Mom's Best Banana Bread

I forgot to take a picture, luckily my
godmother sent me a picture of her banana
bread bites! This batch was made
with cashews.

Here is an original family recipe which as been passed down for generations! Well, at least one generation. This is mom's incredible banana bread recipe. The recipe below is even formatted and worded the same as how she sent it to me!

This is a hearty, moist, and dense quick bread which means there is no waiting for dough to rise or needing to proof yeast or do anything funky.  Just mix up ingredients, pour into pans, and bake it!

I also learned that banana bread ships easily if you need to mail it anywhere.

Note #1: What does "Prepared and floured" mean? Prepared and floured pans means spray your pans of choice with non-stick spray, then add a tsp or tbsp of flour into it. Tap the pan until the flour coats the edges, corners, and bottom of the pan. This helps the removal process and you really shouldn't skip this step. 

Note #2: How many cups is 4 bananas? Honestly, I have no idea. I made it with about 2 cups of mashed up bananas which was 3 really big bananas. Be sure to mash them really well otherwise the little banana lumps will burst and create a burned mess on the edges of your muffin pan or bottom of the oven.

Note #3: Double this recipe. Seriously, it is awesome and will be eaten far too quickly.

Possible changes that I have done in the past? Add chocolate chips and swap using walnuts or cashews.

Storing the bread is easy, leave it out on the counter over night to let it cool completely before sealing it up into an air tight container. You can leave it at room temperature. I'm not sure how it will stay fresh for because I've never had it any bread left after 3 days.

Enjoy!

Update 1/11/2015 - I subbed almond milk for regular milk. This didn't change the texture of the bread itself but it did change the crisp of the outside of the bread. Normally banana bread has that almost caramelized crunchy crust. The almond milk gave the bread a softer crust, similar to the inside of the bread. Bananas - I had frozen bananas that were going to start go bad. Peel them before freezing. To use them I let them defrost on the counter then when they were getting soft I pureed them in the food processor.For this try I used both walnuts and chocolate chips. I baked it in a 9x9 glass pan for 35 minutes. Yummy!

Banana Bread Recipe

By My Mother

yields: 3 mini loaves (40-45 minutes) OR 18 mini muffins (12 minutes) and 2 mini loaves OR a large loaf (45 minutes) OR 12 Jumbo muffins (22 minutes)

1 cup sugar (or 1/2 cup white + 1/2 cup brown)
1 stick of butter, soft-room temp

2 eggs

¼ c. sour milk (1/4 c. milk + 1 tsp. vinegar) or buttermilk

2 c. flour*

¼ tsp. salt*

½ tsp. baking soda*

1 tsp. baking powder*

4 ripe bananas – well mashed, approx 2 cups

½ -1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
½ -1 cup chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F and prepared pans with oil and flour

Cream sugar and butter
Add eggs and blend well
Add sour milk

Add * ingredients on low in mixer
Add bananas and nuts

Pour batter into prepared pans 2/3 deep
Bake until when you test the cake with a toothpick it comes out clean

Zucchini Bread with Chocolate Chips & Walnuts

Nate's mom brought me a 5-6 pound 18 inches large zucchini. This zucchini was the equivalent of 12 cups of grated.... NOW WHAT?!

What I didn't do and what you should do when dealing with giant zucchini is peel the zucchini first, the skin is very tough. I just hacked away until it was pieces small enough to fit into my food processor.

 

So here is a Zucchini Bread recipe! (Here is the Morning Glory Muffin recipe). I found this on AllRecipes here Zucchini Bread. I used 3 cups instead of 2 cups of zucchini, reduced the sugar and used 1/2 brown sugar and 1/2 white sugar, also I used 1/2 apple sauce and 1/2 vegetable oil.

 Combine wet ingredients.

 Add dry ingredients.

 Add in the toppings: shredded zucchini, chocolate chips, and walnuts.

Pour into prepared pans: spray with cooking spray and sprinkle tin with flour. Tap it around to coat all the corners and sides.

The 8x8 pan took about 45 minutes.

Zucchini Bread
makes 2 8x8 pans

3 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

3 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3 eggs

1 cup vegetable oil

1 cup white sugar

1 cup brown sugar

3 teaspoons vanilla extract

3 cups grated zucchini

1 cup chopped walnut
1 cup chocolate chips

Grease and flour two 8 x 8 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Sift flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugar together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture, and beat well. Stir in zucchini, chocolate chips, and nuts until just combined. 
Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake for 40 to 60 minutes, or until tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack for 20 minutes. Remove bread from pan, and completely cool.

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread "Twix" Bars

I found this recipe on Pinterest the other day and I have been waiting to create them! I also looked at this website because it was similar and had some more instructions. It is also called Millionaires Shortbread.

The layers of shortbread, caramel, and chocolate just sounded amazing. What really intrigued me? The sprinkle of salt on top of the chocolate.

I looked over many shortbread recipes and finally decided to go with the original recipe. I used brown sugar instead of plain white sugar and added in 2 tsp of vanilla extract. I blended the sugar and butter, in my stand mixer, until it was creamed, this took about a minute. In a separate bowl I combined the flour, baking powder, and the salt. I mixed it all in with a fork. Then I combined it together until it formed a crumbly mixture.

I put the mixture into the pan lined with parchment paper and put it in the preheated 325F oven for about 15 minutes. (When it was done I put it in the fridge to cool quickly, next time I might make the shortbread the day before so it has time to crisp up more).

Crumbly mixture

Pressed

Baked

While the shortbread was in the oven I started on the caramel. After reading the reviews I decided to half the caramel amount, I'm glad I did and was happy with the end result. In my medium saucepan I put the butter, sweetened condensed milk, sugar, and light corn syrup. I heated it over medium stirring occasionally until the butter was melted and sugar dissolved. Then I turned it on high and stirred constantly until the mixture came to a boil. I mean constant stirring. Don't stop stirring! Once it reached a boil turn it down to about a med low heat so it simmers (little bubbles). Keep stirring! It took about 10 minutes for it to turn a light amber color. Then I took it off the heat. I let it cool for a few minutes but not long enough for it to get hard and too sticky. (Next time I will add a tsp of vanilla).

Melting

Boil

Simmer

I poured the caramel over the cooled shortbread and spread it out. I let it sit for a few minutes and then I spread the semi sweet chocolate chips over the top and continued to spread them out as they melted. Let it sit for a few minutes. (Next time I'll use good chocolate instead of store brand chocolate chips). Then sprinkled with the coarse salt.

I let it chill in the fridge overnight before cutting. When I took it out the next morning to cut I took the entire thing out of the pan and put it on a cutting board to chop up. I made about 1x1 squares or smaller because these are very rich. They are also great being bite sized.

Overall? This was a great recipe. Very easy and not too time consuming. It also makes a lot! It would be easy enough to double the recipe if you had large parties to go to as well. They look fancy and aren't as complicated as they look. 

I might try a different shortbread recipe next time, Paula Dean has a good one for Pecan Shortbread. So I might try that one as a base.

But, just have patience with the caramel and don't stop stirring!

Salted Caramel Chocolate Shortbread Bars

Adapted from Annie's Eats

Makes approx 100-120 pieces depending on desired size

For the shortbread layer:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
½ cup brown sugar
2 tsp vanilla

For the caramel layer:
½  cup (1 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
½  cup sugar
2 tbsp. light corn syrup
1 (14 oz.) cans sweetened condensed milk

For the chocolate layer:
8 oz. semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
Coarse sea salt, for sprinkling

Shortbread

Preheat the oven to 325° F.  Line a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with parchment paper.  In a small bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt. Stir with a fork to blend, and set aside.  In separate bowl beat the butter, vanilla, and sugar until well blended, about 1-2 minutes.  Mix in dry ingredients just until incorporated (crumbly).  Transfer the dough to the prepared baking pan and press in an even layer over the bottom of the pan.  Bake 15-18 minutes or until golden.  (If the crust puffs up a bit while baking, just gently press it down while it is cooling.) Let cool completely.

Caramel

Combine the butter, sugar, corn syrup and condensed milk in a medium saucepan over medium heat.  Heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted.  Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat to maintain a simmer, stirring constantly.  Continue simmering and stirring until the mixture turns an amber color and thickens slightly.  Pour the mixture over the shortbread layer, smooth the top, and allow to cool completely and set. 

Layer caramel over shortbread, sprinkle chocolate over the warm caramel and spread it out as it melts. Sprinkle salt over the chocolate.

Chill 2 hours until ready to cut and serve.

Enjoy!

Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

My friend N. found this recipe online and really really really wanted me to make them. Since he bought me Oreos and chocolate chips the other day for the Slutty Brownies, I figured I could try these. I didn't find them to be as "cheesecake" as I was expecting, but they had an almost nougat-like, marshmallow-y center.

The Oreo crumbs do need to be in fine crumb form! I found that mashing them in a bag with a rolling pin just didn't do the job. So, I got to use my food processor! And wow did it make quick work of those yummy Oreos!

I used a cookie scoop when making these so they would be approximately the same size. I use my 1 tsp (?) cookie scoop. Its slightly smaller than the normal cookie scoop that most people have.

If you don't have a cookie scoop (aka small spring loaded ice cream scoops) and you make lots of cookies, I highly recommend investing in one. They are fairly inexpensive and make it much easier to create large batches of cookies.

The recipe was straight forward and easy to follow. I didn't make any changes to the recipe aside from halving it.


Oreo Cheesecake Cookies

Yield: about 4 dozen cookies

½ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup all-purpose flour
½ cup chocolate chips
1 cup Oreo cookie crumbs

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

2. Cream butter and cream cheese until smooth.

3. Add sugar and vanilla extract. Mix until the ingredients are well-combined. Add flour and mix until flour is incorporated. Stir in the mini chocolate chips.

4. Put the Oreo crumbs into a bowl. Scoop the soft dough into about 1½ to 2″ balls and then roll in the cookie crumbs. Place the cookie balls on the baking sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden and the tops are slightly puffed.

5. Cool on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Enjoy!