Banana Bread at High Altitude

As promised, here is a post on baking at high altitude. Baking, unlike most cooking, is chemistry. You have to get the proportions right, and there's not much room for error. Ideally, you'd do everything by weight, but if you use measuring cups you have to level them off with a knife. There's also not much room for improvisation, and many people don't like that aspect of baking. I do, because if you get everything right, you know what you're going to get. I don't make my own recipes, but it's easy to follow the ones that I use. Since the air pressure is lower at high altitude, the chemical processes that occur are affected, so there are certain changes you have to make. I use the King Arthur Flour Guide, and just go with the changes they advise. I've not had a problem. My only caveat would be that with cookies, just use the lowest cooking time listed, and then check in. Remember, you can always cook things for longer, but you can't uncook them.

Here is a loaf of banana bread that I made this weekend, using the guide. It was very, very moist (mostly because I undercooked it slightly; I didn't have a toothpick to test for doneness so I went by sight).

I used a Mark Bittman recipe from How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, although I modified it slightly. His calls for coconut or other dried fruit, but whenever I see that in a recipe I mentally replace it with chocolate chips. He also calls for nuts, but Carl doesn't like them. For add-ins like nuts, chocolate chips, etc. you can add however much you'd like. I also added cinnamon. Ingredients listed have not been adjusted for altitude.

Ingredients

• 8 Tbsps (1 stick) butter
• 1.5 cups all-purpose flour
• 0.5 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 tsp salt (n.b. Despite what I said above about having to be incredibly precise or your baked goods won't come out correctly, I generally don't put as much salt in as most recipes call for. For this, I used slightly under a teaspoon)
• 1.5 tsps baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon (probably could have upped this amount, as it wasn't very cinnamon-y)
• 0.75 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 3 very ripe bananas
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1.25 cups chocolate chips

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease your loaf pan.
2. Mix together the dry ingredients. With a hand mixer, a whisk, or in the food processor, cream the butter and beat in the eggs and bananas. Stir this mixture into the dry ingredients; stir just enough to combine (it’s okay if there are lumps). Gently fold in the vanilla and the chocolate chips.
3. Pour batter into pan, and bake for 45-60 minutes. Test with a toothpick to make sure it comes out clean (although the undercooked bread was still tasty). Let cool for 10-15 minutes, and then pop it out of the pan.

CHOCOLATE COVERED STRAWBERRIES

I brought my favorite last-minute dessert to a function this week and someone asked for the recipe.  I was just going to refer them to this blog but I was surprised that I had never actually posted this.  So, here it is.

Ingredients

Fresh strawberries
Molding chocolate

The most important part of this recipe is the "tricks".  They are easy enough to follow, but if you don't know them you can possibly be disappointed with the results.

1.  Fresh strawberries - Ideally you do this on the day you buy the strawberries.  But let's get real - who ever does that?  So you can wash them and store them in an airtight container in between paper towels.  The longer you wait to use them, the worse the results will be.  So I try to use them no later than the next day.  Bring the strawberries to room temperature for the best results.
2.  Chocolate - The better the chocolate the better the results.  Molding chocolate has some kind of "emulsifier" that makes it more waxy.  If yours is too thick and is not coating the berries the way that you like, just add some solid shortening to it until it is the way you like it.  Start with a tablespoon.  If it gets too runny, just add more chocolate.
3.  I buy chocolate in bulk.  Although your initial outlay may seem a lot ($30-80), that can last for years and it is at your fingertips when you need to make something at the last minute.  If you have a choice, get it with 3 "drips" (marking on the package).  If it is not available locally, you can get it online from Surfas (www.culinarydistrict.com).  The molding chocolate is Callebaut.  Store in a cool place.  If it separates (areas of paleness) you can still use it.  It is not bad and the color becomes even when you remelt it.

4.  Use a double boiler to melt the chocolate.  If you don't have one, then make one by putting a smaller pot in a larger one.  Just make sure that the water does not touch the bottom of the smaller pot.  Don't be skimpy with the amount of chocolate you melt.
5.  Put them down to dry.  Parchment paper works best, but you can use wax paper or tinfoil.  It takes 30-60 minutes to dry in a cool room.  Better not to put them in a refrigerator because the chocolate can be uneven.
6.  Take the leftover chocolate in the pot and put it in a container to harden.  Yo


Now, just dip the strawberries.  Do it with no one around otherwise you will find that they will never make it to your function.

A Lesson in Baking

I made a cake for Carl's thesis defense. Actually, I tend to make cakes fairly regularly, and one of the problems I frequently have is that the cake sticks to the pan after it's baked, even if I butter and flour the pan. This was particularly frustrating with Carl's cake, because I wanted it to be perfect. So, there were two lessons here. The first is to butter the pan, and then cut a round (or whatever the shape of your pan is) piece of parchment paper for the bottom. The cake will just slide right out. If you forget that step, lesson two is that copious amounts of frosting can fix anything. Well, almost anything. If it comes out in crumbs there's probably no saving it. I also wanted to show you pictures of my pretty cake.