White Chocolate Panna Cotta {Gelatin Free} with Raspberry Sauce

Pictures in this post taken by my friend A who blogs here

Panna Cotta has been a dessert that has captured my imagination for a while now. All those lovely creations accross the blogosphere have not helped either. The very thought of spooning “cooked cream” into my mouth sometimes had me salivating. But you really have to wait for good things to happen sometimes. And I had to make this for myself. I chose low fat cream. Yes I am a wuss that way, but you can go ahead and use full fat if you are feeling indulgent.

I bought a bag of frozen raspberries. I had all these beautiful raspberry filled dreams, till i cut open the bag and found that they had become large lumps of frozen squashed raspberries! Lumps of frozen raspberries are better than no raspberries and so I used them to make a sauce to be poured over the Panna Cotta. You can use any berries of choice, I think strawberries will work great here. as will any fruit preserve. Just thin it down with a little water and heat.

White Chocolate Panna Cotta  {Gelatin Free} with Raspberry Sauce  (makes 3 regular or 6 shotglass (60 ml) servings)

200 ml – fresh cream (I used i small carton amul low fat cream)

150 grams – chopped white chocolate

2 tablespoons - agar agar vanilla flavoured

1/2 cup milk (I used full cream)

In a saucepan, add the cream, milk and chopped chocolate. heat gently on a low flame and bring it to a gentle boil, stirring continuously to help the chopped pieces of chocolate melt. this will take about 3-4 minutes. Add the powdered agar agar to the heated mixture and stir till it has melted into the cream mixture and is thoroughly combined. Take the saucepan off the heat and allow it to cool for about 10 minutes. the mixture will begin to start getting thicker, mix it a couple of times to prevent a skin from forming. pour this into small shot glasses or small bowls. cool completely and cover each one with clingfilm.  chill it in the fridge for a minimum of 4-5 hours or overnight. This stays in the fridge for a few days, so is a good make ahead dessert.

Raspberry Sauce

In a saucepan, add 2 cups of raspberries (I used frozen), 3-4 tablespoons of sugar and 1/3 cup of cold water. Heat it on low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring now and then to make sure the raspberries are cooking through. the colour will begin to darken and the mixture will vigorously bubble over, take it off the heat and mash thoroughly with the back of a ladle to smash everything together. Cool this mixture for about 15 minutes and then pass it through a soup strainer to remove the seeds. These quantities will make you about 2/3 cup of raspberry sauce. Chill till needed.

To serve the pannacotta, spoon a few teaspoons of the raspberry sauce over the set pannacotta, garnish with mint or basil leaves and serve.

Note:

If you do not have berries of anykind, use 1/4 cup of fruit preserve or jam of choice. Add 1/4 cup of water and heat gently, stirring it to get a thick sauce.

p.s: Pictures used in this post taken by my friend A who blogs here

Eggless Baking ~ Lemon Blueberry Yogurt Cake

My life is currently held captive by an 8 week old pooch who has no consideration for the fact that i am not a morning person and i dont like my ankles bitten into by razor sharp teeth. Despite all the mayhem around here (Read Sage’s story here), who could not fall in love with this face?

Meet Sage Sizzler Iyer. His sombre Sagacious look made K decide he should be called Sage, also scored high with me for the foodie connotation. (K was petrified i would give the pooch a sissy (according to him) name like basil or pepper). Since he’s anything but sagelike when he gets fortified with food, i went in for a second name as well!

Early morning wakings (at insane hours, even for my board exams i didnt wake up as early as Sage makes me these days) means that i have more time on my hands and browsing begins at a much earlier hour for me.

You can’t ignore the assault of beautiful pictures at 5 a.m when you are just wanting the milk to heat up and boil already so that you can have some caffeine in your blood stream and begin to resume your humanly functions. Its like the lowest resistance to anything. and so yesterday morning, rudely shoved out of bed at 5 a.m to feed the resident pooch baby food, I was waiting for the milk to boil, i saw this piece of cake on foodgawker and i was smitten. I had a bag of frozen blueberries stashed away in the freezer that i bought all glassy eyed at the supermarket the other week, from the imported foods aisle at hypercity. but am sure this recipe will work well with any other fruit cut up real small.

I looked thru my pantry and gathered all the things i needed. I made it eggless as we were expecting guests dinner who dont eat eggs. it was convenient that i had an egg replacer on hand, else I’d have used powdered flax seeds. I used a 9 inch tart pan to bake it and not as a loaf. Also swapped the All Purpose Flour for my regular multi grain chapati flour.

i had this baking in the oven even breakfast was made. it smelt heavenly as it baked. The flavour of the blueberry with the lemon syrup was very unique and it was served warmed up after lunch as dessert.

Here is the original recipe. below is my version with the changes.

For the cake:

1 1/2 cups + 1 tablespoon Multigrain Wheat Flour (you could also use Whole Wheat flour or all-purpose flour), divided

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt (I used home made, made with toned 2% fat milk)

1 cup sugar

3 teaspoons Orgran Egg Replacer mixed with 3 tablespoons of water or use 3 large eggs

2 teaspoons grated lemon zest (approximately 2 lemons)

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

1/2 cup vegetable oil

1 1/2 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen, thawed and rinsed ( I used frozen)

For the Lemon Syrup:

1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease bottom and sides of one 9 inch round cake tin or 9 x 5-inch loaf pans; dust with flour, tapping out excess.

In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt; set aside.

In a large bowl, (I did this in a blender jar used the mixer) whisk together the yogurt, sugar, egg replacer, lemon zest, vanilla and oil. Pour it into the dry ingredients and slowly with a gentle hand, incorporate them to make a batter.

Sprinkle the reserved flour over the blueberries and toss them. Gently fold into the batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared cak tin pan and bake 50 to 55 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean. Let cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack on top of a baking sheet.

Make the lemon syrup in a small saucepan over medium heat. Stir together the lemon juice and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved. Once dissolved, continue to cook for 3 more minutes. Remove from the heat; set aside.

Use a toothpick to poke holes in the tops and sides of the warm loaf. Brush the top and sides of the loaf with the lemon syrup. Let the syrup soak into the cake and brush again. Let the cake cool completely.

The original recipe even has a lemon sugar glace, but I omitted this. I liked the tartness that the lemon syrup gave the cake. It was wonderful warm, am sure will taste fantastic when paired with vanilla icecream too. This is a moist cake and leftovers should be stored in the fridge. I think it will keep for 3-4 days. Ours was all gone the same day I baked it though!

Mango Cardamom Pound Cake (Eggless) and The Baking Club

Am the last to post this fab cake we made as a result of some chatting with friends on facebook. A few weeks ago, my namesake and I were chatting. Its a ritual that we catch up even if its only online…. infact thanks to blogging, this is a friendship for keeps. i was in the midst of some heavy baking and was keeping her updated with my progress when she said all this baking talk made her want to bake too. I was just too happy and asked her to keep me company and bake alongside. So what if our kitchens were in Hyderabad and Singapore respectively! small difference it made.

When she wrote about this on fb, remembering another occasion where she and nandita had baked together, both Aparna and another namesake (yes, there are three of us… with differently spelt names mind you!) thought it would be fun to do something like a baking club, get together and bake together.

Since mangoes are in abundance, we decided to make a mango cake, zeroed in on a mango pound cake. Each one was free to choose a recipe of their own choice.

I went with the same recipe that Raaga chose, from Divya’s blog. Which i am told is from Deeba’s blog…. if you are confused with all the names, let me just say, i have been fortunate to find like minded friends in the blogosphere….and these are people i would keep in touch with even if i were to stop blogging.

So here goes. We were supposed to post on the 7th. but i was too busy celebrating my new car, a hectic weekend, and some fun stuff including chaperoning a couple of 10 yr olds to watch Kung Fu Panda -2. Excuses aside, here is the cake. Mine was a little underbaked but still yummy. the only change i  made was to make  mine eggless.

Eggless Mango Cardamom Pound Cake

1 1/2 cups All Purpose Flour / Maida

1 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 tsp Salt

1 tsp Cardamom, Powdered

1/2 cup Unsalted Butter

2/3 cup Sugar

3 tablespoons thick curd / or 2 eggs

100ml Buttermilk (add 1 tsp white vinegar to 100 ml room temp milk, leave for 10 mins till it curdles and use)

1/2 cup Mango Pulp

1 cup mango pieces chopped small

Icing sugar, for dusting

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F. Prepare a cake tin with butter and dust it with flour (i skipped this cos i used a silicon bundt pan)

Sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Cream the butter with the sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Add the curds (or eggs if using) and beat well. my mixture curdled a bit at this point.

Add the buttermilk, mango pulp and cardamom and beat again.Add the dry ingredients into the batter, a little at a time.

Pour the mixture into the prepared cake tin and bake for 40-50 minutes or until a knife/ tester inserted into the cake comes out clean.

My tester came out clean at 40 mins, but i think i needed to increase the baking time to 50 mins

Allow the cake to cool completely in the pan. Dust with icing sugar, slice and serve.

Notes:

This is the first time i am baking with mango and cardamom. i loved the combination (yeah i know it is classic, but i am slow like that). I used 1 cup of mango pulp but in the recipe i have written 1/2 cos the liquid was too much in the batter. I also reduced the sugar to 2/3 because i found the original of 3/4 cup a bit too sweet. If you like your cakes sweeter, add all the sugar in the recipe. I’d also skip the dusting with sugar, this was for purely cosmetic value!

Beat the Heat Series ~ Kairi ka Panna/ Aam ka Panna

This is a thirst quencher for hot summer days. Of which there seems to be no end in sight in my part of the world. But since there are mangoes as compensation, I will not crib just a little .

Raw mangoes are almost on the wane now, so before they finish, i made kairi ka panna. Its an easy to make drink that can be made and stored in the fridge, either as a concentrate or diluted in a ready to drink form. It keeps in the fridge for about 10 days in a closed bottle.

Kairi ka Panna

1 cup pulp of raw mangoes (i skinned and sliced about 2 medium sized raw mangoes)

3/4 cup sugar (adjust according to the tartness of the mango)

2 cups water

large pinch of salt

in a pan (i use the pressure cooker and cook upto 3 whistles) add the mango pulp, sugar and the water and boil till the mango is fully cooked. cool and add to the liquidiser and pulse till it forms a frothy mix. this will be like a thick sauce. add the salt, check and adjust salt / sugar. this is now the concentrate.

To serve: dilute with chilled water in a 1:5 ratio, top with ice and serve. Alternatively dilute the whole amount with 1.5 litres of water and store in bottles.

Note: a lot of recipes will call for a spice mix of pepper, black salt and cumin to be added, but i prefer it plain. go ahead and add the spices if you enjoy it.

Beat the Heat Series ~ Aamrakhand

This is an easy to make Indian dessert that uses the seasons offering and my favourite fruit in the world – Mangoes. Following the aam ras of the day before, this is mango shrikhand also called aamrakhad. It is very easy to make and serves both as a low fat (and relatively low sugar) dessert. Tastes great with puris and parathas.

For those of you looking to beat the heat, aamrakhand will be a delicious option, combined with the health of yogurt.

Aamrakhand (makes 6 servings)

2 cups hung yogurt

(i used homemade yogurt from 1 litre skimmed milk. after the curd is set, place a cheesecloth or any other clean very thin fabric over a sieve, place it over a bowl to catch the drip of the whey, pour the curd into the cloth covered sieve and place the vessels in the fridge for atleast 4 hours or overnight to drain out all the water)

1 1/2 cups mango pulp (i used the rasaalu variety)

10-12 teaspoons of sugar (adjust according to the sweetness of the mango pulp – use powdered sugar for ease of mixing)

1/2 teaspoon of finely powdered green cardamom

a few tablespoons of sliced almonds for the garnish (also can use crushed pistachios or leave out completely)

place all the ingredients except the almonds in a bowl and whip with a whisk or a ladle till everything is incorporated and it has a nice creamy texture. chill for atleast an hour before serving. spoon out individual portions in serving bowls, garnish with sliced almonds (or any other nuts of your choice). sprinkle a little cardamom powder for an additional touch. serve as dessert, or with hot puris or parathas.

Beat the Heat Series ~ Aam Ras

As kids, we waited for summer vacation like any other child to be free from the bondage of school. It didn’t help that we had no living grandparents or a ‘native place’ to go back to like our friends. As a result of which, there were hardly any other kids to play with and we were a nightmare to our poor old nanny who was with us from before my brother was born. She had absolutely no control over three and later four boisterous kids. We’d spend the whole day playing in the sun much to her chagrin. The poor old lady would chase after us in our ample open yard, often pleading with us to stay indoors and play inside. Of course we never heeded to what she said, only running into the house to guzzle water from the fridge and wallop multiple mangoes. She had a polio limp and her name was kamalamma. But as ignorant and insensitive kids, we insisted on calling her kunti (limp in telugu) kamalamma.

She loved both me and my brother dearly and to this day, whenever he is sick, he craves for her touch. She would sit by his bedside applying a cold compress on his forehead and overzealously guarding the freshly squeezed mosambi (sweet lime) juice that was reserved only for the sick!

Summer months also meant that apart from eating mangoes as is, we’d have it for breakfast. Either rolling the succulent strips of banganapalli within a paratha or having aam ras made from the sucking variety with puri. Now ofcourse because of health and the effort that goes into making puris, I settle for rotis or parathas. Scooping up the sweet – tangy aam ras with a piece of flaky roti and shoveling it into the mouth is the stuff my childhood summers were made up of.

Legend has it that every alternate year will be bountiful in mango produce but like all legends, I don’t really know if  there is any truth in this. Last year K and I went bonkers eating mangoes all day long. It helps that the summer heat is so debilating that I refuse almost all kinds of cooked food and reach out for that chilled mango from the fridge. I mostly like them as fruit, cut or whole. On occasion I manage shrikhand or lassi. I haven’t yet found the heart to cook / bake with mangoes.

The best thing about summer inHyderabadis the availability of the myriad varieties of mangoes. From the home grown banagapalli (my favourite), to the cheruku and china rasalu of the Andhra region, himayat or imampasand, dusseri, mallika, alphonso etc. cutters, suckers…take your pick….

Today is nostalgia ridden. Aam ras needs just three ingredient the most succulent variety of mangoes, sugar and some elbow grease.

Aam Ras (makes 6-8 servings)

1 kg cheruku rasam sucking mangoes

½ – 2/3 cup of granulated sugar

Wash the mangoes and press gently all over the skin to soften it a get the juices out. Remove the black part around the stalk and press out about a teaspoon of the liquidy juice (this needs to be discarded). Into a bowl, press out the remaining pulp / juice of the mango. Working with your hands and squeezing the seed with all your might. Repeat with all the mangoes. Some of the mango fibre will also fall into the bowl. Once all the mangoes have been pulped, push the pulp through a soup strainer, stirring with a spoon to speed it up and remove all the fibre. Add the sugar and stir well. Taste and adjust the amount of sugar according to the tartness of the pulp. Chill for a couple of hours. Serve with hot parathas or puri. If you are conscious about oil etc, phulkas will also do.

If you cant get the sucking variety of mangoes and are using cutting mangoes, remove the skin, cut into pieces and pulse with the  sugar and a little water to get the right consistency. It should not be runny, neither too pulpy.

Other serving options:

• Whisk together equal quantities of aamras and hung curd (greek yoghurt) to make amrakhand
• Serve as a topping sauce with vanilla or mango icecream
• Topping for fruit salad

Beat the Heat Series ~ Summer Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Dressing

Fresh cooling foods with minimum time spent in the kitchen, preferably fresh fruit and vegetables are my choice for this scorching summer. I made this salad on the spur of the moment, throwing in all the stuff i had in the vegetable tray and excited about finally getting myself a bottle of balsamic vinegar. It was light and so refreshing, the flavours and textures of the different fruit and vegetables giving the salad so many layers… it was a chilled treat.

Summer Salad with Balsamic Vinegar Dressing (serves 2)

Dressing

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon sugar

pinch of salt

1 teaspoon lemon juice

whisk all of the above together till the sugar dissolves and set aside

8 sections of sweet lime, peeled and seeds removed

1/2 cup chopped green apple

1 large red tomato chopped

1 cup cucumber, peeled and chopped

10-12 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

1/2 cup beetroot, boiled, skinned and chopped

8-10 strawberries, quartered

6-8 basil leaves, torn to small bits

10-12 mint leaves torn to small bits

Take all of the above in a large bowl and toss together. Chill in the refrigerator for atleast 20-30 minutes. Before serving, pour the dressing on top and toss it all up. Serve chilled.

Beat the Heat Series ~ Strawberry Lassi

Its all Valli’s fault…there she posted a status on fb asking what everyone’s favourite lassi (yogurt drink) was….and i replied with an choice between Rooh Afza and strawberries… i just couldnt concentrate on my work after that cos i kept thinking of the boxes of frozen strawberries i had in the freezer…. around 3 p.m, unable to take it anymore and taking solace in the fact that i needed this somehow to think clearly on a hot summer afternoon, i was slurping on a glass of thick delicious strawberry lassi to die for…. make it and see how addicted you can get….

Valli’s having a summer fest with cold treats for the season…sending off this lassi there~

Strawberry Lassi (serves 2)

1 1/2 cup fresh or frozen strawberries, hulled, washed and chopped roughly

1 cup ice cubes

1 cup plain yogurt ( i used home made 3% fat, but anything will do)

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup water

2-3 tablespoons sugar (optional, i didnt use it, depending on how tart the strawberries are)

take all of the ingredients in a blender jar and whizz for 1 minute in short bursts till everything is well blended and you get a thick frothy lassi. check for sugar and adjust bu adding if needed. if too thick, add 1/4 cup of cold water. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.

Eggless Banana Strawberry Icecream

A few days ago, i had to take Amma to finish some random errands, bank, pension, etc which was going to eat up the whole day. Since i live in the new part of town, and we had to drive almost 35kms to get all of this done, we also planned to drop in and visit anyone she  needed to visit and who is on that route to minimise travelling again.

We drove through the older part of Hyderabad, where I grew up and went to school and college, the house I grew up in….congested, crazy and ‘gone to the dogs’ with chaos….. the memories that came flooding back….. i saw my old school….. the place i used to go for tuitions, the market we went to pick up fruit and vegetables…..some of the old houses, still there, jostling for space with the swanky new Barista and Dominos pizza place….

Hitech City, where i live, has its own character…. gargantuan buildings of glass and steel, new buildings choc a block with the old ones which were part of the colonies that used to be considered the outskirts of what was then the city limits…. we have more organised traffic, better laid out colonies and yet, sometimes i feel i don’t live in Hyderabad…. i’ve written about this before too….

As we ticked off one task after another and were driving back home, we passed by this whole street full of fruit….i couldn’t resist stopping to pick some up…. 5 small boxes of strawberries, chickoos, oranges….each one chosen with care. i now don’t haggle with roadside vendors cos i pay much much more in the stores i usually buy from….

Amma like me, cannot resist vegetable and fruit buying and was happy with the purchases, yet said we’d picked two highly perishables…the strawberries and chickoos…and so the next day, she set up shop to wash, hull and chop the strawberries to be frozen so i could have some breathing space while i decided how i wanted to use them….

The chickoos didn’t last long and were the first to go…. the strawberries, went into one of my favourite Baskin Robbins flavour… strawberry banana icecream which i have made many times before, but its never made it to the blog because it doesn’t last to be photographed……..this too was the last two scoops!!

All through the summer, i am planning to crib less about the heat, and make use of all the fruit that surrounds us… melons, mangoes, chickoos and oranges… am going to try my hand at sorbets and icecreams and frozen yogurt…..

Strawberry and Banana Icecream (eggless)

200 ml fresh cream (i used 25% fat)

1 cup milk (i used 3%)

1 large banana / 1 cup banana, peeled and sliced

1 cup hulled and chopped strawberries

2/3 cup granulated sugar (adjust according to sweet quotient)

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Pinch of salt

½ teaspoon strawberry essence (optional)

1 tablespoon vodka (optional, helps set the ice cream better)

In a microwave safe bowl, sprinkle 1 teaspoon of sugar over the sliced banana and add the lemon juice and cook on high for 2 mins. Add the strawberries, mix and cook for 1 min. Remove and cool.

In the blender jar of a mixie, add all the ingredients including the cooked fruit and whizz for 1 minute or till everything becomes like a really thick milkshake.

Pour it in a plastic jar with a wide mouth and tight fitting lid and set in the freezer. Check 4-5 times after every hour and whisk with a fork or an immersion blender to remove icicles. After the last time of whisking, leave to set about 1-2 hrs before serving. Since there are no artificial stabilizers in this ice cream, icicles tend to form if stored for longer periods of time.

Serve plain or with strawberry sauce (recipe below)

strawberry sauce:

1/2 cup chopped strawberries

2-3 tablespoons sugar

2-3 tablespoons water

Mix everything together in a heavy bottom pan, bring to a boil and simmer about 10 minutes till it becomes thick. Cool and serve with icecream. Keeps in the fridge for 3-4 days.

Eggless Wholewheat Banana Choco Chunk Bread

Yeah that title’s quite a mouthful and well worth it too.

Like most others, we end up with a couple of bananas outliving their firm and blemishless skin. Earlier they would land up in the trash can, who wants to deal with the overripe smell of blackened shrivelling bananas in the house. But ever since i realised i could freeze them discreetly and use them straight from the  freezer, i have baked with them happily. This banana loaf too was one such. The original recipe won me over with the lovely brown colour of the loaf, and although it didn’t call for choco chips, i just added them. I know chocolate and banana is a classic combo, but lets just say i’ve arrived rather late at the party!!

I am not very adventurous yet when it comes to baking and i would rather follow a recipe than end up with time and energy (of the appliances too) wasted. This recipe called for eggs, i substituted that with 4 tablespoons of plain homemade yogurt. So you could choose whichever version you want. The slivered almonds were an addition i made in vain. I had them on hand and need to use them before they turn rancid, but K painstakingly picked them out of the cake before he ate it!

The original recipe is adapted from Molly Wizenberg’s “A Homemade Life” and calls for browned butter, in my case that would just be melted ghee that i had at home. The second time i made this (oh yeah its now a favourite and i have made it several times) i just used vegetable oil and trust me, there’s hardly any difference that you will notice.

Its a day late, but you started the trend and now how can i not reciprocate? dear dear friend, name sake and sharer of too many kumbh ka mela type of similarities, Happy Happy birthday and wishing you the best that life has to offer always! and also to my friends S and R who together complete a decade together, with one great creation of A and another very special one to complete your lives….Happy Anniversary and Many more wonderful years together…

the cake tin is courtesy a gift thoughtfully given and carried all the way from the US by P, my friend from school. when she found i was writing this blog, she wrote to me and said she wanted to bring me something that i could use for my cooking / baking. i chose a baking set. her hubby works for this company and she refused to allow me to pay for it. this is my small way of saying thanks….i’ve had it for many months now and am excited each time i use it… thanks babe!!

Brown Butter Banana Bread
the recipe below is my version of the one posted on Amateur Gourmet

Ingredients:

6 Tbs (3 oz.) melted ghee or refined vegetable oil
2 cups Whole wheat atta/ flour
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon candied ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 Tblsp plain yogurt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (from about 3 large ripe bananas)
1/4 cup well-stirred buttermilk

¼ cup slivered almonds

½ cup of dark chocolate chopped into small chunks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Brown Butter: If you are using browned butter, put butter in a skillet or a small pot and melt it on a relatively low heat. Swirl that pot or pan around as it goes and it’ll foam up and it’ll start browning. When the butter turns a lovely shade of brown, take it off the heat immediately and let cool.

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350. Grease a loaf pan (9 X 5 inches) with cooking spray or butter.

In a large bowl, whisk the flour, the sugar, the baking soda, the salt, the ginger and the cinnamon.

In a separate bowl, beat the yogurt with a fork; then add the mashed banana, the buttermilk, the cooled brown butter, and vanilla and stir to mix well.

Pour the banana mixture into the flour mixture and stir gently with a rubber spatula until it’s just combined (don’t overmix).

Scrape it into the baking pan and smooth the top with the spatula and bake about 50 mins to 1 hr. Testing till a skewer comes out clean

…and bake it in the oven for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until a tester comes out pretty clean. (Mine took more than an hour, actually, and still wasn’t fully clean when tested, but I stopped so the ends didn’t dry out.)

Cool the loaf in the pan on a rack for 5 minutes then tip out on to the rack and, as Molly says, “let it cool completely before slicing–unless you absolutely can’t help yourself, in which case, dig in.”