Banana Bread Muffins

When in possession of overripe bananas, what does one do? Make banana bread muffins, of course! These are probably my favorite kinds of muffins. If any of you are familiar with the jumbo sized banana chocolate chip muffins that can be found at Costco, you would know how delicious they are. In fact, I'm obsessed with them. I love bringing one of those with me to munch on during my walk to class in the mornings, and I was so sad when my stash inevitably ran out. That meant that I could either make a run to Costco to restock, which would take at least 2 hours round trip...Or I could make some Banana Bread Muffins myself.

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The great thing about this recipe is that it can be made without dirtying a single dish. Seriously. Check out Yammie's Noshery for the instructions that tell you how to do just that. I made these muffins using the good old bowl and spatula, because I don't particularly mind cleaning up after a recipe as simple as this one which hardly involves any dishes at all in the first place.

In terms of flavor, these muffins definitely have that going for them. Super moist and flavorful, with just the right amount of sweetness. Add a sprinkling of chocolate chips -- or not. Either way, it tastes great.

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It's a light treat, something yummy to munch on as a snack or if you're like me, a great way to start off the day. Enjoy!

Cheers,
Monica

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Banana Bread Muffins

Adapted slightly from Yammie's Noshery   |   Yield: 10 - 12 muffins   |   Time: 45 minutes

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Ingredients

2-3 very ripe bananas
2 eggs
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

For the Glaze: (Optional)
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tablespoon milk or lemon juice

OR

For the Chocolate Glaze: (Optional)
1/4 cup chocolate chips, melted
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Combine bananas, eggs, and sugar. Then add flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, and cinnamon. Finally, add the oil and vanilla. Pour the mixture into the lined muffin wells and bake for 18 - 20 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

To make the glaze, just combine the glaze ingredients and spread over cooled muffins. Serve & enjoy!

Blueberry Cheesecake

I wish there were more cafes in D.C. Not sandwich shops, open Monday through Friday from 9-5, full of people in suits impatiently waiting for their order so they can be on their way again. Cafes, where you can sit down with a book and a cup of coffee for a few hours in relative peace.

The pace is really different here compared to Boston; much of D.C. is centered around the work week. The subways are surprisingly empty on the weekend , even with all the tourists, and the streets become devoid of people in the evening after rush hour.

I guess there are much better things I could be doing while I'm here, like networking and schmoozing with my fellow interns over dinner, rather than reading

Gone Girl

in a cafe (which, by the way, is a really, really creepy but good book). But still. I wish there were more cafes.

Even though I have more baked goods than I need at home (and frequently tell people that I can always bake it better), I still frequent bakeries quite often. Though I'm often not impressed with the food, I like the experience of looking through the rows of carefully arranged pastries behind the glass case, reading all the labels, the indecision of choosing one of them.

I think that's why a lot of bakeries don't mind publishing their recipes; people don't really come because they really like a certain secret recipe. They come for the experience of being able picking out a baked good and getting it served to them without having to worry about cooking or cleaning up.

This cheesecake would have caught my eye behind a bakery counter. First the bright purple color, standing out from the other pastries. I would have looked at the label next, "blueberry cheesecake," a departure from most blueberry cheesecakes, which are really vanilla cheesecakes topped with a blueberry sauce. If I needed further convincing, the cool, creamy texture would have done it.

Paired with a cup of coffee or iced tea and a book, it would have made a good afternoon.

-Caroline

Blueberry Cheesecake

Click here for the printable recipe. | Yields: 1 9-inch cheesecake

Ingredients
For the Crust:
1 ½ cup graham cracker crumbs
¼ cup butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the Filling
1 ½ cups blueberries
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
⅔ cups plus 2 tablespoons granulated sugar, divided
16 ounces cream cheese, softened
2 eggs, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Make the blueberry syrup for the filling. In a saucepan, mix together the blueberries, 2 tablespoons of sugar, lemon juice, and water. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until blueberries burst and are cooked down to a sauce. Let cool to room temperature.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Make the Crust. Mix together the graham cracker crumbs, butter, and vanilla extract. Press the mixture onto the bottom of a 9-inch round cake pan that has been lined with aluminum foil and greased.

Beat together the cream cheese and remaining granulated sugar until fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time, and then the vanilla. Beat in the blueberry syrup.

Pour the batter in the pan over the crust. Bake for 30-35 minutes, or until the center is barely set.

Let cool to room temperature, then refrigerate overnight.

Roasted Blueberry Basil Cornbread

As you might have noticed, we really like blueberries around here. So of course, when I got Stephanie Wise's fabulous Quick Bread Love e-book, her recipe for blueberry cornbread caught my eye.

It definitely didn't disappoint, and stood out from a lot of ordinary cornbread recipes. The recipe calls for roasting the blueberries, concentrating the flavors of the berries and making them extra sweet. The blueberries are paired with fresh basil, and the yogurt and honey makes the cornbread very soft and moist.

It's a perfect summer recipe. It only has a few ingredients and is really easy to put together which is great for me while I'm interning in D.C. this summer, with a tiny kitchen and a crappy gas stove and oven that kind of scares the crap out of me.

I won't include the recipe here, but will direct you over to where you can get Stephanie's e-cookbook. It's pretty inexpensive, very well put together, and definitely worth looking at!

Enjoy, all!

Caroline

Sugar Cream Pie

There aren't very many Midwesterners here at Harvard, and especially not that many people from Indiana. I think my state sends maybe ten or so every year; I don't know the exact statistics, but there's few enough of us that I know most of them by name, even if not personally, since I get the "Oh, you're from Indiana. You must know xyz, they're from Indiana too" quite often. "Oh, I've never met anyone from Indiana" happens a lot too.

My personal favorite is getting people to believe me when I say that my high school has 4800 people because there's really only the one high school in Indiana, seeing as we're very rural and all. (Some kids have to wake up at 5 to catch the bus....) I can't complain though, because God knows I've spent enough time making fun of Indiana.

But I think I've become a lot more proud of my state since I got to Boston, and met a couple of East Coast snobs. Yes, it's boring, yes, there's a lot of corn, yes, it's very, very Republican, and yes, I used to watch the cows graze in the field across the street while on the swings during recess. But somebody has to defend it.

And if nothing else, Indiana gave the world this gorgeous sugar cream pie. (Our state pie, in fact. And yes, we have a state pie. And a state rifle, apparently....) I don't know how common it is outside of Indiana, but it's somewhat similar to buttermilk or chess pie from the South.

I think the name sums it up pretty well: it's sweet and custardy, ever so lightly spiced, and with a caramelized top. It's also incredibly simple. There's no tempering of eggs or anything fussy like that to get this smooth, creamy filling. You just mix together all the ingredients and pour it into the crust, and then sprinkle some cinnamon sugar on top.

So give it a try. It's so easy there's no excuse not to. (You could even use a refrigerated pie crust if you don't want to make one!) And then take a big bite and let the creamy custard melt on your tongue and imagine corn fields and soy bean fields and the smell of cow manure.

Just kidding on that last part...but really, you should make it. You'll be glad you did.

Hoosier pride.
Caroline

Sugar Cream Pie

Click here for the printer-friendly recipe.
Yields: 1 9-inch pie | Adapted from Country Living

Ingredients
Pie Crust*
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
½ teaspoon salt
½  cup butter, cubed and very cold
¼ cup buttermilk, very cold

Filling
1 ½ cup heavy cream
1 cup whole milk
2 tablespoons light brown sugar
¾ cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour

Topping
2 tablespoons granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon

Directions
Make the crust. Whisk together the flour, sugar, and salt.

Add the butter. Using your hands or a pastry cutter, work the butter into the flour until it is in small pieces. Alternately, place the flour in a food processor, and the butter, and pulse until same result is achieved.

Mix in the buttermilk, one or two tablespoons at a time until the dough barely comes together.Gather the dough together in a ball and refrigerate for at least an hour, or overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Whisk together all the ingredients for the filling.

Roll out the dough into a 12-inch circle, or so that when if you place the pie plate face-down on the dough, there should be about an inch of dough around the edge. Place the dough into the pie plate, and trim and shape the edges.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together all the ingredients for the filling. Pour the filling into the pie plate. Mix together the sugar and cinnamon for the topping, and sprinkle over the top of the pie. Wrap the edges of the pie in tin foil, covering the crust so that it doesn’t brown too much in the oven.

Bake the pie for about 1 hour - 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the center of the pie is just set. Remove the foil around the pie after 30 minutes.