Posts Tagged ‘chocolate chips’

I’ve stayed away from banana bread for a while, because, let’s face it, banana bread is over done.  It’s like when the radio plays that one song on the radio over and over again.  You really like it, but now you want to BORE RIGHT THROUGH YOUR BRAIN WITH LEMON JUICE because you can’t stand hearing it one more time.  That’s what banana bread is like.  I love it.  And then it got overplayed.

It’s been a while and I had bananas on my counter just begging for me to end their slow death.  So I did.  Delicously.  These turned out more like muffins and less like the moist banana bread I expected.  This is probably because they’re muffins, not bread, so the moisture baked out a bit.  It was also a lot easier because instead of the typical 65 minute bake time, I only have to wait 12 minutes before diving in face-first.  Also, spices.  I can’t believe I never added spices to this before.  SO MUCH YUM.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins | doomthings

Ingredients:

  • 3/4 cups light brown sugar
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 cup flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • handfuls of chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Cream the sugar, salt, and butter in a large bowl.
  2. Beat in banana and eggs until smooth.
  3. Sift together flour and soda in a medium bowl.
  4. Alternately add dry mix and milk to sugar mixture until well combined.
  5. Add chocolate chips as desired.
  6. Pour mixture into muffin pan with muffin liners.*
  7. Bake at 350 degrees F for 12 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the middle clean.

*This recipe is originally for one banana bread loaf, so it makes more than 12 muffins.  Fortunately I had a mini muffin tin to take care of the overflow (because I wasn’t patient enough to do a second batch of regular-sized muffins).  Want to make this a loaf?  Just pour the mixture into a greased/floured loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees F for 65 minutes or until a toothpick comes out of the middle clean.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies

Posted: 29th October 2013 by doomthings in Dessert, The Foodening
Tags: , , , , ,

October’s almost over and I haven’t made anything with pumpkin yet.  My best friend was over the other day and scolded me for having pumpkin puree in a can; she loves using fresh pumpkin.  In my defense, the cans were pretty old (just about ready to “expire”, although I’m not sure things in cans really expire unless they’re SUPER old, but I digress), and I’d gotten them before we started making a mess in her kitchen experimenting with fresh pumpkin.

Right, so about things that are going on right now:  I usually make the pumpkin cookies my parents made when I was little.  I came across this spiced-up version from EatingWell and tweaked it a bit.

Spiced Pumpkin Cookies | doomthings

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/3 cup bread flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ginger cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/4 tsp ground allspice
  • 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 2 eggs
  • 3/4 cup dark brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup pumpkin puree (canned or fresh)
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1/4 cup dark molasses
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Sift together dry ingredients (except sugar).
  2. In a separate bowl, cream brown sugar and butter together until combined.  Add eggs, pumpkin, and molasses and mix well.
  3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients and mix well.  Add chocolate ups.
  4. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto parchment-lined baking sheets.
  5. Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 – 12 minutes.

These turned out SUPER SPONGEY!  Mmmmmm…  +15 cakey-ness

For some weird reason I’ve been wanting to make some kind of biscotti cookie for about 3 months.  Seriously, it’s constantly on my to-do list.  I finally go around to it and it was deliciously easy.  Also, I like this recipe, because the blogger who posted it clearly shares my love for using brown sugar in place of white sugar.  Eeeexcellent…

Ingredients (adapted from Crunchy Creamy Sweet):

  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup dark brown sugar
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1/8 tsp almond extract
  • 2 cups bread flour
  • handful chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. Beat butter and sugar until creamy.
  2. Add the baking powder and salt and mix well.
  3. Add the eggs one at a time, mix well.
  4. Add the vanilla and almond extract.
  5. Gradually add flour, mix on low until combined well.
  6. Stir in chocolate chips.
  7. Turn dough onto a floured surface and form to 8-inch logs.
  8. Bake on parchment-lined baking sheet for 15 minutes on 375 degrees F (or until lightly browned and cracked on top).
  9. Remove from oven and let cool for 20 minutes.
  10. Slice logs into cookies (about 12 cookies per log).
  11. Lay cookies on side on the baking sheet and bake for 10 minutes at 325 degrees F.
  12. Flip cookies to other side and bake for 10 minutes at 325 degrees F.

Be careful when flipping the cookies over; they’ll be hot!  + 7 fanciness.


 

I’ve made these before, but using a different recipe, one I found on the world wide interwebs.  They turned out a little crunchy (my fault, I cooked them exactly to time, but my oven cooks hot, so I should always check about 2 minutes before the recommended time).  This time, I looked to my trusty Better Homes and Gardens cook book.  You know, the three-ring binder version.  In doomthings fashion, I changed at least one thing in the recipe to try something new (instead of going classic).

Craisin Chocolate Chip Cookies Part Deux | doomthings

Ingredients (adapted from Better Homes and Gardens):

  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 1 cup dark brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/4 tsp baking soda
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1 3/4 cups bread flour
  • 2 cups quick oats
  • large handful of craisins
  • large handful of chocolate chips

Directions:

  1. In a large bowl, beat butter for about 30 seconds until nicely whipped.
  2. Add dark brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and honey.  Beat until combined.
  3. Beat in eggs and vanilla until combined.
  4. Gradually add flour.
  5. Stir in oats.  Stir in craisins.  Stir in chocolate chips.
  6. Drop by teaspoons onto parchment-lined baking sheet.
  7. Bake at 375 degrees F for 8 – 10 minutes or until edges are golden.

Because I was taking these to a Memorial Day BBQ gathering, I decided to make them bite sized, so they were quite small. One thing I did notice, is that they did not spread like I expected.  I think this is because of the oats.  They ended up smaller than I expected, which was bad because I kept popping them like candy; good, because everyone could have a bunch.  The cinnamon and cloves were optional, and actually make them taste more like fall treats than ones for summer.  I would probably leave out those spices next time for a more summery flavor.  The honey was actually a substitute for granulated sugar, which gave it a very nice “golden” flavor, if one can describe a flavor as golden.  Mmmm.  I have some leftover from the party upstairs.  I know what I’m having for lunch…

I don’t have a picture because I ate this before I had the chance.  To be fair, I didn’t think I would be making a post about this because, c’mon, it’s banana bread.  Everyone makes banana bread.  I really should just document everything before I let my brain run things.

I made regular old banana bread and used a regular old banana bread recipe.  So I’m not going to repeat it here (well… maybe later… when I remember to take pictures).  Just know that this is what I replaced to make a very different tasting (yet equally delicious) bread.

OLD INGREDIENTS:

  • Granulated sugar
  • Oil
  • Nuts

NEW INGREDIENTS:

  • Dark brown sugar
  • Melted butter
  • Chocolate chips

Replace these one-for-one and you get a very ginger-bread-esque quick bread (probably because of the dark brown sugar; gotta love molasses!).  It’s more crumbly and less moist than regular banana bread and is distinctly different.  I wouldn’t replace banana bread with this, I would simple also make this bread, contributing even more to my love of bread.  This is banana bread’s delicious cousin.  Love him! +6 science