Maple olive oil banana bread

This weekend marked the end of Vanier's Maple Sugar Festival that takes place in one of North America's only urban sugar bushes. How cool is it that just a few blocks from my house, maple trees are tapped and real maple syrup is made? Just another reason Vanier's such an interesting place to live.

The festival inspired me to make this banana bread that uses maple syrup. While the syrup is a neat addition, so is the olive oil that makes this bread really moist. And the cinnamon sugar topping adds a nice crunch to each slice. Plus, with some whole wheat flour and Greek yogurt, it almost passes for a health food.

Really, what's not to like?

Maple olive oil banana bread
From Shutterbean

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
• 2 eggs
• 3 ripe bananas, mashed (about 1 cup puree)
• 1/2 cup Greek yogurt

for the topping:

• 2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter an 8 x 4 inch loaf pan. Line pan with a sling of parchment paper, with the long sides overhanging. Lightly butter the parchment, then set the pan aside.

Whisk together the flours, baking soda, salt and spices in a medium bowl. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the olive oil and brown sugar, breaking up any lumps. Add the maple syrup and vanilla, whisking until smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time and beat until fully incorporated. With a wooden spoon, stir in the bananas, then Greek yogurt. Add the flour mixture to the liquids, stirring until just combined. Do not over mix. Pour batter into prepared pan, evening out the top if necessary.

Mix together the turbinado sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle the topping liberally over the batter and baked until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the loaf comes out clean, about 60-70 minutes.

Remove from the oven, and leave the bread to cool in its pan for 10 minutes. Using the parchment sling, life the bread out of the pan, unwrap and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

St Lucia -- Part I

As we're on the eve of yet another snowstorm, I thought I needed to reminise about someplace warm. Someplace without snow and ice. Someplace that doesn't require boots. Or puffy coats. Or mitts.

 

At the end of February, I went to St Lucia for a week. And it was fabulous.

 

We stayed at the BodyHoliday, which is outside of the capital of Castries, and almost at the northen tip of the island.

 

But before I tell you how spectacular it was, let me tell you how we got there.

 

We took a HELICOPTER!!!!!!

 

Okay, not all the way from Ottawa. But from the international airport, which is in the south of the island. There were five other passengers and a British pilot. It was SUCH a weird feeling being in an actual helicopter. We just lighted up into the air -- almost like a hummingbird.

 

This was my view out the front of the chopper. We all had headphones so we could hear the pilot and each other.

 

We saw lots of coast line.

 

And some buildings too. Mostly we saw lots and lots of hills and green.

 

The trip took only about 12 minutes. This was our helicopter, with folks getting onboard for the return trip to the airport. We landed about 30 minutes from our hotel, so we had to hop in a cab. We arrived on St Lucian Independence Day, a national holiday, so traffic was light.

 

And soon enough, we were at the resort -- and the beach! This was worth the trip for sure.

Here's a view from the opposite side of the beach, looking up at our room block. Yellow flag on the beach meant it was a bit rough. Red and black apparently meant jellyfish, which luckily, we didn't encounter.

 

 

We arrived about 4:30 p.m., but our bags couldn't come on the helicopter with us, so they came by shuttle. We were forced to sit in our balcony and watch the sun set. Tough life.

 

This was our room. Plain but comfy.

 

And the bathroom. I won't spend much time on the room, because we didn't spend a lot of time there.

Mostly we were here. On the beach. Check out that view.



Sometimes we looked at boats. And sometimes those boats pulled waterskiiers.

We did leave the beach to eat. This was the buffet. Very nice.



 

And we ate in here (I can't figure out how to tilt this photo).

Sometimes we left the beach for the pool. But not very often. Those beds you see above the pool were pretty comfortable though.



 

Or sometimes we wandered to the end of the boardwalk for a cappucino. (Again, you have to tilt your head to see this pic.)

 

And sometimes we wandered into the clubhouse for a G&T or Pimms at the bar.

 

Honestly I can't say enough about this resort. The guests were mostly Brits, which was great, and the British influence was definitely strong. From the afternoon tea, to a bar stocked with Pimm's, this place really appealed to the Anglophile in me.

 

And the staff were absolutely lovely, and went out of their way to make sure everyone enjoyed their stay. While we were first-timers, we met many people who had visited two, three, seven or more times. They must be doing something right to get that kind of repeat business.

 

We did actually leave this paradise of a place for a day to explore some of the island. I'll tell you more about that next time.



Coconut muffins

Judging by the melting snow on both my driveway and my roof, spring is definitely on the way. I got the first whiff of it this weekend, when I was almost tempted to break out the shoes and lighter coat.

It's not quite tropical weather just yet, though, so all the more reason to enjoy some Carribean flavour in the form of these coconut muffins. They get some nice flavour from coconut oil and flaked coconut, and you could even substitute the yogurt for some coconut milk to totally max out the taste.

But even with two kinds of coconut, these are delicious enough to tide you over to summer.

This is the first time I've ever used coconut oil, which is solid at room temperature (think good ol' Crisco for comparison). And when you're not baking with it, coconut oil does double duty as a beauty tool, and a star ingredient in this beachy hair spray.

So it requires melting before you can use it in the recipe. Do you spot my new gas stove in this picture? It's so great, even if it's a little less than clean in this shot.

Here are the muffins headed for the oven. This recipe makes 10 small-medium sized muffins. I used parchment paper liners here, which are an awesome find. Not even a crumb wasted!

And here they are finished, complete with toasted tops. I froze most of these and they were just as good from the freezer as they were fresh. Always a good and practical sign in a muffin.

 

Double Coconut Muffins
From Smitten Kitchen

Yield: 10 standard muffins

1/2 cup (110 grams) virgin coconut oil
3/4 cup (95 grams) all-purpose flour
1/2 cup (60 grams) whole wheat flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon table salt
1 cup (230 grams) full fat Greek-style yogurt, at room temperature is best
1/3 cup (65 grams) granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature is best
1 teaspoon (5 ml) vanilla extract
3/4 cup (90 grams) sweetened shredded coconut, divided

Preheat oven to 375°F. Either grease 10 muffin cups with butter or coconut oil, or line them with papers.

In a small saucepan, warm your coconut oil just until it melts. It should still be on the cool side. (The egg and yogurt should also be at room temperature to avoid re-solidifying the oil.)

In a medium bowl, whisk together your flours, baking powder and salt. Stir 1/2 cup shredded coconut. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg, sugar, coconut oil, yogurt and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients until just combined. Divide batter among prepared muffin cups then sprinkle the top with remaining 1/4 cup coconut, about 1 to 2 teaspoons on each.

Bake until a tester inserted into the center comes out batter-free, about 20 minutes. Transfer muffins to a rack and let cool.