Spelt Banana Bread #BreadBakers

This delicious spelt banana bread is made with plenty of brown sugar, ripe bananas and nutty tasting spelt flour, for a treat that tastes decadent enough for a holiday snack.

Spelt is one of the so-called ancient grains, which are supposed to be healthier than their modern counterparts. It’s not gluten-free but it is lower in gluten than normal wheat with a nutty flavor that works well in baked goods. If you like baking with spelt, you might also like to try these wonderfully fudgy brownies, coconut energy muffins or a nutty, spiced yeast bread.

You’ll notice that by weight, this banana bread is equal parts brown sugar and spelt flour. This is deliberate. The brown sugar is what pushes it into the treat category, beyond just banana bread. It’s super easy to make, using what I like to call the modified muffin method: Wet ingredients (plus sugar) in one bowl, dry in the other. Fold together and bake.

Spelt Banana Bread

The decorative sprinkle of pearl sugar is not essential but it sure does make the spelt banana bread more festive.

Ingredients
3 very ripe bananas
1 cup, packed, or 200g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml (4fl oz) buttermilk
1/2 cup or 113g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 cups or 200g spelt flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Optional (DO IT!) to decorate: Pearl sugar

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line a loaf pan (9 x 5 inch or 13 x 23cm) with baking parchment or grease it thoroughly with butter then flour. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash your ripe bananas with a fork. Add in the brown sugar, eggs, buttermilk and butter. Whisk thoroughly to combine.

In another small bowl, whisk together the spelt flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Tip the dry ingredients into the bigger bowl. Fold until the dry ingredients are just combined with the wet.

Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Those are brown sugar lumps you are seeing.

Sprinkle the top with pearl sugar, if using.

Bake in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean when you poke the center of the bread. If it starts to brown too much, you can cover the top with foil.

Leave to cool in the bread pan, then turn out and slice to serve.

Enjoy!

This month all of our Bread Bakers are using whole grained flours to bake our holiday breads. Many thanks to our host Kalyani of Sizzling Tastebuds for this great theme.

• 100% Whole Wheat Bread from Cook's Hideout
• Eggless Whole Wheat Chocolate Cinnamon Rolls from Spill the Spices
• Gingerbread and Oatmeal Bread from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Kamut Cloverleaf Rolls from Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Key-Shaped Challah with Finger Millet from Sara's Tasty Buds
• Khameeri Puri from Sneha's Recipe
• Oats Whole Wheat Bread from The Mad Scientist's Kitchen
• Santa Lucia Buns from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Slovak Pasca from Ambrosia
• Spelt Banana Bread from Food Lust People Love
• Whole Wheat Grissini from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Whole Wheat Stollen from All That's Left Are The Crumbs
• Wholewheat Garlic Flavoured Monkey Bread from Sizzling Tastebuds

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Pin it! 

.

Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

Peppermint dough and mint chocolate swirls or peppermint glaze - or both! - make these pretty peppermint pinwheel cookies. They are perfect for your Christmas table or cookie exchange.
 




It wouldn't be Christmas without some cookies, right? And peppermint is an essential Christmas flavoring so I decided to put those two things together!

These peppermint pinwheel cookies are actually quite easy to make, although there is some waiting while the dough firms up, (See note below.) so do plan accordingly. They are the perfect size for popping in your mouth every time you pass the cookie plate but since the recipe makes 5 dozen, that shouldn't create a problem. With mint glaze and melted chocolate drizzled on them, they are sure to be everyone's new favorite Christmas cookie.

Note: Like any cookie dough that needs to be rolled out before cutting, the process will be easier if your dough has time to chill in the refrigerator. Plan on at least an hour of chilling time before rolling it out and four hours in the freezer before baking. Or make the dough a day or two before you plan to bake. It will keep beautifully, well-wrapped in cling film in your freezer.

Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies

These peppermint pinwheel cookies are adapted from this filled cookie recipe on My Recipes.

Ingredients for about 5 dozen + cookies
For the dough:

1/2 cup or 113g butter, softened
1 cup or 200g sugar
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups or 220g flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon red food coloring paste for red half (I use Wilton no taste red.)
1/2 teaspoon mint extract for white half

For the peppermint glaze:
1/2 cup or 65g powdered sugar
2 teaspoons milk
1/2 teaspoon mint extract
Pinch salt

For the mint chocolate drizzle:
1 3/4 oz or 50g mint dark chocolate bar (I used half a Lindt bar.)

Method
Cream the butter and sugar together with your electric mixer, beating until light and fluffy.

Scrape the bowl down with a rubber spatula then add the egg and vanilla, beating until blended, scraping bowl again as needed.

In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter mixture, beating at a low speed until blended.

Set aside half of the dough. (Mine weighed 598g so I took out 299g. Scale users unite!) If you don't have a kitchen scale, eyeball it.

Knead food coloring paste into remaining portion of dough while wearing rubber gloves or, if you are so fortunate, use the K-beater in your stand mixer to combine the two. Cover the dough with cling film and chill for at least one hour.

Knead the mint extract into the other half of the dough, or once again, use your stand mixer to combine the two. Cover the dough with cling film and chill for at least one hour.

Once chilled, roll each half into a 12- x 8-inch or 31x20cm rectangle between two pieces of baking parchment or waxed paper. Check out this great video from Crazy For Crust, to see how to do it. Just stop before you start cutting out cookies.

Once you have them rolled out, trim the rounded edges and neaten up your rectangles with a sharp knife.

Put the parchment or wax paper back on top and use your rolling pin and very little pressure to stick those pieces to the bigger piece again.

Peel one side of the parchment or wax paper off of each rectangle and lay one rectangle of dough on top of the other and press down gently so they stick together. Peel the paper off the top. Save the parchment paper because you can use it again for wrapping the dough and then baking.

Cut the double rectangle in half lengthwise to create two long equal rectangles.

I decided to roll one half up with the peppermint dough on the inside and one with the red dough on the inside, so I flipped one over, but you can make them all one way or the other.

Use a piece of the parchment or some cling wrap to help you roll the two dough rectangles up tightly, from the long end, so you end up with two long skinny tubes.

Wrap these again in parchment or cling film and freeze for several hours.

When you are ready to bake, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a couple of cookie sheets by lining them with baking parchment or silicone mats.

Cut the rough ends off of one log, leaving the other in the freezer, then slice the log into circles. Depending on where you stand on the subject of eating raw egg (and now flour!) you can discard the ends or eat them.

Place them on the prepared cookie sheets with a couple of inches or at least five centimeters between them. As you will see, mine were too close so many of them spread out enough to join together.

Bake for 7-8 minutes or until puffed and set.

Cool cookies on baking sheets for several minutes and then remove to wire racks to cool completely.

Repeat with the other dough log until all the cookies are baked and cooled.

Mix up the glaze ingredients and set aside. When you are ready to decorate, put the glaze in a plastic bag and cut off a very small corner so you can pipe the glaze onto the cookies.

Or melt the mint chocolate in a microwaveable vessel, 15-second zaps at a time, stirring well between each zap. Use a piping bag to drizzle on the chocolate. You can use a plastic bag for the chocolate as well but I find the proper piping bags are easier to handle with warm chocolate.

Enjoy!

This week my Sunday Supper friends are sharing their favorite cookie recipes for Christmas. There are so many I'd like to try! Check out the list below.

Traditional and Tasty Cookies to Share

• Candied Cranberry Walnut Oatmeal Cookies by Soulfully Made
• Cherry Chocolate Pistachio Cookies by Cindy’s Recipes and Writings
• Chewy Pumpkin Sugar Cookies by Pies and Plots
• Coconut-Key Lime Thumbprint Cookies by Gourmet Everyday
• Cranberry Pistachio Shortbread Cookies by Jersey Girl Cooks
• Flourless Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies by Our Good Life
• German Ginger Cookies (Ingwerplätchen) by Caroline’s Cooking
• Hot Cocoa Cookies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Italian Rainbow Cookies by April Golightly
• Orange Cardamom Cookies by Sunday Supper Movement
• Peppermint Pinwheel Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Pumpkin Molasses Cookies by Fantastical Sharing of Recipes
• Spiced Persimmon Cookies with Figs by The Wimpy Vegetarian
• Toffee Cookies by Hezzi-D’s Books and Cooks

Fun and Festive Cookie Alternatives

• Best Ever No Bake Eggnog Truffles by Bites of Wellness
• Cappuccino Crinkles by A Little Fish in the Kitchen
• Chocolate Coated Krispy Peanut Butter Balls by Positively Stacey
• Cranberry Date Bars by Palatable Pastime
• Healthy Magic Cookie Bars by Simple and Savory
• Peppermint Pizzelle by Eat, Drink & Be Tracy
• Rainbow Biscotti Cubes by What Smells So Good?

Pin it! 

.

Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake #FoodieExtravaganza

Eggnog is not just for drinking. Its sweet creaminess adds both flavor and richness to baked goods, like this cinnamon streusel eggnog coffeecake!

For drinking hot, my favorite eggnog is my grandmother’s recipe which we make at least once during the holiday season. Spiked with bourbon, rum or Irish whisky, it warms body and lifts spirits, reminding me of cozy times in her bright yellow kitchen, family all round.

For drinking cold, also spiked – are you seeing a trend here? – it’s usually Borden’s eggnog, because that’s about the only brand that seems to be exported overseas.

I’ve baked with both and even made an eggnog mousse once upon a time. If you are a fan of eggnog cake, you might want to check out my eggnog pound cake and my eggnog muffins. Both are topped with a rich eggnog glaze.

This time, because I am a procrastinator, I went with the store bought. And I added an eggnog whiskey glaze just for my younger daughter, who insisted that eggnog cake needs whiskey, just like eggnog does. She is right.

Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake

Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake is light on the inside with a rich buttery streusel and a sweet whisky glaze on top, perfect for your holiday dessert or snack time.

Ingredients
For the cinnamon streusel:
1/2 cup or 65g flour
1/2 cup or 100g brown sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch salt
1/3 cup or 70g unsalted cold butter, cut into small pieces

For the eggnog coffee cake:
2 cups or 250g flour
1/2 cup or 100g granulated sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup or 240ml eggnog
1/3 cup or 70g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

For the eggnog whiskey glaze:
1 cup or 125g powdered sugar
2 tablespoons eggnog
1 tablespoon whiskey
Pinch cinnamon

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F and 180°C. Grease and flour a 6-cup baking pan. Set aside.

To make the streusel, in a small bowl, cut the cold butter into the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt, until it looks like crumbles. Pop it in the refrigerator, if your kitchen is warm.

In a large bowl, whisk together your dry ingredients: the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together the wet ingredients: the eggnog, butter, eggs and vanilla.

Fold the wet ingredients into the dry, until they are just combined.

 Pour the batter into your prepared pan and top with the cinnamon streusel.

Bake in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.

Allow to cool completely before you turn the coffeecake out of the pan so that you don’t knock all of the streusel off.

While it’s cooling, make the glaze by mixing all of the ingredients together in a small bowl.

Once you’ve plated the eggnog coffeecake, drizzle on the eggnog whiskey glaze.

Enjoy!

Check out all the other eggnoggy recipes that my Foodie Extravaganza friends are sharing today! If these don’t get you in the Christmas spirit, I don’t know what will. Many thanks to Nichole of Cookaholic Wife for hosting this month.

• Alcohol Free Eggnog by Sneha’s Recipes
• Cinnamon Streusel Eggnog Coffeecake by Food Lust People Love
• Eggnog Banana Bread by Making Miracles
• Eggnog Cheesecake by Karen’s Kitchen Stories
• Eggnog Cookies by Caroline’s Cooking
• Eggnog Tasting + A Classic Recipe by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Eggnog Loaf by Passion Kneaded
• Frosted Eggnog Cookies by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Heavenly Almond Cookies by Faith, Hope, Love & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Vegan Eggnog Pudding by Cookaholic Wife

Foodie Extravaganza celebrates obscure food holidays or shares recipes with the same ingredient or theme every month.

Posting day is always the first Wednesday of each month. If you are a blogger and would like to join our group and blog along with us, come join our Facebook group Foodie Extravaganza. We would love to have you!

If you're a reader looking for delicious recipes, check out our Foodie Extravaganza Pinterest Board!

Pin it!

 .