Mini Banana-Peach Cakes

Let me just start out by saying that Alton Brown is a genius. I don't necessarily think he's the best chef out there, but he knows how to teach about cooking in a way that grabs your attention and sucks you in. His show Good Eats is unique, fast paced, and full of interesting information about food. The depth of his food knowledge is also demonstrated weekly when he hosts Iron Chef America. He's got to be the smartest person on the Food Network today.

There are also things about his philosophy on food that resonate with me. For example, let me share my favorite Alton Brown quote with you:
"You know we fixate on the food so much itself: 'Oh, the ultimate brownie or the ultimate this or that' -- well, let me tell you something: It’s all poop in about 12 hours, okay? The real power that food has is its ability to connect human beings to each other -- that’s the stuff right there and, to me, everything else is secondary to that."
Amen. I have to agree that this is exactly why food is such a powerful thing.

Anyway, back to the recipe. This cake is based on Alton Brown's Individual Peach Upside-Down Cake, a recipe that I picked up from an episode of Good Eats. I like it because it's really easy, but it looks great and it's pretty healthy for a dessert. Each cake is an individual serving, cooked in a ramekin. After baking, the ramekin is flipped upside down, and the vibrant orange of the peach makes for a pretty top to the dessert.

The juicy peach sits on top of a fluffy vanilla flavored cake. In my version, I added banana as a second layer of fruit under the peach, to add a bit more variety. I also used cinnamon instead of candied ginger, since its an ingredient I'm more likely to have around the house.

Another substitution I made was using yogurt and milk instead of buttermilk. I rarely use buttermilk in my cooking, and it's always annoying to have to buy an ingredient just for one recipe. So, after a little searching online I found that yogurt, thinned with a bit of milk can be a buttermilk substitute. I had some yogurt leftover from making pancakes so I decided to give it a try. It made the batter a little thicker, but worked great!

I like to eat the cake by itself, but it would also be great with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Mini Banana-Peach Cakes
(makes 4 cakes)

Fruit layer:
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 peach, peeled and cut into 1/3 inch slices
1/2 tsp cinnamon, or enough to generously sprinkle each ramekin
1 banana, sliced into 1/3 inch thick rounds

Cake layer:
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. butter, melted
3 Tbsp milk
5 Tbsp yogurt
1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Divide 2 Tbsp. of the butter evenly between 4 ramekins, cutting into small pieces to cover the bottom. Sprinkle brown sugar on top of the butter, dividing evenly between the ramekins.

Lay peach slices on top of the sugar, forming a layer of peach on the bottom. Remember that the peach slices will shrink when cooked, so make it a generous layer, overlapping as necessary. On top of this, sprinkle some cinnamon into each ramekin. Then add the banana on top, forming another layer.

For the cake, in a large bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl (I usually just use a liquid cup measure), mix together sugar, melted butter, milk, yogurt, and vanilla. Add the wet to the dry and mix until just combined. At this point, the batter should be relatively thick, but thin enough to pour. If it seems too thick, add some more milk until it's the right consistency. Pour evenly into the ramekins, filling just up to the top.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until top is beginning to brown and juices are bubbling. Warning: be sure to put something under the ramekins, since they are likely to leak fruit juice. I like to use a piece of tin foil on the rack below.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Run a knife around the outside edge to loosen and flip upside down on a plate. Enjoy alone, or with ice cream.

Pinon: Carribean style beef and plantains

My husband's family is from the Dominican Republic, so plantains were a staple when he was growing up. When we started cooking together, I was introduced to plantains, and they quickly became a regular part of our cooking. However, I only know a limited number of ways to cook with them, most of which feature the plantain as the main ingredient. This recipe on the Food Network site caught my eye because it includes plantains, but incorporates a lot of other ingredients and flavors.

Plantains have a bit of a dual personality. When they are not ripe, they are green, hard, and taste similar to potatoes. However, when they ripen they turn yellow/brown, soften, and have a sweet flavor, like bananas. It always amazes me that you can get such a wide range of textures and flavors from a single ingredient!

Some traditional uses of green plantains include mangu, which tastes similar to textured mashed potatoes, and tostones, which are basically french fries made from plantains. Platanos maduros is a dish where the ripe plantains are fried and is reminiscent of banana flambe.

This recipe calls for semi-ripe plantains, which means that they are yellow, with brown spots. Usually you can find both green and ripe plantains for sale. However, if you can only find green plantains, you can also keep them on your counter until they ripen. While I haven't done this myself, this site says that keeping them for a week in a paper bag will do the trick.

This interpretation of pinon is like a lasagna, with plantains instead of noodles, and Spanish spices that heighten the flavor. The ground beef is spicy and contrasts with the sweetness of the raisins and plantains. (Did I mention that one of my favorite flavor combinations is spicy and sweet??) The Parmesan cheese in this dish is definitely an Italian inspired addition, and makes it feel more like a lasagna. As far as I can tell from poking around online, this recipe is based on a traditional Puerto Rican omelette, but it takes some diversions from the authentic version.

One ingredient in this recipe that was new to me was achiote, a spice commonly used in Latin American cuisine. I picked some up when I first made this dish and I have found that it is generally useful in other things that I make. However, if you don't feel like getting any, I think a good substitute would be paprika. It has the same bold color and mild smoky flavor.

One thing that I would like to experiment with next time I make this is baking the plantains, instead of frying them. I suspect you could get pretty much the same flavor, and it would be a lot healthier, as well as less time consuming.

Here is what it looks like:


And here is the recipe, based on this Food Network recipe:

Pinon: Carribean style beef and plantains
(serves 5-6)

Ground beef filling:
1.25 lbs ground beef
1 onion, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1/2 tsp salt, to taste
1/2 tsp pepper, to taste
2 bay leaves
1 tsp ground achiote
1/2 tsp coriander
1/4 - 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes, to taste
1 16 ounce can whole tomatoes, drained (juices reserved), and chopped
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1/4 cup raisins
1.5 Tbsp red wine vinegar

For the lasagna layers:
4 semi-ripe plantains, yellow with some spots
olive oil, enough to coat the bottom of a pan
2 eggs
2-3 Tbsp. milk, or water
1/2 - 1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
cilantro, optional for garnish

Note that you can make the ground beef filling in advance and store in the fridge until you are ready to make the rest.

Also a tip on cooking this for 2-3 people. Instead of just cutting the whole recipe in half, usually I cook all of the ground beef filling and save half of it for the next day. Then I halve the ingredients used for the other lasagna layers. For example, only 2 plantains, 1 egg, etc. A loaf pan works perfectly for the halved recipe.

Cook ground beef in a large pot over medium heat until no longer pink. Add the onion, red and green bell pepper, bay leaves, and spices. Cook for a few more minutes until the onions and peppers begin to soften.

Add all remaining ingredients to the beef, including the chopped tomatoes and reserved juice, tomato sauce, raisins, and vinegar. Bring to a simmer and let the flavors combine for 10-15 minutes. At this point, taste and adjust the spices to your liking.

Set the beef aside to cool while you prepare the plantains.

Peel the plantains and cut diagonally into 1/4-1/3 inch thick slices. (Tip for peeling a plantain: the skin is a little thicker than bananas, so you'll want to cut one end off and slice through the skin lengthwise three times, spaced evenly around the plantain. Then the skin will peel off easily.)

Heat a large pan on medium heat and lightly coat the bottom of the pan with olive oil. When the oil is hot (bubbles when you add a small piece of plantain), add enough slices to cover the bottom of the pan. When the bottom is browned (after a couple minutes), flip to cook the other side. Remove when both sides are lightly browned. (Note the dark brown color on some of the plantain slices in the middle of my picture - that's probably a little too brown :-))

Remove slices to a paper towel to drain and repeat the process for the remaining plantain slices. Add more oil if the pan gets dry in some areas.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Lightly oil a large rectangular baking pan (3 quart capacity). Combine eggs and milk in a bowl and lightly beat. Add half of the egg mixture to the bottom of the pan. Follow with a layer of 1/3 of the plantains, 1/2 of the beef mixture, and 1/2 of the cheese mixture. Repeat another 1/3 of the plantains, remaining beef, and remaining cheese. Top with a layer of plantains. Finally, pour the remaining egg mixture evenly over the top.

Cover with aluminum foil and bake until hot and bubbling. If you started with freshly cooked beef (not out of the fridge), usually all the ingredients start warm and you only need to bake for 30 minutes. However, starting with cold beef, you really need to bake for about an hour to heat through.

Remove the foil, sprinkle with cilantro, and enjoy!

Not-so-red Velvet Cupcakes

I have to confess that I have been a bit obsessed with cupcakes lately. It started when I went to the local bakery and had an amazing carrot cupcake. Then I had a very tasty vanilla cupcake at Kara's Cupcakes in Ghirardelli Square. I even made a special trip to Magnolia when I was in New York City about a month ago, just to see why it is so popular. (Honestly, I still don't get why Magnolia is so famous - they weren't my favorite, although the icing was good.)

Then I saw a Paula Deen show on red velvet cupcakes. Paula Deen is a food network personality who is well known for her southern comfort food recipes, many of which involve a stick of butter or a package of cream cheese. Most of her food is too rich for my taste, but I figured that if anybody would know how to make a decadent dessert, it would be her. So, I decided to try out her recipe for red velvet cupcakes.

The result? The cupcakes were fluffy and moist, and the icing was just sinful. However, I couldn't taste the cocoa in the cake and they left me with a bit of a greasy/oily feeling. (As a side note I also noticed that they left a sizable puddle of oil in the cupcake pan, which is not all that surprising considering how much oil is in the recipe.)

Upon offering some of the cupcakes to my friends, they were generally well received, but I inevitably heard "Wow, what makes them so red??" and was somewhat ashamed to admit that it involved food coloring.

All of this left me thinking that I could probably improve upon the initial recipe. I've always been afraid to experiment when baking though. I mean, when you are cooking something savory, no big deal. Double the garlic, throw in a few extra spices, swap some ingredients, it all works out in the end. But with baking, I'm always afraid that I'll end up with a dense cake that doesn't rise.

I decided to give it a shot, while trying to be conservative about how much I changed in the recipe. I reduced the oil by 1/3 and added a couple of tablespoons of butter instead, hoping that this would give it a less greasy feel. I also decided to increase the cocoa powder, to allow for more of the chocolate flavor to come through, and I doubled the vanilla extract for more flavor. Finally, I ditched the food coloring, deciding that despite the southern tradition it was pretty unnecessary. Instead I topped with red crystallized sugar.

The result? The cupcake was definitely less oily and didn't leave me with a greasy feel like the original recipe. The cake did lose a bit of the light, airy feel that the original version had, though. This is possibly because of the butter substitution and possibly because I reduced the overall proportion of wet ingredients in the recipe. I think I might continue to experiment with this one, but not half bad for a first try! Any advice from baking experts out there??

Here is the finished product:


And here is the recipe:

Not-so-red Velvet Cupcakes
(makes 12 cupcakes)

Cupcakes:
1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon cocoa powder
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 Tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup buttermilk, room temperature
1 large egg, room temperature
1/2 teaspoon white distilled vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/2 lb. cream cheese, softened
1 stick butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

red crystallized sugar, to top

For the cupcakes:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a 12-cup muffin pan with cupcake papers.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder. In a large bowl gently beat together the oil, melted butter, buttermilk, eggs, vinegar, and vanilla with a handheld electric mixer. Add the sifted dry ingredients to the wet and mix until smooth and thoroughly combined.

Divide the batter evenly among the cupcake tins about 2/3 filled. Bake in oven for about 20 to 22 minutes, turning the pan once, half way through. Test the cupcakes with a toothpick for doneness. Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

For the Cream Cheese Frosting:
Be sure all your ingredients are at room temperature! That means leaving the butter and cream cheese out for at least a couple of hours. In a large mixing bowl, beat the cream cheese, butter and vanilla together until smooth. Add the sugar and on low speed, beat until incorporated. Increase the speed to high and mix until very light and fluffy. You'll see the the icing lighten in color and increase in volume.

Frost the cupcakes, sprinkle with the crystallized sugar, and enjoy! The frosted cupcakes will keep in the fridge for several days.