September » 2012 » Living Lou

Pumpkin Banana Bread

Hi Fall! While I don’t really enjoy your cooler temperatures, I do love all the pumpkins, sweet potatoes, soups and stews you bring. Your spices – cinnamon, cloves and allspice and I am in love with your cozy sweaters and jackets.

In Toronto, it seems as though the temperature has dropped 10 degrees within the past week. A little too much too soon if you ask me. We already have to withstand a gazillion months of winter, we shouldn’t have October weather in September. Last year I didn’t get around to making as many pumpkin/fall themed things as I wanted to, so this year I’m planning to do a lot of fall baking and cooking. What kinds of things are you all looking for this time of year?

To celebrate the beginning of fall I’m sharing a new recipe for Pumpkin Banana Bread – it makes use of seasonal pumpkin and those leftover bananas you have sitting on the counter right now. As I mentioned, I love fall spices so I really upped the flavor on this bread.

Pumpkin Banana Bread
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour
1 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
3 tbsp butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 325. Butter the sides of a 9×5 inch bread pan.

Meanwhile, whisk dry ingredients in a large bowl.

In the bowl of a stand mixer or using an electric mixer cream butter and sugar together. Beat in eggs, mashed bananas, pumpkin and vanilla.

On the lowest setting, mix dry ingredients into wet ingredients. Be careful not to over mix.

Pour batter into pan and smooth top.

Bake for 50-60 minutes.

I hope you’re as excited for Fall as I am, enjoy the season with this lovely Pumpkin Banana Bread.

- Lou

Gluten Free Belgian Waffles

Boy, am I ready for the weekend! It’s been non stop go-go-go ever since classes started, mind you, I love being busy, but I do miss eating a good breakfast. I can already tell that this weekend is going to be filled with waffles! Experimenting with different types of waffles and pancakes is a lot of fun. Before these waffles, I’d never experimented with any type of gluten free breakfast food (other than my Vegan Pancakes) and I wasn’t sure how different making gluten free waffles would be from regular waffles. Here’s the thing people, it’s no different at all!

Before these Gluten Free Belgian Waffles my Mom hadn’t had a waffle in something like 18 years. I can’t even begin to imagine. She was gluten free looong before being “gluten free” even existed. Back then there weren’t any gluten free breads or frozen waffles, if you wanted to have a gluten free snack, you had to make it yourself. Which was equally as hard without all the “gluten free flour mixes” we have these days, (which make gluten free baking so much easier.)

Gluten Free Belgian Waffles
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

2 cups of your favourite gluten free flour mix
1 tbsp white sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs, separated
1 cup 2% milk
3 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla

Directions

Preheat waffle iron. I like my waffles medium.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat egg whites until soft, glossy peaks form.

In another bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.

In another bowl, whisk the egg yolks, milk, butter, oil and vanilla extract.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together. Next, carefully fold in the egg whites.

Using a ladle, ladle the batter into the waffle iron and cook until desired doneness, about 4 minutes for golden waffles.

See, how easy is that. These Gluten Free Belgian Waffles taste just like regular waffles and they freeze really well and can be reheated quickly in the toaster.

- Lou

Rosemary Skillet Potatoes

What do you picture when you think of a blogger? Because right now I feel like the most typical blogger ever. I’m sitting in my bed in my pajamas, at 1:07am writing a post that I should have written weeks ago. I should really be sleeping since I have to be on set early tomorrow morning to work a minimal 12 hour day. But woops, I’m sitting here picking my split ends and writing a post.

How bloggerish of me!

But as you see above, bloggers usually talk about themselves because, for the most part, we’re writing about ourselves. It’s kind of weird now that I think of it. Do we have to really love ourselves to blog? I guess it depends what you’re blogging about, because I just really love food.

So even though right now I am totally the most stereotypical blogger, I’m going to do something atypical and talk about another blog and another blogger because it’s time for another Secret Recipe Club! This month I was assigned the blog Biking and Baking. Sarah, shares a wide array of wonderful, vegan recipes and I love her outlook on cooking/baking – it’s ok to have some failures. One of my goals for this year was to make more vegan meals so Sarah’s blog was the perfect fit! I decided to make her Rosemary Skillet Potatoes because despite all the wonderful baking recipes, I’m still a little scarred from my many attempts at Vegan Pancakes.

Rosemary Skillet Potatoes (serves 4)
Recipe adapted from: Biking and Baking

Ingredients
1 lb new potatoes, diced
1 small red onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried rosemary
1 tsp grill seasoning
1 tbsp olive oil + more for frying

Directions

Toss potatoes, onion, garlic, rosemary and grill seasoning with 1 tbsp of oil.

Heat some oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Add potato mixture to pan and cook for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Chocolate Orange Snow Caps

Why am I posting a Christmas cookie in September?

“You do know that it’s Labour Day?” – Yes, I am aware.

It’s obviously because I’m so excited for Christmas break already!

Just kidding, classes haven’t even started yet – that excitement would be a little bit premature.

So why else would I be posting a Christmas cookie in September? For a contest of course, so bear with me, or bookmark this recipe and look back on it come December.

Have you ever had a Terry’s Chocolate Orange? You know, the ones you smash to get them to fall open and then you can devour the little slices of orange flavoured chocolate? That was my inspiration for these Chocolate Orange Snow Caps. I’ve always loved the look of Chocolate Snow Caps, but wanted something a little bit more unique and festive for the holidays. I personally find that the flavour combination of chocolate and orange to be extremely festive and delicious.

Chocolate Orange Snow Caps (makes 18-20 cookies)
Recipe by Lou

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
zest of 1 small/medium sized orange
6 tbsp of butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
4 oz bitter sweet or semi sweet chocolate
1 tbsp milk
1/3 cup of icing sugar

Directions

Begin by melting chocolate in a small bowl over a pot of boiling water. Set aside to cool.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt.

Whisk the orange zest into the dry ingredients.

In a large bowl or using the stand mixer, cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy.

Beat in the egg until fully mixed into the mixture. Next, beat in the chocolate.

Fold in the dry ingredients until the dry ingredients are somewhat combined with the wet ingredients. Add 1 tbsp of milk to aid the process. Dough will be wet.

Remove dough to a piece of plastic wrap and shape into a disk, chill in the refrigerator for 35-45 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper and prepare a bowl with your icing sugar.

Remove dough from fridge and pinch of dough and shape into 1-inch balls – I used a cookie scoop as it made them more uniform in size. Roll the balls in the sugar coating and place on cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. The cookies will spread during baking.

Bake for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies have spread and are cracked on top. The cookies will be soft to the touch. Allow them to cool completely before sampling.

I hope you enjoy these Chocolate Orange Snow Caps.

- Lou