Tag: Brazil nuts

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a more nutty banana nut bread

banana nut bread
I love a smooth batter!

Making Banana Nut Bread is one of the simplest recipes in the world for a child who wants to learn how to cook. After all, everything can be done in one bowl! Once your young chef has masters the many complexities of ‘cookies’, they will naturally want to move on to bigger challenges and this is a great one to start out.

As a young boy, it was my job to shell the nuts and mash the bananas and then do the final mixing. All I didn’t do was put it in the oven and take the credit! 😉 There are many good recipes, but here is ours with our favorite nut combination:

Mix dry ingredients:

2.5 cups bread flour
1 tsp salt
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
your favorite spices ( I use 1 1/2 teaspoons of my ‘Pumpkin Spice” blend: Cinnamon, Nutmeg, Ginger, Mace, Cardamon, Cloves, Allspice)

Mix in:

1 1/2 cups finely mashed ripe bananas
3 eggs

Fold in:

1/2 cup sliced Macadamia Nuts
1/2 cup sliced Brazil Nuts

Bake: 350 degrees for 1 hour or so or until a toothpick can be inserted and removed cleanly

LAST STEP:

Now a lot of folks like to put either a glaze, a frosting ( cream cheese) after baking or sugary nut topping prior to baking… but I like it just the way it is!

BTW: Having the right mixer makes all the difference!

Oh, Here’s the final picture before being eaten!

Make some for yourself or for someone you love … you both deserve it!

Roger

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pistachio and brazil nut biscotti

using Brazil nuts and pistachios in my biscotti

Creating a Biscotti recipe isn’t like a normal recipe because it is one of those wonderful things that was designed not to ‘stand alone.’ I don’t know about you, but I would never eat a Biscotti by itself as it would be somewhat drab and way too dry…. but let’s not dwell. When you dip a good Biscotti in coffee , it comes alive!

My daughters have been asking me to bake up some Biscotti with Brazil Nuts  ( which tastes interestingly enough like other wonderfully caloric nuts — Cashews and Macadamia nuts, for example —  when baked).  But I was looking for more than just another buttery Biscotti. I wanted something with a little bit more ‘zing’ and Pistachios — I thought — might just do the trick.  This worked.  So, I also made a bit more ‘sticky’ batter ( with a little more corn starch and a potato flour mixture) that seemed to hold it all together. Oh yes, it was good in the ‘test kitchen.’

Ah, now to coffee!

Roger Freberg

PS. click for the basic recipe on the picture above.