melting your mouth

I made this gluten-free quick bread for a brunch several weeks ago, and now I’ve finally found the time to write it up. This is my first foray into gluten-free baking, and it turned out surprisingly well. It seemed like a good breakfast bread alternative for those who for one reason or another have to stay clear of gluten. I can (and do!) eat as much flour as I want, but I really enjoyed this bread, too. It’s healthier than most breakfast breads since most of the sweetener comes from the fruit, with just a little bit of honey. And the nuts, while adding wonderful flavor, also mean that it will stick with you better than the normal carbohydrate only quick bread. It’s a winner all around!

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When we had Mom and Dad over for dinner last week, I was planning to make this rhubarb ginger galette that Garrett McCord guest authored on Simply Recipes. However, when I started cutting up the rhubarb, I realized that some of it had gone bad, and I didn’t have enough fruit to make it, so I ended up using about 1/3 apricots which Mom had brought us from the tree at her house. I also neglected to buy ginger root, so I substituted a bit of ground ginger instead, which I’m sure wasn’t as gingery, but was still delicious.

A galette is a sort of a pie without the pie pan, so the edges are just folded up to hold in the fruit. (The word galette can also mean a crepe filled with savory filling, and often using a buckwheat dough.) The apricots and rhubarbs were a delicious combination. I know strawberry is the more traditional accompaniment to rhubarb, and I don’t think I’ve ever actually had it, but it’s never appealed to me. It just seems like strawberries would be too sweet to pair with rhubarb. I’m used to the pies my mom always makes my dad on his birthday with just straight rhubarb, nice and tart. However, rhubarb and apricots do make for a nice pair. The apricot is just sweet enough, but with plenty of that great, mouth-puckering rhubarb flavor still shining through. Delicious! As you can see, we gobbled this one up too quickly for me to get any pictures except of the one leftover piece. I ate it for dessert a couple days later, but I must say, it would’ve made an excellent breakfast, too.

What kind of filling do you like in your fruit pies?

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It’s that time of the month again … time for another Daring Bakers‘ event. This time, Kelly from Sass & Veracity and Ben from What’s cooking? hosted us to make a Danish Braid. Making this was a lot of fun. I have never made this kind of pastry before. The process is somewhat like making puff pastry (also on my list of things to try to do). After making the dough, which is deliciously flavored with orange and cardamon, you spread it with butter and fold it up on itself, then you keep rolling it back out and folding it in on itself several times over the course of a couple hours, so that you have thin layers of dough with butter in between. The dough is also yeasted, so after assembling the braid, you let it rise for a couple hours. Mine actually didn’t rise as much as it probably should’ve, but it still tasted fine and made a nice light, flaky dough.

This time we were allowed to put our own touch on the recipe by choosing the filling. The recipe came with directions for an apple filling, but I decided to use blackberry preserves instead. At the last minute I remembered that I also had some blanched almonds left over from the Opera Cake last month, so I ground those up with some sugar and an egg to make almond paste, which I spread in the braid underneath the jam.

This is definitely a recipe I will try again, and since the dough made enough for two braids, you might even hear about it again if I think of an interesting enough filling!

I didn’t make any changes to the dough recipe, so I will refer you to Kelly’s post for the recipe, which came from Sherry Yard’s book The Secrets of Baking. Thanks to Kelly and Ben for a great event! And make sure to check out everyone else’s Danish Braids on the Daring Bakers’ Blogroll … there are some great ones out there!

Safeway had an amazing price on mangoes this week — 4 for a dollar instead of the usual $1.50 apiece! So we came home without about 8. So far, we’ve eaten them by themselves and in mango salsa. Then I noticed we had an overripe banana sitting on the counter, and I thought I’d try to make a banana-mango bread with the last two. I hoped to base it on my mom’s recipe, which adds some spice to the traditional banana bread. However, I couldn’t find it, so I turned where I always do, to Elise at Simply Recipes, who seems to have a recipe for anything and everything. I was thinking of a somewhat Indian-inspired concept, so I used spices normally found in chai. I didn’t think the spice flavor was pronounced enough (I added 1/4 t each of ginger, cardamon, cloves, and cinnamon), so I’ve upped the ante a bit in the recipe below. I also added some chopped pistachios, as I like a bit of texture in my quick breads.

So, how did it turn out? It like it, and if I ever end up with overripe mangoes again, I’ll definitely keep it as a possibility. However, that fresh mango flavor and texture didn’t quite shine through all the breadiness as much as I wanted to. So when they’re back to $1.50 a pop, I think I’ll stick to letting the wonderful juicy goodness of raw mango drip down my chin.

Just after deciding to make this bread, I heard that Not Quite Nigella is having a Banana Bread Bake-off. So this is my entry in that event … check out what everyone else did at the roundup, to be posted on May 12.

Banana Mango Bread

adapted from Banana Bread from Simply Recipes

2 ripe mangoes, chopped
1 ripe banana
1/3 c melted butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 t vanilla
1 t baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 c flour
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t cardamon
1/4 t cloves
1/4 t cinnamon
1/4 c slightly crushed pistachios

Preheat oven to 350 F. Mash together banana, mango, and butter. Stir in sugar, egg, and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine dry ingredients (baking soda through cinnamon). Stir dry ingredients into fruit mixture. Stir in pistachios. Pour into greased loaf pan. Bake at 350 F for about 50 minutes. Let cool slightly in the pan, then turn out onto rack to cool the rest of the way.

Other mango recipes:

• Mango Chutney from Simply Recipes
• Mango Shrikhand from Mango Power Girl
• Frozen Mango Lassi from Cooking With Amy
• Mango Salsa from Culinate

Making jam in the microwave is a convenient way to make jam quickly and in small batches. This recipe makes about 2 cups, enough for a couple small jars, which is at least as much as I usually want for my own use. Though it’s possible to can the jam and then boil the jars so it can be kept for longer periods of time, since it doesn’t make that much, I usually just put it in a clean jar and then keep it in the fridge. This microwave jam recipe is adapted from Elise of Simply Recipes. It’s fairly sweet, but Elise says that reducing the sugar will likely cause the jam not to set as well (it doesn’t use any added pectin).

In this version I used blood oranges and persimmons. I’ve also made it according to the original recipe, which uses oranges and figs, and that’s delicious as well, or you can substitute whatever fruit is seasonal or on hand. (Though I think it’s better to keep in the citrus, as I think the pectin it contains may help the jam firm up.) It’s good with cheese and crackers; I like to use a strongly flavored cheese, such as gorgonzola, to stand up to the strong flavor of the jam. It’s also good with goat cheese.

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