Rainy Saturday Baking

I had oginally planned to do gardening this afternoon but since the weather didn't look like it was going to cooperate I decided baking was in order instead.

Made my flourless almond butter chocolate chunk cookies and some banana walnut muffins.

First the cookies.

This is my favorite cookie recipe, I modified it from a flourless peanut butter version by Michael Recchiuti, http://www.recchiuti.com/recipe_detail.html?recipe=02.

I love the richness of flavor created with the almond butter, the toasted almonds and rough chopped 70% chocolate for the chips.

The final modification is to combine fleur de sel and vanilla salt together and sprinkle a small amount on the cookies just after they come out of the oven.





The cookie in all its glory

For the Banana Walnut muffins I modified a recipe for banana bread from the new farm vegetarian cookbook, http://www.farmcatalog.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=17.

The farm is a commune in Tennesee where an old friend of mine grew up. I always loved this banana bread, so I decided to try a muffin version. Ended up modifying to the point of near unrecognizability.

In place of the margarine the recipe calls for I used clarified butter, which was blended with medium brown sugar.

In place of the all purpose flour I used cake flour, which gave the finished product a cupcake feel.

For the bananas I froze very ripe bananas then let them thaw into a mush. Then I added toasted walnuts and some burnt caramel I had in the fridge.




After placing in the muffin tins, prior to baking, I swirled some additional burnt caramel around the mixture using a toothpick (for the mini cupcakes) and a paring knife (for the standard).


The finished muffin here is from the standard batch.


An afternoon well spent.