Foodie Friday : Banana Sour Cream Loaf

Cabin Fever Reliever for Foodie Friday

It's Winnipeg in winter. For us that means lots of time inside and the temptation to eat lots of junky high calorie no nutrition food. Just sayin...This version of banana bread is a hit wherever I take it, and for sure healthier than the chips that keep calling me.

Banana Sour Cream Loaf

Ingredients
1/2 cup of margarine
3/4 cup of Cane Sugar or white sugar (can be reduced slightly)
2 eggs
1 cup (generous) of mashed smashed ripe bananas
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sour cream or low fat yogurt
2 cups flour, half whole wheat, half white
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
pinch salt
pinch cinnamon
chocolate chips

Instructions
Combine margarine and sugar until well blended, then add eggs, bananas, vanilla and sour cream. Sift dry ingredients then add to wet ingredients. Do not overmix.
Optional: add in 1/2 cup of  chocolate chips and top with some pecans.
Pour batter into 2 loaf pans, bake 45 minutes at 350°F.
Enjoy!

Post by: Nancy of Nancy Blokland Pottery

Foodie Friday : Lemony linzer cookies.

 

Caitlin here, from Real Swanky / The Hardcore Herbivore. Lemon Linzer cookies were a part of my childhood. I spent a good while veganizing this recipe from Bake..With Anna Olsen and am happy to report they turned out stellar. Plus, what better way to utilize my lovely new CuisinArt mixer? 

Believe it or not, the Rudimentary Peni & Suicidal Tendencies stickers
did NOT come with the mixer. We live in a harsh world.

A word on sugar, powdered and otherwise. I refer to veganproducts.org for cruelty-free brands. VivaLaVegan also has this super helpful bit of info!

Ingredients I
3/4 cup white flour
1 1/4 cups almond flour (almond meal)
1/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup vegan butter, cubed and chilled -- I used Earth Balance

Ingredients II
2 tbsp agave nectar
2 tbsp cold water
1 1/2 tsp egg replacer -- I used Ener-G
Zest of 1 lemon
Almond extract
Vanilla

Ingredients III
~1 cup filling -- I have half a cup each of lemon curd and blueberry pie filling
Powdered sugar for dusting

In a large bowl, mix together dry ingredients in Ingredients I. Add in your butter. Beat with an electric mixer or your mixer. The mixture will be dry and crumbly.

In a small bowl, combine all of Ingredients II. Lightly whisk until well-combined. Pour into your large bowl and mix until just combined.

Your dough will be soft and quite pliable.

Too pliable. So, we ought to chill it.

Remove from bowl and form into a disc shape on cling wrap.

Chill the dough for at least one hour in the fridge. Once that hour is up, preheat your oven to 350F. Line two light-coloured baking sheets with parchment paper.

Halve your dough. Dust some flour on your surface and on your rolling pin. Roll out your chilled dough to be about 1/4 inch // 6.35mm  thick. Using a cookie/biscuit cutter, cut out 12. Repeat with your other half. Using a smaller cookie cutter, cut out the centres. I used circles, and scored these little darlins from the Dollar store in town. You'll now have 12 bottoms and 12 tops. I had some extra dough left, so I made 1-inch scalloped circles to make a few mini-sandwiched cookies.

Bake your full cookies for 5-6 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Bake your holey cookies for 4-5 minutes, same deal. Cookies with hard edges or holes will brown faster.

Once baked, keep them on the cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Dust powdered sugar on the holey cookies - make sure they're fully cooled er you're in trouble.

Take the flat side of the full-cookies and spread a light layer of your filling on it with a small offset spatula or butterknife, about 1/8 inch away from the edges. Add an extra dollop to the centre. Press your cookie toppers on.

Foodie Friday : Cranberry coconut bran muffins with fresh ginger.

Caitlin (realswanky & thehardcoreherbivore) here with a recipe for cranberry-coconut bran muffins with fresh ginger. Bran muffins are super hit or miss. These are the hit-type. I've pulsed fresh cranberries, grated some ginger and threw in some unsweetened coconut so as to make these muffins good things. Throw in some more ginger, nuts or carob chips, whatever's your bag.

Yields 16

Ingredients I
1 1/2 cups bran
1 3/4 cups almond milk

Ingredients II
1/2 cup oil
2 tbsp molasses
Vanilla

Ingredients III
1 cup white flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda

Ingredients IV
1/2 cup unsweetened coconut
3-inch chunk of ginger, peeled and grated
1/2 cup fresh, raw cranberries, pulsed

Preheat oven to 375F.

Combine Ingredients I in a bowl and let sit for 10+ minutes. This is to soften the bran. Add Ingredients II into this bowl. In a seperate bowl, combine Ingredients III. Lastly, stir in Ingredients IV. Your batter ought to look like this:

Using a 1/4-cup ice cream scoop, fill your liners. They'll be about 3/4 full, but will rise above quite a bit when baking.

Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a fork comes out clean from the centre.

Split open and spread on some nut butter, fruit preserve, vegan butter, or enjoy on their own.

Foodie Friday : Coconut oil-based shortbread cookies.

These shortbread cookies are coconut-oil based, and slice up nicely once you take them out of your ice box. Quick and easy to bake, to boot!

Yields 18 cookies

Ingredients I
1/2 cup coconut oil, softened, but not melted
1/4 cup white sugar
5 tbsp cold water
Extracts -- I used both almond and caramel, as well as vanilla bean paste

Ingredients II
1 1/4 cups white flour

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In your mixer, or with a hand mixer, cream together Ingredients I for a few minutes. Add in your white flour, 1/4 cup at a time. Your dough should have the consistency of PlayDough. If it's too crumbly, add in additional cold water, 1 tbsp at a time.

Place Saran Wrap on your table and form the dough into a log on top of the wrap. Roll the wrap around the dough, and twist the ends of the wrap, so you can further form the log into a cylinder, which should have a 2 to 2 1/2 inch diameter. Press both ends of the dough so they don't crumble off. Place in the fridge for about 30 minutes.

Remove your dough from the fridge, and take off the Saran Wrap. Try not to get too handsy with the dough, as the heat from your hands can start melting the coconut oil in the dough. Slice up into 1/4 inch (no slimmer) pieces and place 12 to a cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 minutes, turn your pan, and bake for another 8-10 minutes, or until bottoms are slightly browned and the tops show a little colour to them.

Discover more of Caitlin's recipes over at
The Hardcore Herbivore

Gingerbread time is family time!!!

I am lucky enough to have my mom's recipe for gingerbread that she typed out probably 25 years ago. I think this recipe is fail safe, as I am not a master of rolled cookies and lose my patience quickly. I have been doing this gingerbread for more decades than I want to acknowledge--I guess it is vintage. My son has always loved these, and we make them for valentines, Halloween, and Christmas! It appears his palate is expanding beyond gingerbread, as he just pronounced: caramel, nuts and chocolate is a beautiful thing. We have the dough in the fridge now and plan to make another batch of wonder today, as he only lasted outside in the cold for half an hour.

Gingerbread Cookies

2 cups flour
1 tbsp. ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 cup margarine
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses

Sift flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt 3 times. Add to creamed margarine, sugar, egg and molasses. Knead and then roll out, not too thin. Cut out with cookie cutter and bake at 350°F until just beginning to brown, 8-10 minutes (they burn easily).  Great for freezing; we usually ate the last ones in July when I was growing up.

Foodie Friday : Simple vegan blueberry crisp

My grandmother taught me how to bake (and sew..and clean..), and always reminds me that sometimes the best kind of food is simple food. She goes by the "K.I.S.S." method -- Keep It Super Simple. Though, my grandfather strongly feels Keep It Simple, Stupid has a more powerful effect. Sometimes it's a pain to get the right proportions for the "crisp" bit; luckily this is tried, tested & true. Try this out with different fruits, being mindful of bake times. This recipe can very well be gluten free if you replace the white flour with an alternative.

Ingredients

3 lbs blueberries, fresh, washed

3-4 tbsp flour

Juice of one lemon

Ingredients II

1 cup rolled oats

1/4 cup brown sugar, packed

1/2 cup vegan butter

1/4 tsp salt (if butter is unsalted)

1/2 cup flour

spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, etc.

Preheat oven to 350F. 

Put the blueberries in your 9x13 glass baking dish; top with lemon juice. Sprinkle your flour on top.

Prepare the "crisp" by combining all of Ingredients II together. Evenly cover the top of your crisp.

Bake for about 30 minutes. Let cool for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Top with vegan whipped cream/yogurt/ice cream or enjoy on its own.

Foodie Friday : Pumpkin spice latte mini doughnuts

Curious as to what WESTies are making outside the craft room? Step into Caitlin (Real Swanky)'s tiny, wood-paneled kitchen to see what's cookin'.

Doughnuts? Donuts? Little round doughy bits that taste quite alright. I love the smell of pumpkin spice lattes, but a gnarly caffeine allergy deters me from a morning cuppa. That's okay. I found Krakus, from Poland! I picked it up at my local Bulk Barn. Nope, It's not exactly like coffee, because it's made from the extracts of roasted barley, chicory, rye and beet roots. It does have that nice roasted, full-bodied flavour coffee seems to have. 

I've made these little ditties in mini muffin and mini doughnut pans, and they turned out nice! The glaze is a ganache made of melted dairy-free white chocolate and a few tablespoons of extremely strong Krakus. This would be rad with a dark chocolate as well, I'm sure!

Ingredients I

1/2 tsp apple cider vinegar

2 tbsp dairy free milk - I used Almond Breeze's almond coconut milk

1/4c strong coffee / coffee substitute (or just more milk alt)

1/2c canned pureed pumpkin

1/4c white sugar

2 tbsp brown sugar, packed

1/4c butter (melted)

Ingredients II

2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

2 tsp pumpkin pie spice 

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2c flour 

Glaze

3/4 cup dairy free white chocolate (bark/chips/bar)

2-3 tbsp strong coffee / coffee sub

In a bowl, combine your dairy free milk and ACV. Stir, and add in the rest of Ingredients I. In a separate, larger bowl, sift in all of Ingredients II. Make a well, and add in your wet ingredients. The consistency will be doughy, a bit sticky, and a bit like a pizza dough (minus the puffiness the yeast provides, but you already know this).

Spoon batter into trays. Don't be afraid to smooth out the tops of batter, it'll then rise nice and evenly. In my picture, I could have smoothed them out more, but let's be real, it was midnight and they had to get to a birthday girl bright and early.

Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes or until your toothpick comes out clean.

Let sit in the trays for 10 minutes, before removing and placing on a cooling rack.

Once fairly cooled, you can begin making your glaze. To do this, microwave ...or double-boiler, or VERY carefully put in a saucepan on low.. your white chocolate until fully melted, stirring a heap. Add in 2 tbsp of your coffee/sub, and see if you like the consistency and flavour. It should be thin enough to drizzle, but thick enough to not run all over the place and be a major bummer. I dunked a fork in my glaze and drizzled each piece. If your glaze starts hardening, nuke it for a few shakes.

Interested in more recipes like this? Check out my blog

The Hardcore Herbivore !