I found this recipe on one of the parenting sites I'm constantly perusing. It sounded like a pretty good mix - banana & chocolate. What can go wrong? NOTHING! My mom made it first and it turned out so perfectly. In fact, if you don't care for nutella, the banana bread recipe would stand by itself and be perfectly delicious.
Here is what you'll need:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups very ripe, mashed bananas (about 3 bananas)
2 large eggs
1/3 cup plain lowfat yogurt, sour cream or buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup nutella (or more to taste)
1/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with non-stick spray.
Mix together the sugar and butter in a bowl until they have the consistency of wet sand.
Add the bananas, eggs, yogurt (or whichever you use) and vanilla and beat until well blended. There is no need to get all the lumps of banana out.
Add the flour, baking soda and salt and gently stir with a spatula just until combined. If you are adding nuts or other optional ingredients, throw them in just before the batter is completely blended.
(You'll notice that I used a mixer...OOPS! You definitely want to stir together with a spatula or your bread will be a bit tougher.)
Pour about half of your batter in your prepared loaf pan. Top with spoonfuls of Nutella. It's a little hard to spread out evenly, so you could microwave it for just a couple of seconds to get it a little soft and it would make it easier to spread over the batter. It doesn't matter too much, though, because as the bread cooks the Nutella will spread a little.
Pour the remaining batter on top and bake in the very middle of your oven for 1 hour and 10 minutes or until the top is cracked and springy to the touch. Cool in pan on a wire rack (or like we always do in my family, eat it as soon as humanly possibly).
Enjoy!!
This will be my first (hopefully not last) Christmas candy edition blog post. During the holidays I absolutely love to make cookies and candies. I'm not sure which I like more - making them or eating them. This is my recipe for an extremely simple toffee recipe - all you need is 3 ingredients.
1 stick of unsalted butter
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1-1/2 cups of chocolate chips (I prefer semi-sweet, but you can use milk chocolate if you prefer)
*I don't like nuts at all so I don't use them, but it would be very easy to put them in this recipe
Begin by melting the butter and brown sugar in a pan over medium-high heat.
Bring to a boil. Set a time for 7 minutes and maintain a rolling boil while stirring constantly for 7 minutes.
Yes, 7 minutes. Your arms will get tired and you'll look at the clock ever 10 seconds toward the end, but if you don't keep stirring it will stick to the bottom and burn quickly. There is no reversing this and you'll have to start over. Also, note that I don't use a wooden spoon because the toffee will stick to the wood and it's extremely hard to get off.
It will begin to firm up and separate, very normal. Continue this until you get to a beautiful caramely brown color. Once your 7 minutes is up pour into a butter 8x8 pan. I just rub the wrapper of the butter on the pan after I take it out. There is plenty left on the wrapper to go around.
Immediately pour your chocolate chips over the top of the toffee then cover the pan with a large cookie sheet until the chocolate chips are softened.
Once the chocolate chips are softened/melted start to spread them over the top of the toffee evenly.
Cool on the counter, then chill in the fridge until the chocolate sets up.
Once the chocolate hardens, simply crack into it with a knife and break into pieces.
Happy Holidays and I hope you all enjoy!
Oh Fall how we love you because of all the good fall-inspired treats you bring! I had some pumpkin cheesecake at a restaurant a week or so ago and it was absolutely fantastic. All week long I had been thinking about possibly trying to make one at home but I was worried I wouldn't like it once I made it. Well I made it and we ALL loved it, however I didn't take all the "usual" blog pictures so the finished product will have to do. I found this recipe online and changed some things to fit my "the less I have to do the better" attitude. The only downside (if there could be one) is that it is a large recipe, it yielded THREE cheesecakes. So I'd say making this for a party would be just the ticket!
For the crust I just bought a pre-made ones (again the less steps the better)
1 15oz can of pumpkin puree
3 8oz packages of cream cheese at room temperature
3 eggs plus 1 egg yolk
1/4 cup of sour cream
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 teaspoon of pumpkin pie spice
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 tablespoons of flour
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Beat cream cheese until it's smooth, add pumpkin puree, eggs, egg yolk, sour cream, sugar and pumpkin pie spice. Beat well, then add flour and vanilla. Beat the mixture until it's combined with few to no cream cheese lumps. It will be runny.
Pour into crust (don't fill it to the top) and place in the oven for 1 hour.
Let it cool for 15-25 minutes and cover it with plastic wrap/or pie tin cover and place it in the refrigerator for at least 5 hours.
ENJOY!
My mother wasn't a big cookie baker when I was growing up. She always said her mom made cookies all the time and she got tired of them. But, she loves to bake and once fall/winter comes around our house is full of goodies! Well, we finally had some true autumn weather this week and it must've brought out her baking spirit because she made her Famous Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Loaf. I absolutely LOVE this recipe. Very easy to make and, besides pumpkin, most of us have the ingredients in our pantry already.
1 3/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice *
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup margarine or softened butter
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup pumpkin
6 oz. chocolate chips (or chocolate chunks)
Combine flour, baking soda, salt and your spices in a small bowl. In large mixing bowl, cream butter, gradually adding sugar at high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs. At low speed, add 1/3 of your dry ingredients. Once combined, add 1/2 of the pumpkin. Continue adding alternately, ending with your dry ingredients. Stir in chocolate chips, then pour into a 9" loaf pan. Bake at 350° 65-75 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into center of loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool before turning out of pan. Let sit for several hours before serving. Or...if you're in my family...let it cool just long enough so you don't burn your tongue when you take a giant bite!
*If you don't have pumpkin pie spice you can use:
½ teaspoon nutmeg, ¼ teaspoon cloves, ¼ teaspoon ginger and 1 ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
