Raisin Oatmeal Banana Muffins

When we went to Ireland in 2013, one of the restaurants there served a great banana bread with dinner. It was so good. So when I came home I sent them an email asking them for their recipe.

Below is an adaptation of that recipe (sorry I can never leave a recipe alone). The original recipe included cinnamon and raisins, which I had never seen before in a banana bread recipe.

My recipe below maintains those two ingredients, and in this version, I also changed the recipe to include oats. I have to say I have a hard time not including raisins, oats and cinnamon in many of my recipes. I also reduced the amount of fat that was in the original recipe and exchanged some of the white flour for whole wheat.

Mix into medium bowl:
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup white flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
2 tsp of cinnamon
1 1/2 cups raisins

Mix into large bowl:
2 cups rolled oats
1 cup of buttermilk or soured milk
1/2 cup canola oil
4 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 cups mashed bananas

Pour dry ingredients into wet ingredients and mix just until moistened.

Scoop into lined muffin pans. Bake for 20-25 minutes at 350 until a toothpick comes out clean.

Makes 21 muffins. You could probably make 24 muffins, they would be a bit smaller.

Maloney Family BBQ 2015

Photos courtesy Pat

Video courtesy Maureen

Bridge courtesy Mike and Dave

Tremblay/Taracha Baby courtesy Johanna, Mike and God

 

Carrot cake

Johanna and Mike's wedding cake
September 25, 2010

Carrot cake
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Combine above ingredients in medium bowl

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
3 eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups grated carrots

Combine above ingredients in large bowl

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and combine

Cream Cheese icing
1/2 container of light cream cheese
2-3 cups icing sugar

Makes 1 9 inch round cake

I made three recipes of this cake for Johanna's wedding. One was 9 inches. The other was twice that size, also round. The original recipe called for a 9X13 pan.

I made a couple of test cakes. The first ones were too wet. So I didn't put in the applesauce called for in the recipe. I kept track of my cooking times. Below are the times for the two final cakes I made.

9 inch round took 76 minutes. I took it out 5-7 minutes past when a toothpick first comes out dry.

Double round cake (not sure of the diameter) took about 115 minutes. Temp was between 300 and 325 since 350 was too hot and the perimeter was getting too brown.

The recipe originates from the Crazy Plates cook book by Janet and Greta Podleski. I omitted the applesauce called for in both cakes including my test cakes. One test cake was in a bundt pan and it overflowed the pan. I also omitted the walnuts called for.

The cake was decorated with cream cheese icing which is terrible as it doesn't hold its shape. It was beautifully decorating by my sister in law Judy. The icing was fantastic though, and way thicker than I would have made it. Everyone loved it. In fact both cake and icing were fantastic, a huge hit.

I'll be making this cake again for Maude's wedding. Judy did a fantastic job of making cream cheese icing, considering that it kept melting on her. But this time Judy will decorate one layer with proper decorating icing. I'll ice the other cakes with cream cheese icing.

Quantities for five cakes
2 1/2 cups all purpose flour (12.5 cups)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar (7.5 cups)
1 cup drained crushed pineapple (5 cups)
3 eggs (15 eggs)
1/3 cup vegetable oil (1.67 cups)
2 tsp vanilla
3 cups grated carrots (15 cups)

Cream Cheese icing
1/2 container of light cream cheese (2.5 containers)
2-3 cups icing sugar (12 cups since one cake will not be iced by me)

When all else fails, sit on 'em

Artwork by Paula Maloney

Adventures in making Wild Black Raspberry Jam

I recently found the mother lode of wild black raspberries near our home. Fred and I picked about 10 cups of the berries. The first day I had only my Ireland hat on my head to carry them back in:

The next night we went back prepared, five cottage cheese containers of berries, two of them were full:

So yesterday I made wild black raspberry jam.

Everything went according to plan until I got to this bit in the recipe:

"boil until mixture will form a gel about 5 minutes. To determine when the mixture will form a gel, use the spoon test: Dip a cool metal spoon into the hot fruit. Immediately lift it out and away from the steam and turn it horizontally. At the beginning of the cooking process, the liquid will drip off in light, syrupy drops. Try again a minute or two later — the drops will be heavier. The jam is done when the drops are very thick and two run together before falling off the spoon."

Well I was never able to get the jam to reach the point where "the drops are very thick and two run together before falling off the spoon." By the time I had cooked the jam for about 20-25 minutes, I finally said to myself: "okay I've had enough of this nonsense, this jam is done."

So I finished and canned the jam. This morning when I opened a jar, low and behold, the jam was like glue. Shoot. Oh well it still tastes awesome. I just need to add a bit of water to it every time I use it, to thin it out a bit.

The recipe also had a one to one ratio of sugar to berries. That's a crap load of sugar. There are other recipes that use a two to one ration of berries to sugar. That's what I'll use next time.

Today I found this site that gives a more in-depth procedure to check for done-ness. Maybe next time I'll have more luck in figuring out when it's cooked.

Happy Birthday Barb