Banana Oat Cake

 

Oats and Chokecherry Blossom by Charles E&T

 

 

Banana Oat Breakfast Cake

1 cup sugar

½ cup unsalted butter

½ cup oats

1 cup flour

2 - 3 bananas, mashed

1 egg

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 Tablespoon hot water

This is an adaptation of my mother’s, maternal grandmother’s and aunts’ recipe for banana cake. Please scroll down for the original recipe.

Directions: Wash and dry the egg. Put dish towel used to dry egg in the dirty clothes hamper. Crack egg into a separate small bowl and check egg.

Cream sugar and butter, add bananas and cream. Add oats and cream. Add egg and cream. Add flour, cream. Lastly and the baking soda which is dissolved in a Tablespoon of hot water. Using the butter wrapper, grease a 9.5 inch, deep dish pie pan and then dust with flour. Pour batter into the deep dish pan.

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 40 minutes; insert a knife to test if completely baked in the middle. While cake is baking make the icing. 

This cake is always moist, always falls in the middle which makes for a swimming pool of icing in the middle. We enjoy it.

Icing

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

¼ cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

3 Tablespoons whole milk

¼ - ½ cup powdered sugar

While cake is baking, make the icing. Melt in small sauce pan: butter, brown sugar, vanilla and milk. Stir. Remove from heat and sift in the powdered sugar. Pour icing over cake while cake and icing are still warm.

Serves 8 people.

Notes: This cake assembles quickly and with the oats and triangular slices presents as a breakfast or brunch cake.

Banana Cake

Below are the original ingredient lists for the banana cake and frosting that my mother, her mother and the aunts made and that I made for years. It’s great for backyard birthday parties. The cake was a conversation piece in part because it seems to have originated in a time of shortages: fewer bananas, eggs and fresh milk. In contrast, there were abundant amounts of powdered sugar. I don’t know how the remaining evaporated milk was used. It’s an interesting question.

Note: We always doubled the cake recipe and baked it in a 9.5 x 13.25 inch pan or some similar sized pan. The frosting recipe does Not need to be doubled. It yields a generous amount of frosting.

Banana Cake

1 cup sugar

¼ pound butter or margarine

1 egg

1 cup crushed ripe bananas

1 ½ cups sifted flour

1 teaspoon baking soda dissolved in 1 Tablespoon hot water

Frosting

4 Tablespoons butter or margarine

½ cup brown sugar

5 Tablespoons evaporated milk

¼ teaspoon salt

1 ¾ cups powdered sugar

½ teaspoon vanilla

½ cup chopped walnuts, optional

 

Blueberry Oat Scone

 

Blueberry Oat Scone photo by ET Charles

Rustic Blueberry Oat Scone

1 cup flour

1 cup whole oats

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3 Tablespoons sugar

1/16 teaspoon lavender salt or less

1/4 cup unsalted butter (half a stick)

2 ounces cream cheese

1/3 cup heavy cream

2 eggs

1 cup frozen blueberries

          With a one-to-one-to-one ratio of flour, oats and blueberries this makes a hearty, irregularly shaped scone.

Directions: Combine dry ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir and mix well. This makes a thick batter that is best mixed by hand. Cut in butter with a fork or pastry mixer. Cut in cream cheese also with a fork. Add the cream and mix well. Wash and dry each egg. Crack each egg separately into a small bowl and examine for flaws. Make a well in the batter; add the eggs. Mix the eggs in the well and then mix the eggs with the rest of the batter with a fork.

          Grease and flour a 10.5-inch pie pan. Place dough in pan. Dough will be thick and lumpy and will not reach all edges of the pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 – 40 minutes. Oven temperatures vary so adjust baking time as necessary. A knife inserted into the baked scone should emerge clean. Let scone cool.

Icing

2 Tablespoon unsalted butter

2 - 3 Tablespoons fresh squeezed Meyer lemon juice or whatever you have

1/3 – 1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar

          In a small sauce pan melt butter. Add lemon juice. Stir. Remove from heat and sift in powdered sugar. This will make a translucent glaze. Pour glaze on scone and serve warm but not hot.

Serves 6 people.

Thanks to Wanda Dietz for the first gift of lavender salt.

 

Pumpkin Scone with Whole Wheat Flour

 

Heavy wet snow coats and breaks the foliage in late May what better time for Pumpkin Scone.

1 cup white flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup oats, uncooked

1 Tablespoon baking powder

½ cup packed brown sugar

1/16 teaspoon lavender salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

½ teaspoon ginger

½ teaspoon cloves

½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

2 eggs

1 cup cream

15 ounce can of pumpkin – be careful to use pumpkin and not pumpkin pie mix

Directions: Stir all the dry ingredients together thoroughly in a large bowl. Cut in butter. Crack eggs individually into a separate bowl if both are fine, stir together and add to dry ingredients and stir thoroughly. Add cream to above mixture and stir. Add pumpkin and stir thoroughly. Grease and flour a 9.5-inch diameter, deep-dish pie pan. Pour mixture into pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 45 minutes. Test scone with table knife. If dough is sticky return scone to oven for another 10 to 15 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Pumpkin is dense and the baking time is longer than for a white flour and cream scone.

Icing

2 Tablespoons unsalted butter

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup sifted powdered sugar

1+ Tablespoon heavy cream

Directions: Melt butter in small sauce pan. Add vanilla. Sift in powdered sugar. Icing should be runny. If it is thick, add 1 Tablespoon cream. Stir. Spoon carefully all over scone; one may poke holes in scone so icing will run inside.

Serve scone while warm.

Serves 6 - 8 people.

Notes: Pumpkin scone with whole wheat flour variation 2

Warm Cherries for Chilly Mornings

 

2 cups frozen sweet cherries

1 teaspoon or less butter

1/16 teaspoon – actually just a dash of nutmeg

Directions: Generously grease small Pyrex pie pan or small casserole dish with butter. Spread sweet cherries in pan. Sprinkle the smallest amount of nutmeg on the cherries. Bake at 300 degrees Fahrenheit for 20 to 30 minutes, using care not to burn the juices.

Serves 2 people.

Notes: On exceptionally cold winter days, heated fruit warms the body and tastes surprisingly good.

Oatmeal Pear Scone

 

1 cup flour

1 cup oats

1 Tablespoon baking powder

3 Tablespoons sugar

¼ teaspoon nutmeg

¼ cup of butter or 4 Tablespoons butter

4 pears, peeled and sliced

2 eggs

1/3 cup cream

Directions: Mix together all the dry ingredients, stirring to mix. Cut in butter. Cut pears into pieces and add to mixture, including any additional juice. Break eggs into a separate bowl. Add cream to eggs. Mix with a fork. Add the egg and cream mixture to the oatmeal pear mixture. Grease a 9.5-inch pie pan with butter and dust with flour. Pour mixture into the greased and floured pie pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes. Scone will be golden brown; let cool so that juices may be reabsorbed.

Serves 6-8 people.

Notes: This is a nice way to use late summer produce. 

Cherries in phyllo pastry

 

16 ounces frozen dark sweet cherries, slightly more than 3 cups

8 ounces phyllo sheets (1/2 of a box of phyllo)

1 Tablespoon olive oil, to be divided

2 Tablespoons butter, to be divided

Sprinkle of nutmeg, less than 1/16 of a teaspoon

It is best to have all the ingredients out on the counter before opening the phyllo.

Generously grease a 9 1/2 inch pie pan. Layer 2 to 6 sheets of phyllo pastry in the pan, edges will hang over. With your fingers, gently and rapidly spread olive oil over the top sheet of phyllo. In the opposite direction layer another 2 to 6 sheets of phyllo and spread olive oil over the top sheet. Continue until all 8 ounces of phyllo sheets are in the pan. Do not add olive oil to the top layer. Add all the cherries; dot the cherries with slivers of butter. Carefully fold the excess phyllo over the cherries. The cherries will be visible in the middle. Dot the folded over phyllo with slivers of butter. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 35 minutes. Remove from heat; cool for 5 to 10 minutes and then serve.

Serves 6 people.

Notes: Very good and a fast, easy way to eat warm fruit at breakfast on chilly mornings. Serve in bowls and spoon the excess juices over the baked phyllo pastry.

Pumpkin Scone

It has snowed and it is time for Pumpkin Scone.

The dry ingredients may be mixed in advance.

2 cups flour

3 tablespoons sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon cloves

1/2 teaspoon ginger

Combine all dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix with a slotted spoon. This mixture may be stored for a day or two. However, it is easiest to add the oats, last. That is after the butter, milk, pumpkin and eggs have been mixed with the flour, sugar and spices.

Add the wet ingredients.

1/4 cup sweet (unsalted) butter

1 cup cream or half and half or milk

1 15 ounce can of pumpkin

2 eggs, beaten

Use a fork to blend the butter into the dry ingredients. Then add the cream or milk, stir. Then add the pumpkin and stir. One at a time, crack 2 eggs and mix with a fork in a separate bowl and then add to the mixture.

Grease and flour a deep dish, 10 inch pie pan or a similar sized casserole. Pour the mixture into the pan. Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit for 50 minutes. Test by inserting a fork or table knife into the scone. If the knife emerges clean, the scone is completely baked or done.

Icing

2 tablespoons sweet (unsalted butter)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup powdered sugar

Melt butter. Add vanilla. Sift powdered sugar into butter and vanilla. Pour or smooth onto warm scone.

Serves 6-8

Blueberries in Puff Pastry

 

1 1/2 - 2 cups of blueberries

8 – 10 sheets of phyllo dough or puff pastry

1/8 pound (1/2 stick) of unsalted butter

2 butter wrappers for greasing pie pan

1 Tablespoon sugar

1/8 teaspoon nutmeg

1/16 teaspoon lavender salt

Wash blueberries. Remove any stems and discard all soft and squishy berries. Thoroughly grease a 9 1/2 inch deep dish pie pan with butter wrappers. All at once, place 4 or 5 sheets in bottom of pie pan. The ends of the pastry will overlap the edges of the pie plate. Slice off the first tablespoon of butter and then cut into five pieces and distribute evenly on the puff pastry. All at once, place the second 4 or 5 pieces of puff pastry on top of those in the pie plate. Slice off the second tablespoon of butter and then cut into five pieces and distribute evenly on the puff pastry. Place blueberries on top of the pastry; they will be one layer of blueberries thick and in places two blueberries thick. Sprinkle nutmeg, lavender salt and sugar evenly over the berries. Dot the berries with the third tablespoon of butter. Fold the excess puff pastry over the blueberries and then dot the top of the puff pastry with the last tablespoon of butter.

There will be extra phyllo dough; refold it in its original paper and then place in a plastic bag and store in the refrigerator for future us.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. The pastry needs to be covered or it will become tough in the oven.

Serves 6 people.

Notes: This can be made the day before and stored in the refrigerator and then served for breakfast.