Wholegrain Caramelized-Banana Bread

Banana bread is probably one those things which everyone bakes all the time. Each one following a time-tested recipe of her own which yields a lovely loaf every time. My favorite recipe is an adaption of Tarla Dalal's Banana Pecan Walnut Muffin Cake, an eggless whole wheat banana muffin recipe with layers of flavors added by the addition of nuts and raisins. Adding cocoa powder and chocolate chips to the basic batter always takes the bread up a notch so I unfailingly do it every time.

☆☆ Berry Boy Bait ☆☆☆☆

Now we all know that berries are an excellent bait for boys....

So it is not surprising that in 1954, a 15 year old made a buttery blueberry coffee cake and seeing the effect it had on boys, named it Blueberry Boy Bait. The cake recipe that Renny Powell from Chicago had submitted a  recipe to the Pillsbury $100,000 Recipe and Baking Contest, only won her second place in the youth division that year, but it has stood the test of time and has been in circulation ever since.

Chocolate Banana Cookies

Over the past two and a half years of parenting, there is one thing I have learnt, when travelling with a toddler, carry lots of food and lots of distractions ( read books, toys, coloring books and more toys.) While we are extra cautious about not forgetting the latter, sometimes we buy but forget to pack the perishables at the end. During a recent trip, that is what happened with a bunch of bananas. They simply got forgotten. So we returned home to a bunch of overripe bananas, seeking immediate attention. With Google at service, I soon found a million ways to use those and that is how these Chocolate Banana Cookies came to being.

Conchas using Scalded Flour Method

Conchas,  also referred to as "pan de huevo" are sweet buttery buns from Mexico. They are famous for their crumbly shell-patterned sugar topping and soft fluffy texture. They are eaten with coffee and milk but mostly with Mexican hot chocolate for breakfast or late supper- known as merienda, a tradition that dates back to the 16th century.

Chocolate Banana Bars

Ever since those addictive Chocolate Walnut Bars got over, I had been looking for an excuse to bake a fresh batch of chocolate bars. It was just happenstance that there were two terribly over-ripe bananas lying on the counter-top on the day I bumped into Mario Batali's Chocolate Banana Bars. 

Chocolate Swirl Babka Muffin Buns # Baking Partner's Challenge

Babka, as most of you know, is a traditional Easter coffee bread from Europe. Apparently, babka is also the word for grandmother in Polish...  which is why a traditional babka bread was usually baked in a fluted round mold with a center tube and was said to resemble a women's full skirt from centuries past. The babkas as we know them today are elaborately flavored and heavily downsized... They are strueseled, swirled in chocolate and cinnamon and baked in ordinary loaf pans.. This version, nevertheless delicious, is believed to have descended from the Eastern European Jewish tradition.

Italian Walnut Black Pepper Cookies

Walnut Black Pepper Cookies... this is yet another one from  Cooking with Italian Grandmothers and it is by grandmother Carluccia. I tell you, if not for all the other healthy recipes, for t``he  desserts alone you should get yourself a copy of the book. They all sound fantastic and are generally pretty easy to put together.... 

Now a little about the moment when I finally decided to share these sweeties with you... 

It was pretty late that night. My husband had a skype interview in India . He returned at 3:00 in the morning and before I could ask him how the interview went, 

he asked, "Are those cookies still there ?" 

"Ah... yes.. how was your interview ?" 

"We'll see..." he replied, then taking a bite said, "... these cookies are delicious.... can I have some more..."

I knew immediately that the first thing I needed to do next day was to take their photographs.. I suspected that they wouldn't survive another day in the shelf . And they didn't. The whole batch vanished between breakfast, tea and dessert.  With all its buttery-sugary goodness and hint of black pepper, these cookies kept calling us(by which I mostly mean my husband) all-day-long.....

Julekake # Eggless Baking Group

Julekake is a Norwegian Christmas bread flavored with cardamom, raisins and candied citron. It is usually sweeter and flatter than a regular bread and like most holiday breads its dough is enriched with milk, butter and eggs. Traditionally this bread made with all purpose flour, but when Priya Srinivasan of Enveetu Kitchen challenged us, the Eggless Baking Group, to bake an eggless version of it, I decided to get ahead of the challenge and make a whole grain eggless version of it..

I had initially decided to make the bread using whole wheat and all-purpose flour in the ratio 2:1.. With that proportion the dough felt tough so I adjusted by adding extra water and all-purpose flour till the dough texture felt just right. Following the pointers from The Kitchn on How to make Softer and Fluffier Whole wheat bread, I added an extra tablespoon of butter to the dough, kneaded the dough first with hand, allowed the hand-kneaded dough to rest for 20-30 minutes before kneading and poofing it in the bread machine. I am not sure which of the above tricks had worked but I was delighted with the way the loaf turned out... soft and delicious.

Candied citron or citron were unavailable in the stores so I substituted that with homemade candied lemon peel...

Homemade Candied Lemon Peel 

The candied lemon peel were a wonderful addition and I am so glad that I decided to make some at the last moment. Along with the cardamom and raisins, they made the bread slices taste like slices of a holiday cake. Though most Norwegian sites suggested a dab of butter on Julekake, we, at our place loved the bread as it is. Toasted.. but with no extra butter.

Cinnamon Swirl Eggless "Brioche"

This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged the members of the Eggless Baking group to make an eggless version of Barbara's Cinnamon Swirl Brioche.

My first reaction after reading her mail was, "What ? Brioche without eggs ? Really ? "

Initially I had decided to skip this challenge... but the pretty cinnamon swirl and the simplicity of the recipe kept bringing me back to it until I finally decided to give the eggless version try.

I usually use the combination of yogurt and baking soda to make an eggless version of an eggy bread. However the mere substitution felt a little inadequate for an eggless version of brioche. After all it was brioche.. and no ordinary bread. How could a simple substitution render the bread its richness and textural lightness. I discussed with my mother and she suggested an extra helping of yeast. Okay. I said and pondered a little more... until I remembered Reeni's review about the scalded flour method. She had used the method for making a Scandinavian White Bread and had compared its texture to a brioche... I decided to modify the method to adapt the given recipe..

The adaptation however did not seem direct...

You see, the scalded flour method(SFM) requires one to make a starter of scalded dough which is cooled and then kneaded together with the remaining dough ingredients to make the dough for the bread. This meant, involing the SFM would add an extra step to the suggested recipe from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day, thereby depriving it off its ease and simplicity, the two things that had attracted me towards this bread at the first place. I thought for a while and then decided to try a simple modificaion. Instead of making a scalded dough starter, I decided to beat the yogurt with boiling hot water, then quickly stir in the remaining ingredients including the flour to the hot yogurt.  I am not sure if that little step helped, or if it was just the right proportion of liquid to flour, but things suddenly fell into place and  soon I recognized the dough as brioche-like... soft, flow-y and unmanageable. Thereon I followed the given recipe and was duly rewarded with a lovely loaf the following day.

To be honest, the loaf wasn't as soft as a brioche from the store but the texture was comparable. It was somewhat like my Hokkaido Milk Bread.. only richer with all the extra butter. We were really happy with it and relished it with our morning and evening tea everyday till it got over...

Linzer Cookies # Baking Partner's Feb '14 Challenge

Linzer Torte is an Austrian torte named after the city of its origin,  Linz in Austria. It is believed to be one of the oldest cakes in the world and is regarded as a holiday classic in several parts of Europe. In North America, it is often made like small tarts or cookies and are called the Linzer Cookies. In imitation of the lattice design that is signature of Linzer torte, the cookie versions are made by sandwiching a layer of jam between two almond flavored cookies, one of which has a peekaboo- circle, heart or flower-cutout in the center..

With Valentine's day in mind, this month Swathi of Zesty South Indian Kitchen challenged the baking partners to bake either Linzer Cookies or Heart Shaped Crunchy Seed Cookies. She had tried and tested the recipes for both the cookies from the book Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich and provided us with step-wise instructions for both. The Linzer Cookies  had been in my to-do list for a long time, so I chose to bake them for Valentine's day.

They were a big hit. On returning from work, husband was happy to be greeted with a plate of bright red cookies and the toddler, who had been helping me cut the cookies, felt both happy and proud for being part of the project...

Initially we did not think much of these cookies. But the more we ate the more we wanted.. The flavors are subtle and addictive and they go very well with both tea and coffee. I made only a few for V day and froze the remaining dough.. but it seems like I'll have to unfreeze the dough soon and bake the full batch on demand...

Chocochip Cherry 'n Coke Muffins

Does it ever happen to you that you see a recipe, pin it and then cannot get it out of your head until you have tried it. It happens to me all the time... specially when I see something as awesome as a hand-written muffin recipe from a different era .. Something with ICE_CREAM and a promise of goodness in it. Something like these muffins from Four Mars.. One Venus that scream and beg to be baked right away... So I tweaked Jen's grandmother's Quick Blueberry muffin recipe a bit to make these Chocochip Cherry n' Coke muffins for breakfast on Sunday...

I had read about coke doing wonders to the texture of cakes before and on Sunday experienced it first hand. Even with their share of whole wheat flour, these muffins turned out so soft and fluffy. They were wonderful. Little boy enjoyed them too and declared that he likes cherry muffins.

The texture became a little dense the next day... but even then they tasted good. In fact I thought like most whole wheat cakes, they tasted better the following day. I had glazed half of the batch with a coke-cocoa glaze and my husband liked the glazed ones, little boy and  and I however preferred ours unglazed ones. We were happy with the chocolate-cherry combo and did not care much for the added sugar.....

Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs

Translated in English, Crème Brûlée means Burnt Cream. It is a classic French dessert consisting of a rich egg custard base topped with a layer of caramelized sugar. In December, Vimala Lakshmi of Cooking Club challenged the members of Gayathri's Eggless Baking Group to bake Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs...

The recipe she suggested by the celebrated Indian chef Sanjeev Kapoor. It had 4 egg yolks and 1 egg. How on earth was I supposed to substitute so many eggs ! Google revealed that most eggless recipes of Crème Brûlée involved gelation, agar agar powder or china grass. Since I do not use any of those products,  I decided to skip the December challenge until I came across Sharanya Pathmanathan's post of Eggless Crème Brûlée.  It was easy and doable. So I decided to plunge in and bake Crème Brûlée Sans Eggs...

Eggless Slovak Easter Bread - Paska

Hope you all enjoyed Thanksgiving with your dear ones. Now that Thanksgiving is over it is time for everything Christmas-y. But. Oops ! I have a East European Easter Bread for you today. As a compensation I decorated it to look more Christmas-y.. with leaves and berries just so that you do not think that I forgot about Christmas all together and jumped to spring..

I baked this Slovak Easter Bread as part of Gayathri's Baking Eggless Challenge wherein the challenger presents the group with a eggilious recipe and challenges everyone to convert it into an eggless one. This month Gayathri of Gayathri's Cook Spot challenged us with this sweetish butter bread East European Bread. The original recipe was for 3 7 inch round loaves and used 3 large eggs. I decided to make 6 peeps and a 6 inch round loaf and so made only one third of the recipe using whole wheat flour and all purpose flour in 1:1 ratio and yogurt + a pinch of baking soda as a substitute for one egg. The whole wheat made the bread slightly dense, nevertheless it was tasty. We had it with spicy curry for Thanksgiving and enjoyed it much. 

With its buttery deliciousness this loaf will look grand at any holiday table. Be it Christmas or Easter. The peeps of course look more Easter-y so its best to reserve them for spring...

Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread

Food gawker and Taste-spotting are pretty addictive... don't you think ? Once your first photograph gets accepted you want all your food photographs to appear there.  One.It invites traffic. Two. It is strangely satisfying to know that a group of experts consider your food to be as gawk-worthy as you thought it was... But with that first acceptance comes the next stage in a bloggers life .. the big chase... the one that sets a blogger running from one window to another  for that perfect streak of light. The frustration grows when the sun refuses to budge and finally the blogger has to settle for less. It was like that for me yesterday. It was raining cats and dogs and I just could not manage a well-lit-gawk-worthy shot... frustrated, I called up mom and she reminded me of this Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread.....

Back in October, I had baked this loaf along with Joyce, Lena and Zoe. It turned out great. Pretty. Soft and fluffy. We loved it. So I made a second loaf for my sister. Her in-laws were visiting at that time and they were pretty impressed by it. Her mother-in-law immediately took the recipe from me and in one of the recent family gatherings told my mother what a good baker I had become :)  It felt good to be complimented by an ace baker as her..  so I thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea to publish this recipe even though the photographs aren't so great....

Now the recipe that won me praise.... Brown Sugar-Raisin Bread... a bread that is great for gifting, or sharing at festive breakfasts or brunch. The original recipe is from Wiiliam-Sonoma. I tweaked it to bake an eggless loaf.

Pataquetas # Baking Partners November Challenge

With only a week to go most of you must have roughly decided on what to prepare for this Thanksgiving. Perhaps the family favorites and some exquisite recipes that you had pinned, tried and enjoyed. But just in case there is a place in the table for a delicious and handsome bread... try Pataqueta.

These traditional Spanish bread rolls from Valencia's Orchard, with crusty exterior and chewy crumb require very little work. Yet they taste awesome when served with chicken sausages and a dash of mayo and mustard sauce. Shaped into smaller crescents and stuffed appropriately, these rolls will make great appetizers for any dinner party...

This month, a fellow Baking Partner, Marisa of Thermofan suggested that we bake this crescent shaped traditional Spanish bread for our Baking Partner's November Challenge. Apparently this bread is known to have been baked since 17th century. The inhabitants of the Valencia’s Orchard used to eat this bread everyday when they went for work. Nowadays, however they are not as frequently baked. People book in advance to get one. Most of Valencia’s bakers usually bake these in March every year for their main regional festival, "Falles".

Like Ciabatta, these bread rolls are steam-baked and are prepared with a cold ferment. Hence texture-wise they are very similar to Ciabatta... chewy crumb, and extra-crispy crust . The dough is however much easier to handle and  so you really do not have to be a expert bread maker to get these right. Simply follow the recipe and you'll  be rewarded heartily.....

One minute Nutella Cake & Weekly Menu Plan

I have tried making cakes in the microwave before. They are never the same as proper oven baked ones. They are not fluffy and airy... somewhere along the line they stop being cake-y and become more 'halwa-y'. So I usually prefer the 20 minutes baking time over instant microwave-ing... unless there is a terrible time crisis or an exceptional  recipe like this one.... With only 5 plus 1 ingredients in the batter, it gives you a perfectly crumbly chocolate cake. The kind that'll make you happy in a minute...... 

Add another tablespoon of Nutella to the batter and you'll have a delicious fudgy Nuttela brownie in a cup. That one is rich and gorgeous and though we both love it, today I went for the chocolate cake. Light, fluffy and delightful !  

Pumpkin Yeast Bread # Baking Partners October Challenge

With the pumpkin season upon us, this month +Tamy Bollar of 3 Sides of Crazy challenged the Baking Partners to bake a pumpkin loaf. The suggested recipes were

• Ginger Pumpkin Bread with Maple Brown Butter Glaze from Simply Scratch Blog
• A yeasted version of pumpkin bread from King Arthur Flour.

As tempting as both the recipes were, I decided to bake the yeasted loaf first and then got stuck at trying few variations of the original recipe. While I am itching to tell you about my experiments and will eventually write about them over the week,  for this post I'll just stick to the version that is closest to the original.

It is a fairly simple bread to bake in case you are using a bread machine or a food processor to knead the dough... and it tastes wonderful. It is soft and moist and is great with both butter and jam. Though we ate most of this loaf with butter or jam for breakfast, recounting from my experience with the other variations, I can assure they'll be great in sandwiches too.

As always, I tweaked the original recipe and substituted half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour and added an extra helping of ginger powder to the dough. Also, I made an eggless loaf since I had run out of eggs on that particular day. Using some of the bread recipes from Gayathri's Cook Spot as a reference, I used 1/4 cup yogurt plus a 1/16 tsp baking soda as a substitute for 1 egg. It worked really well. In fact I did not notice any difference in texture between this loaf and the other loaf that i baked with eggs. Though a topping or a glaze was not recommended, I decided to add both.... and I am actually quite happy with the way the loaf turned out.  The maple syrup lent the loaf a lovely hue and the pumpkin seeds added a nice crunch to the bread. So all in all this loaf was a winner at our table...

Now the recipe...

Pumpkin Yeast Bread (Bread Machine) Adapted from King Arthur Flour
Preparation Time : 2 hours                                Baking Time: 30 mins                                        Yeild: 9x5 inch loaf
Ingredients    for the dough 1/4 cup warm water 1/3 warm milk 1/4 cup yogurt +1/16tsp baking soda (as a substitute for 1 egg) 3/4 cup pureed pumpkin, fresh or canned(I used canned) 1 tbsp vegetable oil 1 1/2 cup all purpose flour 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour 1/4 cup light brown sugar 1 tsp salt 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp ground cardamom 1 tbsp bread machine yeast 2-3 tbsps pepitas for topping for the glaze 1 tbsp maple syrup 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil -  Instructions Put all the dough ingredients in the bread machine pan in the order specified by the manufacturer and set it to the dough setting. I have listed the ingredients in the order that is specific to my bread machine. 10 minutes down the line check the consistency of the dough. The dough should be soft and smooth. If the dough feels too tough add a teaspoon or so of oil. If the dough isn't stiff enough add a tbsp of flour at a time until the dough attains the correct consistency. I have a Sunbeam bread machine and the measurements given above worked perfectly in it.  When the machine beeps at the end of the cycle, turn the dough into a lightly oiled surface. Shape it into a loaf and place it in a well greased 9x5 inch  loaf pan. Cover the loaf with a greased plastic wrap and let it rise until doubled 30 to 45 minutes. (I had kept the shaped out dough in the sun and it doubled in 30 minutes but it might take a little longer in  general.) Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F while the dough is rises the second time (I say second time since the first rising happens in the machine). Once the dough has doubled, mix the maple syrup and oil in a bowl, glaze the dough with half of the mixture, sprinkle the pepitas on top and then brush the surface lightly with the remaining syrup-oil mixture. Now transfer the pan to the preheated oven and bake for 30 minutes. Immediately remove the bread and cool it on a wire rack to prevent the crust from becoming soggy. Slice and enjoy after the loaf has cooled down completely.

This loaf stays fresh without refrigeration for up to three days and I believe it will stay good for a longer time if refrigerated.

More on my experiments soon. Stay warm and have a great week... Cheers !

Yeastspotting this loaf. Also sharing it at the following weekly parties..

Monday Food : Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Inspiration Monday Party, Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party,Mix it up Monday, The Scoop,  Meatless Monday @Veggie Mama's,  Meatless Monday My Sweet and Savory, Just Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom

Tuesday Food:  Totally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe Box, Tasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug Blessings, Share it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles, Tasty Tuesday, Hearth and Soul blog Hop

Wednesday Food : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Buns in my Oven, Cast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain , Show and Share @ Semi Homemade Mom, Wonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2

Thursday Food: Link it Up Thursday @ Seven Alive, Creative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty Creations, Fantastic Thursday @ Three Little Chiefs, Thriving on Thursdays @ Domesblissity, Freedom Friday @ My Turn, Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage  

Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid Simple, Friday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet Home, Foodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes,  Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm , Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness Miss, Friday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club,  The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes 

Kourabiethes # Baking Partners August Challenge

This month's theme for Baking Partners Challenge was cookies from around the world. It was a rather tasty challenge. there were these four cookies that were suggested..

• Speculoos Cookie Sandwiches from Denmark ;
• Kourabiethes from Greece, both suggested by Sowmya of Nivedhanam blog ;
• Walnut Biscotti from Italy suggested by Sandhya of My Cooking Journey ;
• Chinese Almond Cookies suggested by Suja of Kitchencorner try it.

at first I had planned to bake a small batch of each. but as i mentioned in an earlier post things have not been going too well at my end. so i ended up baking only two of the cookies, Kourabiethes and Biscotti. i baked an eggless version of both these cookies using a cornflour solution in place of eggs. I'll tell you about the Biscotti soon. for now lets talk Greek...

Now these Kourabiethes turned out really well. Its a pity that i made a small batch.. because this was definitely our favorite cookie in a long time. it tasted like butter cookies had a pleasant orange fragrance. in fact it was that fragrance that made me fall for the cookie even before i had tasted it. the only thing that i wasn't too fond off was that sugar coating. it kept sticking to the fingers.. but husband  did not seem very bothered by that. he simply said... "this is good... really good," and baby boy was more happy to lick the sugar off the cookies.

Kourabiethes (9 cookies) Recipe source : taste.com.au

ingredients 3.5 tbsps unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup icing sugar 1/2 tsp vanilla essence orange rind from 1/2 an orange 1 tbsp of solution made with 1 tbsp cornflour + 2 tbsp water* 1/2 cup + 1 tsp all-purpose flour 1/4 tsp baking powder 1 tbsp + 1.5 tsp almond meal (ground almond) * this is the substitute for 1/5 egg. -   to make these cookies... preheat oven to 335 degrees F. line a baking tray with parchment paper. using a electric mixer, beat butter, 3 1/2 tbsps of icing sugar, vanilla, orange rind until it turns creamy. then add 1 tbsp of the cornflour solution and mix till it is well combined.  now sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture, add almond meal and mix (i used my hands here) until the dough comes together. using 1 tbsp dough per biscuit, roll out 3 inch long cylinders; bend them to form crescent shape. then place them on the prepared baking tray 11/2 inch apart and bake for 20 minutes, until they turn light golden.  allow them to stand on the tray for the next 5 minutes till they become firm. then place the remaining icing sugar in a bowl/plate and coat 1 cookie at a time in the sugar. once the all the cookies are coated allow them to cool completely before sifting the remaining sugar over them.(i did not sift the sugar after the cookies cooled as some of them had already disappeared by then and knew that the rest would disappear too...)

So much for today. Wishing my family and friends a very Happy Independence Day.  Have some activities planned for tomorrow. Hope it turns out to be share-able....

and before you hop away check out what my Baking Partners have baked...

Will share this at the following parties... 

Monday Food : Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks, Meatless Monday @Veggie Mama's,  Meatless Monday My Sweet and Savory, Just Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Mop It Up Monday, Mealtime Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party Tuesday Food:  Totally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe Box, Tasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug Blessings, Share it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles,  Tasty Tuesday

Wednesday Food : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Confessions of Overworked Mom, Cast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain ,  Wednesday Whatsit @White Lights on , Show and Share @ Semi Homemade Mom, Wonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2  Thursday Food: Link it Up Thursday @ Seven Alive, Creative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty Creations, Fantastic Thursday @ Three Little Chiefs, Thriving on Thursdays @ Domesblissity, Freedom Friday @ My Turn, Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage  Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid Simple, Friday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet Home, Foodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes,  Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm , Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness Miss, Friday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club,  The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes

Rum and Raisin Pear Buckle

Last night while hopping around the blogs, I landed on Bake for Happy Kids. In the sidebar I spotted that today was the in "Bake Along" they were baking Fruit Buckle. I was a little curious about what buckles were, so i googled and decided to bake along with them... and today i baked a Rum and Raisin Pear Buckle....

well, Rum & Raisin is my latest craze. I had planned a rum & raisin ice-cream today. since the ice-cream plan had to be delayed, i sneaked in some of that combination in the buckle. it worked really well. I used Angostura Trinida & Tobago Caribbean rum (aged 7 years) in the recipe. but i guess any dark rum will work. the pears poached in rum taste great by itself. in case you haven't tried the combination you should cook up some right away. you'll thank me for the recommendation !

In case fruit buckles are new to you too... here is what they are. They are a type of cake in which fruits are added to the batter and are topped with a struesel. now why are they called buckles ? well because, as the cake bakes, it tends to "buckle" around the fruits. i also gathered that originally blueberries were the star-fruits used to bake buckles... but as it turned out, rum-poached pears also taste wonderful nestled in the cake ! 

Rum and Raisin Pear Buckle

ingredients for the fruit 1 1/2 green D'Anjou Pears, sliced lengthwise 1 tbsp unsalted butter 2 tbsps sugar 4 tbsps rum  2-3 tbsps water zest of 1/2 lemon pinch of salt 3 tbsps golden raisins for the streusel  3 tbsp all-purpose flour 2 tbsp oats 2 tbsp brown sugar (plus more if you like) 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cold, cut into pieces 1/2 tsp cinnamon powder 1/8 tsp nutmeg powder for the cake batter 1/2 cup all-purpose flour 2/3 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened 3 1/2 oz evaporated milk 1/4 cup fat-free sour cream 1/3 cup sugar -   what i did treating the fruit first i melted the butter in a saucepan, stirred in the sugar and added the pears. immediately afterwards i added the remaining ingredients to the saucepan and let the sliced pears poach in the liquid for 5 minutes. then switching off the heat i left the raisins in the liquid until they had plumped up a bit, about 30-45 minutes. for the struesel, i simply hand-mixed all the ingredients together and kept it aside. for the cake first i preheated the oven to 375 degrees F, lined a 6 inch springfoam pan with a parchment paper, then sifted the flour, salt and baking soda together and set it aside. next using the hand mixer i whipped the sugar with the butter until the mixture looked creamy. then added the evaporated milk and sour cream to the butter-sugar mixture and whisked till the mixture was well-combined.  i then stirred the sifted flour-mixture to the butter mixture with a light hand until the flour got incorporated into the batter.  then adding the soaked raisins in the batter, i poured it into the prepared springform pan, arranged the rum-poached pears on top of the batter in a circular pattern, spread the struesel  on top of the pear and transferred the pan into the preheated oven and baked for 45-50 minutes, until a skewer inserted came out clean. -   references Pear-Blackberry Buckle from Diana's Recipe Book  Nectarine Brown Butter Buckle from Smitten Kitchen Poached Rum and Raisin Pears from Epicurious

all that said, I have a few concerns about the buckle. i think in trying to make the recipe eggless I might have overdone the oil in the cake. it oozed oil after being taken out off the oven. keeping that in mind, i think, replacing the sour cream with Greek yogurt might be a good idea. also the crumb could use a little less butter, perhaps two tablespoons instead of three...

so much for today. Baking this along with Joe of  Bake for Happy Kids, Joyce of  Kitchen Flavours, and Lena of Frozen wings, the three three baker-teers behind Bake Along....

also check out what the others have baked....

Also sharing this at the following weekly parties....

Monday Food : Made with Love Mondays, Marvelous Mondays @ This Gal Cooks, Meatless Monday @Veggie Mama's,  Meatless Monday My Sweet and Savory, Just Another Meatless Monday @ Hey What's for Dinner Mom, Melt in your Mouth Mondays, Mop It Up Monday, Mealtime Monday, Recipe Sharing Monday, Inspire Me Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Maniac Monday Linky Party

Tuesday Food:  Totally Tasty Tuesday @ Mandy's Recipe Box, Tasteful Tuesday Party @ Nap Time Creations,  Show Me What You Got @ Our Delightful Home,  Hand Made Tuesday @ Ladybug Blessings, Share it Link Party @ Winthrop Chronicles, Hearth and Soul Blog Hop , Tasty Tuesday

Wednesday Food : What's Cooking Wednesday @ Confessions of Overworked Mom, Cast Party Wednesday @ Lady Behind the Curtain ,  Wednesday Whatsit @White Lights on , Show and Share @ Semi Homemade Mom, Wonderful Food Wednesdays at @ Home Take 2, Seasonal Celebration @ Natural Mother's Network

Thursday Food: Link it Up Thursday @ Seven Alive, Creative Thursday @ Michelle's Tasty Creations, Fantastic Thursday @ Three Little Chiefs, Thriving on Thursdays @ Domesblissity, Freedom Friday @ My Turn, Full Plate Thursday @ Miz Helen's Country Cottage  

Friday Food: Foodie Friday @ Home Maid Simple, Friday Favorite (DYI too) @ Simple Sweet Home, Foodie Friday @ Not Your Ordinary Recipes,  Foodie Friday @ Rattlebridge Farm , Weekend Wonders @ The Thriftiness Miss, Friday Food Frenzy @ Mostly Food and Crafts , Weekend Potluck @ Sunflower Supper Club,  The Weekend re-Treat @The Best Blog  Recipes