.: evil jungle prince :.

Just doing some more experimenting tonight. Bananas getting dark scream out for banana bread, so this time I've made a near-vegan bread (no dairy, no eggs, but uses some butter) which uses a minimum of butter and is supplemented in taste by the inclusion of coconut milk, medjool dates, and a little taste of cloves.

One of my "beefs" with sweet breads is the tendency of chefs to put far too much oil in them. People are always saying "oh, they're so moist" -- well, I think to myself silently, that's because they're full of oil and fat. But in this recipe, one gets moistness with a minimum of oils and fats, which strikes the best kind of balance.

1. Start out with a scant 1/2 cup of brown sugar and a scant 1/2 cup of white sugar. Combine with 1/2 stick butter at room temperature. Combine in mixer.

2. Now add the remaining ingredients: 3 very soft bananas, 2 cups flour, generous 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 cup coconut milk, 1 tsp vanilla extract, 1 tsp cinnamon, scant 1/4 tsp ground cloves, and 1/2 tsp salt. Combine in mixer.

3. To this mixture, add by hand 10-20 sliced medjool dates. If they are hard, don't worry, they will soften up while being baked.

4. Butter a bread pan and dust with flour. Place mixture into bread pan and bake at 350F for 70 mins. If you use a convection oven, bake at 330F.

The exterior will get a bit crisp but this is necessary so that the interior bakes thoroughly. The interior will remain soft and moist.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 07:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (6)

As I'm a notorious experimenter -- I hate following rules -- I tend to stay clear of baking because baking is such an unforgiving type of endeavor. It requires one to stick with a fairly stiff set of rules, otherwise the result is often complete failure. But at times my cravings get the best of me, I decide to bake and experiment, and on occassion the result is successful. This is one such time.

While at Trader Joe's yesterday, I spotted "cherry and almond scones" for sale. Well, it took all the will power in me to resist them. I knew that if I could successfully pass them up, it would give me the opportunity of making them myself and using the type of ingredients I prefer: healthy ones. That is a short history behind these scones.

I thought what I'd try is no-butter scones. I also used almost no dairy -- only a 1/4 cup of yogurt. The remainder of the creaminess comes from almond milk. The result was a soft and fluffy scone with a slightly crispy exterior -- just what I'd wanted. The interior was not at all dense like your average scone. For posterity, here is the recipe so that I can refer back to it in the future when I make these again.

1. In a mixer, I combined the following ingredients: 2 egg whites, 1/3 cup canola oil, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1 tsp almond extract, 1 tsp rose water, 1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 2 1/4 cup flour.

2. Once mixed, I then mixed in 1/2 cup dried cherries. The mixture was then spooned onto a greased baking sheet and a few roasted almonds placed on the six spooned out scones.

3. These were then baked at 350F for 10-15 mins (mine were in oven for about 14 mins) and then allowed to cool on a rack.

Of course it was tempting to smear them with butter, but that would be cheating! I filled mine with some blueberry preserves and enjoyed them to the fullest.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 10:41 AM | Permalink | Comments (5)

Today's entry seems to so mundane as to border on the exotic -- yes, no Asian food today, just some piping hot blueberry muffins. Who knew they are were so easy to make?

The remaining frozen blueberries I had, although not top quality to say the least, went to good use after I decided I'd give this recipe my best effort. Lately my sweet tooth has been kicking up a notch or two -- I don't know whether this has anything to do with weather or what?

I was also excited to discover that this recipe worked well without milk; instead I used soy milk and nobody would know the difference. Except of course for some happy cows.

1. First I combined 1 1/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 2 tsp baking powder, and 1/4 tsp salt together with 2 eggs (I used whites only), 1 tsp vanilla, 3/4 soy milk, a 1 tsp grated limon rind. While this was mixing, I melted 4 tsp butter and added it after it had cooled down a bit. (Don't add right away our you'll cook the eggs and spoil the batter.)

2. Next I folded in about two handfuls of frozen blueberries with a spoon. I then poured the batter into a greased muffin pan. The only thing left was to bake them in a preheated oven at 400F for about 20-25 mins, leaving to stand for a few minutes before removing.

I loved the fact that these were sweet without being too sweet and the recipe used a minimum of fats. I dislike greasy/oily American sweets so much, and this did not fall into that category at all. The muffins were fluffy and sweet without being heavy or hard to digest. A very yummy treat that smell terrific when they are baking.

Posted by Evil Jungle Prince at 03:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (4)