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Mmmmm…the smell of bread baking on a Saturday morning is almost enough to send me into a frenzy.  But.  BUT.  I don’t exactly want to get up at the crack of dawn to make said bread.  Who does?  I mean, it’s Saturday for cryin’ out loud.  And all that kneading, and waiting for the rise, and then the second rise…fuggedabadit.  Too much time and effort for a lazy Saturday morning.  Until now.  Last weekend, I hopped over to Sticky, Gooey, Creamy, Chewy because Susan had posted an English Muffin Loaf recipe that I wanted to try.  I loooooove English muffins, but unfortunately they’re not available for purchase in my neck of the woods, so they must be made from scratch.  Which is fine, but they take a lonnggg time.  Hours.  So I have been putting that little project off for several months. lol  Susan had adapted a recipe from Bellini Valli over at More than Burnt Toast.  Valli’s recipe is fantastic! Very quick, no kneading (did you see that?!  NO KNEADING! Woot!), and ready for consumption in less than 2 hours.  Now that’s what I call fabulous.  And another thing—this English Muffin Loaf is delicious on it’s own, but imagine the possibilities!  Eggs Benedict!  Sausage, Egg and Cheese Nik-Muffins (see what I did there? lol), English muffin pizzas!  I see lots of homemade bread in our future.  Thank you Valli, for a truly wonderful recipe, and thank you Susan for re-posting and kick starting me into bread baking gear!

Oh my Gawd.  Seriously.  This week has been a week of copycatting…first I made Mallow’s chocolate pudding, then Kevin’s sesame chicken, and now, Elly’s delicious–scratch that–DELICIOUS! biscuits. 

 

As you already know, some things that are so very commonplace in the US are virtually non-existent here.  Biscuits are yet another example of this phenomena.  Ok, ok…it’s not exactly a “phenomena,” I was just being cheeky. lol  However, I do find it strange that there are McD’s and BK’s all over the place, and yet, they do not serve breakfast.  No breakfast?!  That should be illegal, since the best thing from McD’s is their breakkie menu, at least as far as we’re concerned.  English muffins?  Nowhere to be found.  Pancakes or french toast and syrup?  Nope.  Biscuits?  Not a chance. 

So, I’m left to my own devices to try and come up with great recipes for all of these things that are hopelessly unattainable.  Unless someone else comes up with one first.  Then all I have to do is copy what they’ve done.  LMAO  As in this case.  Why on Earth would I even bother to make up a new recipe, when Elly has so conveniently already posted one?  I must confess that I did alter her recipe a teensy little bit, but man, if you are looking for an awesomely delicious biscuit recipe, look no further.  These biscuits were gone so quickly, they didn’t even have the chance to cool down!  My kids were waiting in line at the counter, plates in hands, just waiting for the second tray to come out of the oven.  My hubs couldn’t stop saying how awesome and delicious they were.  And me?  OMG, I was in some biscuit induced state of nirvana, and don’t remember much except for the buttery, fluffy melt in your mouth awesomeness that I experienced while eating these.  And, as a special bonus?  They were done in under 30 minutes, start to finish (that includes “devouring” time)!  So, friends, here you have them…Elly’s most fabulous biscuits:

Ingredients:

1 cup flour
1 cup self rising flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 stick butter (1/4 pound, 100 grams)
3/4 cup milk

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450ºF/225ºC.
Line 2 baking sheets with parchment.
Add dry ingredients to your food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine.
Add butter and pulse until mealy.
Add milk and pulse until the dough comes together in a sticky ball.
Turn dough out into a bowl (you may need a rubber spatula to get it all out–they’re sticky!).
Flour your hands and gently form 12 balls.
Arrange 6 each on baking sheets and gently pat down just a little bit.
Bake 12-15 minutes, or until golden.

The temps have actually cooled off a little here in Canaryland…we’re now into more wintery weather (which for us, means high 60’s-low 70’sF/high teens to low 20’sC, and lots of rain ).  With the cooler temps comes my need to fill the house with spicy aromas baking in the oven and simmering on the stove….cinnamon, pumpkin, apples….yes indeed.  I’m almost ready to break out the tree and start decorating for the holidays! :O  But maybe not just yet.  I should probably celebrate this as fall for at least a week or two, right? LOL  The kids have been asking for new and different healthy things they can bring to school to snack on, and they love pumpkin pie…so I thought, why not make up some pumpkin muffins?  Easily transportable, and mostly nutritious…perfect!  Once they were made, the kids gobbled them up so quickly they never even made it to school. hahaha  Time to make some more.

Ingredients:

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
1 egg
1/2 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
pinch of salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ginger
pinch of ground cloves
————————–
1/4 cup quick oats
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon butter, melted
cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cloves to taste

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC.
Lightly grease 8 ramekins with sunflower oil or butter.
Cream butter and sugars until fluffy.
Add pumpkin and egg and beat to combine.
Add milk and vanilla and continue to beat until well mixed.
Mix dry ingredients (up to oats) in a bowl, and add to sugar mixture.
Stir by hand just until combined.
Fill ramekins 3/4 full.
Combine streusel ingredients and top each muffin with mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
***note These can also be made in regular muffin cups, you should be able to get 12 muffins, and the baking time should be reduced to 25 minutes.

What is a banapple, you ask?  Bananas and apples of course! lol  It’s actually cooled down a little in canaryville…we’re out of the 90’sF/30’sC for the most part…today it’s only 72ºF/22ºC!  It’s practically freezing! LOL  I’ve been in the mood for fall food, cinnamony spicy stuff…heck, I’m almost ready to start boiling potpourri on the stove!  In a little over a month Christmas (or insert your own special holiday here) will be upon us…I cannot believe that next week is Thanksgiving already…I’ve barely begun the planning for that, let alone the end of the year festivities…but I’m getting ahead of myself here…I’m still in “it’s finally fall” mode, and wanted to share this delicious banana apple bread recipe with you. :)  We can get to the other stuff in due time.

ps…my friend Allie made a suggestion to convert this recipe to vegan, and I thought I’d share it with you!  Her suggestion is to substitute an extra banana for the egg, and use soy milk in place of cow’s milk.  Happy eating!

Ingredients:
2 very ripe bananas (to yield about 1 cup of mashed bananas)
1 cup applesauce
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs
1/3 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
a pinch of ground cloves
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt

Preparation:
Preheat oven to 375º F (175ºC).
Grease a bundt pan with vegetable oil.
Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add mashed bananas, applesauce, milk and vanilla and blend well.
Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt in a small bowl.
Stir flour mixture into banana mixture by hand-only until dry ingredients are just mixed in.
Pour batter into prepared pan and bake approximately 45 minutes to an hour, or until a toothpick inserted in center of bread comes out clean.
Turn baked bread onto a wire rack to cool.
Store tightly covered, or wrapped in plastic wrap.

Even though it still feels very much like summer here, my internal fall clock always seems to kick in and start demanding fall like dishes…Roasted chicken, pumpkin, soups bubbling on the stove and of course apples and cobblers and crisps and pies…..I really miss Minnesota fall weather…crisp mornings, colorful trees and gusts and swirls of air stirring up the fallen leaves.  And sweaters! Big, fluffy turtlenecked cable-knit sweaters.  *sigh*  Ok, my trip down memory lane is over now…I’ll get to the food! lol Roasting a chicken can be done in so many different ways, but I have to say that chicken and stuffing is probably my favorite. If you live somewhere where a box mix is available for the stuffing, you could easily cheat on that part and make this even easier, however, I do not have that option. hehe  So I made my own.  It’s kind of a reworked version of the stuffing my mom made one Thanksgiving they were visiting us here.  Mine is a bit simpler, with fewer ingredients (you can interpret that as “gizzards omitted.”).  I also “one pan” it to save on dishes and time.

  

Ingredients:

1 roasting chicken, washed and patted dry (about 3 pounds/ 1 1/2 kilos)
2-3 cloves garlic
1 larger onion
2-3 ribs celery
1/2 pound (200 grams) ground pork
3 cups croutons
about 2 cups chicken broth
2 tablespoons butter
thyme, rubbed sage, garlic powder and oregano to taste
salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC.
Melt butter in a large skillet and sautee garlic until just golden.
Add onion and celery and sautee until translucent, then add in pork and season with salt, pepper and herbs.
Brown pork and vegetables, stirring constantly, breaking the meat into small bits.
Drain off excess fat.
Add broth and croutons and stir to combine.
Adjust seasonings and herbs.
Fill chicken cavity with stuffing (you will probably have some left over…this can be placed in an oven proof dish with a lid and baked along with the chicken).
Place chicken in a baking dish/roaster with a lid.
Rub with butter or oil, and season with salt, pepper, herbs and garlic powder.
Cover chicken and bake 2 1/2 to 3 hours, or until done (legs will pull away easily), basting occasionally.

I put the Nutella in quotes because I actually made my own chocolate hazelnut cream yesterday…it turned out quite good, too.  I love bananas and chocolate together…it brings back memories from my childhood of eating chocolate dipped frozen bananas at Valleyfair (an amusement park in Southern Minnesota).  I used a technique that I learned over at Chockylit to cut out a cone from the top of the muffin, and fill it with the chocolate hazelnut cream.  It was goooood.

For the muffins, I just used my canary bananas banana bread recipe, and scaled down baking time to 25 minutes.  The recipe made 18 muffins for me.

Chocolate Hazelnut Cream Recipe:

Ingredients:

4 ounces (100 grams) toasted and peeled hazelnuts (unsalted)
6 ounces (150 grams) sugar
4 ounces (100 grams) dark chocolate (I used Lindtt 59%)
4 ounces (100 grams) milk chocolate (I used Lindtt)
4 ounces (100 grams) white chocolate (I used Nestlé)
8 ounces (200 grams) whole milk
6 ounces (150 grams) sunflower oil

Preparation:

I’m adapting this recipe from my Thermomix cookbook, so please bear with me…
Using a food processor, grind hazelnuts and sugar until a fine powder like consistency is reached, scraping down sides if necessary.
Add chocolate (broken into small pieces) and process until grated.
Place the chocolate hazelnut mixture in the top part of a double boiler.
Melt chocolate, then add milk and oil, whisking constantly until well blended and homogenous.
Pour mixture into glass jars and allow to cool.
To assemble the muffins, first cut a cone out of the top of the muffin.
Fill with hazelnut cream.
Replace cone and drizzle with more hazelnut cream.