!

As usual, ripe bananas are the trick to amazing flavor...

3 ripe bananas mashed

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 plain yogurt

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3 tablespoons chocolate chips

2 tablespoons cocoa powder

Preheat oven to 350 F

Cream together butter and sugar. Stir in the yogurt. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Mix in the vanilla, bananas and chocolate chips. Do not add the cocoa powder yet! Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Now divide the batter in half (approximately). To half of the batter, add the cocoa powder. Mix well but try not to overmix. On a loaf pan, alternatively add the cocoa powder and the plain batter by tablespoonfuls. Swirl with a knife to create the marble effect. As you see mine was not quite marbled at the beginning of the loaf but it sure was as you got to the middle of it. Bake for about 60 min or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This bread comes out moist and soft and bitting into the chocolate chips with the flavor of the banana still in your mouth... hmm! Enjoy!

Very dark banana brownies

I have to warn you. If you're one of those people who likes sweet to death brownies, stop reading here. Now, if you're like me and love real chocolate, the true stuff, no milk, no sugar,  these are your brownies.

It had snowed, it was cold and I wasn't in my best mood... something had to be done about it... chocolate and bananas were there to save the day.

 

Sweet banana, intense chocolate... welcome to heaven (yes, that thing by the bananas is snow)

 

6 ounces unsweetened chocolate chopped
6 ounces butter cut into cubes
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 bananas, very ripe, cut into little chunks
1 cup flour
3 eggs
a pinch of salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F
In a bowl, melt butter and chocolate in the microwave (or in a double boiler). To avoid burning the chocolate, heat the mixture in intervals of 30 seconds and mix well after each heating. Set aside to cool. In a separate bowl mix eggs, vanilla and sugar. Slowly add the melted chocolate into the egg mixture while mixing well. Stir in the chopped banana. Pour the batter in a well buttered pan and bake for 30 min, until the brownie is set but looks slightly giggly in the center or until a toothpick comes out with moist crumbs. Let cool and cut into squares.

The bitterness of the chocolate and the sweetness of the banana are the perfect combination for a cold afternoon, or morning, or evening. They are just great.

 

Going bananas

This is THE BEST banana bread I've ever made, period.

My roomie, a banana bread addict, said it was the best he'd ever tried. My other roomie said it's the best thing I've baked so far. I'm telling you, not many banana breads stay moist and yummy 5 days after baking. This does.

The secret? Well, the chocolate chips definitely help. They melt and give the whole thing a kick. But honestly I think it was a matter of bananas. My three bananas were not ripe or overripe, they were black. Yes, that's right, the outside was almost totally black. The inside had some tiny black spots that I removed.

Now you might be asking yourselves why ripe bananas taste sweeter than green ones. Easy! In the ripening process the starches from the bananas get transformed into sugars as ethylene gas is released (do not freak out, there's nothing bad about it).

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
3 very (I mean very very) ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F

Mash the three bananas until you get a liquid mixture similar to baby food. In a bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Stir in the egg. Add the mashed bananas. Stir in the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder and mix with a spatula until well incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips.  I baked it in a flat square pan but feel free to bake it as a loaf. Bake for about 30 min, until a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out with moist crumbs.