Lavender Banana Bread

I have discovered something new! Lavender. I had to buy some earlier in the summer to make a blueberry/lavender/lemon cake, and even though I bought the smallest bag I could of the stuff, I still had quite a bit left over. Even just half an ounce of something like a dried flower bud goes quite a ways. Reminds me of the time my mom bought a whole pound of dried parsley from the food co-op... (I think she is probably still using that same parsley. We used to joke that she would never again need to buy parsley in her whole life! It's probably true.)

So, needless to say, I have been trying to find other ways to use lavender (and I'm always on a quest to find other uses for overripe bananas). It's funny how when you notice something it all of the sudden seems to be everywhere. Recipes for lavender tea, lavender ice cream, lavender infused lemonade, lavender cookies... I could go on and on.

After trying several different things with lavender, I have come to realize that something-- a little goes a long way. And it seems like the lavender flavor gets stronger over time. That is what happened with this banana bread. It was best the first day and so wonderfully floral and fragrant. I really like the combination of banana and lavender I decided. However, we couldn't eat the whole loaf on day one or two, and by day three, it was a little too floral for our liking, not that banana bread is the best after three days anyway.

Therefore, I cut back the lavender just a bit in the recipe I have for you here today. If you really like a strong lavender flavor, then I suggest using a full tablespoon in the glaze, as that is what the original recipe called for. Even though it made the loaf look great, I found myself taking the cute little flowers off the top when I was eating a piece.

Lavender Banana Bread
Makes 1 loaf

2 Tablespoons dried lavender
6 Tablespoons butter
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 oz. plain yogurt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
3 ripe bananas

For the glaze:
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 teaspoon dried lavender

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Line the bottom of a loaf pan with parchment paper and set aside.

2. In a small sauce pan, heat the lavender over medium high heat for about one minute, or until you can start to smell the lavender. Then add in the butter. Stir occasionally for about two minutes and then remove from heat. Make sure you don't burn the butter. Strain the butter/lavender mixture to remove the lavender and allow the butter to cool. Set aside 1/2 teaspoon of the cooked lavender.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, sugar, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, eggs, and vanilla. Add in the melted butter. Use the whisk to mash the bananas in a separate bowl, and then add the bananas to the wet ingredients along with the 1/2 teaspoon cooked lavender. Gently fold in the dry ingredients.

4. Move the batter to the loaf pan and smooth the top. Bake for 50 to 60 minutes. While the bread is baking, make the glaze. In a small sauce pan, combine the sugar and the water over medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, add the teapoon lavender and stir for about a minute, or until you can start to smell the lavender. Set aside until the bread is done.

5. The bread should be done when it is golden brown and a tooth pick or skewer inserted into the middle of the bread has crumbs on it but is not gooey. Allow the bread to cool for five minutes, and then use a pastry brush to add all of the glaze to the top of the bread. After about ten more minutes, move the bread to a cooling rack. Enjoy!

Adapted from Broma Bakery

Pizza Pinwheels

Earlier in the summer, I was getting ready to be gone for a whole week. My husband is actually a pretty good cook, so I wasn't worried about him, but I knew that he would appreciate a few things that he could take to work or throw together with little effort. Enter the pizza pinwheel.

The grocery store next to where we live sells these things all the time, and I have been wanting to make them for a while. If you have all the pizza ingredients on hand (like I usually do), then pizza rolls are easy and fast to make with little notice. We put the leftover rolls in the freezer and found that they were great when reheated in the oven OR the microwave.

I used the same method for these rolls as I use when making cinnamon rolls. Roll out the dough, season it a bit, add some toppings, roll, and cut! That simple. Next time I make these, I might actually bake them all in a pan like cinnamon rolls. I think it would make for a fun presentation!

The dough for pizza pinwheels is the same as my easy whole wheat pizza crust, but this time I left out the whole wheat flour. Feel free to add it back in if you like. This pizza dough is really perfect for something like this. It gets crunchy on the outside, but stays very soft on the inside.

Pizza Pinwheels
Makes 10 to 12 rolls

For the dough:

2 cups all purpose flour, plus 1/2 cup more

1 Tablespoon sugar

2 1/4 teaspoons (1 packet) active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup warm water, about 115° 

2 Tablespoons olive oil 

For the filling:

olive oil

1 teaspoon each dried basil, oregano, and parsley

1/2 garlic powder

salt and pepper

20 to 25 slices pepperoni

4 to 5 strips crispy bacon

4 to 6 oz. shredded cheddar cheese

4 to 6 oz. shredded mozzarella cheese
1-2 Tablespoons melted butter

tomato sauce, for dipping

1. To make the dough, whisk together the 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast, and salt in a large bowl. In a liquid measuring cup, combine the warm water and the olive oil. Pour the water on top of the dry ingredients all at once, but do not stir. Allow the bowl to sit untouched for 10 to 15 minutes. 

2. When the time is up, stir the dough together, then move the dough to a well floured surface. Knead for about 5 minutes while adding up to 1/2 cup more flour. You might end up needing more than the 1/2 cup flour, just add the extra slowly as you are kneading. The dough should be smooth and slightly stretchy and still a little sticky. Transfer the dough to a bowl drizzled with olive oil, cover with plastic wrap, and allow it to rest for at least 30 minutes and up to 60 minutes.

3. While the dough is resting, gather your filling ingredients. While not necessary, I like to break the ingredients into smaller, bite-sized pieces so that they spread around easily.

4. When the dough has rested, roll it out into a large rectangle, at least 12 inches wide and 15 to 18 inches long. The dough should be an 1/8 inch to a 1/4 inch thick. Brush the dough with the olive oil and sprinkle with the basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, and salt and pepper. Add the rest of the ingredients along the length of the dough making sure to space them evenly. Leave several inches of dough uncovered at the edge furthest from you. Roll the dough the long way, just like you were making cinnamon rolls. Roll slowly, making sure the dough is tight and completely covering the filling at both ends.

5. When you get to the end, pinch the edge of the dough to make a seam. Use a sharp serrated knife to slice the roll into sections that are about 2 1/2 inches wide. Transfer the wheels to a lightly greased cookie sheet. You might need to gently push some of the filling back inside the roll to keep it all together.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 400° for 12 to 15 minutes. When they are done, they should be dark golden brown. Immediately after removing them from the oven, brush the tops with melted butter and sprinkle with additional dried herbs. Serve with warm tomato sauce. Enjoy! 

Perfectly Lemon Cake

My cool and spunky sister-in-law graduated from high school this past spring. She is totally into things like Dr. Who, crazy fashion, and Steampunk, so naturally that meant that the graduation party just had to follow suit.

I don't usually think of graduation parties as having a theme anything other than just celebrating the graduate. This is one thing that I really appreciate about T. She is creative and talented, and not afraid to do things her own way.

One of the first times that I realized how create and unique T could be was at Christmas a few years back. One of my other sisters-in-law bought T a pair of sparkly, silver high heel pumps. T was thrilled, but as she went to put them on, discovered that they were actually a little bit too small. I was devastated for her because I could tell that they were perfect for her, but she wasn't phased at all. Within the hour she was upstairs wearing the shoes that she had redesigned and modified to fit her feet. Problem solved with hardly breaking a sweat. That is just how T works.

This is the cake that she picked for her Steampunk themed graduation and I volunteered to make it. I have to say, this cake was very different than any cake I have ever made in my life. And it turned out so well! It is a lemon cake with a blueberry lavender buttercream frosting. Yes, that beautiful color came straight from natural ingredients, no food coloring involved.

If you are interested in trying the blueberry lavender buttercream, then I recommend checking out The Wholesome Pursuit where I got the recipe. I followed the frosting recipe exactly and even though the color of mine was not exactly the same, the flavor was wonderfully unique and definitely worth the effort! I modified the cake recipe a bit so I have it below. This cake is SO lemon and would be great with a vanilla buttercream or something with strawberry.

Lemon Cake
Makes two 9-inch round cakes

3 cups cake flour
1 Tablespoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 cups softened butter, or 3 sticks
5 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/2 cup lemon juice
zest of 3-4 medium lemons
2 teaspoons vanilla

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 9-inch cake pans and set aside.

2.In a medium bowl, combine and whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

3. In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the butter and the sugar. Beat on medium high speed for several minutes, until the butter and sugar are fluffy and light in color. Reduce the speed to low and add the egg one at a time.

4.In a liquid measuring cup, combine the milk, lemon juice, lemon zest, and vanilla. Stir to combine and set aside. With the mixer on medium low speed, add the flour mixture and the milk mixture alternately, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.Make sure that the ingredients are all combined before adding the next addition and scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Make sure not to over stir the dough.

5. Divide the batter between the two cake pans. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until they are golden on top and a toothpick inserted into the middle come out clean. Cool the cakes in the pan for 5 to 10 minutes, then remove from the cake pans and allow the cakes to cool completely on a cooling rack. Frost and layer with your favorite frosting. Enjoy!

Recipe adapted from The Wholesome Pursuit.

Norma's Sugar Cookies

I wish my name were Norma.

Because then I could take credit for these cookie. This is one of those recipes that only exists on a old smudged recipe card in the little blue gingham book of my moms, and she has no idea who Norma is. (Ironically enough, I also have a blue gingham book to hold my recipe cards. I've never thought of that before.)

My grandmas' names are not Norma and to my knowledge I don't have any cousins, aunts, great aunts, or second cousins named Norma. Who was she then?

She was a cookie master.

I really do not like crunchy sugar cookies, and these sugar cookies are to blame for that. All growing up, mom would make these soft sugar cookies and frost them with a light green cream cheese frosting (I'm not sure why, but is was always green). When I think about a sugar cookie, it is always first a green Norma sugar cookie.

Oh, thank you, Norma, whoever you are, for your wonderful sugar cookies and somehow getting the recipe for them to my mom years ago.

Because these cookies are soft, you cannot roll the dough out and cut it with fun cookie cutters. They are just meant to be round. This recipe also make a lot of cookies which makes it the perfect go-to cookie for parties and outings. Take extra care not to over bake them! They are best when they actually don't have any color, because they for sure stay soft then.

Norma's Sugar Cookies
Makes about 6-8 dozen

2 sticks butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
5 cups flour
2 teaspoons cream of Tartar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the butter and the sugar. Beat until very light in color and fluffy, about 10 minutes if using a hand mixer or on high in a stand mixer for about 5 minutes.

2. Reduce the speed to low and add the eggs one at time, making sure it is completely mixed after each addition. Then add in the oil and the vanilla and beat for one more minute until fully incorporated.

3. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour, cream of Tartar, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to combine.

4. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients all at once and stir to combine. Refrigerate the dough until it is firm, for at least a few hours or overnight.

5. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350°. Place round scoops of cookie dough onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten the dough with the bottom of a drinking glass until it is about 1/2 inch thick.

6. Bake the cookies for 8-9 minutes, taking extra care not to over bake them! When they are finished, they really shouldn't have any color. Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for 3-5 minutes then gently move them to a cooling rack. Frost with cream cheese frosting or leave them unfrosted, Enjoy!