Banana Pecan Piloncillo Ice Cream

There are many joys to be found in cooking, one is the diversity of flavours you can find in different variants of the same ingredients. This recipe draws upon the not-so-familiar piloncillo sugar; an earthy brown sugar with hints of caramel. It has been around for at least 500 years and popular is popular in Oaxaca, though it is not commonly used here. Thankfully it can be easily found in many Latin American grocery stores. Like many less-refined sugars, it is not as sweet helping gift you with a creamy, yet light ice cream that plays nicely with others.

If you have not explored the bounty of sugars on they market, I would review a few guides to them.

This recipe is a veganized version from the lovely book, Baked: New Frontiers in Baking (as has many of my recent updates, some more successful than others. This one falls under "more successful").

Banana Pecan Piloncillo Ice Cream

• 1 cinnamon stick
• 3/4 c firmly packed, grated piloncillo*
• 8 very ripe bananas, peeled, broken into pieces, sealed in a bag, and frozen**
• 1/2 c cashew cream***
• 1/2 c chopped, toasted pecans

In a small saucepan over low heat, combine 3 T water and the cinnamons stick. Simmer until fragrant, about 3 minutes. Add the piloncillo and stir until it is dissolved. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
Remove the cinnamon stick from the syrup and pour the syrup into a blender. Add the cashew cream and bananas and blend until smooth and mushy.
Pour mix into ice cream maker and freeze according to directions. When the ice cream is nearly done, add the pecans, let mix. Transfer to a freezer-safe container.

* You can also use jaggery, or brown sugar, or some other unrefined sugar. I have used a mix of dominican sugar and jaggery.
** Alton Brown has a recipe that recommends freezing the bananas in their peel, then peeling them after about 45 minutes. I have not decided this is the must-do method for me, but I am going to continue to experiment with it.
*** I used a failure of a cashew-based ice cream. You can also use this recipe here.

MALTED CHOCOLATE FUDGE SAUCE (with pastry creme filled banana cakes)

Baby, this cake is simply a vessel for the lovely unblemished chocolately surface above... Full recipes for everything else will be forthcoming, but right now I am heading off to the woods for the 4th of July.

This is a conversion of one of many recipes that really doesn't lend itself AT ALL to being vegan (y'know.. Take eggs, cream, butter.. cook, and done! Now, how to make without the eggs, cream, and butter..), so it isn't necessarily that easy to follow.

Furthermore, I am always trying to fight back the beast that is the house's constantly growing pantry, this means if I am running out of something needed for a recipe I will scour for substitutes or often invent my own (no soy milk? water often works for smaller amounts. Larger amount? Blend some nut butter and water for the quantity needed. Ran out of walnuts? Toast some pecans). In this case, I was supposed to use all light corn syrup, but the bottle was on its last bits, so I substituted dark corn syrup for the rest.

Then there is finally the content itself.. It is fantastic and addictive, but I feel like I could tone down the malt flavor, in doing so I will probably streamline the recipe next round. For now you are getting the raw notes of my process.

2/3 c Almond cream (1/6 c TJs raw almond butter, 1/2 c water, blended until consistent)
1/6 light corn syrup
1/6 dark corn syrup
1 T INKA
2 T dark muscavado sugar
2 T light brown sugar
3 T Medium flavor malt powder (available at Brewer's emporiums, teh internets, etc.)
1/2 t salt (used pink himalayan)
6 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped into pieces (Valhrona, used I. arrr!)
2 T butter sub (in my case I used a home made one consisting of 5 t canola oil, 1 t water, and a dash of lecithin)
1 t vanilla extract

Blend all of the ingredients together, up unto the chocolate. Pour into a saucepan with 4 oz of the chocolate over a medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir until smooth. When the chocolate has melted, reduce the heat to maintain a simmer and stirring very slowly, cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter sub, vanilla, and the rest of the chocolate.

Enjoy, no really, it is good. Even the unedited version I wish I

Good Morning Coffee Banana Bread Muffins with Chocolate Chips

*note* far more photogenic if you click on the image. That said, I was not having much luck making these photogenic (they look ok in person!) *end note*

Mmmmuffins. I rarely ever express that sentiment. In my endless food snobbery I have dubbed muffins (and scones, and a few other items) the red headed step children of baking. They are comprised of the processed foods I try to avoid, rendering them entirely anutritious entities no better for you than any given dessert. Desserts, however, are often an artful playground for flavor exploration and combination, cooking technique and theory, or a decadence to bask in the pleasure of.

Muffins and scones tend to just be.. mediocre, unmemorable entites. There are exceptions, so I hear... And perhaps I would like to add my own to them one of these days. The above are quite tasty, and leave a glorious, clean after-taste that pleasantly lingers like a dear guest.

I do not know if I am going to post the recipe quite yet... I feel like I need to study The Muffin, and its respective concept. I feel like there is some sort of definition that my veganzied version did not quite achieve. Your own suggestions on what makes a muffin are welcome. In the meantime, the espresso/banana/chocolate combination is one from Brooklyn's "Baked" that needs not a recipe for one to explore.

Its 4:41 AM. I think I need sleep. I do have such a back log of things to post here, though... so many recipes getting lost in rime's sands...

Peanut Butter Banana Pudding Espresso (and the kitchen sink!) Brownies

This recipe is sorta-kinda-a-little inspired by Vegan with a Vengeance's "banana split pudding brownies." It is about as true to/inspired by the recipe as made-for-T.V. movies are true to/inspired by actual events that happened at some point in this world. I would go so far as to say I only ganked the recipe for the banana pudding topping, everything is is completely different (as completely different as any chocolate+sugar+flour+stabilizers basis can be). It turned out quite well. I skewed for a healthier recipe, because of that it is still complete decadent and not lacking in any way, but is cakier rather than fudgier because there is no added fat.

Peanut Butter Banana Pudding Espresso (and the Kitchen Sink!) Brownies

Wet ingredients
4 ounces baker's choclate squares
4 mashed very ripe bananas
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup sugar (use 1 cup if not using the stevia recommended below)
1 T vanilla extract
3 dropper fulls of liquid stevia or enough to achieve desired sweetness (I used chocolate flavor ed stevia but you can also add a dash of chocolate extract)
1 t instant espresso

Dry ingredients
3/4 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cocoa powder
1/4 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

For the topping layer:

3 mashed very ripe bananas
2 T sugar
1/4 c vanilla almond milk
1 t vanilla extract
1 T arrowroot powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray or grease a 9x13 baking pan.

To make the brownie batter:
Melt the chocolate in a double boiler. While the chocolate melts, mix the rest of the "wet" ingredients, until smooth. Add the melted chocolate and continue to mix.

Combine the dry ingredients and add to the banana mixer until pretty consistent, mixture will be a little gummy. Don't worry :). Spread the mixture out in the baking dish.

In a clean bowl mix the topping layer ingredients together, and spread atop the brownie mix.

Bake for 30 minutes, remove from oven, let cool. Cut up and can serve with diced up bananas and cashew cream or other non-dairy whipped or delish topping, or just enjoy plain!