Bananas for Banana Bread

We have an abundance of bananas here in Florida. One of my favorite fresh produce stands, Rorabeck's, offers their ripe produce by the bucket from $1-3 and of course, it tends to revolve around what is in season and available for the week.

We are lucky to get ripe bananas year round so the banana buckets, if you know where they keep them are filled with 5-6 lbs of ripe bananas for an unbelievable price of $1. And it isn't just the Dole or Chiquita cavendish bananas, but also the apple and mini bananas that grow so readily in our tropical climate. Some of them are bruised, but not at all badly so I've been picking up 2 or 3 buckets at a time for our breakfast smoothies.

For breakfast smoothies, you can't beat it. We peel the bananas and throw them all into a ziplock freezer bag and freeze them for the kids' breakfast shakes. It's easy to take out what you need and freezing them is an easy way to make the most of an excess of this versatile fruit. And rather than water down the fruit with ice in the smoothie, the frozen banana performs the same role but adds a flavor profile that goes with almost any other fruit or veggie we have on hand. Its such a great way to get fresh fruits and veggies in their diet while actually making it feel decadent creating a texture like ice cream.

Another great way to use these abundant bananas is to make, of course, banana bread. I mean who can resist warm-right-from-the-oven banana bread?

Ingredients:

• 2 ripe bananas (2 3/4 c mashed bananas) 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 c all purpose flour
• 3/4 c brown sugar
• 1/2 c butter or coco oil
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon

For 4 small or "mini' loaf pans, I double the recipe above and it is perfect. Fill almost to the top of the loaf pan. No need to grease or flour the loaf pan as there is ample fat to help it come out easily, especially if using loaf pans with non stick coating.

Bake:
Bake at 350 F degrees for 60-65 minutes. I check it around 55 minutes for the mini loaf pans.

Variations:

• Walnuts and White Raisins
• Nutella
• Double Dutch Chocolate
• Dried Cherries

Don't like bananas? Use applesauce in place of the bananas. But with so many beautiful varieties of bananas available at the moment and the ridiculously low prices I have to pay for ever-so-slightly blemished fruit, I just can't help but get inspired to experiment.  

Might as well make banana bread while I can because it won't be long before we are completely packed up and off on our adventure overseas. I can't wait to see what will be seasonally available and abundant in the South Pacific!

Stollen - German Christmas Bread

For those of you who have never had Stollen, let me properly introduce you. World, meet Stollen.

I know there are probably hundreds of cultural and ethnic variations of this holiday dessert but in its simplest form it is just a Christmas quick bread with a batter much like a muffin or quick bread you are already familiar with.  In the U.S., we can usually find Stollen in high end grocery stores around Christmas and in January, you may see them discounted. If you are tempted, just take one home and try. They are truly delicious.

What makes this type of "quick bread" special is that the main ingredient is quark. I have posted the recipe recently and to make it at home is really quite an easy task so give it a try. If you are American or live in the U.S., I should say, it will be very difficult to find, which is why I highly recommend making it yourself.

I suppose a thick Greek yogurt or Kefir cheese might work as a substitute but if you have even the slightest bit of curiosity, then quark should be on your bucket list of things to do in the kitchen before you forget...  It takes about two to three days to make quark ahead of time but don't let that stop you from exploring two new things at the same time: Quark and Stollen. I promise you, you will not be disappointed so double up and make two batches while you are at it!

This recipe was provided by my mother-in-law who is from Austria but I had to make a few tweaks in order to work with what I had in my pantry. Oddly, I had just made quark, but I didn't have currants so I used dried cherries, for instance. Her recipe called for ground hazelnuts, which surely, would be divine, but I only had almonds, so I used those instead.  I didn't have rum extract so I used vanilla. Go with your best guess substitutes and if you have any questions, just leave a comment.

Stollen Ingredients:

• 500 g soft white wheat ground yesterday (all-purpose or pastry flour is just fine)
• 200 g sugar
• 2 eggs
• 250 g ground almonds
• 500 g quark
• 125 g raisins
• 125 g currants or dried cherries
• 125 g butter
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp lemon zest
• 1 tsp rum flavoring or vanilla extract.

Baking:
Bake at 350 for 30 minutes.

This was amazing and did not last the week even when we tried very hard to eat just one piece. :) I make two at a time because I usually make about 1000 g of quark at a time.  If you do make two, these freeze very well so just wrap up the extra stollen tightly and securely in plastic wrap, then put it in a large gallon freezer bag and freeze until you need a Christmas pick-me-up.

When you are ready to eat it, take the wrapped stollen out of the freezer bag and plastic wrap and let it defrost on a plate in the fridge or kitchen counter until you are ready to serve. This is where the quark shines... The quark is what will keep it from getting dried out and it will stay moist on the kitchen counter even if left out overnight loosely covered with foil or a clean towel.

Hope you like it and I'd love to hear from you if you do decide to try it!