Vegan Banana Ice Cream

I LOVE ice cream, even on cold days. Unlike other ice cream recipes, only one ingredient is needed, frozen bananas!

A friend from Portland asked me what she can do with her overly ripe bananas. Many recipes came up in my mind instantaneously. I'll share this recipe with you first since it is delicious and simple.

This recipe was shared with me by a wonderful co-worker in Oregon. It is from Choosing Raw, a wonderful place to find raw recipes.

Taste & Texture: 
This dessert has the texture of ice cream and is simply amazing. It is creamy and fluffy, just like good ice cream. Since only bananas are used, it taste like bananas. The sweetness of this dessert depends on when you freeze your bananas. Mine were super sweet but I didn't get the sugar crash because its all natural!

Ingredients
Frozen bananas
Topping ideas: fresh or frozen fruit, melted chocolate, nuts, honey, etc.

Method:
1. Choose very ripe bananas to freeze. Skin of the bananas should have dark spots all over. Peel the bananas before freezing them in your desired container.
2. Place frozen bananas into the food processor. It is okay if bananas suffered frost bite. If using a blender or hand-held blender, break bananas into smaller pieces, about half an inch in size.
3. Pulse bananas in food processor to break it into smaller pieces for 20 seconds. It will look very choppy.
4. Run the food processor on low for about 10 seconds, then on high. You will need to scrape the sides of the container and blade when it gets stuck. You'll need to do this more often with a blender and hand-held blender.
5. As you blend the bananas, it will become creamy and fluffy. It will resemble soft serve ice cream.

Buttermilk Oat Crackers

These crackers are really filling and satisfying because oats and whole wheat is used. They are perfect on its own, or with avocado, tomato and cheese, fruit-preserves, soup, etc.

I found this recipe here but made two modifications. I decreased the amount of pure cane sugar a lot, from 1/4 cup to 1 teaspoon. Since I did not have wheat germ, I simply omitted it. I did not substitute sugar with dates because dates contains too much moisture and would make these crackers very soft. 

Taste: It is lightly salty, and the saltiness in the crackers brings out the flavor of the oats and whole wheat flour. The taste is perfect if you want to eat it with sweet or savory toppings.

Texture: These crackers are on the soft side after baking it for 12 minutes. Upon cooling, I heated them up in the toaster oven for 3 to 5 minutes and they became crispier, and resembled more like a cracker. It is a bit soft to be considered a cracker, thus can easily be used instead of bread. It is quite filling, and soft enough to bite into without leaving crumbs.

Ingredients  (As always, try to use all organic ingredients, especially with wheat and animal products)
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 1/2 cup rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
*Sesame seeds-  optional, to top the crackers
*1/4 cup sunflower seeds - optional
*1/2 tsp cayanne - optional, gives it a nice hot kick if you like spicy flavors

Method
1. Melt butter in saucepan or microwave. Then mix with buttermilk and set aside.
2. With a food processor or blender, grind oats to make coarse-textured flour.
3.  In a large bowl, mix ground oats with flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt.
4. Whisk butter-buttermilk mixture into flour mixture. Stir until a soft dough forms.
5. Divide the dough into two balls then have them rest in the bowl for 10 minutes. This allows oats to absorb moisture to make dough easier to handle.
6. Preheat oven to 325F when dough is done resting.
7. On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough until it is about 1/8 inch thick. It is okay if the rolled dough is irregular shaped. If you wish to make square crackers, try to roll it into a square shape.
8. With a pizza cutter or knife (it is easier with a pizza cutter), cut strips horizontally and vertically for rectangle-square shaped crackers. Cookie cutters or biscuit cutters to can be used to achieve your desired shape.
9. Transfer shapes to a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.  After 12 minutes, I took mine out and flipped them and baked for another 3 minutes. Since each oven is different so baking time will differ, keep a close watch to prevent burnt crackers.
10. When done baking, transfer to a wire rack to cool. Let crackers cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

*I made 1'' by 2''  crackers by making vertically cuts down the dough with an inch spacing between each cut, then made horizontal cuts with a spacing of 2 inches between each cut. And made about 4 dozen crackers.

100% Whole Wheat Chocolate Cake Cookies

I've been craving for chocolate this week. Lucky for me, I found some chocolate chips and just enough cocoa in the pantry to make this. I called these cake cookies because texture resembles more of a cake then a typical chewy or crispy cookie. If you don't like the taste of whole wheat, you'll like these. Whole wheat and chocolate goes very well together since the chocolate masks the whole wheat flavor. 

I came up with this recipe because I had buttermilk in the fridge that I needed to use. You can swap it out for plain yogurt. I will make these cookies again but will modify it to make it more moist. However, I do recommend this recipe especially to those who are used to eating whole wheat. I love these cookies. I made a little more than a dozen and I probably at 80% of them. 

Taste: 
The sweetness from the dates complements the chocolate nicely by not overpowering the flavor of cocoa, thus giving the cookie a nice bitter-sweet chocolate flavor. The sweetness is just enough to fulfill the craving and the whole wheat makes it filling, so it is easy to stop after one or two cookies (unless you are a cookie-monster like myself). The mini chocolate chips creates contrast from the bitter-sweet cookie which adds another layer of taste to the cookie. 

I'm sensitive to sugar and I like my chocolate bitter-sweet. So if you want yours to be more sweet, feel free to add a tablespoon of agave. My husband who likes things a bit sweeter really enjoyed these cookies though. 


Texture: 
These cookies are cake-like because it is soft and fluffy from using dates and buttermilk. They may seem to be on the dry side compared to commercial cookies but it is because only whole wheat flour is used.  If not stored airtight, they will become dry the next day but will still be enjoyable. Since I never have a cookie without some sort of milk, and I am used to the flavor and texture of whole wheat, I find these cookies to be irresistible, especially when its fresh from the oven. 

Dry Ingredients 
1 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup butter (melted) or 6 tbs of oil (your choice)
2/3 cup cocoa powder
5 oz dates (mashed well)
1/3 cup buttermilk
1 eggs
1/2 cups mini unsweetened chocolate chips 

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease or line baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda and salt.
3. Melt the butter by stovetop or with a microwave if not using oil. 
4. In a large bowl, whisk melted butter with cocoa powder until smooth. 
5. Whisk in dates. It won't mix in well but it is okay. 
6. Add the egg and whisk. The mixture will be more uniform now. 
7. Add buttermilk and stir till combined. 
8. Gradually stir in the flour mixture in three sections until no streaks of flour remain. 
9. Fold in the chocolate chips.
10. Drop dough by the tablespoon into prepared baking sheet. Leave about two inches between each cookie. If you desire a more dome shape, leave the dough as is. If you prefer a flatter shape, press down on the dough once or twice. 
11.  Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool for 2-3 minutes on a baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack with a spatula to cool completely.

*Keep a close eye on the baking time if you are using a dark colored baking sheet. Baking time is shorter and the cookies will burn more easily on darker colored baking sheets since it absorbs and retains heat. Most non-stick baking sheets are dark colored. 

100% Whole Wheat Apple Muffins

In preparation for fall, I decided to make Apple Muffins. I feel very blessed since I was able to enjoy the berry season in Oregon, and now I get to enjoy the extensive variety of apples in upstate New York.

This recipe is adapted from King Arthur's whole wheat apple muffins but I modified it to make them 100% whole wheat and to be naturally sweet.

When shopping for whole wheat products, be careful when looking at ingredients list printed on the product. If it says wheat flour, it is not whole wheat flour but the highly processed wheat known as white flour. Wheat flour just tells us that wheat is used to make the flour used in the product, it doesn't tell us if the entire wheat is used.






Taste:
This lightly sweet muffin is perfect for breakfast. The sweetness from the date is evenly distributed throughout the muffin. The bit size apple pieces and few pieces of dates that did not get incorporated into the batter gives bursts of flavorful sweetness. It makes certain bites a nice surprise.

The cinnamon plays a nice role in matching the flavor and sweetness from the apples and dates together. And of course it makes them smell undeniable.

For a sweeter muffin, agave does the job nicely by not overpowering the other flavors in the muffin.

Texture:
This muffin is very moist because of the apples and dates. By not peeling the apples, the apples hold its shape and gives a better texture. Unless you like a more soft-mushy texture, peel your apples so it can cook more easily. Although it is moist, it will be a bit dense and hearty because only whole wheat flour is used.

The muffin can be a bit dry if not stored airtight properly after a day. But if you heat it up for a few seconds in the microwave, it will be warm and moist again. It will be a bit crumbly.

Here are the modifications to the original recipes:
Sugar: Eliminated. therefore the sweet crystal crust on muffin top is also eliminated.
All purpose flour/white flour: Eliminated.

Cinnamon: Reduced amount from 3 teaspoons to 2 teaspoons to not overpower other flavors.

Buttermilk: Increased the amount by 1/4 cup to add moisture to whole wheat flour.

Dates: Dates replace sugar as the sweetener. It brings additional flavor and moisture.
Whole wheat pastry flour: Replaces All Purpose Flour.
Apples: 2 medium sized apples unpeeled if a light crunchy texture is desired when biting into a piece of apple and if you want to see pieces of apples throughout your muffin better. Peel if you want a softer and more moist texture.
Agave (optional): Agave is an optional and additional sweetener to the dates. It is used to moisten the flour and for extra sweetness if one desires. This was used in my first batch. It is recommended if you want your muffin to be more like a treat. Honey can be used instead.

Dry Ingredients Wet Ingredients

4 oz (1 cup) Whole Wheat Flour 5 oz Dates, mashed well

4.5 oz (1 cup) Whole Wheat Pastry Flour 1 tablespoon Agave or Honey

1 teaspoon Baking Soda 1/2 cup (1 stick) Butter

1 teaspoon Baking Powder 1 1/4 cup Buttermilk

2 teaspoon Cinnamon 1 Egg

1/4 teaspoon Salt 2 medium Apples, cored and chopped into 1cm pieces

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Prepare 18 cup greased muffin tin or line with cupcake liners.

Mix dry ingredients together and set aside (flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon). 

In a separate bowl, mash dates with a fork very well to form a paste. A blender can be used to make the paste. Add agave to the dates to make it easier to blend or mash. Once a date paste is made, cream butter together. Add the egg and mix well; stop once to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl. Mix in the buttermilk gently. Don't overmix or buttermilk will cause the mixture to curdle.  

Fold in the dry ingredients with a spatula until just mixed then fold in apple chunks. 

Divide the batter evenly among the prepared muffin cups. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from the oven, cool the muffins for 5 minutes in the tin, then turn them out onto a rack to finish cooling completely. Yield: 18 muffins.

Baby Banana Cakes

Good Morning! I am very excited and happy to share this recipe with you today! I'm on a tight budget now, so I need to plan more carefully in regards to what I can bake. I used all our grocery money for this week so I can only use what I have left in our kitchen. It was a no brainer to decide on making one of my most favorite cakes, Banana Cake. 

Reasons why I LOVE Bananas:

Baking Purposes:
- Brings great flavor to the product
- High in sugar, so use of granulated sugar can be reduced greatly
- Provides great moisture to the baked product

Health Reasons:
- Protection for heart problems because it is high in potassium  and fiber.
- Protection from ulcers because of their antacid effects.
- Protection for your eyesight from age-related macular degeneration. Most of the patients I see have AMD. It is the primary cause of blindness in the US.

There are many more health benefits from eating bananas. You can learn more here.

I want to share this adapted recipe from from Wen’s Delight with you because it is completely different from other banana cakes in texture and taste. I made modifications to the original recipe to make it healthier and for better texture.

Taste: The banana flavor is prominent because real bananas are used instead of artificial flavorers. Sweetness in the cake is not overpowering because it has flavor from using very ripe bananas. The sugar content is mainly from using very ripe bananas so it does not give me the sugar rush I experience from eating store bought cakes.

Texture: This cake is very moist unlike typical sponge cake that requires a lot of frosting to make up for dryness. Unlike banana bread or other versions of banana cake, this cake is very light and soft. The airy nature that creates the sponge-like character of the cake is from how the flour mixture is folded into the egg mixture.

Modifications to the original recipes:
Sugar: I reduced the amount by 30 grams for total of 100 grams. I’ve used 90 grams before with success. I make the reduction based on how sweet I think my bananas are.
Eggs: 3 organic large eggs. You can use jumbo if you like.
Flour:  Organic whole wheat pastry flour instead of the highly processed white flour that has no nutritional value.
Oil: I reduced amount by 20 ml. It is best to use a pressed oil or melted butter. Manufacturers, even some organic companies use chemical methods to obtain the oil from soybeans/sunflowers/etc. Those methods are not beneficial to you.
Milk: I included organic 1% milk because it tends to be dry without it. Egg whites gives cake structure but makes it dry. You can try it with soy, almond, buttermilk, or whatever you have on hand. Buttermilk will help it rise a little more too.
Organic Ingredients: Since I moved into my husband’s house, many items are not organic. To prevent waste, I used what we had. The only organic ingredients I was able to use includes eggs, flour, and milk. If I can only choose three organic ingredients out of the ones listed, I would choose those three. Bananas have a thick skin so the meat is protected if the farms spray the trees with pesticides. It is not one of the dirty dozen fruits you should buy organic.

Ingredients	Metric Unit	Cups
Super Ripe Bananas	250-300 grams	1 ½ cups ( 3-4 medium bananas)
Sugar	100 grams	⅓ cup + 2 tablespoons
Eggs (room temperature)	3 whole eggs	3 whole eggs
Whole Wheat Pastry Flour	135 grams	1 cup + 1 tablespoon
Baking Powder	½ teaspoon	½ teaspoon
Baking Soda	¼ teaspoon	¼ teaspoon
Oil (any type)	80ml	5 tablespoons
milk	50ml	3 tablespoons
vanilla extract (optional)	1 teaspoon	1 teaspoon

Makes 24 baby cakes or two 8" round cakes. If making cakes, bake for 20 - 30minutes. 

For best results, weigh the ingredients. Feel free to ask my why if you are curious.

Method
This is a very simple recipe so please don’t be intimdated by the length of the instructions. It is long because I included personal tips from experience to be apart of the method.

1. Preheat oven to 320F or pre-heat oven at step 8 to conserve energy.
2. Line 24 muffin tins with cupcake liners or use silicone cupcake holders.
3. Sieve together twice: flour, baking powder, baking soda.
4. Set aside together in a bowl: oil, milk, vanilla extract
5. In a large bowl with a balloon whisk or fork (I don’t want to wash another item so I use the whisk), break up the banana into smaller chunks.
6. Add sugar into banana and whisk on low for a about 5 seconds to mix together.
7. Add three whole eggs and whisk on high until it triples in volume, is thick and pale.
1. It should take about 7-8 minutes with a hand-held mixture. With a stand mixture, I whisk it on medium-high. It takes about 7-8 minutes at speed 5-6 on the kitchen aid. When I get impatient, I might whisk at a faster setting for about 30 seconds before the final stage.
8. Test the consistency of the batter by lifting the whisk and drawing a pattern with the batter. The pattern should be able to be read but disappear after 2-3 seconds. It is not good if the pattern does not disappear but the product will still taste great and is enjoyable.
9. Turn hand-held whisk or stand mixer to lowest speed and whisk for 2 minutes. My hand mixter whisks really fast on the lowest setting so I did it by hand. I just mimic how the hand held mixture moves.
10. Sieve flour mixture for the third time but over the egg mixture. Only sieve in ⅓ of the flour mixture.
11. Fold flour with a spatula by lifting bottom batter up through the middle of the batter and folding it over. Do this while rotating bowl in a circular rotation. Don’t worry about doing it quickly. Slow is better.
1. Be sure that there isn’t any trapped flour especially in the bottom of the bowl.
2. Never stir batter or else it will deflate.
12. Repeat  step 10  again but use half of the remaining flour. The follow step 11.
13. Repeat step 10 again but with the remaining flour. Then follow step 11.
14. Add about 1-2 cups of batter into the bowl with milk and oil. The amount does not need to be exact. You can use a whisk to gently mix the mixture together until it is well combined. I use a whisk for about 10 seconds then switch to the spatula to try to minimize further deflation.
15. Pour batter into prepared muffin tins. I used an ice cream scoop to makes things easier. I filled each liner 75% but could have filled up higher. Because it is not a muffin, you won’t get a muffin top if you fill it up to 80-85%. You’ll get a flat top that would be easy to frost if you desire to.
16. Bake for 15 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
17. Place on a rack or for it to be even more moist, place the cupcakes after removing it from the pan into the freezer for 5 minutes.
1. The cake is going to deflate slightly after being removed from the oven. You can minimize the deflation by turning off the oven and leaving the muffins in the over with the door open to slowly introduce the cake to the new temperature change.
18. Enjoy! I don’t use frosting because I like the flavor as is. There is enough moisture in this cake and I don’t like enjoy consuming too much sugar since it easily affects me. Also, frosting with artificial colors are not good for you and store-bought frosting has many chemicals for flavor and preservatives which is not good for you either.

Hello Rochester!

Hi! Welcome to my blog. I’m Jocelyn, and I will be blogging about my journey as a novice baker. I’ve always had an interest in baking and cooking. I believe that I inherited my passion from watching and eating my PoPo’s (my mommy’s mother) cooking. She was an amazing Chinese cook and baker.

My journey in becoming more serious about baking and cooking started as I was getting ready to leave my career as an Ophthalmic Photographer in the beautiful northwest to join my husband in upstate NY (we got married this year in June and has been apart until a few days ago). It was very difficult to to leave Portland, because I love my family, AMAZING co-workers, friends, and the Northwest. However, from my co-worker’s continual  encouragement in regards to baking and cooking, I'm going to pursue this passion. This blog will help me keep track of the lessons I learn along my adventure in creating baked delicious-ness!

Before I start baking, I want to share with you a few beliefs and goals I have. I hope you’ll join me in my journey.

Beliefs: Baking with Love.
I know this sounds cheesy, but I mean it with all of my heart! Food is meant to be enjoyed by our taste buds and to nourish our bodies. The more I learn about our food industry, the more I learn that many ingredients and food products should be avoided. Here are two ways how I will bake with love.

1. Organic Ingredients. I will use organic ingredients as often as I can.

2. Natural Sugar. I will not use any highly processed sugars such as high fructose corn syrup/corn syrup, beet sugar, refined cane sugar. I will use organic raw sugar as little as possible and will use maple syrup, honey, and the natural sugar in fresh and dried fruits.

Goals:
1. To bake once a week for my neighbors.
While in Portland, I tried to bake once a week for my co-workers since we work in a very busy environment, and sometimes a snack helps provide the little boost we need. It is easy to bring a store-bought product, but almost all food products (including some organic snacks) contain a lot of chemicals that you don’t want in your body.  By baking something myself, I don’t have to worry since I’m in control of all the ingredients.

I want to continue baking for those around me. And perhaps I can share with people the reasons why homemade, preservative-free baked delicious-ness is so much better. I love making new friends, so if you want to try some of my baking, and you are in Rochester, let me know!

2. To learn as much as I can.
Before I bake any baked delicious-ness, I will research as much as I can about it. Before I entered my health craze, I had a huge interest in learning how to make macaroons. I found myself reading all about macaroons for a few days before even attempting to make it. My goal is to learn different baking styles and techniques to share with you what I learn.

Taste is very subjective. Since my belief is to bake with love, I want to know everything about it. I will experiment with different and hopefully better ingredients to create or re-create the same goodies but better for you!

3. To explore the endless possibilities.
I naturally found myself eating less and less meat when I lived in Portland. Before long,  I was eating a lot of raw foods, too! Everything happened naturally since I’ve always had an interest in health and promoting healthy eating. After reading many books such as In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and Food Matters by Mark Bittman, I became passionate about eating well. Since eating well is really important to me, I want to share it with you, too! In order to make a baked delicious-ness that is not harmful for you, I will explore as many recipes as I can to share the best with you!