EAT WINE

I will admit that of all the foods in this world it has taken me years to get around to even putting a banana in my mouth. Something about the smell, the texture, the slimy sweetness, just wasn't happening for my palate. I occasionally buy bananas at the market for Francisco who likes to eat them whole as fruit. A while back, when some were on the border of going funky (read: black), I decided to do turn them into banana bread. At that time, the woman who helped clean our house, Oti, watched me in fascination. "Señora Elizabeth, disculpa, la pones en la masa?" Sorry? You put them in the mixture? Yes! The experiment, low fat but not low sugar, went pretty well. Tasty, especially when toasted with natural peanut butter (or dulce de leche here). Banana could be palatable.

This morning I woke up with a terrible monthly craving for chocolate, preferably in the form of croissants. The bakery on the corner with the pain de chocolate didn't open till 10am (it was 7am) and there was no way I could wait. Eating a chocolate bar that early too seemed out of the question. I took one look at some freckled bananas and was like, hmm, banana and dark chocolate could work. It did. In fact, it kicked butt. So this recipe was low fat until I put in 170g of chopped semisweet dark chocolate (still on the Scharffen Berger kick...this chocolate is mind blowing, how come I didn't know about until this last trip to the Bay area?). The results were really great: moist cake, sweet but not overly, and the chocolate makes it feel sinfully yummy. It works for breakfast or tea time.

2 cups all purpose flour (I used whole wheat but with the chocolate, healthy kinda went out the window)
3/4 cup all natural (no sugar) applesauce
170g (about 1/2 cup) natural yogurt
3/4 cup sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
5-6 bananas mashed (about 1.25 cups)
1 tsp baking powder**
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp vanilla
pinch of salt
170g (1 cup) dark chocolate (semi-sweet) chips or chopped

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

1. Mix the dry ingredients together, sifting the flour, baking powder, soda, and salt. Reserve.

2. In another bowl, mash the bananas. Add the eggs, vanilla, applesauce, and yogurt.

3. Add the dry ingredients. Do not overbeat (to not create more gluey gluten); only until combined. Fold in the chocolate chips.

4. In a greased oblong bread pan, add mixture. Bake for one hour. If it is filled to the top, I suggest leaving about 1/2 inch space since it will rise. I forgot this morning had this "blob" cascading out the back which could have been made into muffins (however, it was still edible).

**In Chile, all baking powder needs to be doubled; it's not double strength. Explains my flat cookies that have plagued me for years. A miracle. Clabber Girl imported from the States is at Jumbo for you expats...

Of all the edible things I am pining for at breakfast from the US (short list: light organic soy milk, Go Lean cereal, sesame bagels, and 0% greek yogurt), English muffins still rank as number 1. I think I literally ate them close to every other day for almost a month straight. I like them mostly with natural peanut butter, eggs, or with mashed avocado and sea salt (ok, this last one is the Chileanized version, they love avocado on toast).

So I have been back now about 2. 5 weeks and Saturday, the craving started again. Damn! What to do, what to do. Okay, well since obviously I cannot buy them here, I accepted the only solution was to learn to make them. Get psyched Liz.  “It’s only bread”, I thought. It should not be too hard…

Well it wasn’t hard. Time involving? Yes. However, I cranked out 20 in one shot with relatively little pain (and jammed to the groovy new Miguel Migs, Those Things Deluxe (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Xrq395uzqY) album in the process). It made me appreciate the time and technique involved in this bread that I normally  would grab off the shelf. Another bonus: the taste was far superior to any of the commercial ones I have tried. The muffins got crunchy outside, spongy inside, beautiful when toasted and very balanced. Here’s the skinny on how to make your own English muffins. I opted for whole wheat to make them more nutritious. Now this weekend, I am gonna give them a real test run—see how they stand up with Eggs Benedict…and bloody marys of course!

Whole Wheat English Muffins (Makes 18-20)

¼ cup warm water (110 F)

1 tbsp dry yeast

3 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup white flour, plus more as needed for dusting/kneading

1 tsp salt

1 cup milk (I used skim to cut down on calories but for a richer taste, go for whole)

3 tbsp canola oil (or butter)

1 tbsp melted honey (I am so not into refined sugar; if you are in pinch, sub the honey for sugar)

1 egg

Cornmeal as needed

Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water. Let stand for 10 minutes until foamy. Mean while, in a large bowl, mix flours and salt. In a separate bowl combine the honey, milk and oil. Stir in egg, blend, then add yeast mixture.

Add the liquid to half the dry mixture. Once incorporated, add rest of dry ingredients. The dough is slightly sticky and very soft.  Turn out the dough on a floured surface and knead for a few minutes. I had to add several sprinklings of flour to get it to be pliable.

Put the dough in greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Set in warm place for an hour. When the dough has doubled in size, place on work surface with cornmeal. Roll out to ½-inch thick. Cut into 3-inch rounds (I used a glass that exact size although surely a cookie cutter would have been easier…). Reuse all the scraps—don’t dump a muffin, please! Cover the muffins with a towel and let rise another half hour. 

 

To “bake”, here’s the cool part. On a griddle or couple fry pans, heat them over medium heat. Place the muffins in the hot pan/griddle and cook for 6 minutes on one side. The muffin will puff up and should be golden brown and crusty before flipping. Flip and cook for another five minutes. Remember—soft inside but not undercooked (gooey dough). At this point, they will look like the English muffins we all know. Test one if necessary. I found that they should be firm with some give to the touch and golden brown.

 

Let cool on rack. I split them in half and will keep a few in the frig for 3 days and freeze the rest. They keep up to three months and when toasting, go straight from freezer to toaster. It’s that easy!

After my long-lived blog hiatus, we are getting this back and running. We will soon be moving the blog to a new address (as soon as my husband/graphic designer gives the green light) but in the mean time, I feel compelled to add this new section.

I spent over five weeks in the US from late June to the end of July. It is the longest stint back Stateside since I relocated to Chile in early 2001. Now that I am back, I am missing some of those items that Americans have incorporated into their diet and can get with such ease and convenience. The list is long but here's what comes off the top of my head: canned beans of all sorts, hummus, English muffins, natural peanut butter, ready-made chicken stock (boxed or canned), paneer cheese, greek yogurt, healthy granola sans trans fat, good quality pasta sauce, veggie burgers, etc. etc.

So I have decided to stop my bellyaching and accept my culinary, whole foods destiny here in Chile. I think it may just be a blessing in disguise. We have mostly whole foods here and even more so since I have ditched the supermarket and go only to fresh produce markets, the fish market, my cheese guy, the butcher, my free range egg lady, etc. This section is an exploration of learning to make these things I loved and took for granted while in the US. They are convenient--in their absence, I will just have to make the time to make them.

I kicked this off this weekend by making English muffins. Read on--in this exploration, I am seeing that beyond the final result, it's about the process and connection with my food. It tastes SO much better than pulling anything off the shelf at Safeway or Trader Joe's. Enjoy--and I hope this serves as inspiration to all you cooks too!