Strawberry Rhubarb Banana Bourbon Bread

I'm officially done with winter.  The weatherman promises freezing rain and a few inches of snow tomorrow, which means all the Cincinnati drivers will flip out the instant they see or even hear about a snowflake.  It's bizarre and it happens.  They also turn into morons over rain, but that's a story for another day...

The story for today is this quickbread.  It's a banana bread, so it's super moist and flavorful, especially if you use bananas completely beyond ripe.  It's flavored with the spicy warmth of bourbon (or dark rum, if that's your thing) to fight the winter chill.  And it has jammy pockets of bright, summery strawberries and tart rhubarb to sing of summer to your sleepy tastebuds.

In other words, this quickbread is exactly what you need when you are at the end of your ability to deal with winter.  Or anytime you want something delicious and impossible to resist for your midday snack or your second breakfast.  I've made this bread too many times to count in the past two years, shortly after my addiction to reading blogs took off.  The source of this recipe, Sassy Radish, is a stellar blog with lovely writing and equally lovely recipes.  But this quickbread is by far my favorite recipe of hers.

If you, like me, were wondering what exactly is a quickbread, Wikipedia has our answer (of course) (yes, I'm getting a graduate degree and still turn to Wikipedia for quick answers.  It's usually spot on.).  A quickbread is any type of bread leavened with agents other than yeast.  This includes a wide array of our favorite baked goods, such as cakes, cookies, brownies, banana bread, biscuits, cornbread, muffins, pancakes, scones, and that darling of March, soda bread.

Oh soda bread! Get ready, I'm coming for you...

Strawberry Rhubarb Banana Bourbon Bread
Barely adapted from Sassy Radish (get the original recipe here)
Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients:
1 cup (about 5 oz.) rhubarb*
1 cup (about 5 oz.) strawberries**
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar, divided into 1/2 cup and 1 cup portions
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg (Please, please, please just get whole nutmeg and grate it. It'll blow your mind)
3/4 tsp. salt
8 tbsp. (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
2 large eggs, room temperature
3 very overripe bananas, mashed (about 1 1/2 cups)***
1/4 cup plain Greek yogurt or sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tbsp. bourbon or dark rum

*For the rhubarb, I typically use the frozen sliced rhubarb found in the grocery store.  Just thaw it to room temperature and chop smaller, if necessary.
**For the strawberries, I often use the frozen whole or sliced strawberries found in the grocery store.  Just thaw it to room temperature and chop (or, ahem, smash slightly with the masher to get smaller pieces of strawberries).
***For the bananas, I use frozen peeled bananas that I stockpile in the freezer.  When the banana is way too ripe for me to eat, I peel it and store it with other bananas in an airtight bag in the freezer.  A quick tip on that:  stack the bananas whole in a bag (quart size works best for me) so you can break an entire banana off when needed.  Again, just thaw to room temperature if using frozen bananas.

A handy note:
Feel free to use frozen rhubarb, frozen strawberries, frozen (but still very ripe) bananas here.  They work very well, especially in the dead of winter when produce is scarce and flavorless.  Speed up thawing by microwaving (usually 70% power for 45 second bursts) until just barely frozen.  Create smaller pieces of the fruits using a potato masher.  Just keep your mashing of the rhubarb and strawberries to a bare minimum - you want chunks of these in the bread.

Preparation:

If using frozen fruit, thaw to room temperature (feel free to use the microwave to speed things up, but keep your fruit slightly frozen/chilled).

Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Generously butter a 9x5 loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.  I recommend forming a sling out of the parchement paper to help with removal later on.  To do this, cut a piece of paper to fit the pan...but leave extra paper on both sides, so the edges of the parchment paper extend higher than the sides of the pan.

In a medium bowl, stir together the rhubarb and strawberries with a 1/2 cup of sugar.  Set aside while you prepare the rest of the quickbread.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry goods (flour, baking powder, baking soda, nutmeg, and salt) until well-combined and fluffy.

Use an electric or stand mixer to beat the butter and the remaining 1 cup of granulated sugar until light and creamy.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.  Scrape the sides of the bowl down, then add the bananas, sour cream, vanilla, and bourbon (or dark rum) and mix well.

Add the dry goods mixture to the wet goods in two parts, stirring until just barely combined after each addition.  Less mixing here = less gluten formed = more tender crumb. Gently fold the sugar-rhubarb-strawberry mixture in until evenly distributed.  Folding (instead of using the electric mixer) will help keep gluten formation to a minimum, maintaining the tender crumb you've been working towards.

Transfer the batter to your prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top with a spoon or spatula.  Bake for 70 minutes, or until the top is a deep golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean (no crumbs or wet batter).  If you tap the top of the bread, it will offer a bit of resistance...meaning it won't collapse under your touch.

Allow the bread to cool for 15 minutes in the pan, but remove it to a cooling rack immediately after that.  Running a knife around the edges of the loaf will help loosen it, and now is the time to deploy the parchment paper sling were you wise enough to use it.  

Store the bread loosely wrapped in a kitchen towel or wax paper to preserve your deep golden crust.  Wrapping it tightly in plastic wrap or safely storing inside an airtight container will create a gummy and thoroughly unappealing crust.  Eat within 3-5 days, though you shouldn't have any problem with that.

Notes:

--I just can't get enough of this bread in winter.  I'm not entirely sure why I make it in winter, but I suspect it has to do with the comfort factor and the remind-me-of-summer factor.  Plus it keeps my oven on for an hour, and there are times when that helps heat my apartment.  

--Anything cooked in a loaf pan seems to require a sixth sense in knowing whether it is done or not.  In my opinion, the variability in doneness is related to:  1) quality of your loaf pan and 2) the heat of your oven.  I use a heavy non-stick loaf pan made by Baker's Secret, which I found at Target.  When I switched over from the thin, flimy, aluminum loaf pan I had been using, I saw an immediate improvement in my breads.   Likewise, knowing whether your oven runs hotter or cooler than the set temperature will help you know when to check on your bread.  And check often!

--For an irresistible extra crunch, sprinkle granulated sugar or turbinado (raw) sugar on top of the loaf immediately before baking. 

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza

Sometimes my curiosity leads me to click link after link after link.  It happens on Wikipedia pages all the time.  I'm reading an article I originally searched for, but get distracted by a link to another page...which inevitably spirals out of control and I've lost an hour and my original train of thought before I know it.  This is especially common when I'm on Deb Perelman's fantastic food blog, Smitten Kitchen.  Between the end of her writing and before the recipe, she has links to her recipes from years past.  It never fails that I click on at least one of those links...and you know where that goes.

Thankfully, Deb's recipes have never yielded a flop or a less-than-edible creation.  I've come to trust her implicitly and discovered quite a few flavors and dishes from her.  I would never have taken such a simple approach to pizza toppings - goat cheese, lemon, summer squash.  Straying from tomato sauce on a pizza is nearly anathema to me, as is the lack of a gooey melted cheese and toppings that pack a wallop of their own flavor.  But these three ingredients, plus salt and pepper, come together for a pizza unlike any I'd met before. Creamy and tangy and harmonious. Oh, and incredibly simple, especially if you're using store-bought dough or dough you'd made before and stored in the freezer.

Deb's cookbook debuts this week. While waiting for my pre-ordered copy (because I am quite a bit of a foodie nerd), I'll be baking her apple and cheddar scones, which won me over to the apple + cheese camp I'd assiduously avoided for my lifetime.  They're the perfect fall treat, especially for the first day after baking. If you aren't a fan of Smitten Kitchen yet, check her out!

Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza
Dough from Pizza: Award-Winning Pies for the Home Kitchen by Pete Evans
Toppings from Smitten Kitchen (get the original recipe here) 

For the Dough :
(makes 26 oz., roughly enough for four 12-inch pizzas)
Ingredients for the Dough:
1 cup warm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp. sugar
1 1/2 tbsp. olive oil
3 cups plus 1 tbsp. flour (bread flour or all-purpose flour)
1 1/4 tsp. salt
Additional all-purpose flour for dusting

Preparation for the Dough:
In a small bowl, mix the warm water, yeast, and sugar together until combined, then leave in a warm place for 5 minutes, or until frothy. Stir in the olive oil.

Mix the flour and salt together in a large bowl. Pour the yeast mixture over the flour mixture and use your hands to bring them together to form a dough.  Turn the dough out onto a work surface and use the heels of your hands to work the dough for 5 minutes, until it is smooth and elastic.  Place the dough inside a lightly oiled bowl, then drape it with a dish towel and leave in a warm place to proof for 45-60 minutes, until the dough is doubled in size.

Dust a clean work surface with flour and put your risen dough on it.  Use your fists to give one good punch the dough.  Stress relieving, right?  If portioning the dough into smaller pieces, do so now.  Working with one portion at a time, use the palms of your hands to cup the dough at its base.  Roll it on the work surface in a circular motion to form a perfect ball.  Repeat with any remaining portions of dough.  Set on a lightly greased baking tray and leave in a warm place to proof for 15 minutes.

At this point, you can either freeze some dough (stored safely inside a freezer plastic bag) or continue on towards immediate pizza satisfaction.

But before we continue on with the dough, we should talk about the oven. If you're using a pizza stone, put it into the oven before turning it on to 450 - 500 degrees Farenheit. If you're not using a pizza stone, place a metal sheet pan in the oven before turning it on to 450 degrees Farenheit. 

This is also the perfect time to prepare the toppings...

Ingredients for Toppings:

1 lemon

4 oz. goat cheese, room temperature

A few leaves of fresh basil

1/2 medium zucchini, sliced as thinly as you can get

1/2 medium yellow squash, sliced as thinly as you can get

Drizzle of olive oil

Salt and pepper, to taste

Parmesan cheese, for sprinkling

Preparation for Toppings:

In a small dough, stir together the goat cheese with the juice of half your lemon.  Add salt, pepper, and, if you're feeling it, some lemon zest.  Set aside.

Have your squash slices ready for topping.

Back to the dough. Roll or toss it out into roughly a 12-inch circle. If you're adventuring into tossing pizza dough for the first time, here are my two most important pieces of advice: toss over a counter (or else your dough will meet the floor) and catch the dough on your knuckles (that means curl your fingers into your palms, so your knuckles are the top surface of your hand).  Dust the surface of your pizza peel (or another sheet pan, flipped over to a flat surface) liberally with cornmeal; this will allow your dough to slide off the peel/sheet pan onto your pizza stone.

Once your dough is on the peel/pan, add your toppings.  Spread the goat cheese mixture on top of the dough, leaving a tiny bit of crust at the edge.  Place your thin slices of squash atop the goat cheese mixture, overlapping slightly.  Bonus points for artful patterns! Squeeze the remaining half of lemon over the top, add a drizzle of olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.

Slide your pizza from the peel/sheet pan onto your pre-heated pizza stone or sheet pan. I find this easiest to do if I pull the oven rack out a bit so I can deposit the pizza squarely in the middle.  It won't move easily once you set it on top, so do your best to position it well. Also, if your pizza gets stuck on the peel/sheet pan, you can use a spatula to help coax the pizza off of it. Cook for 10-15 minutes, until the edges are golden-brown and the squash curl up slightly around their edges.  Remove from the oven (I pluck the entire pizza stone out of the oven, but you can also slide it onto your pizza peel/sheet tray) and sprinkle liberally with Parmesan cheese.

Probably the best pizza I've yet made, with a crust balanced between crispy and chewy.  The toppings also shine through - creamy, slightly melted goat cheese, lightly roasted squash, the salty tang of Parmesan, and most of all, the bright flavor of lemon keeping you interested in each bite.  And Deb was right - this goes awfully well with a glass (or two) of crisp white wine.

A note - if your lemon is on the larger side, you may want to use less than half a lemon in each application.  Just taste the goat cheese mixture and add to taste.

Coming soon!  My roommate and I are gearing up for a (mostly) weekly event called Pies and Pints, where we'll be cooking different pizzas each week and trying a new beer with it.  

By the Book: Banana Bourbon Bread Pudding

I'm a sucker for anything with the consistency of custard.  Creme brulee? Flan? Curd? Pastry cream? Yes, yes, yes, and yes, please!  I am aware there are people out there who don't enjoy the texture of custard.  I respect their opinion.  I vaguely understand what they mean (for me, it's one-chew-too-many of lettuce).  But I just can't understand their dislike of custard.  It's creamy, it's rich, it's got some oomph, and it's delicious on its own or playing a role in a dish.

Bread puddings fall within the category of recipe containing a form of custard.  They're also a fantastic way to use up bread, especially when you've shoved it to the back of your refrigerator and, uh, lost track of it for a bit.  Roughly torn pieces of bread soak up a rich mixture of eggs and cream that, when baked, become a bread-containing custard.  Perfect hot or cold.  Though, if you're like me, you can't be bothered to take the time to transfer a serving of bread pudding into another dish and warm it up.  Instead, you dig in with a spoon, devouring it directly out of the refrigerator.  Shhh, don't tell!

This version of bread pudding from Joy the Baker has two additional ingredients to send this variation over the edge -- bananas and bourbon.  If you're feeling really frisky, add some chocolate.  Keep in mind that chunks of chocolate (chopped from a bar of baking chocolate) will melt more than chocolate chips, which contain stabilizers to maintain chip shape during baking.  But they're both chocolate, and therefore both delicious in any form.

Those are a few cherries in the upper left corner.
Don't mind them. They were tasty, but, honestly
this bread pudding is better without them.

Banana Bourbon Bread Pudding
From Joy the Baker Cookbook:  100 Simple and Comforting Recipes by Joy Wilson
Makes one 8-inch pan

Ingredients:
1 stale baguette (about 10 oz.)
2 mashed bananas (about 2/3 cup)
2 1/2 cups whole milk
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
5 large eggs
3 tbsp. bourbon
2 tsp. pure vanilla extract
cinnamon or vanilla sugar
2 sliced bananas, for topping

Preparation:
Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees Farenheit.  Butter an 8-inch square baking dish and set aside.

Tear or cut the stale baguette into small and large chunks.  If your baguette isn't stale, toast the pieces on a sheet pan in the oven for 5-7 minutes.  Put the baguette pieces into the baking dish and add the mashed bananas. Use your hands to mix the mashed bananas with the torn bread, so that the banana is even distributed among the bread chunks.

In a  medium saucepan over low heat, combine milk, sugar, and salt. Stir until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is warm. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

In a medium bowl, whisky eggs.  While whisking, drizzle in the warm milk mixture until it is all added and well mixed.  Stir in the bourbon and vanilla.

Pour the milk mixture over the torn bread.  Press the bread into the liquid so that all the bread is at least moistened.  Allow the mixture to rest for 10 minutes before baking.

Bake for 25-35 minutes or until bread is browned and the liquid is no longer jiggly (though the bread should still look moist). Remove from the oven and allow to cool for 20 minutes before serving.  If desired, top with cinnamon sugar and fresh sliced bananas.

Store the bread pudding, well wrapped, in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.  You can briefly microwave it before serving, though it's just as delicious cold.

Vive la custard!