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!

Blueberry Banana Bread

A vivid childhood memory of mine is of when one of my best friends would bring blueberry banana bread to school. It was always wrapped up in foil and only because she was my very best friend, she would occasionally break off a little piece and give it to me. It was like those commercials where all the little kids are gathered around the one that brought a Jello pudding snack for lunch and they are all trying to be his best friend just so that he will give them the lid to lick clean. We were really best friends though, which is why she would usually break off that little piece for me. This blueberry banana bread was not easily shared.

This bread has become a Hanson family staple. In fact, I can't even really remember my mom or dad making banana bread without the addition of blueberries. I was probably upper elementary when I wrote this recipe down for the first time over the phone with my friend. That was back in my early baking days of not being able to spell (not that I'm a great speller now), so the recipe I still use calls for "surge" instead of sugar (I'm gonna blame the dyslexic tendencies on that one) and "vanille" (which I have absolutely no excuse for).

Blueberries and bananas is one of my favorite combinations when it comes to quick breads. If I ever eat just banana bread or just a blueberry muffin, then I feel like something essential has been left out. The thing that makes this bread especially nice is the hardest thing about it: the wait factor. Sure, there are few things that beat a warm slice of bread topped with some butter but wrapping this bread and letting it sit makes it even more moist and flavorful, if that is even possible. Of course, you don't have to do this, but it is the trick that made my friend's mom's bread so good. 

Blueberry Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

1 3/4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1 stick or 1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 to 4 very ripe bananas

1/2 pint fresh blueberries

course sugar, optional

1. Preheat the oven to 350°. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda. Set aside until needed. 

2. In a large mixing bowl, beat the sugar and butter with an electric mixer until light, about 2 to 3 minutes. Add in the egg and mix until thoroughly combined. Stir in the vanilla. 

3. In a separate bowl, mash or beat the bananas just until they are broken up. I like to still have small chunks instead of a cohesive mix. 

4. Add the mashed bananas to the wet ingredients. Use a spatula or a large spoon to stir the mixture together. Add in the flour all at once and fold until the batter is smooth, making sure not to overmix. Gently fold in the blueberries. 

5. Place the batter in a greased loaf pan and sprinkle the top with the course sugar, if using. Bake in the oven for 55-60 minutes, or until the top of the bread is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the middle of the bread comes out clean. 

6. Allow the bread to cool or 5 to 10 minutes in the pan, and then remove the bread from the pan to a wire cooling rack. When the bread is still slightly warm, wrap it tightly in foil and let it rest for 8 hours or overnight on you kitchen counter or in your refrigerator. If you are not going to eat the whole loaf in a day or two, I reccommend storing the leftovers in the fridge until it is gone. Enjoy! 

Cinnamon Chip Scones

One day in March I looked up at my calendar and made a shocking discovery. You know how sometimes you get busy and forget to flip the page so your calendar is a little behind? Well, that is what had happened but to the extreme.

My calendar was turned to July.

As in July of 2013, almost 8 months before the day that I stood in disbelief staring at the wall. 

I should have thrown it away three whole months before I even noticed it said July. And that situation perfectly describes the last 10 months of my life.

In August I began my first year of teaching at a small Christian school. I love teaching English and Drama, but I am certainly looking forward to the fact that I never have to have a first year teaching experience again. I'm sure that next year and the years to come will certainly have their challenges, but at least there won't be quite the learning curve for me. There have been tears on at least three different occasions (and I am not a crier). There has also been plenty of laughter, frustration, anxiety, success, failure, and heartache (the good and bad kinds).

One thing that has really been hard for me this last year is having to completely devote my time to school, which leaves very little time for anything else. Being a teacher means being a master time manager.  There have been many things pushed to the way, way back burner for days and months. However, now that summer is here, I am planning on devoting some time to other things I love again! Like painting. And crafting.

And spending time in my kitchen.

It's funny how when you stop doing something you often fall out of practice doing it. I made scones a couple of weekend ago when my parents were visiting and I burned them. I burned them! There are few things that I hate more than over-baking something and yet I have been acting like an amateur in the kitchen the last few times I stepped foot in there. The love is still there, but I think I might have to take things slowly at first.

So without further ado, I have for you today my new favorite scone recipe (yes, the recipe for the ones I burned. Do as I say and not as I do! The ones in the pictures are not the burned ones though). They seem a little nontraditional to me since they have eggs and powdered milk, but it is sure worth it. This is the basic recipe I use and depending on how I feel at the moment and what I have on hand determines what actually goes in them.

Cinnamon Chip Scones
Makes 6 to 8

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons nonfat dry milk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 cup cinnamon chips
4 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup milk, plus 1 Tablespoon
Course sugar for sprinkling

1. Preheat the oven to 425°. In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, dry milk, salt, cinnamon, and baking powder. Whisk to make sure everything is evenly distributed.

2. Use a pastry cutter or two butter knives to cut the butter into the dry ingredients. Stop when the butter is the size of small peas. Gently stir in the cinnamon chips.

3. In a liquid measuring cup or a small bowl, combine the egg, milk, and the vanilla. Whisk to combine and add all at once to the dry mixture. Gently stir the mixture just until everything starts to come together. Use your hands to fold the dough over a few times in the bowl to help everything come together.

4. Drop the slightly crumbly dough onto a ungreased cookie sheet. Shape the dough into a disk that is about 1/2 inch thick. Work quickly so your hands don't melt the butter. Use a sharp knife or a pizza cutter to cut the wheel into 6 or 8 wedges (like you were cutting a pizza). Carefully pull each wedge back so that there is about 1/2 inch between them.

5. At this point, you can freeze the scones and save them for baking at a different time. Freeze them on the cookie sheet for 30 minutes, then wrap them tightly in plastic wrap and foil and place in a freezer bag. Bake as directed below, but they might take a few extra minutes. However, if you only want to wait 15 minutes or more to bake them, then place them in the freezer until you are ready to bake. (I do this sometimes if the rest of my breakfast isn't ready and I want the scones hot from the oven when everyone is ready to eat.)

6. When you are ready to bake the scones, brush the top of the scones with milk and sprinkle with course sugar. Place the scones on the middle rack of your oven and bake for 7 minutes. Then turn the oven off and leave the scones in the closed oven for another 7-8 minutes. They should be golden brown when they are finished.

7. Serve immediately as they are best when just pulled out of the oven. Enjoy!

Adapted from King Arthur Flour.