Tag: egg

Peanut Butter and Jelly French Toast
As we play our way through Dragon Age Inquisition for the first time, I have to say that it puts us in a rather aggressive mindset. We feel the urge to go forth and conquer things and conform them to our ideologies for the sake of the “greater good.” We have applied such schools of thought to our cooking recently, and one of the things that we have “conquered” as of late has been something notorious for its (way too) sweet reputation: French toast. Usually covered in butter corn syrup (sweet), dusted in powdered sugar (sweeter), and often soaked in eggs saturated in sugar and cinnamon (just eat a Pillsbury cinnamon roll, for goodness sake), French toast hasn’t been something that we seek out. But one day, Nate made some incredible homemade bread and we had to use it up. We made a few tasty favorites with it, but still had some left. So, we decided to go outside our comfort zone and venture into enemy territory (sorry, sweet tooths [teeth?])…

We decided to make French toast.

After some research we decided to base our recipe on something we found in the vast archives of the Martha Stewart empire, but suppress most of the sugary influences (of course). That left us with the conundrum of toppings. We had maple syrup and powdered sugar on hand (we swear we don’t know how it got there), but we just couldn’t bring ourselves to use them. We knew we would be disappointed. In search of a solution, we got creative. We always have an overstock of peanut butter in the pantry, and having just returned from Sauvie Island, we had plenty of strawberry jam to use. And then we had a thought: What if we took a classic and made it better?

What you see before you is how we will eat French toast for the rest of our lives. Salty peanut butter and seasonal jam on top of perfect french toast that is crisp on the outside, and almost like cake on the inside.
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup half and half
- ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
- pinch salt
- pinch ground cinnamon
- 2 1-inch slices artisan bread (day old preferable)
- Oil or butter for cooking
- Peanut butter
- Any seasonal jam/preserves/jelly/marmalade/etc.
- Banana, sliced (optional)
Whisk together egg, half and half, vanilla, salt, and cinnamon in a baking dish (big enough to hold all your bread). Soak bread in egg mixture for 10 minutes on each side. Heat a skillet and butter over medium low heat and cook each side of the bread for 2–3 minutes, until golden brown.

If making more than one batch, preheat oven to its lowest setting. Place a wire rack on a baking sheet in the oven. Remove from heat, and put in the oven until all your French toast is ready.

Serve immediately with peanut butter, jam, or whatever you want on top.

Serves 2.
June 25, 2015
Spiced Banana Bread
I spent a long time looking for the perfect banana bread recipe, which, when you think about it, shouldn’t be all that hard. The problem I kept running into was finding all sorts of things in the recipes from buttermilk to sour cream. I prefer to get the moisture in my banana bread from the bananas, since it gives it more banana flavor rather than a milk-based additive.
What I ended up with was a soft, caky banana bread that’s always a hit at parties or when I take it to work. The thing that varies for me is what spice I use in it. Usually I’ll put in nutmeg or allspice, but sometimes cloves. Honestly it’s usually whatever I see first on the shelf. The key part of great banana bread is bananas so ripe, you think they’re rotten. For this last batch, I let the bananas get so black, they started to ferment. If this makes you uncomfortable, just remember that any alcohol in the bananas will cook off. Because you let them go for so long, make sure to start out with big fruit or use an extra so it’s moist enough.

I think the best part about this recipe is that it takes a little over an hour from start to finish. It will keep, wrapped in foil, for up to a week.
- ¼ cup butter, softened
- ¾ cup granulated sugar
- 1 large egg
- 3 extremely ripe bananas, mashed
- 1 tsp. vanilla extract
- 2 cups (240 g./8.5 oz.) all-purpose flour
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- ½ tsp. salt
- ½ tsp. ground nutmeg/allspice/cloves
Preheat oven to 350°F. Lightly oil an 8×4 inch loaf pan. (I use 8×5 pans, but bake for a shorter time.)

In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together until the sugar starts to dissolve. Stir in the egg. Add the bananas and vanilla extract and stir until fully mixed.

Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add to the banana mixture and stir gently until just combined. You should still have some bits of undissolved flour.

banana-bread-01

Pour into prepared loaf pan and tamp the base of the pan with your hand, or on a flat surface, to get rid of any bubbles. Bake for 50–60 minutes. Check about 40 minutes in. If it’s getting dark too soon, it means your oven is too hot. Bread is done when a toothpick comes out clean.

Remove from oven and let rest in pan for 10 minutes before removing from the pan. Cool on an wire rack. I’d tell you to cool it completely, but good luck with that.

banana-bread-02
June 14, 2015
Salted Dark Chocolate Mousse
We don’t spring for sweet things often. Like, ever. But when we do, it usually involves chocolate or peanut butter. We are excited to introduce our first dessert, which involves a healthy amount of delicious chocolate and super sexy sea salt.
Mousse is a basic dessert that’s easy to make at home (with or without an electric mixer), and we think it’s fair to say that it’s only as good as the ingredients you put in it. The thing we really like about our recipe is that we don’t add any sugar to it. There’s nothing for you to focus on while eating it other than the luscious texture and the wonderful chocolate you put in it. We would recommend using dark and complex chocolate for this, especially if it has some fruity notes in it. In this case we used some of the best chocolate we have ever come across roasted right here in Portland, Oregon, from chocolate maker, Woodblock Chocolate. We highly recommend that if you use Woodblock for this recipe, use the single origin Peruvian chocolate. It’s exquisite. The sea salt we use is also local (we hoard the stuff) from a wonderful company called Jacobsen.

dark_chocolate_mousse_01
- 1¼ cup heavy whipping cream
- 3 egg whites
- 8 oz. good dark chocolate, reduced to small chunks
- ½ cup milk
- 1 heaping tsp. good sea salt
In a small bowl, place the chocolate, milk, and salt and microwave in short bursts until the chocolate is melted (usually two sets of 30 seconds). Mix together until well incorporated. Set aside.

dark_chocolate_mousse_02

Place the whipping cream into a chilled bowl and whip until there is enough air to create floppy peaks with the cream. Set aside in a large bowl big enough to hold all ingredients. In another bowl (or the same bowl you used to whip the cream in after being cleaned and dried), whip the egg whites until they become very white and and have stiff peaks. Set aside.

Slowly and gently fold in the melted chocolate mixture into the whipped cream, turning the cream and chocolate onto itself instead of mixing. The goal is to maintain the air you whipped into it. Once the chocolate is evenly mixed in, add the egg whites to the cream and chocolate and continue to fold gently until all three ingredients are completely incorporated.

Divide the mousse evenly among four small dishes. Chill in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

Serves 4

dark_chocolate_mousse_03
May 20, 2015