When life gives you bananas, make Banana Bread.

I do it all the time because I always buy too many bananas. Ed eats a couple of them but the rest get brown and spotty and then no one will eat them.

But everyone loves Banana Bread.

But everyone also knows I can’t leave a recipe alone. I like to tweak and tinker and see if a new version is even better than the last one.

My newest recipe includes coconut oil, because I read that it might be healthy. I had some kefir hanging out in the fridge, so I added that too, for even more moisture. And off course, why not add chocolate chips? 

Banana Bread with Coconut Oil, Chocolate Chips and Kefir

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 cup sugar

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1/4 cup coconut oil, melted

2 large eggs

3 medium very ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup kefir

3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

6 ounces chocolate chips or chopped chocolate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9”x5”x3” loaf pan. Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon into a bowl and set it aside. Beat the sugar, vegetable oil and coconut oil with a handheld or electric mixer set at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until the mixture is well blended. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition. Add the bananas and beat the mixture to blend the ingredients thoroughly. Add the flour mixture, stirring only enough to blend in the dry ingredients. Add the kefir, vanilla extract and chocolate chips and stir them in. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for one hour or until a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean. Cool the bread in the pan 15 minutes, then invert onto a cake rack to cool completely. Makes one loaf. 

What’s one of the best things you can do with boxed breakfast cereal? Use it as crust for fruit crisps!

My Mom used cereal crust over apples and when I went to visit my parents on cool autumn days the perfume of this dish baking in the oven would reach me all the way out past the garage. As soon as I opened the car door I’d know I was in for a really good treat for dessert. 

She served the dish still warm, with cold cream on top.

Those were good days.

When I wrote my last cookbook, Hip Kosher, I decided to include My Mom’s special recipe but use it with blueberries, not apples. And this week, when I saw some good looking blueberries on sale, I decided to make that dish for my weekend company. I used Raisin Bran, rolled oats and almonds.

This was a big hit. 

Btw, for variety, you can make a simple change by adding some sliced peaches.

Blueberry Crisp     

2 pints fresh blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup bran flakes or raisin bran

1/2 cup quick cooking or rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped nuts such as almonds, cashews or pecans

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar, flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and lemon juice in a 6-quart baking dish. Set aside. Crush the cereal flakes slightly and put them in a bowl. Add the oats, nuts, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the melted butter. Mix until the dry the ingredients are coated with the melted butter. Place the cereal mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is crispy and brown. Let cool slightly but serve warm (may be rewarmed). Serve plain or with cream, ice cream, whipped cream, or sorbet. Makes 6–8 servings.

Doesn’t this Babka look as if it came from a bakery?

It didn’t, of course. You can see from the second photo that it was taken straight from the loaf pan. That paper hanging over on the sides is needed to lift the cake out of the pan, because if you invert the cake (as you do with layer cake layers), all the crumbles fall off. Which, now that I think of it is not so bad because then you can gather them up and eat them in the name of cleaning up, without having to share that delicious delicious part with anyone else.

I’ve made Babka before, but never this good and never one that looked as professional. My Mom, who was a terrific baker, never baked Babka. She always said the one from the bakery near us was so good that she needn’t bother. So of all the wonderful baked goods I learned from her, this wasn’t one.

Our nearby bakeries don’t have great-tasting Babka. But we love this coffee cake so much I have been intent on getting it right, homemade.

After a few tries I did.

It got two thumbs up from everyone, so I’d like to share the recipe:

Chocolate-Raisin-Nut Babka

1 package active dry yeast

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 cup warm whole milk

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

3-4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

8 tablespoons unsalted butter at room temperature

4 tablespoons melted unsalted butter

1/2 pound chopped semisweet chocolate

1/2 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped nuts, optional

1 large egg beaten with 2 teaspoons water

Streusel

Combine the yeast and 1/2 teaspoon of the sugar in a small bowl, pour in the warm milk and mix. Set aside for 5-6 minutes or until foamy. Beat the eggs, egg yolks, sugar and vanilla extract in the bowl of an electric mixer set at medium for 2-3 minutes or until well combined and smooth. Add 2 cups of flour and the salt and beat them in. Add the yeast mixture and beat it in until the batter is smooth. Gradually add as much of the remaining flour as is necessary to form a soft dough (about 1-3/4 cups). Add the butter one tablespoon at a time, beating each tablespoon in completely. Use a dough hook or knead by hand for a few minutes until the dough is soft and smooth and slightly sticky. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise in a warm place for about 2 hours or until doubled in bulk. 

Lightly grease 2 9”x5” loaf pans. Line the pans with parchment paper, leaving enough extra at the short side so that you can lift out the cake when it has finished baking. Cut the dough in half and roll each half out on a floured surface to rectangles 13”x9”. Brush each rectangle with equal amounts of the melted butter. Scatter the chocolate, raisins and nuts, if used, on top, leaving some room around the edges. Roll the dough, jelly roll style. Twist the filled dough 3-4 times and place in the loaf pans. Brush the tops with some of the beaten egg. Sprinkle with Streusel. Let rise for 1-1/2 hours in a warm place (or overnight in the refrigerator).

 Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Bake the Babkas for about 35 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool in the pan. Lift the cake out using the parchment paper ends.

 Streusel

 3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

 Combine the flour, sugar, cinnamon and salt in a bowl. Add the butter in chunks and work into the dry ingredients with fingers or a pastry blender until the mixture is crumbly.

Makes two Babkas

Every cook makes mistakes. Even the best cooks. Even chefs. Even food writers and cooking teachers.

Once, when I was teaching a baking class and meant to prepare a recipe for a chocolate “souffle roll” — a jelly roll stuffed with whipped cream and sliced strawberries — I forgot to put a towel or parchment paper underneath the cake that would help me roll it up. The cake stuck to the counter in parts, so rolling it was nearly impossible. The top cracked in several places and looked awful. So I quickly got out some confectioner’s sugar and sifted lots of it all over the top of the cake. It looked so pretty you could actually think that this was the way it was supposed to be all along.

Jelly rolls, made without flour, are very popular for Passover, of course. And maybe most people won’t make the mistake I did with that chocolate roll. But sometimes, when you’re rolling a flourless jelly roll, it cracks anyway.

That has happened to me too. When I don’t doctor things by sifting confectioner’s sugar or cocoa or something else on top (like a glaze or frosting), I cut the cake and make layers out of it, instead of rolling it jelly roll style.

Take a look at this recipe, for a toasted almond flourless jelly roll cake. You can roll it the standard way (look for instructions at the end of the recipe). But it is also pretty when you cut the cake and stack it stuffed with good, moist ingredients like fruit and jam (or pastry cream, whipped cream, ganache and so on) and garnish the top with a simple sprinkle of confectioner’s sugar, chopped nuts, shredded coconut and so on.

Toasted Almond Napoleon with Balsamic-Glazed Bananas

6 large eggs, separated
1/2 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1-1/2 cups ground almonds
1 teaspoon ground ginger 
potato starch or Passover confectioner’s sugar
10 ounces strawberry or cherry preserves 
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 medium chopped banana (about 1 cup)
Passover confectioner’s sugar, optional
Grated coconut

Preheat the oven to 350º. Line a 15-1/2-inch by 10-1/2-inch jelly roll pan with parchment paper or waxed paper; lightly oil the paper. Set aside. Beat the egg yolks with 6 tablespoons of the sugar and the salt with an electric mixer set at medium for about 3 minutes or until the mixture is thick and pale. Stir in the almonds and ginger. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer at medium speed until the whites are foamy. Continue to beat, gradually raising the speed to high and gradually adding the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar until the whites stand in stiff, glossy peaks. Stir one-third of the whites into the nut mixture and blend in thoroughly. Add the remaining beaten whites and fold them in gently. Spread the batter evenly in the prepared pan. Bake for about 20 minutes or until the cake is lightly browned and springs back when touched gently. Place the pan on a cake rack. Cover it with a lightly dampened towel and let it cool. Place a kitchen towel on a clean work surface and sprinkle it with potato starch or Passover confectioner’s sugar. Invert the cake over the towel and pat the pan to loosen the cake. Remove the paper. Cut the cake into 3 sections on the longer edge (each section will now be about 5 inches x 10-1/2 inches). Mix the preserves and balsamic vinegar together. Spread most of the preserves on two of the sections, reserving about 3 tablespoons. Scatter the banana on top of the preserves. Layer one section on top of the other. Place the plain layer on top. Spread with the remaining 3 tablespoons preserves. Sprinkle with grated coconut. Cut with a serrated knife. Makes 8-10 servings.

To make a classic jelly roll: Spread the preserves mixture on top of the cake. Scatter the chopped banana (and coconut, if desired) on top. Roll the cake, starting at a narrow end. Lift it onto a platter, seam side down. Sprinkle with Passover confectioner’s sugar if desired.

If you’ve never tasted Tartine au Sucre you’ve missed out on one of the sweetest, loveliest desserts of all time. It is also one of the simplest, most heart-warming and homey desserts of all time. It’s an old-fashioned, very traditional one too. Nothing modern, nothing fancy, nothing nouveau about. It doesn’t yell out “foodie!”

Tartine au Sucre is simply this: good, bakery or homemade white bread, scattered with maple sugar and doused with real heavy cream.

Honestly, that’s it. I tried it first many years ago when Ed and I took our young daughters to Canada. We visited several places where we could see the whole process of tapping trees and cooking the sap into syrup. And we ate a lot of pancakes with maple butter. 

But the best maple food was Tartine au Sucre.

It’s now maple season. All the new crop, good maple syrup and sugar is around. Do yourself a favor and get yourself some and make this:

Tartine au Sucre

4 slices 1-1/2 inch thick sliced bakery or homemade white bread

3/4 cup maple sugar

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream

Place a slice of bread on each of 4 dessert plates. Scatter each slice of bread with equal amounts of maple sugar. Whip the cream slightly, only until it begins to hold its shape but is still pourable. Pour over the sugar and bread. Makes 4 servings

One cake wasn’t nearly enough for my husband Ed’s birthday. We actually had three, all with a chocolate theme. Yesterday I mentioned the fudge cake, which was an enormous success (he’s still nibbling that one). And my daughter Meredith and her husband Greg brought a store-bought chocolate-marzipan cake that was not only delicious but also gorgeous.

But I also had to try one more, and decided on a Chocolate Icebox cake. I added a few strawberries this time, but they aren’t essential to the recipe.

This is an incredibly easy cake to make and you don’t even have to bake it, so there’s no oven time. You can put it together in about 10 minutes, breaking up chocolate graham crackers and making some whipped cream. The only time issue is that it has to set in the fridge for 5 hours, so this is one you have to plan ahead. 

Still, it’s not too late for Valentine’s Day tonight, if you’re reading this in the morning or at around noontime. If not, do try it the next time you need a good dessert. 

Chocolate Icebox Cake with Strawberries

2 cups heavy whipping cream

8 ounces mascarpone cheese

1/4 cup sugar

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup orange flavored or coffee flavored brandy or dark rum

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

12 ounces chocolate graham crackers

1 quart strawberries, 2/3 sliced, the remainder left whole

Combine the whipping cream, mascarpone cheese, sugar, vanilla extract, brandy and cocoa powder in a bowl and beat using an electric mixer at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until well combined and thick enough to stand in peaks. Set aside. Place 1/3 of the graham crackers on the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan. Break up cookies to fit into the unfilled spaces. Top with 1/3 of the whipped cream and 1/2 the sliced strawberries. Add another layer of cookies, whipped cream and the remainder of the sliced strawberries. Add a third layer of cookies, whipped cream and top with the whole berries. Refrigerate for 5 hours. Remove the sides of the springform pan and serve. Makes 8-10 servings

Prunes used to be the laughing stock of fruit. Really. Kids used to snicker at the thought of them because, you know, prunes are supposed to be for old folks who, um, need the fiber.

Well, confession here — I always loved prunes. Plump, moist, sweet prunes. Great snack. And when I was much younger I ate Dannon’s Prune Yogurt at least twice a week. It was made with whole milk and had a thick, pureed, stewed prune layer at the bottom.

But I think I was only one of two people who loved that yogurt (the other was my husband Ed, which is probably why we knew we were going to click romantically from the start). Because Dannon stopped making that flavor yogurt long ago.

Yeah yeah, there are some new prune yogurts out there but they’re not the old full-fat, thick-as-lekvar prune layer yogurt I remember. The only way to get that is to add some prune lekvar to some yogurt (or stew some prunes and puree them yourself).

But some good news has come for people like me who actually like prunes and don’t think they are funny at all. And who eat prunes because we like them and not because we, um, need them.

Here’s an article that speaks to the benefits of prunes. A great snack, it says because prunes are filling, sweet and satisfying and they are also high in antioxidants as well as fiber.

Give some prunes to your kids and see how they react. Don’t tell them prunes are for senior citizens. Snacks this sweet are sure to please children and their parents too.

And if you want to try prunes in recipes, start with this old fashioned dessert. It’s a winner in all respects. Great warm with a little ice cream (but plain is terrific too).

Prune and Apricot Crumb Pie

3 cups mixed dried pitted prunes and dried California apricots

water

1/2 cup sugar

1 tablespoon cornstarch

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup lemon juice

1 tablespoon butter

1 9-inch unbaked pie crust

Crumb Crust

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the prunes and apricots in a saucepan. Cover the fruit completely with water and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Lower the heat and simmer the fruit for about 10 minutes or until the fruit is softened. Drain the fruit but reserve the liquid (should be about 1/2 cup; add more if necessary to make 1/2 cup liquid). In a saucepan mix the sugar, cornstarch, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Add the 1/2 cup reserved liquid. Stir ingredients and cook over low-medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Add the cooked fruit, lemon juice and butter. Stir ingredients until the butter has melted. Spoon the fruit mixture into the pie crust. Scatter the crumb crust on top. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until golden brown. Makes one pie serving 8 people

Crumb Crust:

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/3 cup sugar

6 tablespoons butter, cut into chunks

Mix the flour and sugar together in a bowl. Work the butter into the flour mixture using a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture is crumbly. 

Politics and food? It’s incredibly annoying.

Take kiwi fruit, for example.

This brown, fuzzy-skinned fruit originated in China, which introduced it to New Zealand which wanted to market it here during the 1950s.

Unfortunately, at that time it was known as a “Chinese Gooseberry” and the U.S.A. was deep into McCarthy fever at the time. There were politicians who wanted nothing to do with anything that smacked of communism.

Huh?

Sort of reminds me of those today who make fun of anyone who speaks “French” as if knowing another language was something to be embarrassed about. As if anything French was bad (like “french fries” once idiotically referred to as “liberty fries.”). 

Huh?

So back to Kiwi. Because of some demagogues the country missed out on this delicious — and healthy — and beautiful fruit for decades.

Chinese gooseberries became really really popular in the 1980s after they were renamed kiwi fruit. So popular, in fact, that it was overdone, like so many food trends. Kiwi this, kiwi that. People got sick of them.

Today we’re all used to seeing kiwi fruit in the produce bins. They’re not exotic anymore.

But they are delicious. Beautiful and healthy. I sometimes add a few chunks to Chicken with Rice or use them on top of shortcake when strawberries are out of season (like now) or add them to salads (like rice or some whole grain with leftover meat or fish) or to garnish a cheesecake or custard tart.

I tasted kiwi fruit for the first time ages ago at a friend’s wedding. The dessert they served was Kiwi Melba. Plain, simple and refreshing after a 3-course dinner. The garnet-colored sauce, made from fresh raspberries was a stunning contrast to the emerald-green flesh of the kiwi fruit, like two precious jewels in a cup. It dazzled. I’ve served it at home, to company. It’s one of those desserts that takes almost no time to prepare and comes off as something very special to look at and to eat, as if you’ve fussed.

Here’s the recipe. If you want to elaborate, add a dollop of whipped cream and/or chopped toasted almonds on top. And/or place the fruit and sauce inside a meringue shell.

Kiwi Melba

6-8 kiwi fruit

2 boxes fresh raspberries (2 to 2-1/2 cups)

2-3 tablespoons sugar

2 tablespoons orange flavored brandy

whipped cream, optional

chopped toasted almonds, optional

Peel the kiwi fruit, cut them into quarters or chunks and place the pieces inside 6 dessert serving dishes. Crush the berries in a food processor or by hand. Add the sugar and brandy and mix thoroughly. Let rest for at least 10 minutes. Spoon over the kiwi. Top with whipped cream and/or toasted almonds if desired. Makes 6 servings

Creative People aren’t usually creative just about one thing. They think in unusual and varied ways about a lot.

Like my niece Rachel, who writes children’s books (such as Sometimes I’m Bombaloo and Justin Case) and young adult fiction (such as Lucky and Brilliant).

She decided she wanted to bake the Plum Torte recipe I posted a few months back. But plums aren’t in season now. So she made the cake with pears, and added a little vanilla to the batter, because pears and vanilla, well, it’s a perfect duo.

So here’s her recipe. We had this as one of the MANY desserts on Saturday night at her mother and father’s (my brother) annual Hanukkah party. It was DE-LISH!

Pear Torte

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus one tablespoon sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ripe pears, unpeeled, cored, sliced

lemon juice (about one tablespoon)

cinnamon (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and 3/4 cup sugar on medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt and mix briefly to blend ingredients slightly. Add the eggs and vanilla extract beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the pear slices on top, pressing them slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the cake with the remaining tablespoon sugar. Squeeze some lemon juice over the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until browned, set and crispy. Let cool. Makes 8 servings