Moomie's Buns - The Hamburger Bun to Rule Them All

Last weekend I made a recipe originally known as Moomie's Buns. These hamburger buns (suitable, of course, to serve as general sandwich buns) are substantial. There will be no danger of a juicy hamburger soaking through and turning the bun to mush. They are not dense, though, but are tender, and almost light. Biting into one of these hamburger buns is remarkably satisfying. They are the Platonic ideal of a hamburger bun; the quintessential bun that all others strive to be.

A few weeks ago I finally tried out the dough hook on my monster KitchenAid mixer and was, well, hooked. I'd always kneaded my yeast breads by hand and just never made the transition to machine, even though I've had the mixer for years. Once I saw how easy it was to translate my recipes to the dough hook, I got into a yeast baking mood. I thought I'd break out from my usual loaves and give bun making a try. Having recently looked up the recently popular cinnamon roll recipe on the King Arthur Flour site, I did a search there for hamburger buns. When I opened the recipe for "Beautiful Burger Buns" I knew I'd hit the winner.

Chrissy Teigen's Banana Bread

The last couple of months I've had little interest in cooking. Even a sandwich or a frozen entree or scrambled eggs almost seemed like too much effort. I can't claim the spell is broken, but yesterday I made something from my dormant to-try list - Chrissy Teigen's banana bread.

I missed this recipe when it was all the rage around 2018, but it came to my attention a few months ago. Despite my long-time devotion to another banana bread recipe, I'm always willing to try something new. 

This recipe requires no creaming, which I like (and is one reason I like my usual recipe). It uses instant pudding mix, in common with some popular cake recipes. It has coconut, but shouldn't scare coconut haters. It has a LOT of sugar compared to the amount of flour, yet doesn't taste "too sweet." I'm not a fan of chocolate chips in banana bread, and I was wanting a nutty bread, so I swapped in chopped walnuts.

The top had a great very thin crackle layer day-of-baking, but after an overnight in the cake keeper that became a slightly sticky top.

It's excellent & I would make again.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/books/2018/09/17/chrissy-teigens-famous-banana-bread-recipe/1283473002/