nutella babka

Honestly I’ve been dying to post a new recipe just so I could show off the newest addition to my kitchen wardrobe:

I almost melted into a happy puddle of tears and snot when my friend gave me this apron for my birthday. When I finally had the opportunity to bake this weekend, I knew that a gift such as this required the ultimate recipe for its inauguration – and as my friend cautioned, “you can only break your apron’s baking-ginity once.”

Thus, with a convicted heart and an electric mixer in hand, I decided to tackle my most formidable challenger: yeast, in the form of nutella babka.

Yeast is not a fan of me. You might remember my yeast-phobia, which is not without good reason – soft pretzels that were more school-cafeteria than Auntie-Anne’s, Hawaiian bread that never actually rose, cinnamon rolls that kind of tasted like bacteria (if that’s possible??) – no matter how hard I tried to make it work between us, my efforts were for naught.

But that nutella babka recipe had been taunting me ever since I first heard nutella babka was even a thing, and besides, I couldn’t pass up a challenge.

So I gave it a try. And it turns out that yeast is not as frightening of a creature as I thought! It still makes me a little jittery and I can’t help feeling like I’m doing something wrong, but by some miracle things worked out okay this time. I want to say it was all due to my kitchen prowess and baker’s intuition, or that yeast has turned around and changed its feelings about me, but who am I kidding…it was the apron. Nevermore will I bake without this sacred garment.

This amazing recipe is from one of my favorite food bloggers, Molly Yeh. You can find the recipe right here!

Oh, and I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving! I’m a bit late, but there will be an apple pie post sometime this week :)

Lots and lots of love,

-ck

banana bread and serenity

Apparently we have beautiful scenery around here.

I spent this past weekend volunteering as a counselor for a 4th and 5th grade retreat, during which I met some awesome kids and got to hang out around this view all day. Not a bad way to spend a weekend.

I’m actually kind of embarrassed to admit I probably enjoyed myself too much when I was supposed to be taking care of the kids. One afternoon, my friend Kyle and I just sat by the lake and painted for an hour or so. The sensation was odd…art used to be my thaang back when I was a young’un, but it got shoved it aside as I grew up. It felt blissfully nostalgic to sit there with a paintbrush in hand, remembering how it feels to mix the perfect shade of paint and swirl it onto the canvas. Maybe I should start this up again??

In other news, yesterday was senior skip day, which was literally just a continuation of the laziness I’ve been feeling for the past God-knows-how-long. SOS….I’m serious….But I’d like to think I’ve been filling my days with activities I would categorize as “Life-Productive,” which basically includes anything that lacks academic or practical value, but just makes life better!

Lately I’ve been passing the hours playing lots of piano, messing around on my mom’s guitar, formulating ambitious and mildly masochistic pre-prom diet plans, pretending to be a runner, and of course, baking.

Yesterday I was lucky enough to snag those last overripe bananas and turn them into banana bread before they disappeared. I don’t know what it is, but banana bread is just so homey and comforting, like a feather pillow but with lots more carbs. Life-Productivity at its finest.

This particular recipe is so simple that you can have a loaf of warm, speckled goodness ready for you with barely any effort at all. I can’t tell if mine turned out dark on the outside because it was slightly burnt, or because of all the cinnamon I sprinkled on top. Either way, it has managed to vanish in the last 24 hours. You can ignore anything I said earlier about a pre-prom diet.

Enjoy!

-ck

Julia’s Banana Bread

Recipe from Bon Appetit

Nonstick vegetable oil spray
1¾ cups all-purpose flour
1½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt
3 large eggs
1½ cups sugar
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large)
¾ cup vegetable oil

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Preheat oven to 350°. Coat a 9x5x3” loaf pan with nonstick spray. Whisk flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk eggs, sugar, bananas, and oil in a large bowl until smooth. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture and stir just until combined. Scrape batter into prepared pan and smooth top.

Bake until a tester inserted into the center of bread comes out clean, 60–70 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack; let bread cool in pan for 15 minutes. Run a knife around inside of pan to release the bread. Turn out onto rack and let cool completely.

Banana bread can be made 3 days ahead and stored in an airtight container at room temperature.

 

 

cinnamon swirl chocolate chip bread

Twas a long week.

So here is a short post.

Good things:

• Beaming sunshine-y weather that’s reminiscent of summer
• Laughing with friends over bowls of noodles
• That tingly inspiration you feel after watching the Olympics
• Multi-tasking works: I can now type up my papers while walking on the treadmill
• “health” food (see below)

honey bunches of oats + chia seeds + sunflower seeds + sliced almonds + almond milk

So yup, this week was endless but the weekend has never felt so good. I rewarded myself by baking a loaf of cinnamon chocolate chip quick bread, which ended up being another one of those “hey, this doesn’t really look like the picture…” kind of results. But no complaints from family members, who keep coming back to the kitchen to cut off a slice. After all, you can’t really go wrong with cinnamon and sugar!

This cake is moist, dense, and tastes homey – like something your mom would make for you after the first day of school. I used coconut oil instead of vegetable oil, which turned out fine and makes me feel healthier (haha who am I kidding). On that note, don’t be afraid to go heavy on the cinnamon-sugar topping!

Longer post than anticipated whoops.

Treat yourself!

-ck

Recipe:

(from Sally’s Baking Addiction)

for the bread:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 large egg, room temperature
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup buttermilk (no substitutions)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (or canola, or melted coconut oil)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

for the cinnamon-swirl:

1 Tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup granulated sugar

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Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Spray a 9×5 loaf pan with nonstick spray. I prefer a dark metal loaf pan, which seems to help brown quick breads more evenly.

Make the cinnamon-swirl first by combining the cinnamon and sugar together in a small bowl. Set aside.

Make the bread: In a large bowl, toss the flour, baking soda, salt, and chocolate chips together until combined. Set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the egg, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together until combined. Make sure there are no brown sugar lumps remaining. Whisk in the buttermilk, oil, and vanilla. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and gently whisk until there are no more lumps. Try very hard not to overmix, which will result in a tough textured bread.

Pour half of the batter into prepared loaf pan.  Top evenly with 3/4 of your cinnamon-sugar mixture. Pour the remaining batter on top and finish with the rest of the cinnamon-sugar. Sprinkle with a couple more mini chocolate chips if desired.

Bake the bread, covered loosely with aluminum foil, for 45 minutes to 1 hour. Poke the center of the bread with a toothpick. If it comes out clean, the bread is done.  Oven times will vary between ovens. My bread took 56 minutes exactly. Allow bread to cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting.

Bread stays fresh covered tightly at room temperature for up to 6 days. Bread’s flavor and moisture are intensified on day 2. Bread freezes well, up to 2 months.