Bacon Rounds

We're back home! A little rougher around the edges, a lot happier after a bunch of coconuts, some amazing tacos, and some quality time at the greatest wedding I've been to in ages, and happy to be done with long plane rides for awhile. But we had an amazing time, first at the wedding in California and then in Tulum, Mexico, where we ate a lot of shrimp, swam in the sea in the shadows of Mayan ruins, and generally relaxed after a long and stressful few weeks of work leading up to our holiday.

And since we both stayed up all night on the plane ride home and thus slept for fourteen hours on Saturday night, I really thought I might have escaped the jetlag unscathed... but then the week rolled around, and for the last two nights, I've been awake from 2am until 5:30am, just laying in bed and wishing I could start my day. Then at 7am when my day ACTUALLY starts, I can barely hold my eyes open (I'm yawning as I write this).

Do you know what helps with jetlag? Breakfast. (No, seriously.) Eating real food-- something besides just coffee-- helps reset your body clock and get you back on schedule, so I've been relying on these bacon rolls to do the job for me. They may not be the same thing a Scot thinks of when he thinks of a bacon roll, but they're pretty tasty, and they pair amazingly well with raw salted butter.* (Also, if you promise not to tell anyone, they also taste pretty great with a thin smear of apricot preserves. Try it, no one is going to judge!).

These rolls may not be the classiest breakfast (or the healthiest one), but they make a nice change from the 'lukewarm cup of instant coffee at the office' trend that I find it really easy to fall into, and because they're so easy to grab on your way out the door, you don't even have to wait for a weekend to take advantage of them. Bonus: they keep really well, so you can take one to work every day all week and they'll taste just as warm and fluffy on Friday as they do on Monday. If you can find two 1-pound ovensafe coffee cans, this recipe should technically be made as two small loavess in those cans. Coffee cans that I found are all either cardboard or painted, and either way I couldn't put them in the oven, so I just popped these into a standard muffin tin and got exactly 12 rolls out of the recipe.

Finally, let's just note that the bottom of this recipe pamphlet, which I'm pretty sure was a freebie that came with a bag of flour or a packet of yeast, includes an ad for silverware if you mail in coupons, along with a coupon for 5 cents off a tub of margarine. Ew.

*Bacon rolls are as close as you can get to a bacon, egg, and cheese biscuit in the US, but they only include bacon-- no egg, no cheese, and they're served on a roll that has kind of the texture of ciabatta, and they're topped with brown sauce, which is like a sweeter version of A1. I'm pretty indifferent to them because of the lack of cheese, but also because, I mean, if you're going to have a breakfast in Britain, wouldn't you rather have a cream scone? I know I would.

The verdict:

3 out of 5. They're delicious, but I'll always prefer a biscuit or a scone when it comes to breakfast food.

The recipe:

Bacon Rounds

the directions:

Grease 12 muffin cups.
In large bowl, dissolve yeast in hot water.
Add 1 1/3 c flour and all remaining ingredients.
Stir until only pea-sized lumps remain, about 15 seconds or so.
Stir in remaining flour thoroughly, scraping sides of bowl until mixture is almost smooth (as my mom taught me, you want a few lumps to remain or the rolls won't rise).
Batter will be very sticky, so avoid going at it with your hands; instead, use a large spoon to scoop heaping spoonfuls into the greased muffin tin, then smooth out the tops of each portion.
Let rise in warm place (aka anywhere in my apartment this time of year) for 50 minutes.
Batter will rise slightly but not double.
Heat oven to 176C/350F, then bake 20 minutes or until golden brown and firm on top.
Immediately remove from pan and serve warm, if possible.

If saving for later, reheat with a pat of butter and a sprinkle of salt, and a tiny spoonful of jam if you're feeling daring.

the ingredients:

4 ½ tsp yeast
¼ c water, very warm
2 1/3 c flour
2 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp soda
1 c sour cream
1 egg
½ c lardons, fried until crisp and then drained on a paper towel

The Cast of Characters

No new recipe today as Judson and I are currently on holiday in sunny Mexico, soaking up the heat and, in all likelihood at this very moment, drinking something out of a coconut. But I didn't forget about you, dear reader, and in hopes of keeping things a little easier to understand around here, here's a handy list of people who appear frequently in stories on the blog.  

 

The Main Characters:

Blair (me): Eleanor's only granddaughter, owner of this blog, can generally be found making a mess in the kitchen or drinking coffee. Passions include traveling, big words, unusual fruits, and farmer's markets. Favourite foods include oysters, all forms of cheese, frosting, and wine. Current location: Scotland.

Eleanor: My grandmother, the owner and creator of the recipe box that started this entire project. Gravel-voiced and crooked-smiling, she was born and raised in New York City until she moved, with her husband and two children, to Florida in the late 1950s. Died in 1991, lives on in memory and kitchen exploits.

Elyse: My mother, Eleanor's daughter. Strongest woman I know, capable of making the best pound cake I've ever tasted, and keeper of the recipe box for the past 24 years, until she gave it to me last fall. Deserves all the credit for the existence of this project, because without her the box would have been lost years ago.

Judson: My husband. Lover of video games, root beer, chips and salsa, and me. Abides my culinary successes and failures with remarkable good humour, except when I made him help me try to make chestnut soup and we both burned our fingertips so badly we couldn't use our hands for a week.

 

The Ensemble:

Wilbur: Eleanor's husband, my grandfather. Redheaded golf whiz who fought in WWII, loved corny jokes, and dropped out of school before he hit sixth grade to take care of his family. Died in the 1970s, long before I was born.

June: Wilbur's sister, Eleanor's sister-in-law and best friend, my great-aunt. Worked in a factory with Eleanor during WWII, had an entirely pink kitchen and was one of the genuinely nicest people I've ever met. Moved (with her family) from New York to Florida with Eleanor (and her family) in the late 1950s. Died two years ago before it ever occurred to me to ask her where Eleanor's sauerbraten recipe was hidden.

Margie: Eleanor's other best friend, my mom's godmother, and a general aunt-like figure to my entire family. Redheaded, Irish, cantankerous, and mysterious. Also moved to Florida with Eleanor and June and family in the late 1950s. If Eleanor is the embodiment of Bea Arthur on the Golden Girls, Margie is Estelle Getty.

Augusta Bonhag: Wilbur's mother, Eleanor's mother-in-law. No other important news on her as she died so long ago my mom barely remembers her, but isn't her name just the greatest?

Banana Cake with Carmel Icing

I've always been pretty indifferent to bananas. I don't love the texture and the weird strings on the sides of the peel kind of freak me out. Plus, they make my mouth itch. Also, if you've ever seen a banana tree in winter, it'll do a pretty good job of convincing you never to eat a banana again. The trees get soggy, waterlogged, and brown, and the whole things just crumple like a paper bag in the rain. It's always freaked me out a little, and since they're a pretty easy fruit to avoid, I just kind of forget they exist most of the time.

Somehow, though, I've always adored banana bread. Not just any banana bread, but my mom's banana bread. My mom is a pretty good cook, and her pound cake is second to none, but it's her banana bread that I still dream about on sleepy mornings when I just want to linger over a cup of coffee with a warm slice of cinnamon-y bread. I don't know where my mom got her recipe, and last time I asked her for it she didn't remember where it was, but it's the best banana bread I've ever tasted. When I was growing up, there was always a bunch of black bananas stored in the door of our freezer, where my mom would keep them after they got too freckly to eat-- the perfect state for banana bread.

So when I found this recipe for banana cake (with carmel icing!) in the box, I had high hopes. The recipe is handwritten by Eleanor, so it stands to reason it would be good-- I mean, my mom had to get her excellent banana bread genes from somewhere, right? But I couldn't possibly have fathomed how good it would be. Now before you go thinking I've lost my marbles by choosing banana cake over chocolate cake-- hear me out.

The texture is definitely pretty weird until the dry ingredients are added, but fear not! This is normal.

This banana cake, unfrosted, would be an excellent (if decadent) breakfast, topped with a dollop of yogurt and some sliced strawberries. But frosted with a thin layer of carmel icing, it's perfection as a dessert. The bananas make it incredibly moist without being or heavy, and because it's topped with a boiled icing instead of the usual buttercream, it's almost more like a cake donut than it's like a cake.

It's a versatile dessert that would be just as great for a wintry dinner party as it is for a summertime barbecue, and the carmel icing (which, by the way, has the texture of donut frosting) is easy to make and the perfect complement to the warm, slightly tropical banana flavour of the cake. Icing not your thing? You could leave it out and serve the cake warm with a melty scoop of chocolate ice cream on it for that perfect Bluth Banana flavour, and no one would be sad at all.

Even Judson (who, somehow, hates cake) loved this one-- and his co-workers all but licked the platter when I sent half of it to work with him. (I had to get it out of the house or I was going to eat the entire thing in one sitting, and although I would have thoroughly enjoyed myself in doing so, I figured it was better to share the wealth. Those are, after all, the same coworkers who have put up with 4 of my dumb cheesecakes at this point. It's definitely better to keep them in good graces.)

I wish I could explain to you how good this cake will make your kitchen smell, but since I can't bottle that smell for you, you should really just make this cake yourself. Tonight. For dinner.

The verdict:

5 spoons out of five. This cake is the best cake, and nothing I could say about it will do it accurate justice. Go make one for yourself and you'll see.

The recipe:

Banana Cake with Carmel Icing

the directions:
cake:

Preheat oven to 176C/350F.
Cream sugar and shortening.
Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
Add mashed bananas and vanilla.
Sift dry ingredients together and add alternately with sour milk and crushed pecans.
Pour into 2 small round cake pans, or one 8-inch round pan and bake for 20-30 minutes (for two small pans) or 30-45 minutes (for one large).
Remove from oven and cool completely before frosting.

 

 

Icing:

Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and stir until mixture starts to boil.
Allow to boil 1-1 ½ minutes, stirring constantly.
Let cool and beat thoroughly until fluffy and light.
Frost cake after cool and eat cake with relish.

the ingredients:
the cake:

1 ½ c sugar
1 c shortening or Stork
2 eggs
1 c bananas, mashed well and very ripe
2 1/3 c flour, sifted
½ tsp salt
1 tsp soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp vanilla
¼ c sour milk (buttermilk would probably work, or fake your own by adding 1 tsp of lemon juice or vinegar to a ¼ cup measure and then filling the rest with milk)
½ c pecans, broken

the icing:

1 c brown sugar, firmly packed
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp shortening or Stork
¼ c milk