Zucchini Banana Bread

For all my talk on this blog about being creative and trying new ingredients, I am a creature of habit when it comes to breakfast. Most of the time, my breakfast will be either Greek yogurt or oatmeal. The Greek yogurt will be plain, topped with fresh fruit (typically berries) a bit of honey and some granola. The oatmeal will be steel cut, cooked in milk and then flavored with brown sugar or maple syrup and topped with fresh and/or dried fruit and nuts. Every so often there will be a deviation with pancakes, eggs and toast, a bagel, or maybe (when I can get it) something a bit sweeter, but overall I am fully committed to my yogurt and oatmeal routine.

Banana bread, however can very easily tempt me off the beaten path. The aroma of it fresh from the oven brings back childhood memories of the loaves my mom would bake, and there was nothing better than cutting a thick piece as soon as it was cooled just enough to touch and immediately covering it with butter that would melt into the steaming slice. So good, so perfect...

Lucky for me, over ripe bananas are fairly common in out house, and my wife will quickly turn them into loaves of banana bread that we can easily freeze to be ready to reheat when the craving calls. After my daughter was born, the quest to get more vegetables into her lead my wife to combine a banana bread and zucchini bread recipe into one. This does very little to change the taste, so the little one will gobble them down happily and be none the wiser to the hidden veggies. That is, if I leave her any!

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Zucchini

Ingredients
2 2/3 cup all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup apple sauce
1 very ripe banana, mashed
1 large zucchini, washed and shredded
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup plain yogurt

Preparation

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. This recipe will yield one 9x5 loaf or 4 mini loafs (shown). Coat the inside of the loaf pan(s) with butter and then sprinkle with flour, set aside.

Place the flour, baking soda and powder, salt and all the spices in a mesh strainer and shake into a large bowl to sift out any clumps. Using the fine side of a box grater, shred the zucchini then place onto a clean tea towel, roll up and wring to squeeze out as much water as you can. Place the zucchini in a clean bowl and mix together with the mashed banana and apple sauce. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat together the eggs, oil and sugar until combined, then add the banana/zucchini mixture and continue to mix on low while you add the dry ingredients, turning off the mixer when everything is just combined. Remove from the mixer and stir in the yogurt.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan(s) and bake for 1 hour for the 9x5 pan or 25-30 min for mini loaf. Test by sticking a toothpick into the center of the loaf, it's done when the toothpick comes out clean. Let the pan cool for a few minutes and then while wearing oven mitts, carefully remove the loaf from the pan (turning the pan upside down and giving it a light shake will usually do the trick) and place on a cooling rack to finish cooling.  

Strawberry Scones

I have mixed emotions about pick-your-own farms.  On the one hand, it can be a nice way to entertain the kids for an afternoon while you get to enjoy the outdoors as well as some as-fresh-as-it-gets produce.  On the other hand, you are paying for the privilege of providing the farm with free labor to harvest their fields.  Yesterday, my former opinion won out and the family and I spent the afternoon at a strawberry picking festival at the same farm where we have our CSA membership.  Happily, the farm provided many options in addition to picking, with a petting zoo, bouncy house, pony rides and other kid friendly activities to keep my daughter occupied.  Ever better, for the adults there was a wine tasting hosted by one of New Jersey's wineries, and while the wine was not that good (other than a semi-decent riesling) it provided a nice oasis of civility in what was otherwise a giant mosh pit of strawberry scented children. Even though we never made it out into the picking fields, we still brought home more strawberries to add to those from this week's share.

Its always a treat to wake up to fresh baked....well, anything! My wife is a early riser and will occasionally slip downstairs and have the house smelling fantastic by the time the rest of us wake up.  As a father's day surprise, she wasted no time digging into the pile of strawberries and put together a batch of scones for breakfast. The recipe here my wife learned during her time at the French Culinary Institute (which is why everything is measured by weight).

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Strawberries

Ingredients
325 grams bread flour
20 grams baking powder
45 grams sugar
Pinch of salt
110 grams unsalted butter, cut into cubes, chilled
100 grams fresh strawberries, chopped
1 whole egg plus one egg yolk
100 ml heavy cream

Preparation
Heat your oven to 350 degrees.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt in a large bowl.  Add the butter and cut it into the dry ingredients until its about the size of dry lentils.  Mix in the 90 grams of the strawberries.

In a large measuring cup, combine the whole egg and yolk.  Place the cream in a blender with remaining 10 grams of strawberries and puree until combined.  Add the strawberry cream to the eggs and lightly beat the mixture until combined. Add the liquid to the bowl with the dry ingredients and mix until the dough just comes together.  Do not over mix.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured counter top to a thickness of around 3/4 inches. Cut into triangles (or whatever your desired shape) and place on a parchment paper lined sheet pan.  Brush the scones with a little cream and lightly sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 10-15 minutes until lightly browned on the bottom and edges.

Happy Father's day to me!

Strawberry Banana Smoothies

Despite our best efforts, that bunch of bananas we bought last weekend survived the week and now we are left with a couple that are doing their best leopard impression.  A smoothie is a great way to use these up and a healthy treat for adults and kids alike. This morning we made use of the remaining strawberries from the week 5 share for the classic strawberry-banana combination.

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Strawberries
Honey (from week 1)

Ingredients:
10 oz fresh strawberries, washed, stems cut off
2 ripe bananas
1-2 tbs honey (to taste)
3/4 cup plain yogurt
1 cup ice cubes









Place everything in a blender and puree until smooth.  Easy as that! The ice can be optional if you think ahead and freeze the bananas overnight.  A great use for leftovers is to freeze in a popsicle mold for a cold treat later on.