Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

How many variations of of banana bread can you have? Clearly not enough.  So far we have 3 different kinds on this blog and I'm pretty sure there will be more. But this one, this banana bread is simple, clean, and completely banana. No cinnamon to hide behind and with the occasional hit of chocolate.  I think this banana bread could also be called Bluth banana bread in honor of Arrested Development.  Unless you can cover a whole loaf of banana bread and chocolate.Yum :) And remember, "There's always money in the banana stand."

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread 

Makes 1 8x4 inch loaf

Ingredients 

2 c flour 

1 Tbs baking powder 

1/2 tsp salt

Juice of half a lemon

1/2 c unsalted butter

1 cup sugar 

2 lg eggs

1 1/2 c (~3) mashed over-ripe bananas 

1 Tbs vanilla

1/2 cup chocolate chips

Directions 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. 

Grease or line an 8x4 inch loaf pan with parchment.

Whisk flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl.

In a stand mixer cream butter and sugar.

Add eggs, vanilla, bananas, and lemon juice and mix well. 

Add flour to butter mixture slowly. 

Stir in chocolate chips. 

Pour batter into prepared pan and bake at 350 for 50min - hour. Insert and remove toothpick to make sure the middle is done and batter isn't pulled out with the toothpick. With this banana bread I check a few times. The top will be golden brown and maybe a little darker than you're used to. 

Allow to cool for 20 min in pan on a cooling rack then remove it from pan and finish cooling on the rack. 

Peach and Graham Cracker Ice Cream

It's super hot here in the desert. It makes ice cream melt fast. But to be honest, I like it soft and melty. :) I've been kind of obsessed with graham crackers, Teddy Grahams, and the other varieties lately. In this flavor I used the fabulous Honey Maid Minion graham crackers. My 3 year old loves them right along with me. It makes this peach ice cream taste like peach cobbler. Yummmmm. Certainly a must try this summer. 

Peach and Graham Cracker Ice Cream

Makes about 1 quart

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup heavy cream

1 1/2 cup whole milk

3/4 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 heaping cup Minion graham crackers

~1 1/2 cup small diced peaches (~2 medium peaches)

Directions

Place a 9x9 glass pan, peaches, and graham crackers in the freezer. 

Stir together cream, milk, sugar, and vanilla until the sugar is mostly dissolved.

Freeze according to your ice cream freezers instructions. 

Add the peaches a minute or two away from being done. 

Remove pan from freezer and pour ice cream into it. 

Stir in graham crackers quickly, cover and freeze a few more hours. 

Crunchy Granola

Good morning! When I eat this in the morning I feel like it's happily greeting me.  Fruit, Greek yogurt, and granola make me feel like I'm eating healthy.  I also love just the granola in some milk, mmm.  There's a lot of sugar, and some fat to bake it in, so unless you make a lower fat, lower sugar version, it's not really as healthy as you may think. :) Just don't eat a huge portion and I'd say you're safe. If I'm going to make granola, it's going to taste good, which most often means I'm not going to skimp out on the fat and sugar. To each his own! I like both the crunchy and chewy versions of granola but, for now, here's some crunch. This is going to make your home smell heavenly.  PS Don't forget it's in the oven, I'm really good at that.

Crunchy Granola

Makes 8-9 cups 

Ingredients

4 cups oats

2 cups chopped almonds

1 cup sweetened coconut

1-2 cups raisins and/or dried cranberries

1/2 cup sunflower seeds (optional)

1/8 cup chia seeds/flax seeds/wheat germ (optional)

3/4 tsp salt

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/8 cup maple syrup/agave 

1/2 cup honey

1/2 cup oil

1/2 tablespoon cinnamon

1/2 tablespoon vanilla

pinch of nutmeg

Directions

Heat oven to 325 degrees

Stir together oats, almonds, seeds, and coconut.

Mix salt, sugar, syrup, honey, oil, cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg in microwaveable bowl.  Heat about 1 minute on high. Stir well.

Pour over oat mixture and stir until it's all coated.

Pour onto a large cookie sheet lined with parchment.  

Bake 30-40 minutes, stir every 10 or 15 minutes to avoid burning.  

Allow to cool and add raisins and dried cranberries.  

cherry pie // mollie

I grew up in a pie-eating family. My Grandma McKown, my Dad's mom, was an excellent pie maker. She is a southern girl and knew how to make meringue pies and pecan pie and all the fruit pies ever. But oh, her Chocolate Cream pie was my favorite. Then, there is my own amazing mother. She is somewhat of a perfectionist when it comes to, well, everything she makes. Pies are no exception. Her pecan is to die for, and apple! and pumpkin! She cans her own pumpkin. I'm not one to forget about the few family traditions we have had throughout the years. So I decided to be a pie maker too. I've made pies throughout my years of being on my own and I really love doing it. I'm not a perfectionist in any way. With anything that I do. I wish I was more of one, but I'm not. I just thoroughly enjoy making a pie in the kitchen with my girls playing on the ground in my sight. (Or crying at my feet, whichever).

Cherry Pie. I want to say that I know that some people don't like Cherry Pie. But that is because they never had my Mom's cherry pie. I think out of all of her pies, it is my favorite. Because not only does she make the cherry filling from scratch (never use that canned filling with the hot pink syrup, EW!) but she makes them so beautiful! When I make them they are not as beautiful, they are funny looking, but many people have said they were yummy. And that is what I'm going for here by the way.

Martha Stewart Perfect Pie Crust:

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour (spooned and leveled), plus more for rolling dough

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

8 tablespoons (1 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into pieces

2 tablespoons ice water, plus 2 more, if needed

Directions:

-In a food processor, pulse flour, salt, and sugar several times to combine. Add butter. Pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal, with just a few pea-size pieces remaining.

-Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons ice water. Pulse until dough is crumbly but holds together when squeezed with fingers (if needed, add up to 2 tablespoons more ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time). Do not overprocess.

-Turn dough out onto a work surface; form dough into a 3/4-inch-thick disk. Wrap tightly in plastic, and refrigerate until firm, at least 1 hour.

-Before baking, unwrap dough; place on a large piece of floured waxed paper. Roll dough to a 14-inch round. Using paper, lift and wrap dough around rolling pin (discarding paper); carefully unroll over a 9-inch pie plate. Gently fit into bottom and up sides of plate.

-Trim overhang to 1 inch; fold overhang under itself. Pinch between thumb and forefinger to make a uniform edge around the rim. Crimp edge; refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.

Cherry Filling

Ingredients: 

3 cups Red Tart Cherries in Water(Drained)
1 1/3 cup sugar
3 Tbsp. flour
1 tsp. almond flavoring

Directions: 

-Put cherries in a bowl with sugar and mix. Let sit while pie crust is chilling
-When crust is ready pour off half of the juice from the cherries
-Add flour and mix slightly
-Pour in crust and sprinkle almond flavor on top of cherries.
-Add top crust (design how you like)*
-Bake at 450 degrees for 40-50 mins*

*i did a criss cross top for my crust this time... like i said, funny looking. but its fun to try out different tops. make sure you dab butter and sprinkle sugar on top before baking.
*you might want to add some foil to the edges so it doesn't burn before the center is done baking.

Blueberry Streusel Muffins

One of my favorite things to eat is breakfast. Breakfast for breakfast, or breakfast for dinner, but not lunch, that would be weird. ;) Got it? I got this recipe from my sister-in-law who got it from Martha Stewart. Not her, personally, of course. The best part of these is the streusel. I imagine any muffin with this on top would be good. So don't skimp out on it. 

Blueberry Streusel Muffins adapted from Martha Stewart

12 muffins

Ingredients

1 3/4 cup flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon 

1/4 teaspoon salt

10 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup milk, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

2/3 cup granulated sugar

1 egg

1 1/4 cup blueberries, or any other small fruit (diced strawberries, apples, pears, etc)

Streusel 

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

2/3 cup flour

2/3 cup powdered sugar

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 

Pinch of salt

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Put paper liners in pan. 

Whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. 

Whisk together milk, vanilla, eggs, sugar and butter. 

Pour wet mixture into the dry and stir until just combined.

Add fruit and gently fold in. Don't over mix. 

Let it rest while you mix together the streusel. 

Stir together the flour, powdered sugar, salt, and cinnamon. 

Add butter and smash to combine with a fork until it's evenly mixed and crumbly. 

Spoon about 1/4 cup batter into muffin tin lined with paper liners. Mostly just make sure they are even. 

Spoon about 2 tablespoon of streusel on top of each muffin and gently press into the batter. 

Bake for 15-17 minutes.

Check with a toothpick just to be sure. 

Cool in pan for 5-10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. 

Arugula Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

This is oh so good. We go through pizza fazes at our house and usually this is involved. Want salad? And pizza? Hmm how about pizza salad? Or salad pizza? If you don't have time to make pizza dough, store bought dough will work and make a super easy weeknight meal. 

Arugula Pear and Gorgonzola Pizza

Serves about 4-5

Ingredients

This pizza dough

2 cups mozzarella cheese

1/2 cup Gorgonzola cheese

1-2 sliced pears

Your favorite balsamic dressing for drizzle

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees with pizza stone on the middle rack. (Or and upside down cookie sheet)

Roll out dough into two pizzas.

Sprinkle about a cup of mozzarella and about 1/8th of a cup of Gorgonzola on each. 

Bake one at a time on the pizza stone for about 12-15 min until the cheese is melted and the dough browns a bit. 

Pull out of the oven and top with a couple handfuls of arugula, pears, Gorgonzola and balsamic dressing. 

Enjoy!  

Plum Crumble

I have been wanting to try this for months and months now.  I finally got to it, and I am so mad I didn't try it out long ago.  This is my new summer favorite.  It came from Orangette, my absolute favorite blog.  It's like you know her after reading one post.  Someday, when I make it to Seattle, I want to go to her restaurant, Delancey, and taste everything.  Well, she is so kind to have posted this recipe because it was on the menu there for a little while.  I love it. I know that crumbles may seem like a warm comfort food for winter, but this my friend is perfect now while plums are in season.

The picture shown is only half of the recipe in a very shallow pie plate; I had too many treats in the house in the first place. Also I didn't put any crystallized ginger in it because I didn't have any.

Orangette / Delancey's Plum Crumble


serves about 6

Ingredients

Filling
12-14 Italian Prune Plums (I cheated and used the huge ones you can get at Costco, 10 or so should do the trick.)
2 Tbs Brown Sugar
1 1/2 Tbs Flour
1/4 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger

Topping
3/4 cup Sugar
1 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 Beaten Egg
7 Tbs Butter, melted

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Remove pit from plums and slice in half into a bowl and set aside.
Whisk together the dry ingredients for the filling.
Carefully fold the dry mixture into the plums just until coated.
Pour plum mixture into a deep 9" pie dish. Face the skin sides up.  I also have baked it in a 9x13 inch baking dish.

Whisk together the dry ingredients for the topping.
Add the beaten egg with your hands until you get small moist crumbles.
Sprinkle evenly over the plums.
Spoon the melted butter over the topping... it will be pretty drenched.
Place in the oven and bake for about 30 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbly.

Cool a few minutes and eat warm or cold.  You can warm up a cooled crumble by putting it in a 300 degree oven for about 20 min or so.
Serve with whipped cream, ice cream or by itself.

German Apple Pancakes

I have to say it has been for ever since I have posted something on here.  About 3 months.  It makes sense to me because we recently found out we are expecting a little bundle of joy, and the past 3 months I have not really had the desire to cook, bake, or eat certain foods.  We are very excited, our lives are changing faster than I think we recognize.

A breakfast item, as I see it, is very appropriate to post because it was the only kind of food I wanted to eat for a few months.  These pancakes are different than any other German pancake I have ever made before, but I love them.  I am used to the sort that you bake in the oven and watch rise 4 inches over the top of the pan; very fun.  The apple is what intrigued me and really got me to try them.  I hope you enjoy them as much as we did.

German Apple Pancakes

Gourmet Magazine 2006

Ingredients

1/4 cup Sugar plus 2 Tbs
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1 cup Flour
1/2 tsp Salt
1 1/2 cups Milk
4 lg Eggs
1 1/2 lb Gala Apples (3-4 apples)  - I used Fuji
2 Tbs Lemon Juice
Butter for the skillet

Directions

You may want to half the recipe, we were pretty full after 2 pancakes... unless you are really hungry!
Mix together 1/4 cup sugar and the cinnamon in a small bowl, set aside.
Mix the flour, salt and remaining 2 Tbs sugar in a large bowl.
Stream in the milk and add each egg individually.
Peel the apples and cut slices from top to bottom 1/8 inch thick, you can use a mandolin or just a knife.  Avoid the core.  Continue to cut the apple slices into 1/8 inch thick matchsticks.  I found the long matchsticks to be hard to work with when you cook the pancake, so just chopping the apple in tiny pieces might work better.
Coat apples with the lemon juice.
Add the apples and lemon juice to the batter, fold.
These are kind of like crepes, so the batter should be thin.
Heat over medium a small amount of butter (about 1/2 Tbs) in a non-stick skillet.

Pour 1/3 cup batter into the pan and cook until the edges begin to brown, then flip.  About a couple minutes a side.
Continue to butter the pan in between each pancake as needed.
You may want to keep them warm in a 200 degree oven until you are done cooking.
Sprinkle them with cinnamon and sugar and eat warm.

Pumpkin Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting

I grew up not really liking anything pumpkin. Not sure why, but I have had a hankering for it ever since, about a year ago, classmates of mine made a tofu pumpkin pie. I may post that recipe in the future, but for now, pumpkin bars. These are quite probably the most moist cake-like bars I have ever had (hmm did that make sense?). Especially now, during the fall season and Halloween, I think these are more than appropriate.

Ingredients

2 cups Flour

1 1/2 cups Sugar

2 tsp Baking Powder

2 tsp Cinnamon

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/4 tsp Salt

4 beaten Eggs

1 15 ounce can of Pumpkin

3/4 cup Oil

For the Frosting:

4 ounces Cream Cheese at room temperature

1/4 cup Butter at room temperature

1 tsp Vanilla

~ 2 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar - add more to thicken, up to 3 cups of powdered sugar

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Mix all the dry ingredients well.

Add the wet and stir in well.

Pour into an un-greased 9x13 pan. If you want them thinner, feel free to put them in a bigger pan, but keep in mind they rise up when they are baking. Although, you should keep an eye on it in the oven so it doesn't over cook.

Bake for 25 min or until a toothpick can be inserted in the center and come out dry.

Let cool completely.

As for the frosting, just blend the butter, cream cheese, and vanilla. Add the powdered sugar.

Spread on the bars. You can add either about 1 1/2 cups of chocolate chips, walnuts or even cocoa powder sprinkled on the top. Or, eat it without the chocolate and nuts. Keep in mind, if you choose to sprinkle cocoa powder on the top, you should wait to do it just before serving because the powder eventually soaks into the frosting.

Enjoy

Banana Bread

I don't have anything against banana bread, but I always feel like there is something missing. Don't get me wrong, this was a good recipe; it was a very yummy, moist (I can't stand that word but I could not think of any other word to take it's place), but typical banana bread. I debated whether or not to add spices, chocolate and other exciting ingredients but only went as far as walnuts. I only put nuts in half to accommodate my family's liking. If any of you have suggestions of your favorite banana bread I would love to hear them. I am positive I will be posting more banana bread recipes, each with their own variation, but for now, I think basic is best in order to build up.

*This makes two loaves and was adapted from Simply Recipes

Ingredients
5-6 Very Ripe Bananas Smashed in a bowl
2/3 cups Melted Butter
1 cup Sugar
1 cup Brown Sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp Vanilla
2 tsp Baking Soda
Pinch of Salt
3 cups Flour
1 cup Walnuts (optional, very optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
To the smashed bananas add the butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla- mix well.
Stir in the baking soda, salt, and flour.
Pour into two greased 4x8 loaf pans and bake for 1 hour. Let it cool, and eat (I like it kind of warm still with a tall glass of milk, yum!)

Caramel

Oh my, I don't know how I didn't know about this. This is heaven. I think I will be making this caramel all the time. It is so easy and I probably will make more than one at a time so I have some on hand whenever I need it (aka: whenever I want it, so I can stick my finger in it and lick it off). This picture is the result of my mom's first try. I never had it growing up so I assume it was her first. We put it on apples and it was perfect. My mom is making a cookie that has this as the filling along with coconut that I may be posting later. I am in love.

All you do is take a can of this


(**just a note, I have tried other brands and Eagle Brand is by far the best**) and peel the paper off and simmer it, unopened, in a pot, for 2.5 hours. Easy peasy. Just make sure it is covered by at least an inch or more of water and let it go. Take a look at it every now and again to make sure the water level is still above the can. After the 2.5 hours let it cool completely before opening. If I were you I would do a few cans at a time, no joke, you will regret it if you don't!
I think that the word simmer is pretty vague so my mom said hers was slightly boiling; just in case you weren't exactly sure on how much of a boil it should be. How easy is that!? I think most of last night I was thinking of what I could do with this delicious stuff. Perfect for the lovely fall, almost winter weather, we have been having. Yum.

Peach Cobbler

I have been away from the blogging world for a while, but I have been reunited and thought I would post a terrible picture with the delicious matching recipe that completely hit the spot one night. I now have a fear that this blog will turn into just a sweets, cookies and dessert blog but don't you worry, I will try to keep a variety of recipes on here!

My husband and I love to make cobbler in the dutch oven when we go camping. Who am I kidding- He cooks with the dutch oven, not me! We had an interesting experience while camping in the Nevada desert with some Spaniards, who bicycled from Argentina all the way up to Nevada and were making their way to Canada! Extreme. Well, we had plenty of leftover food and cobbler and thought we would offer our neighboring campers a warm meal (since they had very little room to pack any sort of comfort food on their road worn bikes). They curiously wanted to try this dish we called cobbler and a peach dessert sounded great to them so the came to our campsite and we served them their first taste of dutch oven cobbler. They loved it and dug in for seconds while asking how to make it. After we explained the process, which included a giant can of peaches, a cake mix, can of Sprite and butter one man asked in a thick Spanish accent, "What is, can of Sprite?" We loved this simple question and now quote the man whenever we drink the fizzy, citrus drink. One of my favorite memories since being with my lovely husband, camping in the barren Nevada desert while feeding some bikers from Spain.

This recipe definitely doesn't require a can of Sprite! This comes a little tweaked from one of my favorite line of cook books from Williams-Sonoma American.

Peach Cobbler

Ingredients

1 c. Heavy Cream
2/3 c. Sugar
1 tsp Cornstarch
5 lbs Ripe Peaches- sliced into wedges

Dough:
2 c. Flour
2 Tbs Sugar
1 Tbs Baking Powder
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon
Pinch of Salt
6 Tbs Cold Unsalted Butter, sliced
2/3 c. milk
1 egg
1 tsp Vanilla

Directions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and grease a 9x13 in. pan.
Whisk cream, sugar and cornstarch in the baking dish. Stir in peaches carefully.
Stir together the dry ingredients and cut in the butter with a pastry blender or fork until it creates small pea size crumbs.
Combine the remaining wet ingredients in a small bowl then add to the flour and butter mixture but only enough to make a soft moist dough. You may not need to add all of the wet mixture.
Don't over mix the dough.
Divide into 8 sections and place on top of the peaches and cream.
Bake until topping is golden brown and the inside bubbling- About 50 min. Let cool for 10 min and enjoy with vanilla ice cream!

Berries and Cream Shortbread

I didn't have any eggs but was craving some kind of sweet baked good. I read through one of my cookie books (Better Homes and Gardens The Ultimate Cookie Book) and found the perfect recipe, although it was a Pineapple Macadamia Nut Shortbread, (There is no way I had candied pineapple and macadamia nuts on hand if I didn't even have eggs!) so I just left out the extra ingredients. I did, however, have some frozen blueberries and some whipping cream. The combination of berries and shortbread satisfied my craving, and then some (and they look quite patriotic).

I made these at like 9 pm so there was no way I was going to get a good picture. I will see if I have time to take another one today to replace this sorry photograph with a slightly less shadowed one.

Berries and Cream Shortbread

Ingredients

2 1/2 c. Flour
1/3 c. Packed Brown Sugar
1 c. Cold Butter
1 or 2 Drops Orange Extract (optional)
Berries and Whipped Cream

Directions

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
Stir together the flour and brown sugar.
Cut in the butter with a pastry blender until the mixture forms tiny balls that start to stick together.
Add orange extract and stir in well.
Form into a ball and knead a couple times.
Roll out about 1/4 in. thick on a lightly floured surface and cut out dough with cookie cutter. Only re-roll the scraps once.
Place on a baking sheet and cook about 15 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.
Let cool and top with berries and whipped cream. yum.