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I like my Banana’s firm and perfectly yellow. I know, good luck! It’s the mushiness that makes me so ficky. Needs to be firm, sweet and tasty. If, as Banana’s always do, turns brown and soggy, you have only two options. Throw them away or make a Banana dish of some sort. My 1st and only choice is Banana Nut Bread (see, I have to stay away from any soggy, mushy food)! Banana cream pie, Banana custard and any Banana mush is going to gag me till I **** (you know what). OK enouth of the personals, let make some Banana Nut Bread in a Dutch oven.

 

Banana Nut Bread

 

Ingredients:

2 ea  eggs

3 ea  ripe banana’s

1/2 cup melted butter

1/2 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

3/4 cup sugar 

1 tbsp honey

2 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 cup chopped pecans

 

Preparation:

 

Mix everything except the banana’s and pecan’s. Mix till moist, then add your banana’s and pecans. Pour into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 for 45 - 50 minutes

Test with a toothpick. If it comes out wet it needs more cooking time.

I used a 12″ Dutch oven with a trivet on the bottom to prevent burning.

To keep your Dutch oven at 350 you need to have 8 coals on the bottom and 16 colas on the top. They should last the entire cooking time. You want most of your heat comeing from the top.

Roatae your lid and pot in opposite direction a quarter turn every 10  - 15 minutes to prevent hot spots that will lead to a burn.

As always use you nose! And don’t peek!

 

 

Dutch oven cooks motto:

• If you can’t smell it, let it cook.
• If it smells burnt, it’s burnt.
• If it smells done, it’s done.

 

 

 

 

“Get out of the kitchen! Light the fire! Start cooking outdoors”

 

 

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Bread in a Dutch oven is a wonder to behold. There is no peaking and the heat is from the fire not the oven temperature knob so you have to stay by it and use your nose. This Honey Molasses Loaf recipe comes from my friend Lynda in South Africa. You might remember she did a guest post about a South African dish called a “Potjiekos”. You can read it here. And you really need to view Lynda’s Blog, it’s called FOOD, FUN & FARM LIFE IN EAST AFRICA ! Check it out here.

I made a couple of modification to the original recipe to fit my kitchen supplies and decided this had to be baked in a Dutch oven.

 

Recipe

 

2 cups whole wheat flour

1 cup cake flour

1 cup bran

1 tbsp Sunflower seeds

1 tbsp Sesame seeds

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sunflower oil

1 tbsp Honey

1 tbsp Molasses

20 g instant yeast

2 cups lukewarm water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Preparation

 

Mix all ingredients together. Grease the insides and the underside of the lid of a  10″ Dutch oven. It will be a wet mix and will fill the bottom of the Dutch oven. Pour mixture into Dutch oven and let rise for 30 minutes or until it is close to the top of the Dutch oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45  minutes, that’s about 6 coals on bottom and 13 coals on top. Rotate the lid and Dutch oven in opposite direction every 10 minutes to eliminate hot spots.

 

Note: I added a seed and raisin mix instead of using the recipe seeds and poured some on top of the loaf before baking. This is a fairly dense loaf and tasted great with a little butter and honey on it. If you let it rise to sandwich bread height (I didn’t) it will be a fantastic sandwich bread for wheat lovers. Last point, if you peak during the baking process you will lose some height. Yep I peaked, I was multi tasking the family and forgot my start time, peaked and got some plop. No matter it is still a great bread.

 

 

Thanks Lynda!!

 

 

 

 

“Get out of the kitchen! Light the fire! Start cooking outdoors”

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Last year we had a D.O.G. (Dutch Oven Gathering) at Jamestown Historic Railtown. Everyone was cooking their favorite dishes for the days meal and having fun talking with each other. I remember when the food was served, we had several large pots spread on the table including these beautiful biscuits. I looked at them with complete envy, I couldn’t make biscuits if my life depended on them. Mine always come out tasting good but flat like a pancake.

My theroy is a fishing urban tale/fact to me. Some people can catch fish all day long with just a worm other people will spend hundreds of dollars on equipment and catch nothing! You place one of each type of person next to each other and the facts hold true. I think it’s their personal “Scent”, some people just plain ol’ smell good to fish and some don’t. Ya know what I mean?

I think the same hold true with biscuits. Biscuits don’t like my “Scent”, now laugh all you like but I am sticking to that theory.

Back to those beautiful biscuits. One of the diners, Sandy, came up to me and asked if I had cooked these biscuits, sorry not mine. Now I know Sandy is an excellent D.O. cook and has competed in competitions over the years. He went on to exclaim how incredible these biscuits were, “The best he ever had” and so on. I pointed him over to Bill, pretty sure he cooked them up. Well Sandy wandered over and ask Bill if the biscuit were his and could he have the recipe to these incredible biscuits?

Now I have know Bill for several years and he is a clever rascal. Well, sure enough, Bill says sure and hold up a blue bag with the words “Pillsbury” printed all over it. I about wet my pants, I was laughing so hard my food went everywhere. Bill just stood there grinning and Sandy walked away with a lesson about Bill.

I learned a lesson also. I can now make biscuits in a Dutch oven!!! Thanks for the great idea Bill.

Here is my routine for easy biscuits:

 

Get your self some pre-made biscuits, any brand or type will do.

 

 

 

 

Grease your Dutch oven. Eight biscuits will fit perfectly in a 10″ Dutch oven. 30 biscuits will fit in a 14′ Dutch oven. Preheat you lid, this will start those biscuits rising right away. Remember you are baking so use the 4 up - 4 down measurement with you coals. That will give you about  350° .

 

 

Cook per the instruction on the label. About 15 minutes or so. Rotate the lid and pot every 5 minutes in opposite directions to eliminate hot spots.

 

 

 

 

Biscuits are with-in every ones grasp using these simple tips and techniques. Go out and try some if you can’t catch any fish either…..

 

“Get out of the kitchen! Light the fire! Start cooking outdoors”

 

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