#COOKING WITH CLORIS--OATMEAL BANANA BREAD

Ever start baking only to discover you were out of an essential ingredient? That’s what happened to me the other day. I had four over-ripe bananas and decided to whip up a couple of loafs of banana bread. I’d mashed the bananas and added the wet ingredients and sugar. I reached for my canister of flour and discovered I was a cup short. The recipe calls for three cups of flour. I only had two. No problem. I was sure I had another bag of flour in the pantry. Except I didn’t. What to do?

I substituted a cup of rolled oats for the third cup of flour. In any baking recipe you can substitute up to 1/3 of the flour for oats as long as it’s not the quick-cooking kind.

Turns out the banana bread came out even better than it usually does and with the addition of oats, it was healthier.

Oatmeal Banana Bread

(makes 2 loaves)

Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas

2/3-cup melted butter

2 tsp. baking soda

1/8 tsp. salt

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

2 tsp. vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup chocolate chips

1 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans.

Mash the bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir in melted butter.

Mix in baking soda and salt, sugar, beaten eggs, vanilla, flour, and oats in that order. Fold in chocolate chips and walnuts.

Divide batter between the two loaf pans. Bake 40 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean. 

Cool completely on wire rack. Remove from pans.

Hint: Serve one and freeze one for another time. 

#COOKING WITH CLORIS--BLUEBERRY BANANA BREAD

This Blueberry Banana Bread was so tempting that my husband ate half of it before I had a chance to take a photo!

Blueberry Banana Bread

Note: This recipe doesn't require an electric mixture. Just use a whisk and a spoon.

Ingredients:

1 very ripe banana

1/3 cup melted butter

1/2 cup sugar

1 egg, beaten

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

pinch of salt

juice and zest of one small lemon

1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 heaping cup frozen blueberries, defrosted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 4” x 8” pan.

Using fork, mash banana until smooth. Whisk in melted butter.

Mix together baking soda, salt, and sugar. Whisk into banana/butter mixture.

Whisk together egg, vanilla, lemon juice, and zest. Mix into batter.

Coat blueberries with small amount of flour. Mix remaining flour into batter. Fold in blueberries.

Bake 50 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Allow to cool on wire rack. 

#COOKING WITH CLORIS--VICTORIAN CURRANT CAKE

The Victorians gave us many of the traditions we now associate with Christmas. This Victorian-inspired sweet bread, featured in Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing, is a perfect complement to your holiday dinner, whether you’re serving ham, turkey, or a beef roast.

Victorian Currant Bread

(adapted by author Barbara Monajem from a recipe featured in Beeton’s Book of Household Management, published in 1861.) 

3 cups flour

3 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup brown sugar

1 stick butter, softened

1-1/4 cups milk

1-1/2 cups currants

1/3 cup diced candied lemon peel (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Mix the flour, baking powder, soda and salt together.  In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Add the dry ingredients alternately with the milk and mix well. Add the currants and lemon peel and stir until thoroughly mixed.

Fill a greased loaf pan about 2/3 full and bake for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick comes out more or less clean.

Old-fashioned cookbooks don’t give specific information about pan sizes. This recipe made too much batter for one loaf pan. The remaining batter can be poured into a muffin tin or mini-loaf pans, but reduce bake time to 20–25 minutes.

Bake, Love, Write: 105 Authors Share Dessert Recipes and Advice on Love and Writing

An Amazon bestselling cookbook

What do most authors have in common, no matter what genre they write? They love desserts. Sweets sustain them through pending deadlines and take the sting out of crushing rejection letters and nasty reviews. They also often celebrate their successes—selling a book, winning a writing award, making a bestseller list, or receiving a fabulous review—with decadent indulgences. And when authors chat with each other, they often talk about their writing and their lives. Recipes. Writing. Relationships. In this cookbook 105 authors not only share their favorite recipes for fabulous cakes, pies, cookies, candy, and more, they also share the best advice they’ve ever received on love and writing.

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