I love the world we live in where two women meet at a grocery store’s free wine tasting and later, from several features of the conversation, one woman Googles the other “medical student writer in Rochester, MN” and Voila! she invites the Googled-one to her Dutch-themed party (tonight).
Anneriecke, the Googler, is Dutch and before she goes back to Holland she wants to throw a proper Dutch Party! Her house rules: 5 points if you can pronounce ‘Gouda’ with a proper ‘g’; 10 points if you wear something orange; 100 points if you come by bike!
I LOVE points, and Gouda (pr. How-da), so we must go. Of course, since I’m a medical student, I have elected to shoot for A+ 115 points. What bread can you bring to an Orange party? Fortuitously, the next recipe in Baking Illustrated is Orange-Spice Banana Bread! Put the bread on the moped (loose interpretation of bike), and we are ready to party Dutch-style!
Orange-Spice Banana Bread (no banana)
INGREDIENTS
2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting the pan
¾ cup white sugar
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
2 tablespoons orange zest
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
3/4 stick (6 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted and cooled, plus more for the pan
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
DIRECTIONS
Same as yesterday’s non-banana banana recipe (of which the remaining loaf I was able to bring to a research party-potluck and conveniently leave there…sorry Dr. Juhn. (heh heh)).
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While the non-banana banana bread was baking, I fiddled around in the kitchen and decided to try a Snow Crab Risotto recipe I picked up at our grocery store: (recipe). As it turns out, a little snow crab risotto, sauvignon blanc, and orange-spice non-banana banana bread is a nice combo. 3.75 stars. The orange-spice bread dough was really tasty, tastier than the bread baked with it (I should have just stopped there).But this bread was better than yesterday. I also substituted wheat flour for white and it is hardly noticeable and still rises fine. Of note, the crust on this faux-banana bread is really crispy, which I like.
Well, I bought an orange flower for my moped flower holder and KP got an orange outfit at Savers today, so we’ll be off to party with the Dutch! Maybe I can steal an oven of theirs for a recipe next week…
Took several photos of this project. I am particularly sad Izzy could not try the risotto. She appears nonplussed.
