Banana-Poppy Seed Muffins

Before Ron, Janis, Patty and Ed came to visit a couple weeks ago, we made a Costco run and I'm not sure why but Dave thought we needed like 10 pounds of bananas (or however big that super-size bunch of bananas is from there!).

Guess how many bananas we ate? If you guessed none then you are correct. Cue up me searching for recipes using bananas....I picked this one because it called for 4, along with whole wheat flour so I can pretend they are healthy (ignoring the stick of butter). These turned out really good, and I only had like 6 more bananas leftover so win-win for me ;)

Ingredients:

• 8 T. (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened; plus more for greasing the muffin tin
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup whole-wheat flour
• 1 t. baking powder
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/4 t. salt
• 1 T. poppy seeds
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup cold milk
• 2 t. vanilla 

Preheat oven 400', put an oven rack in the middle of the oven. Grease six big muffin tin cups with butter (or spray with non-stick baking spray). 

Whisk the flours, baking powder and soda, salt, and poppy seeds together in a medium-size bowl.

In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together, until you get a creamy and fluffy texture that is light yellow in color (about 5 minutes). Add the bananas, mixing at high speed until the bananas are blended with the butter and sugar. With the mixer speed on low, beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the milk and vanilla.

Gradually add the dry ingredients to the wet on low speed just until incorporated. Do not over mix.

Scoop batter equally in the cups of the muffin tin, fill each almost to the top. Bake 35-40 minutes (*see my note) until a toothpick inserted into the center of a muffin comes out clean. Remove from oven and let cool. 

*note: I don't have a big 6 cup muffin tin so made 6 small loaves instead, they only needed about 23 minutes to bake. Good thing I was paying attention and checked them at the 20 minute mark!

from 'once upon a tart' cookbook ©2003 (FYI: I just learned how to make the copyright symbol on a mac - hold down the option key and press "g")

Lemon Zucchini Bread

I have a very large zucchini from Cassandra so you can guess what that means...it's zucchini bread week! This recipe is virtually the same as my regular zucchini bread (posted yesterday), but I add lemon juice to the batter, omit the spices, and drizzle with lemon glaze.


bread:

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 c. sugar
• 2 c. grated zucchini
• 2 t. lemon juice
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3 c. flour
• 1 t. salt
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. baking powder

glaze: 

• 1/2 c. powdered sugar
• lemon juice 

Preheat oven 325'. Grease and flour 2 (8x4") bread pans.

Beat eggs, mix in oil and sugar and beat to combine. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. 

Combine dry ingredients, stir into egg mixture just until combined. Divide batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans. Bake about an hour until done (insert a toothpick or bamboo skewer to check for doneness). 

Mix the powdered sugar with enough lemon juice to make a pourable glaze, drizzle over the baked bread. You can pour over while the bread is warm, in which case it'll soak into the bread and you won't really see it; or drizzle after the bread is cool and you'll see the white glaze on top. 

Either way = delicious.

*note: in the above photo I made one full size loaf and 6 mini loaves - obviously you don't bake the mini size as long as the full size, mine were done in about 25 minutes. And I drizzled the glaze after the bread had cooled.


9.12.18:  how to make 'perfect' cheesecake
9.12.17: road trip - eclipse hunting
9.12.16: wood canister holder (junkin' with Candy)

Zucchini Bread

It's that time of year - the zucchini (what's the plural of zucchini? Zucchinis?) are plentiful and getting larger and larger (that reminds me of a post I did a long time ago - 'the hulk sized zucchini' hahahah) and what better thing to do with them than make bread? Yes I like zucchini noodles as much as the next girl but mmmm, bread is still better...

I have had this recipe for years, tried and true and delicious. This time I decided to make it a little 'healthier' by swapping one cup of regular flour with whole wheat flour. Then I worried it might be a little dry (it is very moist when I use all regular flour) so I added a big scoop of applesauce just in case. If you don't want to use whole wheat flour just do all 3 cups all-purpose white flour! The bread is moist and very flavorful with the addition of the cinnamon and nutmeg - plus the house smells fantastic while it's baking ;)

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup oil
• 2 c. sugar
• 2 c. grated zucchini*
• 2 t. lemon juice
• 1 t. vanilla
• 3 c. all-purpose flour (or swap some for whole wheat - I did 2 c. white flour, 1 c. whole wheat)
• 1 t. salt
• 1 t. baking soda
• 1/2 t. baking powder
• 3 t. cinnamon
• 1 t. nutmeg

Preheat oven 325'. Grease and flour 2 (8x4") bread pans.

Beat eggs, mix in oil and sugar and beat to combine. Stir in zucchini and vanilla. 

Combine dry ingredients, stir into egg mixture just until combined. Divide batter evenly between the 2 prepared pans. Bake about an hour until done (insert a toothpick or bamboo skewer to check for doneness).

*note: click here to see how to use the shredding disk of your food processor if you have one.


9.11.17: "sweet" candy gift
9.11.18: blueberry sauce

German Chocolate Bread

Yep, you read that right...German Chocolate bread. Who'da thunk it hahaha. My friend LeDonna loves German Chocolate cake (Mary too but she doesn't live close enough for me to make her one! Boo!) and I usually make her one for her birthday (click here to see the best German Chocolate Cake I've perfected thanks to making so many times for her!!). This year it didn't work for me to make her the cake but I still wanted to bake her a little treat and wondered to myself if there was such thing as German Chocolate bread? Googled and found a couple recipes so that's what I made. The recipe I followed makes 4 loaves (which was 3 loaves too many!) so I divided the recipe in half and made 2 loaves (if you're wondering, the second loaf did not go to waste ;) just sayin').

Here is 1/2 of the original recipe (obviously if you want all 4 loaves just double these ingredients):

Ingredients:

• 3 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup cocoa (note: I used dark cocoa, it makes the bread super dark, almost black, which is especially cool for this time of year!)
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 lb. butter, softened (2 sticks)
• 1 1/4 cup sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup sour cream
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 cup flaked coconut, plus additional for the top if desired

• 1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
• 2 Tablespoons Kahlua
• 1/2 cup hot water

Directions: 

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cocoa in a bowl and set aside.

Cream butter and sugar for a couple minutes until light and fluffy.

Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each one. Scrap down the sides of the bowl.

Mix in sour cream.

On low speed slowly add flour mixture, do not over mix.

Stir in the coconut and chocolate chips using a spatula or wooden spoon. The dough will be super thick.

Spoon into 2 greased loaf pans smoothing out the tops. Drop the pan onto a flat surface a few times to release any air bubbles.

Bake at 325' for 40-50 minutes until a toothpick inserted comes out with just a few crumbs. Cool for a few minutes in the pan, then remove from pans and cool on a rack. 

For the glaze:

Mix together confections sugar, Kahlua and water until smooth and it coats the back of a spoon. Slowly pour over the cooled bread, allowing excess to run down the sides.

NOTES: For LeDonna's loaf I added a large handful of chopped pecans to make it more like a "traditional" German Chocolate cake. I used unsweetened coconut since I had a bunch left over from the Hawaiian cake I made for Dave, click here for that post. After mixing the glaze together let it set for a few minutes to thicken before pouring over the bread. The original recipe didn't include putting more coconut on top but I think it looks pretty and recommend doing it. 

Click here for the original recipe.

one year ago: how to repair a broken toilet lever
two years ago: meatloaf stuffed acorn squash

Pumpkin Bread

I have been making this exact pumpkin bread recipe since I was a kid, I still use the recipe card that I wrote it out on from when I was young - judging by the handwriting I'd say I was 10ish!  Simple quick bread, makes 3 loaves which is nice if you want a big batch recipe (I kept one and gave away two; or wrap the extras tightly in a layer of plastic wrap, then aluminum foil, and seal in a gallon size freezer bag). The only thing I do differently from the recipe is to bake for about 10 minutes less, add a little more spice*, and sometimes I top with natural coarse sugar before baking.

3 cups white sugar (plus extra for topping if desired)
1 cup oil (my recipe is so old it calls for "salad oil")
4 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon *
1 teaspoon nutmeg
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups pumpkin
2/3 cup water
3 1/2 cups flour

coarse sugar for topping, optional 

Mix all in a big bowl until blended. Divide into 3 greased bread pans. Sprinkle with coarse sugar if you want. Bake 350' for approx. 50 minutes until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out pretty clean.

I gave some to Janis and Patty; Patty called me the next morning and said hers was gone and she loved it, and to "never change the recipe". I didn't tell her that I've been making this for 40 years and am not going to change it now hahaha!!

*I've been upping the spice amounts - 2 1/2 t. cinnamon, 2 1/2 t. nutmeg, 1/2 t. ground ginger; and white granulated sugar on top is also good, it makes the top crackly.