Loaf of Banana Bread

Best Banana Bread

• 4 ripe bananas
• 1/2 C butter
• 2 T olive oil
• 1 C sugar
• 1/2 C buttermilk
• 2 t baking soda
• pinch salt
• 2 c flour
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 c pecans

Combine your dry ingredients, and your wet ingredients, keep the eggs and buttermilk separate.

Whip softened butter, olive oil and sugar in electric mixer until pale and fluffy.

Slowly add eggs one at a time and mix in pecans.

Mix in dry mixture until fully combined and pour in buttermilk and mix only until combined.

Pour into large greased loaf pan.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for 45 minuets, rotate loaf pan and check with a thin knife for doneness, bake until knife comes out clean, checking every ten minutes.

Sliced Banana Bread

Enjoy this simple and wonderful recipe with an evening cup of tea, toasted with butter, or Nutella, or some homemade jam, simple and elegant this moist banana bread will have you making it often. Enjoy often and let me know what you think!

Strawberry Almond Galette

Something I have been posting a lot and is one of the easiest things to prepare. This dessert is perfect for fruits of all season.  These are one of my favorite afternoon and evening treats, I like to mix fruit with a little sugar, a little flour, some acidic liquid (lemon juice? alcohol?) and maybe some vanilla or cinnamon, depending on the fruit.  You start out by making your favorite pie dough recipe, or you can use mine!

Pie Dough

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 sticks (1 cup) unsalted butter, cold, cut into small pieces
• 1/4 cup ice water, plus more if needed

When making pie dough, I start first by cutting my butter into small pieces and freezing them for at least 30 min.

Mix your dry ingredients in an electric mixer or food processor and turn on, add the butter and mix until crumbly and sand like.

Using a mixer: add your water slowly until just beginning to for a dough, pull off mixer and form into ball. Flatten the ball and wrap tightly, chill for an hour.

Using a food processor: add water slowly as processor is running. Run for about 15 seconds and pulse 5 or 6 times until dough is just coming together, form into a ball and chill for one hour.

Remove dough and cut into approximately one inch squares, roll into a ball, flatten and roll into 1/8″ round.  Pile a handful of marinated fruit into center of pie round, pull up edges of pie dough and pinch in place around fruit.

Galettes

Brush the edges of pie dough with lightly whipped egg and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake at 350 until golden brown, about  30 min.

Goodies!

I was feeling full into fall today with a fresh pumpkin cheesecake, vanilla macaroons and a lemony tart and pinenut, cornmeal crust. Along with our morning treats filled with apple turnovers and pear blackberry galettes, you’ll never forget the beautiful produce that Northern California can bring you, year round!

Kutchen Slice

There are numerous versions of the kutchen, an upside-down cake with a light hint of lemon.  My kutchen has been tweaked and twiddled I don’t even know how many times, but I’ve finally found the perfect one.  I make a yeasted cake that is just sweet enough for any occasion.

As we are coming into the fall months with more abundant stone fruits and apples and pears galore, this recipe is perfect with any seasonal fruit.

Pear Kutchen

Kutchen Dough

Yield: 1 10″ pan

2 t instant yeast

1/4 C Water

2 1/2 C All Purpose Flour Plus 1/4 C

1 C Polenta

1 C Sugar, Split in half

1/2 t salt

1/2 C plain yogurt

1 egg

Zest of 1 lemon

1 t vanilla

12 T butter

1) Bloom yeast in warmed water

2) Add all ingredients to yeast mixture except butter and saved 1/4 C flour.

3) Mix in stand mixer on low speed for 5 minutes.

4) Pull dough off mixer and sprinkle saved 1/4 C flour, covering dough.  Set aside for 2 hours in warm area until dough almost doubles.

Meanwhile: Line your pan with 1 T butter and saved 1/2 C sugar and arrange selected fruit in 1/8-1/4″ slices evenly along bottom of pan.

5) When the dough has risen, put back on mixer and mix in flour and slowly piece in soft butter. Mix until all butter is incorporated, about 3 min. The dough should be soft and spreadable.

6) Spread the dough evenly over fruit and allow to rise once more, covered with plastic.  Once the dough has doubled again, bake at 350 degrees until a rich golden brown.  Allow cake to cool 20 min before flipping out onto serving platter.

ENJOY!

We start out with my Cornetti Pastry, it is a croissant in Italian, add ham and cheese with the option of a fried egg!

Oh! Its so cheesy and delicious! I want one now!

The Cornetti Panini is available at Cibo in Sausalito every day until sold out.

So get there early

We started with:

Lovely signage by Haley Callahan

Caramelized Onion Tart with Blue Cheese and Mission Figs

Now onto the Reds!

Lovely Signage by Haley Callahan

Traditional Gyro flavors

We also made a beautiful chicken version!

Our Gyro Bite was made up of herbed flatbread, house made tatziki sauce, braised lamb and beef or chicken, pickled onions and fresh cucumber.

Local tomatoes and basil from Eastside Farm in Healdsburg, CA.

Lovely signage by Haley Callahan

Pickles from Zin Restaurant, Healdsburg, CA

The Grand Finale!

Watch out for the Recipe Post!

Everything was a huge hit and the evening was very successful.  I am so proud of my team cooking the food; Benjamin Maides and Charles Slonaker, organizers; Haley Callahan and Jerry Wardlow, servers and staff; John Brandau, Adam Wystepek, Mark Bradley, Jamie Wardlow, and Christian King.  Also a very big thank you to Bret Gave, owner of the Trek Store, Santa Rosa, for hosting the evening.

If you are interested in a catered event with food creations by Tosha, please email any inquiries to ToshaLc@hotmail.com

I just tossed some apples with some honey, sugar, cinnamon, clove and a light handful of flour; topped it with some extra flaky pie dough.  It may be a faux pie without a bottom crust, but man it was delicious.

Oh they look so gooey and yummy!

Next up: A fresh twist on the classic tart tartin, a peach tart tartin! A tart tartin is an upside down tart with a puff pastry crust.  First I will line my pan with butter and sugar and layer peaches tightly packed.

Then bake the peaches in a 375 oven to begin the carmelization process, for about 30 minutes.  Then I put my sheet of puff pastry on the hot peaches.  Then back in the oven.

3o min later…The pastry has puffed and turned a golden brown color.

Allow tart to cool slightly and flip out onto cooling surface.

Cool cut and enjoy!

This tart best eaten warm and the day it was made.

Enjoy!

Posted in Uncategorized ]]> http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/08/17/tarts-and-pies/feed/ 3 toshabakes Before Baking Beautifully Golden Layered fresh peaches Fresh puff pastry on hot peaches Peach tart tartain http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/apple-picking/ http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/08/13/apple-picking/#comments Thu, 13 Aug 2009 21:21:23 +0000 toshabakes http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/?p=61 ]]> I ventured into Napa yesterday to visit a good friend of mine, Maika Robertson.  We worked together at Bouchon Bakery and she is an amazing bread mistress.  Maika has an amazing apple tree in her backyard which her landlord has muddled with, more than once.  She said there were more like 7 different kinds of apples grafted onto this one tree!

You can see the growth from the different apple varietals

The tree was huge, she most definitely only needs one!

Also on Maika’s property was a delicious peach tree, most of them had already been picked at by various bugs and birds (and Maika) or fallen to the ground to be devoured, but the ones still left hiding in the tree have definitely proved to be the sweetest!

Maika's finding me a good one!

but does she approve?

Thumbs up = tasty peach

I went home with a huge bag of apples and a wee smaller bag of peaches! I can’t wait to get into the kitchen with these babies.  Do  I smell apple sauce?

The dough of my brioche is very wet and subsequently hard to deal with.

Wet brioche dough

After my dough is mixed I set it in a warm place  for about 3 hours to rise (its a slow riser) and then in a refrigerator overnight to rest and ferment just a little bit.  Plus this makes it easier to work with the wet dough as the butter firms up inside.

Brioche! Ready to rise!

After overnight refrigeration, the dough is brought back together with a few small kneads and turns on the table.  With a lot of flour the dough is ready to be rolled and cut for doughnuts!

Cut Doughnuts ready for the second rising!

After about 45 minuets in a warm place, the doughnuts have risen an extra 1/4″  to 1/2″ and you can begin to see the air bubbles in the sides of the doughnuts. They are ready to fry!

Ready to fry!

In a heavy bottomed saucepan filled up with about 3 in of oil heated to a temperature between 350 and 375 degrees F.

Held Frying Temperature

I only put 3 or 4 doughnuts in the oil at a time so as not to fluctuate the temperature too much and thus ensuring consistency in color.  Rotate doughnuts in oil often to gain a dark golden brown.

Happy Doughnuts!

Now ready to fill with cream, jam or chocolate. Or just topped with some cinnamon sugar! Enjoy!

Posted in Bread, Work Tagged: Bread, Doughnuts, Work ]]> http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/08/08/back-to-brioche/feed/ 4 toshabakes Brioche Dough Brioche to Rise Cut Doughtnuts Ready To Fry Brioche Temp Happy Doughnuts! http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/out-of-town/ http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/out-of-town/#comments Sun, 26 Jul 2009 21:38:32 +0000 toshabakes http://toshabakescakes.wordpress.com/2009/07/26/out-of-town/ ]]> Leaving tomorrow for a break in San Deigo, see you when I get back!