Patience is a Virtue

Ah, patience. Laboratory chemists, kindergarten teachers, intergovernmental negotiators, driving instructors: these are people with freakish levels of patience. But for some of us, patience can be an elusive trait. The idea of waiting and working — politely and diligently — with few immediate results seems far too tortuous.

But if you want to bake, you need patience. You need to carefully measure ingredients, wait for ingredients to bake and often — much to my dismay — wait for the cake or bread or baked good du jour to cool. Oh, the cooling…requiring so much patience and self-restraint, and sometimes, I just don’t have it in me.

This Ukranian honey cake, for example, is so subtly spiced that you really need to let it cool for all the flavors to come together: the floral honey, the toasty coffee, the spicy cinnamon. But when the cake emerges from the oven, its surface craggy and golden and slightly sticky, you’ll want to cut off a slice right then and there — just a little one, to see if it came out okay…

Wait it out, though, just a little. Patience can be challenging, but in this case, you’ll be rewarded.

One quick housekeeping note: To those who read this blog, you also have amazing patience. Between planning a wedding and working like crazy, I’ve been a little…how shall we say…inattentive lately. My apologies, truly. And now I will ask you to have even more patience, as I’m headed to Asia for two weeks! I’m literally writing this as I pack…. I promise a full report of my culinary adventures in Thailand, Singapore and Hong Kong when I return. So thank you for your patience :).

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Banana Bread? Again?

I know, I know: I posted a recipe for banana bread about two months ago. But I subscribe to the belief that one can never have too many banana bread recipes in one’s arsenal.

The great thing about banana bread is that all you really need is a bunch of old, mushy bananas. I like mine made with some buttermilk, sour cream or yogurt — but like with most things, I’m not picky. Then all you need are your “staples” and from there, it’s up to you. Toss in spices — cinnamon, cardamom, cloves — or goodies like nuts, chocolate chips or dried fruit. Oats, whole wheat flour, candied ginger — the sky’s the limit.

I’ve found that you can make banana bread moist and deliciously decadent without using a cup of butter or oil. Bananas themselves provide a lot of moisture and sweetness in baked goods, and small amounts of acidic fats like yogurt and sour cream add tenderness without a lot of guilt.

This Plain Jane version of banana bread is nothing fancy — no coconut, no toasted nuts, no hunks of dark chocolate — but it’s delicious. Like many banana bread recipes, it’s the result of a bunch of black and mushy bananas that had to go and some ingredients lingering in my fridge that I needed to use up. In my experience, sour cream makes a mean banana bread, and in this case, you only need a 1/4 cup to create a tender and delicious loaf.

Feel free to make this banana bread your own — add chopped dark chocolate, or toasted walnuts, or poppy seeds. At the very least, this recipe might inspire you to whip out your own favorite banana bread recipe. You can never have too many.

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Crumbling Certainties

Life is full of uncertainties. What will your life look like 20 years from now? Could your day have been drastically different if you woke up 15 minutes earlier? What would Joan Rivers look like if she’d never gone under the knife?

But one thing is certain: If there is an apple crisp or crumble on a dessert menu, Roger and I will order it with a non-negotiable scoop of vanilla ice cream.

What is it about apple crisps and crumbles that makes us weak? For me, it’s the package deal — warm, gooey apples tucked beneath crunchy, buttery streusel, with a stream of melting ice cream dripping into the crevices. Gooey, crunchy, creamy, sweet — what more do you need??

In the crisp vs. crumble debate, I define them according to Nancy Silverton’s rule: crisps tend to use nuts, whereas crumbles tend to use oats. Call me an equal opportunity employer, but I love them both.

To be honest, it’s pretty hard to mess up a crisp or crumble. But there are certain additions that can give the recipe a kick.

My favorite? Browned butter and a vanilla bean. Browning the butter imparts a nutty flavor and intensifies the caramel flavor of the cooked apples. And browning the butter with a vanilla bean — whose aromatics are fat soluble — adds another caramelly note.

When it comes to these humble desserts, you can dress them up anyway you want, but for me the story is always the same: give me a spoon, get out of my way and get ready for me to beat you to the last bite. I assure you, there’s no uncertainty about that.

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The One Who Melted My Heart

For years, I was the friend who never had a boyfriend. My idea of a “long-term relationship” was the one guy I dated in college for four consecutive weeks. I considered that a Big Deal.

Why the dysfunction? I was picky (like, Seinfeld picky), I got bored, and most of all, I loved a challenge and always went after the one I couldn’t have.

Then, a little more than two years ago, I met Roger. I met him at a party for a mutual friend and was taken with his British charm, his dashing looks and his keen intelligence. But then I discovered we were 15 years apart, subscribed to different political ideologies and held different religious beliefs. Clearly he was undateable.

I canceled our first date (made up some lame work-related excuse) and gave him the runaround for nearly a month. Not only did we seem to have so may superficial differences, but he was also so available. And who wants that?

But persistence paid off. I finally agreed to go on a date with him — “Just one drink,” I said — but told one of my girlfriends to call me about 45 minutes into the date with an “emergency.” One always needs an “out” in such situations…

Well, she never called. And she didn’t need to. Despite all the qualifications that I felt he didn’t meet on paper, I realized we really did have a lot in common. One drink turned into two drinks…and dinner…and a kiss on the cheek to say goodnight.

I wasn’t cured of my relationship-related dysfunction overnight. I continued to worry about our age difference and our politics and the problems those things could create down the road. But I slowly came to the conclusion that I would deal with those problems when they became problems. And you know what? They never did.

Truthfully, on some level, my concerns about the age difference and everything else came down to what other people might think (“What will they say?! A man who is 15 years older — imagine the gossip!”). But in the end, it didn’t matter what other people thought. It mattered what I thought, and I loved him.

So here I am, two years later, in love and now — the secret is out — engaged.

As a tribute to the English man who melted this American girl’s heart, here is a recipe for English scones. They are tender and fulfilling, with the perfect amount of sweetness, just like him.

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A Quest for the Lith

Oh.

(Gulp.)

Hello.

I guess I’ve been a little MIA lately, haven’t I? Sorry about that… Remember that secret I told you about? Well…it’s been keeping me kind of busy. I still can’t tell you what it is yet, but don’t be mad. I’ll share soon enough.

But suffice it to say, this juicy little tidbit has only underscored one of my personality traits: my tendency to “quest.” Try as I may, I can’t help myself. Whether we’re talking about dresses, apartments, recipes, furniture — in my brain, I have a near perfect image of what I want. The problem is, said “image” doesn’t always exist. And so the quest continues.

There is one recipe in particular that I have been questing after since college: Lithuanian Coffee Cake from Claire’s Corner Copia in New Haven, CT. Nearly everyone on campus went gaga for it, and I cannot recall more than a handful of birthdays or parties at which this cake did not appear.

What made it so special? Hard to explain. The cake was moist, tender and über dense. I’m sure the fact that the staff slathered the top with buttercream helped too, but even without any icing, the cake was ridiculously, almost indescribably addictive.

Claire Criscuolo, the owner of Claire’s, has written a few cookbooks, so years ago when I spotted the book containing the recipe for Lithuanian Coffee Cake (or “Lith,” as my friends and I came to call it), I snatched it up. I made the cake, prepared myself for bliss and then…ehhh? Something wasn’t right. The cake was light and airy — nothing like the heavy duty slices we were served at Claire’s. And the cake looked so…unimpressively small.

Shortly after that, I found Claire in her restaurant and asked her what she did differently to make her cake come out so moist and dense. “Just what I say in my book!” she replied. LIES. There’s no way the recipe in her book is the recipe used in the restaurant. Sorry, I’m not buying it.

So for years, I’ve been on a quest to recreate that cake. But none of the recipes I tried were quite right. Most were delicious, but they weren’t The Lith.

Then I came across Sherry Yard’s recipe for her Campton Place Coffee Cake. She describes it as the “densest, moistest coffee cake you will ever eat.” BINGO. With a few tweaks, I could turn it into Claire’s Lithuanian Coffee Cake.

So did I successfully recreate the legendary Lith? I came close — really close, and by far the closest I have come to the real thing. I still can’t put my finger on what is missing in terms of flavor, but it’s very minor. I’ll keep questing for that mystery touch, but in the meantime, enjoy this version. It’s dynamite.

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Bursting at the Seams

I’ve always been pretty good at keeping secrets. Let me qualify that. By and large, I am able to keep most juicy tidbits to myself.

However — and there is a big however — the longer those juicy tidbits are tucked away, deep in my little zone of secrets, the bigger they seem to grow inside me, until I’m bursting at the seems, ready to explode.

Why do I bring this up? Am I privy to information that has me ready to bust? Well, I wouldn’t be a very good secret keeper if I told, now would I? Stick around for a few more posts. Unlike some secrets, this one has an expiration date.

But let’s talk about something else that is bursting at the seams: these muffins. They are chock full of bananas, prunes, poppy seeds and oats. Sound odd? Too much going on? I thought so too, even as I started tossing all the ingredients together.

But tasting is believing: they’re great.  The poppy seeds add a nutty, savory crunch, a nice alternative to nuts in the typical banana-nut muffin.  Next time I’d probably add more prunes, but a half cup was all I had on hand.

I could keep the recipe a secret too…but I don’t think that would be fair, do you?

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