(To avoid tough, cone-headed muffins, do not overmix.) Gently fold in the apples.
Scoop dough into a muffin tin lined with paper cups, filling the cups to the top. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
While muffins are baking, prepare the topping by mixing together the sugar and cinnamon. Immediately after taking the muffins out of the oven, brush the tops with melted butter and shake a storm of cinnamon-sugar on top. Makes a bountiful 13 (baker's dozen) aphrodisiacs disguised as muffins; prepare for the effects.
A Marriage Made with Banana Bread?
In his book The White House Family Cookbook, White House executive chef and author Henry Haller entertains with recipes and tales of presidential palatal preferences and favorite foods of first families, all woven together with Americana food lore and good inside dish, like what favorite fare Ronnie Reagan had delivered to the hospital when he was recovering from his gunshot wound (I'll tell you later in the book…).
The sweetest story is that of David and Julie Nixon Eisenhower. Later to marry, they first met as eight-year-olds. David, Ike's young son, was a hearty eater who loved banana bread. Since Mrs. Nixon adored bananas, her first daughter, Julie, also grew up with banana bread as a Number One favorite. Same White House, same chef, same recipe. It was “very, very, very, very good,” David once wrote in a thank-you note to the chef. I bet this very, very good banana bread will put stars in any man's eyes.
Kissin' don't last; cookery do!
—George Meredith
Bet On It Banana Bread
A favorite of the Eisenhowers
4 cups unbleached flour
2 cups brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
⅔ cup buttermilk
1 cup margarine, melted
4 large, very ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups of your favorite nuts, chopped (optional)
Additional brown sugar and chopped nuts (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease and flour two 8 × 4-inch loaf pans. (If you prefer muffins, line tin with muffin cups.) Combine flour, brown sugar, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Make a well in the center.
In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs, vanilla, and buttermilk. Pour into the dry mixture and blend slightly, always by hand with a wooden spoon. Add the melted margarine and mix a bit more. Finally, add mashed bananas and, if using, nuts. Mix gently until ingredients are blended (do not overmix). Spoon batter into the prepared pans and sprinkle the top with additional brown sugar and nuts, if desired.
Bake for 45 to 55 minutes (20 to 25 minutes for muffins). To check if the muffins are done, insert a toothpick; if it comes out clean, the bread is done. Note the baking time for the future. Turn out to cool. Slice and serve with butter. Makes 2 loaves or 14 muffins.
Stirring It Up with the Big Boys
What does a celebrated New York, chef and author do when he's not overseeing his culinary creations at one of the grandest establishments in New York City? Does he hobnob with fellow wizards talking foie gras and quattro formaggi while sipping fine wine and swapping tales of gastronomic escapades in Paris, Saint-Père-sous-Vezelay, and Brussels?
Daniel Orr, Executive Chef at New York's Guastavino's, author of Real Food, and former cuisine king at La Grenouille, bakes his grandmother's biscuits. ‘Tis true; for occasional weekend brunches and holiday breakfasts, he rolls up his sleeves, puts on his apron, and pays tribute to Gramma Orr.
Ever since I discovered that Chef Orr developed his childhood taste buds in the culinary training ground of Indiana (as did I), I've been a fan. I love that someone from the land of meatloaf and coleslaw has been transformed into such a fine, respected chef. He was surely inspired back in the Hoosier state by some of the best buttermilk biscuits you'll ever taste, thanks to his grandma.
Simple pleasures are essential pleasures,restorative, necessary to survival.
—Jacqueline Deval, Reckless Appetites
Gramma Orr's Buttermilk Biscuits
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 generous teaspoon sugar
½ cup (1 stick) cold unsalted butter
¾ to 1 cup cold buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 450°F. In a medium bowl, thoroughly combine the dry ingredients. Cut in the cold butter with a sharp pastry cutter, leaving some large pea-sized pieces among the other cornmeal-sized pieces.
Add the buttermilk and toss to combine (do not overmix or they will become tough and dry!); form a ball. Knead the dough lightly, pat it out to a ¾-inch thickness, and cut with a biscuit cutter. Bake biscuits on an ungreased baking sheet at 450°F for 2 to 3 minutes, reduce heart to 350°F, and bake for another 8 to 9 minutes. Makes a dozen or so grandma-style biscuits.
THE INSIDE LINE
At Guastavino's, Chef Orr transforms his grandma's biscuits into a fabuous dessert. He simply brushes them with buttermilk and sprinkles raw sugar and sweet spices on them before baking. They are served sliced and topped with local Tri-Star strawberries, crème fraîche, and a little chopped mint.
Flipped Out for a Johnny Cake
The first colonists in America were simply smitten with the newly discovered Indian crop called “corn.” England had its porridges, puddings, and muffins, but Old World tables had never known the likes of such rustic, soulful creations as stone-ground cornmeal being flipped, fried, and cooked in the New World.
To founding father Benjamin Franklin, cornmeal in any of its incarnations was soul food. In fact, during a visit to London in 1768 to plead the case for the colonies, he begged his daughter to send him the foods for which he was homesick, among them cornmeal. Ben would give cooking classes to the Englishwomen, enthusiastically
