Hazelnut Banana Bread

A video recipe for hazelnut banana bread

Hazelnut Banana Bread by Jason Schreiber.

HAZELNUT BANANA BREAD

Originally published in FRUIT CAKE: RECIPES FOR THE CURIOUS BAKER

MAKES 8 TO 10 SERVINGS  

The bananas and plantains for this recipe need to be soft, dark, and basically mushade, because that’s when they are the sweetest and most full of flavor. The plantains, which are starchier than your typical banana, don’t break down completely, forming little pockets of intense banana flavor scattered throughout the loaf.

The original recipe from FRUIT CAKE uses walnuts instead of hazelnuts. Both versions are delicious.

Pan Goo (below), for greasing the pan
2 (240 grams) large, very ripe, very mushy bananas
2 (450 grams) large, very ripe, very soft sweet plantains
¾ cup (160 grams) granulated sugar
1 ¼ cups (178 grams) all-purpose flour
1 ¼ teaspoons (3.8 grams) coarse salt
1 teaspoon (2.5 grams) ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon (4.5 grams) baking soda
1 pinch ground mace
4 tablespoons (57 grams) unsalted butter
½ cup (4 ounces, 113 grams) cream cheese
2 teaspoons (10 milliliters) pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 cup (128 grams) toasted hazelnuts (optional)

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) with a rack in the center position. Brush a standard 8 ½ x 4 ½-inch loaf pan with Pan Goo.

2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas and plantains together until the bananas have almost totally disintegrated and the plantains have broken into pieces about the size of modest grapes. Add the sugar and continue mashing it all together until the sugar more or less dissolves. Set this mixture aside to macerate for about 15 minutes.

3. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking soda, and mace.

4. In a small saucepan, melt the butter, then remove it from the heat. Using a rubber spatula, stir the cream cheese into the butter until it’s mostly dissolved, then whisk to combine. Whisk in the vanilla and eggs, one at a time, until the mixture has lightened to the consistency of melted ice cream.

5. Stir the wet mixture into the banana mixture with a rubber spatula. Add the dry mixture and gently fold it all together as you might pancake batter, being careful not to overwork it or leave any dry pockets behind. Store in the nuts, if using, and then pour the batter into the prepared pan. It will be almost completely full.

6. Bake the loaf until it’s deep golden brown, springs back to the touch, and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out clean, 80 to 85 minutes.

7. Transfer the pan to a wire rack. Let the loaf rest in the pan for just about 15 minutes, then unmold it onto the rack until—here comes the hard part—it’s completely cool.

STORAGE
You can probably keep the loaf in an airtight container for 4 to 5 days, but good luck with that.

PAN GOO
¼ cup (62 mL) neutral oil, such as safflower
⅓ cup (47 g) all-purpose flour.

In a small container with a lid, whisk the oil and flour together until combined. Brush onto baking pans in place of parchment paper or cooking spray. Keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. A month seems like maybe too long

From FRUIT CAKE: Recipes for the Curious Baker (William Morrow, 2020).

FRUIT CAKE x food52 →

A video recipe for a PB&J cake

This PB&J cake from FRUIT CAKE is too easy to make *and* too easy to eat. I’ve still never been to Fire Island but I imagine it tastes just as good with a little sand on top. If you haven’t bought your copy yet, head over to food52 for the recipe.

A Very Dramatic Apple

A very dramatic apple reads the opening poem from my book FRUIT CAKE: Recipes for the Curious Baker (William Morrow, 2020).

“First to show was sweet Clement
Richard often came and went
Unlike Sal who settled in
Instantly becoming kin
Thinking there was room for more
Florence flitted through the door
Leon, Gerald, Evan, Ray—
It seems their numbers grow each day
Exhausted as I try and try
Still these fruit flies will not die”

— Fruit Cake

Cornbread Disco

A video recipe for cornbread

Cornbread Disco by Jason Schreiber. Music by Jess Damuck.

MAPLE ORANGE CORNBREAD

MAKES 10 TO 12 SERVINGS  

Each November, an email exchange between my mother and me resurfaces. The conversation goes back more than ten years, which is a testament to both our forgetfulness and the resilience of modern technology. The subject: cornbread, and how. Each year the recipe is tweaked and changed, adapted and scaled. No more. I have put it down in ink now, for my mom and yours

FOR THE CORNBREAD
Pan Goo (below), for greasing the pan
2 cups (284 g) all-purpose flour
1 cup (115 g) stone-ground cornmeal
1-1/2 tsp (4.5 g) coarse salt
1 tsp (3 g) baking powder
1/2 tsp (3 g) baking soda
2 tsp (4 g) finely grated orange zest (from 1 orange) 3/4 c (159 g) granulated sugar
3 large eggs
1/4 cup (84 g) pure maple syrup, preferably dark and robust
1/2 cup (1 stick, 113 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 cup (250 mL) buttermilk, room temperature

FOR THE GLAZE
1/4 cup (62 mL) freshly squeezed orange juice
2 tbsp (42 g) pure maple syrup, preferably dark and robust
1 tbsp (14g) unsalted butter
coarse salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C) with a rack in the center position. Brush a 9 x 2-inch square cake pan with Pan Goo.

2. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, cornmeal, salt, baking powder, and baking soda, and set aside.

3. In a medium bowl, use your fingers to rub
the orange zest into the sugar, releasing all the fragrant oils. Whisk the eggs into the sugar one at a time until well combined. Slowly whisk in
the maple syrup, followed by the melted butter. Finally, whisk in the buttermilk. The mixture should be very smooth.

4. Make a well in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the wet ingredients. Use a rubber spatula or a wooden spoon to gently stir the dry ingredients into the wet as you would pancake batter. Be careful not to overmix or the cake will become tough; leave some lumps of love. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

5. Bake until the top springs back when gently pressed and a cake tester inserted into the center comes out with moist crumbs, 35 to 40 minutes. 

6. Make the glaze while the cake is in the oven: In a small saucepan, combine the orange juice, maple syrup, butter, and salt. Set over medium heat and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mixture boils. Continue boiling without stirring for 2 minutes, then remove the pan from the heat.

7. Transfer the cake pan to a wire rack. Brush the top of the cornbread with the maple orange glaze as soon as it comes out of the oven, then let it cool completely in the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

STORAGE
Cornbread is really best eaten the day it’s made but will keep reasonably well at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 3 days.

PAN GOO
1/4 cup (62 mL) neutral oil, such as safflower
1/3 cup (47 g) all-purpose flour.

In a small container with a lid, whisk the oil and flour together until combined. Brush onto baking pans in place of parchment paper or cooking spray. Keep it in the fridge for a couple of weeks. A month seems like maybe too long

From FRUIT CAKE: Recipes for the Curious Baker (William Morrow, 2020).

Apricot, Date, and Halzelnut Sourdough Bread

Pantry baking can include loads of dried fruit, especially when you’ve just written a book about fruit cake and you still have too much of it on hand. This bread has so many apricots and dates that it’s basically self-jamming… which is good because that’s the one thing we didn’t stock up on.

I made this up as I went and barely wrote down what I did, but if you want to try to follow along here’s the “recipe”.

• 250 grams dried fruit (I used apricots and dates)

• boiling water

• 500 grams flour (I used a mix of bread flour, semolina, and a mystery flour I found in the back of my pantry)

• 75 grams sourdough starter (fed and ready)*

• 10 grams salt

• 50 grams lightly toasted hazelnuts

*If you don’t have a sourdough starter try using 3/4 tsp instant yeast (Mix it in with the flour. It should work. I think.)

Chop the fruit and place it in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand 30 or 40 minutes or overnight or however long you want. Strain the fruit out of the water and set aside. Add enough cold water to the infused water to bring it up to 390 grams. Use less if you’re not used to working with very wet dough. 

Combine the flour(s) and water in a large bowl and stir until a shaggy dough forms. Cover and rest for 45 minutes. Add the starter and use your hands to pull/stretch the dough up from the sides and over the top of the dough until all the starter is incorporated. Add the salt and keep stretching/folding until combined. Shape into a ball as best you can and place in an oiled bowl to rise 45 minutes. Use two hands to grab the dough at 9 and 3 o’clock and pull up, stretching the dough and letting other two ends fall underneath. Lower the ball and rotate the bowl 90 degrees. Grab the the dough at 9 and 3 o’clock again and stretch the dough up and then lower it onto itself again. It’ll look a bit square now. Cover and rise 45 minutes. Repeat the folds 3 more times with 45 minute rests between each. Let the dough bulk rise until about doubled or put it in the fridge and cold ferment overnight.

Flip the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and stretch into a circle about as big as you can get it. Maybe 18 inches? I didn’t measure. Scatter the soaked fruit and nuts evenly over the dough, then roll up like a jelly roll into a log. Roll the log into a coil and then shape into a ball. The dough might tear because there’s probably too much fruit in it, sorry. Do the best you can. Cut the dough into two pieces and let it bench rest for 20 minutes.

Shape the dough into balls or batards or whatever you want. It’s soft and sticky, just do the best you can. Place the dough in really well floured bannetons or colanders with floured linen napkins or whatever you can find without leaving your house FOR GOD’S SAKE STAY HOME. If you have rice flour dust with that I hear it helps the sticking but I don’t have any and I’m not going to go get it. Let the dough rise until it’s doubled or at least full of air and gently springs back. Preheat the oven with a pizza stone in the upper third position to 500 degrees. Set a sheet pan you don’t care about on a lower shelf. 

Flip the dough out onto a floured peel and score with a sharp knife or a razor blade. Slide one loaf into the oven towards the back of the stone. Repeat with the other loaf and try to get it towards the front. Carefully dump about 1 cup of ice cubes onto the sheet pan and close the door. Bake for 20 minutes until the bread is beginning to brown. Lower the oven to 450 and bake another 10 minutes. Carefully remove the sheet pan full of water if it hasn’t already evaporated and bake another 10 minutes until the bread is almost burnt. Check if the bread is done by tapping on it to see if it sounds hollow. When it’s finished, turn the oven off and crack the door open. Let the bread sit in the oven for 10 minutes to finish developing the crust. Cool completely before serving. Is it serving if you aren’t allowed to have guests?

Making a Splash

I partnered with my friends at Anomaly's Unreasonable Studios to create the suite of splashy images below. Jobs like this are some of my favorite — I get to be one part food stylist, one part rigger, and three parts kid-at-the-playground-with-water-balloons.