Cooking School
This morning I took an NYU-sponsored cooking class—centered around my favorite meal, BRUNCH—at the Jewish Community Center. Despite scheduled delectables like Warm Creamy Polenta with Dried Fruit Compote, and Tomato, Garlic, and Potato Frittata, my assigned partner and I ended up with the relatively bland task of making banana bread muffins (pictured above). Still, as you can see, they turned out as well as could be expected since you have to be some kind of special to mess up banana bread muffins.
The following is still my favorite:
The Worsted Witch’s Banana Nut Bread
- 2 cups organic, whole wheat flour
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1 cup organic, fair-trade sugar
- 2 large organic eggs, whisked
- 1/4 cup butter
- 5 overripe bananas, mashed
- 2 tbs reduced-fat sour cream
- 1/4 cup walnuts, chopped (or more, if you like a good crunch)
- 1/4 cup poppy seeds
- 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 tbs orange or lemon zest
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Cream together butter, sugar, and eggs. Add the rest of the ingredients, leaving baking soda last. Mix well.
3. Lightly grease a 9×5 inch loaf pan. Pour batter into pan.
4. Bake for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean.
5. Allow bread to cool for 10 minutes.
Note: Bake for 20-25 minutes if you’re making the muffin version.
jasmine said,
March 11, 2006 at 9:14 am
ok, here is my question preceeded by a lot of back information. I am making an exception of sugar in the eat local challenge and spent some time at the store deciding on what sugar would fill that exception. I decided on a US sugar (Florida) because it has not travelled as far thereby using petroleum products, it supported agriculture in the US and it seemed to be a small company but it is hard to tell. They do say it is non GMO, and they practice crop rotation as a method of soil enrichment. It is not Organice but they web site says they use sustainable and best management practices to reduce pesticide and fertilizer usage which is significantly below those for vegetables. Would it have been better to get Organic Fair Trade sugar?