The Closet Housewife

If there’s anything I want to do with this blog, it is to teach people how to create in the kitchen without the fancy appliances.  Most crust recipes would tell you to put your ingredients in a food processor.  No need!  You can do it all by hand.  How do you think they made pie in the olden days?  Here’s a really easy pie you can make to bring to your boyfriend’s parents’ house or make for your sick dad… like I did.  Smiles and happy bellies guaranteed!

Crust Ingredients:

• 1 & 1/4 cups flour
• 1 tablespoon raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 6 tablespoons COLD butter (around 85 grams)
• 5 tablespoons COLD water

Method: 

1. Combine flour, sugar, salt and cinnamon.
2. With your fingers and thumbs, blend the butter into the flour mixture.  The motion will look like you are pinching the rubbing the butter and flour together until the entire mixture is evenly saturated.  
3. Add the cold water 1 tablespoon at a time and repeat the pinching motion.
4. Make the dough into a ball, wrap in plastic and store in the refrigerator while you make the filling and crumble top.

Filling ingredients:

• 5 medium sized apples cut up into chunks
• 1/3 cup raw sugar (or honey for a healthier option)
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 1 and 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

Method:

1. Combine sugar, flour and cinnamon then with the apples. 
2. Add vanilla and lemon juice last. 
3. If you are using honey, this should be last.  Do not add it to the dry ingredients. 

**You should now preheat oven to 425 degrees F (218 degrees C) and grease your pie pan with butter.

Crumble top ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1/3 cup raw sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon sal
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/2 cup melted butter

I used to be very intimidated by baking. Whenever I’d see homemade pastries I’d think, how’d they do that!? Buying sweets from a store, you don’t really think much of the effort put into making them or care less of the ingredients they put in it. These were my motivations in learning how to bake from scratch. 

I thought, what if I could make healthier options for the pastries I like to snack on too? So I scoured the internet for healthier recipes and figured out which ones I trusted. I compared their ingredients and methods then came up with my own version through careful trial and error.

Everyone loves banana bread as a snack any time of the day or for breakfast with a cup of coffee!  This particular recipe I’m sharing with you is naturally sweetened through the prunes so it doesn’t need a lot of sugar. Half a cup is enough. It’s fibrous, guiltless and super yummy! I’ve baked this well over 10 times and satisfied a lot of hungry tummies. I’ve tried it with langka too instead of prunes! Go for all wheat flour if you wish or if wheat isn’t available to you, all purpose flour works just as well. 

I encourage all girls to try baking this as a sweet gesture to your boyfriends, mommies as baon for their kids and for bored teens… do something unexpected for your parents.

Recipe follows. Happy baking!

Ingredients:

• 1 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 cup low-fat plain yogurt

• 1/4 cup vegetable or corn oil
• 3/4 cup brown sugar (you can put more or less sugar)
• 2 large egg whites or 1 large egg (figure out if you want the yolk or not)
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (please try to find the organic kind in Healthy Options or Rustans supermarket)

• 1 cup organic unbleached flour (all purpose flour will do if you don’t have the patience to find this)
• 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 cup sliced prunes
• 1 cup walnuts (chopped once per piece not finely)
• 3 mixing bowls of different sizes

Method:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C). Grease a 8 x 4 inch or larger loaf pan with a nonstick vegetable cooking spray or butter. I don’t have fancy spray right now so i use a brush dipped in butter or just my finger to get around the corners!

In a large bowl, mix the mashed bananas with the baking soda and yogurt. 

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, egg or egg whites, and vanilla.

In another large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.

Combine the banana mixture with the oil mixture and then add to the flour mixture. Don’t over stir! Add prunes and walnuts then carefully stir a few times.

Pour into the pan and smooth the top to make a pretty bread. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes. Insert a toothpick in the center of the pan on the 45th minute. If the toothpick doesn’t come out clean, stick the pan back in the oven for another 5 minutes and do the toothpick check again. Don’t worry about your bread looking crusty brown at the corners, it will moisten once refrigerated. What matters is the toothpick comes out without raw batter stuck to it.

It’s that easy! Happy feeding!

Welcome to my home.  Here you see how my domestic dreams have become a reality.  Ever since I was a little girl, I always had a penchant for dressing up my own space.  I have this innate talent for putting things together, organizing and decorating most likely inherited from my awesome grandmother and mother. 

The heartbreaking experience of my family having to sell the house I grew up in motivated me early in my acting career to be frugal.  I applied for a scholarship in De La Salle - College of St. Benilde so I could start saving more money for my dream home.  I subsequently stopped shopping and traveling for about 5 years and worked my pretty butt off, not minding the supporting or antagonist roles given to me.  I remember admiring a co-actress’ new shoes and before I’d think of buying a pair for myself I’d think, “This would probably be the equivalent of a wall in my house.  So nevermind.”  The sacrifices I made helped shape me into the practical lady I am today.