With the success of Rice Cooker Bread floating through my mind, I did a little more research, accidentally ate only half of a bunch of bananas, and had my next ovenless baking experiment set. Yes indeed, a rice cooker is good for more than rice!
This is a recipe that could do with refining. The bread (well, cake) needed to be flipped over half-way through to make it cook on both sides. That meant manoeuvering the top layer of lovely hot sludge. Hmm. It turned into a bit of palaver, really, but I did manage it without tipping banana goo anywhere. Result!
Even so, I was quite impressed with myself. Banana Bread in a rice cooker? Who’d have thought? I’ll just have to refine the technique before I bring it out at a dinner party!
Lusciously bananaey and squidgy Banana Bread
Rice Cooker Banana Bread
2/3 bananas, mashed
0.33cups yoghurt, softened
0.25cups milk
1 egg
0.5cups sugar
1.5cups plain flour
2tsp baking powder
0.5tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Plunk all the ingredients in a mixing bowl and beat together.
- Grease the rice-cooker bowl well.
- Pour in the batter, cover and cook once (until the base sets).
- Manoeuvre the cake out (unless you have a more sophisticated idea, shake it out onto the rice-cooker lid), then flip it over and put back in the bowl. Cook again (until the now-base sets).
- Forgive me if you end up with scalding banana goo on the side/floor/cat.
“Remember, remember the fifth of December.”
…It’s something like that, anyway.
Up until this year I didn’t realise that Parkin is a) specifically of Yorkshire, nor did I know b) that it’s just for Bonfire Night. In my family it appeared whenever mum fancied making it! I did consider making and posting about Parkin just before Bonfire Night, but I was a bit distracted by other things, and didn’t really fancy making it anyway. And yet now, a month later, the Parkin cravings occur!
Parkin is thick and squidgy and dense, made with treacle (or golden syrup, if you’ve been drilled by your mum to avoid such icky things) and ginger. It actually tastes of cold nights, five layers of fleeces, scalding drinks in thermoses and bonfire smoke (something to do with the oats, perhaps?). So, if you fancy making a good wintry snack, this will go down very well!
"Authentic Yorkshire Parkin - help yourself!"
Yorkshire Parkin (serves 16)
1 egg
3tbsp milk
275g golden syrup
50g muscovado sugar
225g butter
100g oats
250g plain flour
2tsp ground ginger, heaped
2tsp bicarbonate of soda
- Preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Line a 9-inch square cake tin.
- Beat the egg and milk together and put to one side.
- Melt the syrup, sugar and butter together, either in a pan (heating gently and stirring the sugar in so it dissolves) or in a microwave (stirring every 30 seconds until the butter has melted).
- Put the oats, flour, ginger and bicarbonate of soda in a mixing bowl, then stir in the syrup mixture closely followed by the egg mixture. Make sure there aren’t any clumps of flour left.
- Pour the mixture into the lined tin and bake for 50 to 60 minutes. When its done your kitchen will smell like heaven, the cake will feel firm, and a cocktail stick will come out with a crumb or two on it.
- Cool in the tin, then peel off the paper and cut into squares. It gets softer and stickier after a few days, so if you can hold out that long…!
Breakfast: the bestest sandwich ever (probably) - squished banana in a hunk of bread!
It’s been a week! And the only baking I’ve got round to is this: a just-in-case recipe. I found it accidentally when I was looking up non-rice rice cooker recipes. It was dubbed a survival recipe for those in Japan, where ovens (and lovely English bread) are a rarity. Well, since my house is currently resplendent with rice-cookers (really, I’d never seen two lined up before, let alone with a third as a back-up in the cupboard!), and since quick’n’simple recipes are a winner as term reaches its thrilling climax, how could I not?
I used a coffee cup, since measuring cups don’t live in this house, but I’m going to hazard a guess that any mug would do too, as long as you’re careful about adding only enough water! This is definitely a recipe I’m going to be playing around with – Rice Cooker recipes can be so convenient, and of that I am a fan!
Rice Cooker Bread cooling on the window sill (of course!), with a few unsightly rips from wheedling it out of said rice cooker...
Rice Cooker Bread
2cups plain flour
1tsp yeast
1tsp salt
1tsp sugar
(up to) 1cup hot water
- In a medium-sized bowl, stir together the flour, yeast, salt and sugar, then very gradually add the water until a good dough.
- Get kneading! Just pummel it around in the bowl – no need to get the surface dirty.
- Grease the rice cooker bowl and transfer the dough into it. Cover and leave in a warm place for one hour.
- Punch it down and leave again for forty-five minutes.
- Cook twice on the normal cooking settings.
As a major contributor to last week’s Thanksgiving Puddings’n'Punch Evening, these Snow-flecked Brownies went down very well! They were absolutely decadent, requiring incredible amounts of chocolate, butter, sugar and eggs, but all those did produce extraordinary amounts of brownie too. I ended up making two tins’ worth out of the recipe (which supposedly serves twenty, though I cut everything pudding-shaped into 1-inch squares for the evening’s dessert buffet). Actually, even after the celebrations and doggy-bags I still had a slab to go in the freezer… Sweet And Simple Bakes indeed.
Snow-Flecked Brownies, to be enjoyed as part of a balanced desserts buffet.
These Brownies were something of a marker of faith, too. At the beginning of this term, I’d been assured an ‘all expenses paid’ semester by my Father, someone who loves to give good gifts. He’d said that I could rely on him to provide, and that I could make the most decadent of recipes, in particular the most luxurious of Brownies, all on him. Like we tend to do, I hadn’t wanted to test the limits of his generosity. I haven’t been making the most luxurious of recipes – actually I’m pretty good at making a little go a long way. Then I was lying awake a few weeks ago and decided I really wanted to hold a good Thanksgiving, a real opportunity to have fun and give thanks all in one. So, I immediately invited a whole bunch of people round…and then remembered to ask my Dad. Actually, he already had it covered. The next day I unexpectedly received a package filled with chocolates, a card, and some money in too. About half of the chocolates were a major player in the Thanksgiving evening (I sent everyone off with orders to give out chocolate to those whom they needed to say thanks to), and the money paid for the rest of the evening. I know Brownies don’t normally have any significance, but for me, this batch were a well-loved gift to me that I was privileged to pass on.
So, if you want a good Brownies recipe with tales of splendour attached, keep reading!
Soft and dark and rich.
Snow-Flecked Brownies
375g dark chocolate
375g butter, softened
6 eggs
350g caster sugar
225g plain flour
250g white chocolate chips
- Preheat the oven to 180C and line two 8-inch square tins with parchment.
- Melt the butter and chocolate together.
- Beat the eggs and sugar together, then beat in the chocolate mixture.
- Fold in the flour and then the white chocolate chips.
- Pour into the tins and bake for 25 minutes, at which point the top should be dry whilst the inside is still gooey.
- Cool completely in the tin, then peel off the paper and cut into squares.
This week was my second Thanksgiving. This time, sadly, I had no American friends to justify it with (they’re all in the wrong countries at the moment), but not to be put off from such an excuse for people and food and people and food, I organised it anyway.
Disclaimer: this was nothing like Thanksgiving. It contained no turkeys, long-lost uncles, or any other traditional Thanksgiving paraphernalia. Rather, it was Rosie’s Thanksgiving Pudding’n'Punch Evening.
I was lying awake one night a few weeks ago, and I suddenly decided I wanted to do Thanksgiving. So, I immediately invited a bunch of people (just in case things looked a little more…conventional in the morning), and then looked forward to it immensely for two weeks. I had convinced myself that I could just make the puddings for it gradually and keep them in the freezer…which, of course failed to happen. It might be more genuine to admit that…I spent the few days in the run up to Thanksgiving not doing any work in favour of slaving over the oven. Still, I think it was worth it!
So, a bunch of lovely people came round. I knew one friend was coming over for dinner beforehand (yes indeed, the traditional…mashed potato and mince – yum!), and fortunately made extra *just in case*. Just In Case came too, straight after her lectures, so we three had a lovely meal together before the rabble descended.
And descend they did – we all crammed into my living room, consumed our Recommended Yearly Amount of sugar, drank lots of good wintry drinks in our respective favourite mugs (I’d warned them in advance to bring their own, considering my limited supply!), played a raucous game of Table Twister, and generally got to know each other a little better…
In case you fancy hosting your own pudding party, my menu went something like this:
Punch
(Tip wildly approximate amounts of cider, orange juice and cinnamon into a rice cooker. Press ‘heat’.)
Snow-Flecked Brownies
(Recipe coming very soon, I promise!)
Apple-And-Marzipan Cake
(Highly recommended, and already chronicled here.)
Assorted bowls of toffees, crisps, bananas, and a vast array of hot drinks next to a bowl of whipped cream
(Coffee just tastes better with fresh cream.)
Pumpkin Cheesecake
Pumpkin Cheesecake, part of the Thanksgiving Pudding'n'Punch Evening's desserts array.
The Pumpkin Cheesecake came from the lovely Rebecca at Ezra Pound Cake. It’s a no-bake recipe that I noted down when I first saw it, and seemed to be a bit of a time-saver on a real pumpkin pie. Besides which, you’ve already seen innumerable recipes for that over the past two weeks, I’m sure.
But, if I were you, I would work out how to make pumpkin puree properly (or indeed, if you’re blessed to be in the States, buy some!). Otherwise, like me, you’ll dig around in your freezer, come up with your emergency bag of pumpkin, whizz it in the blender and see what happens. Then you’ll discover that apparently real pumpkin puree must be a lot thicker than you thought, after your Pumpkin Cheesecake has wibbled and wobbled and leaked gently, gloatingly, at you.
But it was still yummy! I just put the whole thing in the freezer before the evening began, so it was more like a frozen dessert.
Pumpkin Cheesecake (if you’re cutting it into little squares for a dessert buffet, serves lots)
300g ginger nuts
75g butter, melted
250g pumpkin puree
4tbsp butter, softened
450g cream cheese
1/2tsp ground nutmeg
100g granulated sugar
- Preheat the oven to 200C/gas mark 6. Prepare a 9-inch circular/8-inch square springform cake tin.
- Wielding a rolling pin, adeptly crush the ginger nuts (either between two clean teatowels or in a large plastic bag).
- Mix the biscuit crumbs and melted butter together, then press into the bottom of the tin. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes.
- Beat the pumpkin puree, butter, cream cheese and nutmeg, then beat in the sugar until smooth.
- Spread the pumpkin mixture over the crust and smooth.
- Chill for at least 6 hours, or overnight. When ready to serve, remove the sides of the tin and serve on the tin bottom.
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