Aren’t we all looking for ways to use up those bananas that didn’t get eaten in time and now they’re overripe? This recipe comes from my sister, Ashley, who is quite the baker too! I put my own spin on the recipe by making them into mini-muffins. I also added a little dash of cinnamon to spice it up a little bit (mainly because I’m obsessed with this Vietnamese Cinnamon I got at Penzeys Spices).
Iced Banana Muffins Makes 10-12 muffins, or 24 mini-muffins
3 ripe bananas
1/3 cup melted butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of sea salt
1 1/2 cups flour
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mash bananas by hand and mix with the melted butter. In a separate bowl, beat the egg, then mix in sugar, vanilla, and nutmeg. Add in banana mixture. Add flour, salt, and baking soda and fold in. Grease a muffin or mini-muffin pan and fill the cups with batter. Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes (about 15 minutes for mini-muffins) until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean.
Make icing:
1 tablespoon melted butter
1/2 to 3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon milk
Mix ingredients together (either add more milk or more powdered sugar if icing is too thick or thin). Place icing into a piping bag or plastic baggie with corner cut off, and drizzle over cooled muffins.
If you love baking like I do, you seriously have to buy this book. Everything I have made from it turned out awesome, plus it’s really fun to look at (and I highly recommend the brownie recipe). I’ve been a little hesitant about oatmeal cookies because the last few times I’ve made them, they haven’t held together. This wasn’t the case with this recipe, they turned out pretty good! Note that the book says not to leave out the corn syrup. So, if you’re thinking it’s a little weird to put corn syrup in cookies, just go with it. This makes A LOT of cookies. I froze about 1/3 of the dough and then baked them off at a later time.
Monster Cookies from the Baked cookbook, makes A LOT
1/2 cup flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
5 3/4 cups oats
3/4 cup butter, cold and cut into cubes
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs
1/4 teaspoon light corn syrup
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 cups creamy peanut butter
1 cup chocolate chips
1 cup M&Ms
Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt. Add the oats and stir until combined.
Cream the butter until smooth and pale in color, then add the sugars and mix until just incorporated. Scrape down the bowl and add the eggs, one at a time (scrape the bowl after each addition). Add the corn syrup and vanilla, beat just until incorporated.
Add the peanut butter and mix on low speed until just incorporated. Add the oats in three additions. Fold in the chips and M&Ms. Cover with plastic wrap and freeze for at least 5 hours.
Heat the oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat. Use a large ice cream scoop or two tablespoons and drop onto cookie sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake for 12-15 minutes (rotate pans halfway through) until just beginning to brown. Let cookies cool on the cookie sheet for 8-10 minutes, then cool completely on wire rack. Enjoy with a big glass of milk, or if you’re out of cereal, eat them for breakfast like John did. (Hey, they have oats in them)
Today is my dad’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad, if you’re reading this!!) so here’s a perfect birthday dessert recipe I think he would like. Here’s a picture of my dad and me at our family birthday celebration. He’d probably eat one of these cupcakes for breakfast the next day, justifying it with his favorite catch phrase, “It’s kinda like a roll.”
According to her book, this was one of the most famous menu items at Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa store. To impress your friends, pipe the frosting on in a circular motion using a pastry bag fitted with a large star tip. Note: I did cut this recipe in half to make 10 cupcakes, but I’ve included the original recipe below.
3/4 lb butter at room temperature
2 cups sugar
5 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 1/2 teaspoons almond extract
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk
14 oz sweetened, shredded coconut
Cream Cheese icing (see below)
Heat oven to 325. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy (about 5 minutes) then add the eggs one at a time. Scrape the bowl frequently. Add the almond and vanilla extract. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda and powder, and salt. In 3 additions, alternately add the dry ingredients and the buttermilk to the batter. Mix until just combined (you don’t want to overbeat cake batter!). Fold in the coconut.
Line a muffin pan with liners and fill each cup with the batter (an ice cream scoop works will for this). Bake 25-35 minutes until light golden brown and a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Cool completely on a baking rack. Make the icing.
I haven’t blogged in a while, so I’m attempting to catch up! Do you ever wonder what all those ingredients are that are listed on your store-bought sandwich bread? Why not make your own? I’ve been trying to improve my bread-baking skills, but haven’t found the time lately. I was excited when I found this easy recipe (ok, bread-baking is not necessarily easy) on the back of my bag of whole wheat flour. It makes two loaves, so eat one now and save one for later!
Honey-Whole Wheat Bread from the Gold Medal Whole Wheat Flour package, makes 2 loaves
2 packages active dry yeast (1 pkg = 2 1/4 teaspoons, in case you’re like me and have a jar of yeast in your fridge)
1/4 cup warm water (105-115 degrees)
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup butter
3 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 cups very warm water (120-130 degrees)
4 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 3/4 to 3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water; set aside. In large bowl, mix honey, butter, salt, and very warm water; cool 5 minutes.
2. To honey mixture, beat in 3 cups of wheat flour with mixer on low speed, scraping bowl frequently, until moistened. Beat on medium speed 3 minutes, scraping bowl. Beat in remaining 1 1/2 cups wheat flour and dissolved yeast. With spoon, stir in 2 1/4 to 2 3/4 cups of the all-purpose flour until dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.
3. Place dough on floured work surface and knead in remaining 1/2 to 1 cup all-purpose flour (or use dough hook in your stand mixer) and knead 5-10 minutes until dough is smooth and springy. Grease large bowl and place dough in bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and cloth towel. Let rise in a warm place (80-83 degrees) for 30-45 minutes until doubled in size.
4. Grease two 8×4 or 9×5 inch loaf pans. Gently push fist into dough to deflate (de-gassing: my favorite part of bread-making!) and divide dough in half. On lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough with rolling pin into 18×8 inch rectangle. Starting with the 8-inch side, roll up dough tightly, making a log and press with thumbs to seal. Fold ends under loaf; place seam side down in pan. Cover, let rise in warm place 30-45 minutes until doubled in size.
5. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Uncover dough; bake 30 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 350 degrees and bake 10-15 minutes longer or until loaves sound hollow when lightly tapped. Immediately remove from pans to cooling racks. Cool completely (about 1 hour) and cut into slices.
For cookie #5 of 2009, here’s a cute cookie that will look great on your cookie plate. Meringues: it took me a few times to get the spelling right on that word! You need just a few ingredients and a few free hours in your oven. This cookie is also a regular on the menu of the Annual Christmas Cookie Extravaganza with my friend Sara Beth (see previous post).
3 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract
Red gel-paste food coloring(Note: you can find this in the cake decorating section of your craft store, like Michael’s)
Heat oven to 175 degrees. Fit a piping bag with a large star tip. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat. Set aside.
To make cookies, heat the eggs whites and sugar over a double boiler, stirring gently until sugar is dissolved, about 2-3 minutes. Transfer to bowl of electric stand mixer with whisk attachment. Mix on high speed until stiff peaks form (should look like this). Stir in peppermint extract.
Use a new, clean paintbrush to paint 2 or 3 stripes of food coloring on the inside of the piping bag. Fill the bag with meringue and pipe stars onto baking sheets.
Bake until crisp, but not brown – about 1 hour 40 minutes. Cool completely on cookie sheet. Enjoy – they melt in your mouth!
The Christmas Cookie series continues! The rest of the posts aren’t in order of favorites because it’s just too hard for me to decide. This post contains a favorite from the annual “Christmas Cookie Extravaganza” with my friend Sara Beth. We went a little overboard the first year (2007, I believe) and baked from 9am until the evening. We scaled it back a little the next two years. The Cream Wafers make it on the menu each year though! We use the recipe from Sara Beth’s vintage Betty Crocker Cooky Book.
We make them small, because they look cuter (and you can eat a few without feeling guilty!). Although I’m not always a huge fan of making cut-out cookie because they can be somewhat labor-intensive, this recipe is great because it calls for just a few ingredients and they taste so good!
For Cookies:
2 cups flour
1 cup butter
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream
Sugar
Mix flour, butter and the whipping cream together. Cover and refrigerate about 1 hour or until firm. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Roll dough 1/8 inch thick on lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes with small round cookie cutters. Put sugar in a shallow bowl. Turn each cutout in sugar to coat both sides. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Prick each cutout with fork about 4 times. Bake 7 to 9 minutes or just until set but not brown. Remove from cookie sheet to wire rack. Cool completely, about 1 hour. Meanwhile, make the filling.
For Filling:
3/4 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup butter
1 teaspoon of flavor extract of your choice (we use vanilla or almond, but you could do lemon, peppermint, or whatever you want!)
Food coloring, if desired (we use green and red)
Mix all ingredients together. If the frosting is too thick, you can add a bit of milk or water. If it’s too thin, add more powdered sugar. Spread the frosting onto the backside of a cutout cookie, then sandwich together with another cutout cookie. Tip: we put the frosting into a piping bag to frost the cookies. It’s really easy and looks a lot neater.
My third favorite new cookie this year is not actually a cookie, but a candy bar. This recipe comes courtesy of my friend Christina’s grandmother. Christina and I made these together (along with the caramels) when she was inspired after seeing these bars at Yum! Kitchen and Bakery in St. Louis Park (I highly recommend the place). I enjoyed one of these bars pretty much every day after work while making dinner or waiting for John to get home from work. Needless to say, I’m spending lots of time on the treadmill these days.
Nut Goodie Bars Cut them small – they are very sweet!
Butter a half-sheet sized jellyroll pan. Melt chocolate and butterscotch chips in a large bowl in the microwave, stirring after 30-second intervals until melted. Stir in peanut butter. Mix well. Spread 1/2 of the mix onto pan. Place in refrigerator to set. Stir peanuts into remaining mix and set aside. In a large saucepan over low heat, melt butter then slowly add evaporated milk. Stir in pudding mix. Stir constantly until thickened slightly – do not boil. Remove from heat and slowly stir in powered sugar. Add vanilla. Carefully spread over chilled chocolate layer. Chill 30 minutes. Drop reserved chocolate and peanut mix over chilled pudding layer. Spread to cover. Cover and chill until firm. Cut into 1-inch squares and enjoy.
My second favorite cookie of the season was these gingerbread cookies, from Martha Stewart (of course). I slightly under-baked them (about a minute) so they’d be a little softer, and they were very good – a little spicy and not too sweet. And they kept for a few weeks in a tightly sealed bag. This batch made so many that I ended up wrapping them up in cute little plastic bags for my coworkers.
Since I tend to go a little overboard with the Christmas baking, I decided to make a few batches of dough the weekend after Thanksgiving and freeze them, knowing that I’d probably be burned out on baking by December 15 or so. Then all I had to do a few weeks later was let the dough thaw and then roll it out, cut out the cookies, and bake them off. I’d highly recommend this strategy if you, like me, tend to “bite off more than you can chew” when it comes to holiday baking! (I also made the dough for Chocolate Butter Cookies and Rugelach ahead of time and froze them – more on those later!)
Basic Gingerbread Cookies from Martha Stewart, makes a lot
6 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
1 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
4 teaspoons ground ginger
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground clove
1 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 large eggs
1 cup unsulfured molasses
Mix together flour, baking soda, and baking powder. Set aside.
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy in a mixer. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Add flour mixture; combine on low speed. Divide dough in thirds; wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 1 hour (or freeze for a few weeks like I did).
Heat oven to 350 degrees. On a floured work surface, roll dough 1/8 inch thick. Cut into desired shapes. Transfer to ungreased baking sheets; refrigerate until firm, 15 minutes. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Let cookies cool on wire racks, then decorate as desired. I used these cookie cutters from Williams Sonoma and made royal icing and put it in a piping bag to decorate.
I’m starting off the Christmas Cookie series with my favorite creation from this year – caramels! They were fairly easy to make and so delicious. I made them with my friend, Christina, and we actually cut the batch in half (then each took half the batch) so I think if you made the whole recipe, you just might be wrapping up the caramels until New Year’s Eve! You’ll need a candy thermometer and a whole lot of heavy cream for this recipe.
4 cups heavy cream
1 cup sweetened condensed milk
4 cups light corn syrup
4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces
1 tablespoon plus 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Vegetable-oil cooking spray
Spray a half-sheet pan with cooking spray, then line with parchment or wax paper overlapping on two ends, and spray that with cooking spray. Set aside in a spot where it will not be moved. In a 2-quart saucepan, combine cream and sweetened condensed milk; set aside.
In a heavy 6- to 8-quart saucepan, combine corn syrup, 1 cup water, sugar, and salt. Clip on candy thermometer. Over high heat, cook until sugar is dissolved, stirring with a wooden spoon, 8 to 12 minutes. Brush down sides of pan with a pastry brush dipped in water to remove any sugar crystals.
Stop stirring, reduce heat to medium, and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, until temperature reaches 250 degrees (hard-ball stage), about 45 to 60 minutes (it didn’t take this long for us, but we did cut the batch in half). Meanwhile, cook cream mixture over low heat until it is just warm. Do not boil. When sugar reaches 250 degrees. slowly stir in butter and warmed cream mixture, keeping mixture boiling at all times (be careful – it bubbles up!). Stirring constantly, cook over medium heat until thermometer reaches 244 degrees (firm-ball stage), 55 to 75 minutes (again, it didn’t take ours this long to get to 244 degrees). In order to prevent burned parts from making it into the candies, you have two options: 1) make sure to scrape the bottom of the pan while you stir, or 2) make sure you don’t scrape the bottom at all. Stir in vanilla. Immediately pour into prepared pan without scraping pot. Let stand uncovered at room temperature for 24 hours without moving. Our set in less than 24 hours but I left them for that long, just to be on the safe side.
To cut, spray a large cutting board generously with cooking spray. Grasping the overhanging parchment paper, unmold caramel from pan onto sprayed surface. Cut into 1-by-1 1/4-inch pieces, or other shapes. Wrap each in cellophane or waxed paper. I used a large pizza cutter to make the initial cuts, then a metal pastry cutter to cut any pieces that didn’t get cut all the way through.
Yep, there’s a piece missing. I needed to test them out!
In the next few posts, I will write about my favorite Christmas cookie recipes that I tried this year. Here are a few pictures from my 2009 cookie spread! I hope you enjoyed the holidays and got everything you asked for (I did – a Le Creuset French oven and skillet)!
