Banana Molasses Crackle Bread

I have a new favorite banana bread recipe.  I'm not a huge banana bread fan, but I made it because otherwise I would have to actually eat all my bananas before they go brown, a thing I am apparently pathologically incapable of doing.  So the brown bananas go in the freezer until I have 3 or 4, and then I make banana bread.  That bread has seemed a necessary evil, a demonstration of frugal domesticity, a thing I did because otherwise I would have had banana guilt.

But now... now I have changed my tune.  I am remade.  I see banana bread as its own worthy pursuit, a fall breakfast of extraordinary lusciousness, a reason to go buy bananas if there are none in the freezer.

It all started, as so many of my kitchen adventures do, over at Smitten Kitchen, where I saw a recipe for banana bread with millet in it.  And I thought... Millet!  Of Course!  I love millet.  I put it in seed bread and it creates a robust wonderful texture.  I happened to have some in the cupboard for that reason.  If you don't have millet (because, duh, why would you have millet?) then fear not!  It is pretty easy to find in the bulk section of any grocery store with a hippie-ish bent or a comprehensive bulk selection.  Here in the Portland Metro area, that's Whole Foods, New Seasons, Winco, and Freddie's.

Once you've acquired some millet, you can set about making this textured, crackly, rich banana bread.

Bananananana Bread 

Nouns-
3 large overripe bananas
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup molasses (or, for a lighter, less intense flavor, half molasses/half corn syrup or half molasses/half honey)
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp fresh ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cloves (I might have added more than a pinch)
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1/3 cup uncooked millet

Verbs-
Preheat Oven to 350 and spray a loaf pan with oil or coat it in butter.  Mash bananas, then stir in the egg, oil, brown sugar and molasses.  Then, stir in baking soda, salt and spices.  Fold in flour until just combined, then fold in the millet.  Pour batter into the loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes.  Keeps week at room temp in a ziplock bag for about a week, or wrapped tightly in plastic wrap in the freezer it'll keep for months.  I recommend slicing it, toasting it and eating with a smear of butter.

Caramel Apple Spice Cake

This cake is ridiculous.  Really really ridiculous.  I cobbled it together from several recipes and from some determination to bring together elements that I thought should be a cake, but didn't seem to be a recipe anywhere.  Some parts work better than others; the frosting, though delicious, is terrible to work with because it is sticky and has a silly-putty kind of consistency that won't stick to the cake well.  Still, it's totally worth the fussiness.

First you make THIS SPICE CAKE RECIPE, through step three.  Then stop.  To be honest, I added about 50% more of each spice than the recipe calls for, but other than that, I didn't fiddle with it.  I know... I couldn't believe it either.

Here's where it gets interesting:

Nouns:
Filling-
2 apples, peeled, cored and sliced thinly
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp butter
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Icing:
2 sticks butter, room temp
4-5 cups powdered sugar, sifted
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
1 tbsp corn syrup
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract

Verbs:
Filling and Icing--
In a small saucepan, cook the apples, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon over medium-low heat until apples are soft.  Reserve the apples until you are ready to assemble the cake.  Then, in a clean saucepan, boil the water, sugar and corn syrup without stirring for 5-10 minutes until it is a deep amber color, taking care not to scorch it.  Using a HEAT PROOF spatula, carefully avoiding the hissing splattering, stir in the heavy cream and sea salt.  Now you have caramel sauce.  Set it aside to cool.  If you feel like it, you can add a tablespoon or two to the apples.  Why not?

In a stand mixer, beat the butter until creamy.  Gradually add the powdered sugar and beat to combine.  Gradually add the caramel while beating the icing until it reaches the desired level of caramelly flavor.  If the consistency is too soft, add more powdered sugar.  If it is too stiff, add more caramel sauce or some heavy cream.  Feel free to reserve some caramel sauce to drizzle over the top of the finished cake, or into your mouth, or whatever.

Assembly:
I like to freeze my cake layers for an hour or two up to a day or two before I assemble the cake.  I find it's easier to work with and I get fewer crumbs in my icing.  In any case, the layers should be cooled before assembly.  Set the bottom cake layer on a small dollop of icing on your cake platter, so it stays put.  Then, pipe a ring of icing around the top edge of that layer.  Spread the apple filling inside that ring of icing until even.  Set the top layer over the filling on the ring of icing so that the filling is sealed in and won't goo everywhere while you are frosting this thing.  Spread the icing in a thin layer over the whole cake.  Freeze for 30 minutes.  Then frost with the desired frosting effect.  feel free to just glob it on there, or to get fancy.  I got fancy, but I'm a fancy kind of girl.  I also put some caramelized sugar frou-frou on top of mine, because I love frou-frou.

Hippie Mama's Tofu Punkin Pie

I grew up eating this pie, and I love it.  No one would ever guess it has tofu, and frankly, the tofu base is easier than doing the custard base of most pumpkin pies, and it's much better and fresher than the canned pumpkin pie mix stuff.  I have modified my mom's recipe a little, but this is more or less how she does it.

Nouns-
Filling:
12 ounces (about one package) of silken tofu
2 cups canned pumpkin, or two cups sugar pumpkin, seeded, roasted, peeled and pureed.
2/3 cup honey
2 tsp pumpkin pie spice (I make my own-- it's 1 part fresh ground cloves, 1 part fresh ground allspice, 1 part ground ginger, 1 part fresh ground nutmeg and 5 parts cinnamon)
2 eggs

Crust-- this makes a double crust, so halve the recipe if you aren't going to use the other pie crust
2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup butter, chilled and cubed
1/2 cup ice water

Verbs-
Pulse the flour and butter together in a food processor until it looks like coarse crumbs.  Drizzle the water in in one continuous stream with the processor on, until the dough just comes together when pinched.  Pour the dough out onto a cutting board and form it into two disks.  Wrap and refrigerate the dough for an hour.  Once dough has been chilled, preheat oven to 425.  Then, put all the filling ingredients in the food processor and process until smooth and creamy.  Roll out the pie crust and transfer it to a 9inch pie pan.  Pour in the filling.  Bake at 425 for 15 minutes, then turn down to 350 and bake for another 30-45 minutes, until fully set.  Cool and top with whipped cream.  Good for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

Hmmm, pie.