Banana Bread with a Twist ... of Cinnamon!

My ALL TIME favorite Banana Bread recipe is one I found a year or so ago. It's Emeril Lagase's. It's super banana-y and has a richness from both butter and sour cream. (I saved a few calories using light sour cream!) But trust me when I say you have not had banana bread until you have had this banana bread. The original recipe called for walnuts and I used them but I'm really not a nut person so I left them out of this batch. And I was putting all the ingredients into the mixing bowl, I realized that, gasp, I was out of vanilla. So I decided to add some cinnamon in swirl form to compensate. It was fantastic! 

Ingredients
8 tablespoons/1 stick of butter
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas)
1/2 cup sour cream (Plain or Greek yogurt works too)
2 large eggs
1/4 cinnamon sugar, you won't use all by any means

2 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon baking powder

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
Lightly grease a loaf pan with butter or a non-stick spray

Beat the bananas, sour cream, eggs, butter and sugar in an electric mixer.
Add the flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and mix well. 

Pour approx 1/3 of the mixture into the loaf pan, and coat well with cinnamon sugar. Repeat in 2 more layers, adding cinnamon sugar each time.
Bake until lightly browned and bread bounces back to the touch, about 55 minutes. 

Remove from the oven and cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto wire rack to cool completely.

Nutella + Banana + Nilla Wafers... We need a name!

For this simple and simply delicious little bite of Heaven!

As simple as it seems.... As delicious as it looks...

Two Nilla Wafer spread with Nutella. One slice of banana. Sandwich together.

Are you drooling yet?

Delicious Lowfat Banana Chocolate Chip Cake Not From Scratch!

I tend to stockpile things when they go on sale. At least I do at the grocery store. And, during the holiday season it seems that all the good stuff (ie baking!) goes on sale. Yesterday I was at my local Stop&Shop and saw that all the boxed Pillsbury cake and brownie mixes were on sale for just $1 a piece! Doctored up, these can be turned into the most fabulous and decadent treats. So I picked up a few (dozen) boxes... Ok, slight exaggeration!

I had two rotten bananas in the fruit bowl. They needed to be used immediately or tossed to make room for the new ones. I'm a bit tired of banana bread myself, so I decided to doctor up a box of yellow cake mix. My result was spectacular and I was not able to stop after just one piece!

Ingredients:
1 box of packaged yellow cake mix
eggs, as specified on package
water, as specified on package
1/3 cup of lowfat (or fat free) sour cream in lieu of butter or oil
1/2 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips
2 (or as in my case 1 and a half) over-ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 350 -- or as package indicates

In your mixing bowl add cake mix, water, eggs, sour cream and bananas. Mix thoroughly. Fold in chocolate chips. (Can it get any easier than this?!)

Spray pan of your choice with a non-stick spray and pop into the oven per directions on your package. Remember, different pan sizes require different cooking times. (I used a springform and baked for 1hour.)

Test for doneness... let cool about 10 minutes or so before serving. This is a very soft and gooey treat and unless completely cooled it will stick to your knife.

when the Nutella jar is empty...

Don't panic! You may or may not want to run out to the grocery store. I went to my local Trader Joe's. But came out empty-handed. Devastated and empty-handed. I promised my 9 year old that I was going to make him a Nutella and Banana Pannini. I really didn't want to waste more gas by going all the way to the grocery store. I really didn't want to waste my time at the grocery store on a Saturday morning for the sole purpose of a jar of Nutella. So as I drove home I knew I had to be creative. To some peanut butter I would add a little powdered sugar and cocoa powder and create a chocolate peanut butter spread.

So as soon as I returned home I headed to the kitchen. In a bowl I added:

2 Tbs. peanut butter (Skippy Natural)
2 Tsp. cocoa powder
2 Tsp. powdered sugar

I placed the bowl in the microwave for 12 seconds to soften the peanut butter.

In a hot pan I added about a tsp of butter and let it melt. On fresh challah bread (or any other really good bread) I spread a generous amount of the peanut-chocolate-butter spread on top of which I added a few slices of banana and topped it off with another slice of bread.

Into the hot pan (next time I will use the indoor grill) my sandwich went. I let each side get golden brown and crispy, then I sprinkled a little bit of powdered sugar over the top.

The sandwich was a big hit!

Note this is not as sweet as the Nutella is.

Good to the last bite!

Banana Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Loaf

This is good. Very good. Second, perhaps, to Emeril's Banana bread! Plus this has the added bonus of oats and instead of a stick of butter this one has a half a cup of yogurt! Chocolate chips (semi sweet) provide anti-oxidants. It's a win-win situation everyone! Or at least I can pretend it is!

Normally I would never consider giving this to my kids for breakfast. I think chocolate chip pancakes are kind of ridiculous. Breakfast is supposed to be a  healthy meal and chocolate chips in pancakes that are sure to be smothered in syrup is not a good breakfast. Rebecca, of course, will beg to differ. She can have her chocolate pancakes and eat them too... at someone else's house!

And once again I digress. I was all about to make them eat a bowl of cereal but the banana loaf was staring at me from it's lovely, shiny aluminum pan... it was calling to me. It had to be tried. And I was just the person to to try it. So I sliced it. Lovely. Dense and thick and rich, and oh the semi sweet chocolate morsels danced around on my taste buds this morning. They mingled with the banana and the oats. The flavor was a perfect accompaniment to my morning cappuccino. I could have downed the entire loaf right then and there. But I stopped at a half a slice. See, I do have willpower!

And then a little person resembling myself came down. I really couldn't say no. So I decided to indulged them all. To make me feel better as a mother this was the only sweet of the day. Afternoon snacks were popcorn and whole wheat pretzels. I'm pretty sure the kids all thought it worth it. (We don't really do dessert at dinner.)

Ingredients:

2 eggs
3/4 (slightly less) cup sugar
1/4 cup canola oil
1/3 cup yogurt
2 ripe bananas, mashed
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp baking powder
2 cups of unbleached flour
1 cup of oats (not instant or fast cooking)
1 cup of semi sweet chocolate chips

Mix together eggs, sugar, vanilla, yogurt and canola oil. Add mashed bananas and mix well. Add baking powder, flour, oats and chocolate chips and mix until well blended.

Heat oven to 350 degrees.

Grease a loaf pan with Pam or butter. Pour batter in to pan and bake for 1 hour.
Let cool about 20 minutes before removing from pan and slicing.

Pancake Muffins

 

I so cannot take the credit for this. I saw it on my friend Andrea's blog and it sounded interesting. So I thought I would give the idea a try. I used a boxed pancake mix (Aunt Jemima's is my favorite) though you could use any recipe from scratch. I followed the directions on the box for the pancakes, then added 2 over-ripe bananas and mixed well. I sprayed some cooking spray into the mini muffin pan and then poured the batter to the top. This made 27 mini muffins -- most likely there would be fewer muffins without the fruit.

I baked the muffins in the oven, preset to 350 degrees, for 20 minutes. Note that these muffins will not turn golden brown like regular muffins do.

We served them with bacon and dipped them into warm syrup. They were deelish!

Can't wait to experiment with other fruits and flavors now!

This would be a great thing to serve for a sleepover as they are easier to make than the pancakes are.

 

Dip your mini muffin into syrup and YUM!

Snowy Days and Banana Muffins Never Get Me Down!

a snowy day calls for the fresh smell of banana bread baking in the oven... but we are too impatient to wait the hour it takes to bake a loaf... so we take our favorite recipe and modify it to make muffins that take only 20 minutes to bake in 350 degree oven...

Makes 18 muffins... that's 9 for me and 9 for you ;)

Monkey In the Middle Cupcakes

This one is a fun one for the kiddos.

Another easy-peasy recipe that takes almost no time to make, no time to bake and will please the kids to no end! The secret treat is the mini peanut butter cup hidden in the middle of each cupcake. An unexpected burst of peanut buttery surprise! (Note: for those with peanut allergies Hershey's Kisses are a very good substitute.)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Ingredients:

1 package of yellow or white cake mix
2 - 3 over-ripe medium bananas
1 cup of sour cream, I use light
1/2 cup of milk, I use 1%
3 eggs
4 Tbs of cocoa powder
18 mini peanut butter cups
18 cupcake liners

In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients EXCEPT cocoa powder and peanut butter cups Mix well until well blended
Divide batter in half and pour into another mixing bowl
In one mixing bowl add the cocoa powder and mix well

Line muffin tins with cupcake liners
Place peanut butter cup in the center of each liner
Add a large spoonful of the banana batter, then a large spoonful of the chocolate batter
Repeat until all cupcake liners are filled 3/4 to the top

Place in oven for 20 - 30 minutes. I have found that on the regular setting I needed 30 minutes, but in convection they were done in 20 minutes.

Let cool a good 20 minutes before offering to the kiddos!

fill the batter half and half...

there's the fun surprise!


up close... yum!

No Monkey Business Banana Bread

This recipe uses honey and yogurt and the flavors compliment the bananas without overpowering them.

3 lg. very ripe bananas

1 cup vanilla yogurt

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup of clover honey

2 eggs

3 cups of unbleached flour

2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

1. In a large bowl mash bananas (use a potato masher if you have one!)

2. Add yogurt and mash together
3. Add honey and mash together -- you may want to reuse the measuring cup you used for the yogurt or spray a little non-stick oil into the measuring cup before you measure out the honey.

4. Add brown sugar and mash
5. Add flour, baking powder, vanilla, eggs and mix until well blended

6. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans

7. Cook for 45 minutes to an hour, checking for doneness after 45 minutes. Should be a nice lightly golden brown.

Let cool about 15 minutes before serving.

Banana Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Muffins

These muffins have all the chocolaty goodness you need when you crave something sweet and yet, despite the decadent chocolate they are healthy and low in fat!



Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Makes 16 muffins

Line muffin/cupcake tins with liners, if desired or spray with a non-stick cooking spray.


Ingredients:

2 very ripe bananas
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
3/4 cups of sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla
1 egg
1/3 cup low-fat or no-fat sour cream
1/4 cup plus 2 Tbs. of fat free or 1% milk
1/3 cup canola oil
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup of slow cooking oats
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chip morsels


In a large bowl mash the bananas and add sugar, egg, and vanilla. Mix well. Add milk, sour cream, oil and egg, mix well
Slowly add flour, salt and baking powder, mix well
Add oats and chocolate chips


Using a spoon or small ice cream/cookie scoop fill the muffin cups 3/4 to the top.


Bake for 25 minutes or until inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Peanut Butter Banana Muffins

I have been tossing out too many bananas lately. Everyone I know, it seems has been baking banana bread or banana muffins. Sitting on my coffee table is the latest issue of Martha Stewart's Everyday FOOD Magazine. I flagged a few of the peanut butter and banana recipes. I love that combination. What I wanted was a muffin with both ingredients, so I adapted her banana cupcake recipe and made my own. Even if I hadn't wanted to change the ingredients my version would have been different, because if you know me even a little bit you know that I can not follow directions to save my life!

So here's my version and they really hit the spot!

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Ingredients:

1 1/2 Cups all purpose flour

1 Cup of old fashioned oats

1 Cup of peanut butter
3/4 Cups of sugar
1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

2/3 Cups canola oil

3 mashed bananas

2 large eggs

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

In a large bowl mash bananas with a fork, add peanut butter and continue to mash, add eggs and blend well. Keep stirring while slowly pouring in canola oil, then add sugar, flour, oats, baking soda, baking powder and vanilla extract. When all well blended scoop into lined muffin tins. According to desired size will make 12 - 18 muffins.

Bake for 25 - 30 minutes, cool before serving.

Some may like a nice dollop of strawberry jam on the side, or drizzle the tops with honey.