Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Yum yum yum yum yum. I always love banana bread and I just love baking in the morning for breakfast. My boyfriend has expressed slight disinterest (not extreme, just slight, but enough) in banana in the past, so I tried to find a very yummy, sugar-topped, chocolate-filled version for him. These are SO GOOD! A big hit! I was actually fine with just 2 large bananas for this recipe.

Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Recipe from Better With Sugar

Muffins:

1-1/2 C all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3 large bananas, mashed (or 4 medium)

3/4 C granulated sugar

1 egg

1/3 C unsalted butter, melted

3/4 C chocolate chips (optional)

3/4 C walnuts, chopped (optional)

Crumb Topping:

3 TBS all purpose flour

1/4 C packed brown sugar

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1 TBS butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with muffin liners.

In a small bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the Crumb Topping. Stir together with a fork, and then use your fingers to make it crumbly. 

In a large bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Mix this together really well or you'll get that weird baking soda/powder taste!

In a separate small bowl, mash the bananas (with a potato masher if you have one. If not, a wooden spoon will do). Then beat in the sugar, egg, and melted butter. 

Add the banana/sugar/egg/butter mixture to the flour mixture and stir until just combined (do not overmix!)

Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts if you are adding them.

Spoon the batter into the muffin tin. 

Sprinkle the crumb topping on top of each muffin.

Bake for 22-23 min, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of one comes out clean. 

Let cool in the pan on a rack for about 10 minutes, and then transfer the muffins out of the pan, and onto a rack to cool completely.

Pumpkin Bread

So I was super bummed with Starbucks started carrying La Boulange instead of the regular beauteous pastries. La Boulange, at first glance, looks okay, but then you realize it's all tired and gross and just does not compare (at least in my opinion--and to be honest I didn't really try all that much, since I was mostly just bummed that they don't have the same exact pumpkin bread). So anyway, the pumpkin bread. Yeah I've seen some Starbucks carry a mini-loaf of pumpkin bread by La Boulange but it is just not the same. So I'm currently looking for the best Starbucks Pumpkin Bread Copycat Recipe.

This one is from CopyKat recipes, found only by google searching "starbucks pumpkin bread recipe". It was okay--actually, pretty darn delicious, but I still don't think it's the same. I can hardly remember the old Starbucks pumpkin bread recipe anymore. I can only hope that I remember it when I taste it! It'll probably take a helluva lot more fat and sugar than I want to add.

Still, this one was pretty good!

Pumpkin Bread

Recipe from CopyKat Recipes

1 1/2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon cardamom

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon allspice

1/4 teaspoon clove

** if you are going to use pumpkin pie spice, use a scant 2 teaspoons of spice in place of the spices mentioned here

2 eggs, beaten

1 cup pumpkin puree

1/2 cup vegetable oil (do not use olive or peanut oil)

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 to 1/2 cup roasted and salted pumpkin seeds

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a large bowl add all of the dry ingredients; flour, sugar, salt, baking soda, salt, and spices. Sift the dry ingredients together.

In a smaller bowl mix together the 2 beaten eggs, the oil, and the vanilla. 

Once the liquid ingredients are mixed well pour over the dry ingredients. Stir until the lumps are out. Do not over-stir the mixture. 

Pour into a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds on top of bread. 

Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until a toothpick comes out clean when poked in the center of the loaf. 

Cool for approximately 5 minutes in the pan, and then turn the pumpkin bread onto a cooling rack. The bread cuts best when allowed to cool completely.

Garlic Bread

These were supposed to be garlic knots, but the dough was way too sticky. It worked out fine anyway but I'd definitely make the buns a lot smaller next time! They were really good and pretty easy--absolutely delicious when warm. If you want to take extra time to make your own dinner rolls, I think this is a great choice (make sure you're using good yeast, I'm so glad I didn't have a problem this time but I've had so much trouble with old yeast from crappy minimarts!). Again, make these smaller if you're just doing lumps--and the recipe suggests tying them in knots but you definitely don't need to!

Garlic Buns
Recipe from Culinary Adventures in the Kitchen

For the dough:
3 cups all purpose flour
1 Tbsp sugar
2 tsp instant yeast
1¼ tsp salt
2 Tbsp olive oil
¼ cup milk
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp lukewarm water
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1 tsp Italian seasoning

For the glaze:
2 cloves garlic
1 Tbsp melted butter
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp Italian seasoning

Dough: In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, combine the dry ingredients. Add the olive oil, milk, water, minced garlic, and Italian seasoning.  Mix until ingredients have formed a dough. Knead on low speed until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, turn once to coat, and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to rise for about 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk.

Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces.

Roll each piece into a 10-inch long rope and tie into a knot.

Take the end lying underneath the knot and bring it over the top, tucking it into the center.

Take the end lying over the knot and tuck it underneath and into the center.

Transfer shaped rolls to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Cover with a clean kitchen towel and let rise for 45 minutes, until puffy.

Glaze: finely mince the garlic. Mix the garlic with the melted butter, olive oil, and Italian seasoning.

Preheat the oven to 350° F. Brush the glaze onto the shaped rolls.

Bake until set and lightly browned, about 15-18 minutes. Let cool slightly before serving.

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones

Just realized I forgot to top my scones with sugar--oops, but they were sweet enough without it. It probably didn't need the egg coating either. I've been so busy lately! I haven't really got a chance to bake at all, and 3 weeks ago I promised my friend Philip that I'd bake him something for his birthday...and still haven't. I made these because hey, breakfast is easy to make and eat. I wanted to make some other breakfasty bread but I have no food and the only special food this required was chocolate chips, which I could easily buy. I substituted milk and a pinch of vinegar for the buttermilk and there didn't seem to be a difference.

These were perfect warm, but I'm not sure if I'd make them again because the next day they weren't as good. They were soft and crumbly the day-of though, so if you're planning on serving to a group, these were super easy!

Brown Sugar Chocolate Chip Scones
Yield 8 scones
Recipe from evilshenanigans

2 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, cut into small pieces and kept very cold
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup cold buttermilk
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg, well beaten
Sugar for topping

Heat the oven to 400 F and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Add the cold butter and rub it in with your fingers until the butter is in small pieces, no larger than peas. Add the chocolate chips and mix well.

Pour in the cold buttermilk and vanilla and mix until the liquid is absorbed. The dough will look very dry and shaggy.

Turn out onto a cutting board and knead the dough three times by pressing the dough into a fat disk, folding the dough in half, turning it 1/4 turn and repeating. Do not over knead.

Once kneaded press into an 8″ circle and cut the disk into 8 wedges. Places the wedges on the prepared baking sheet and brush with beaten egg. Top each scone with as much sugar as you like.

Bake the scones for 15 – 18 minutes, or until the tops are golden brown. Cool ten minutes on the pan before transferring to a wire rack.

Nutella Marbled Banana Bread

The second thing I made for my mom's bookgroup retreat is this Nutella Marbled Banana Bread. It was really good and pretty easy--though I'm not very good at marbling. If you like nutella, I still very much reccommend these Nutella Chocolate Chip Cookies, which I've made 3 or 4 times already and everyone always loooves. I go back to the East Coast in less than a week, and school shortly after that, and that'll probably be the first thing I bake in my new kitchen for my friends back at school!

Nutella Marbled Banana Bread
Recipe from Sugar Plum
2 1/3 cups all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 cups mashed ripe banana
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1/2 cup Nutella
Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together banana, butter, granulated sugar, brown sugar and vanilla until creamy and well combined - about 2 minutes. Beat in eggs until well combined - about 2 minutes. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in flour mixture until just combined. Divide 1/2 of of the batter into a medium bowl; stir in Nutella until combined.

Alternate spoonfuls of batter into loaf pan until all of the batter is used up. Swirl batter gently with a knife (not too much!). Bake 1 hour or until well risen, deep golden brown, and a toothpick inserted into bread comes out with moist crumbs attached.
Makes 1 loaf

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

This bread was great! I made it along with the quiche I posted last week, for father's day this year. Yes, regular banana bread is great, too, but I think that the chocolate chips in this one make it so that the bread tastes good even at room temperature. Sure, regular banana bread is fine, but in my opinion it tastes better warm or heated up...this one does, too, but you can enjoy it either way!

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread
Recipe from The Family Kitchen

1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon good vanilla extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon
¾ cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Butter and flour a standard 9×5 loaf pan*.

Mix together butter and sugar until fully combined. Add eggs and vanilla extract, mix well. Add mashed bananas, mix again until completely combined.

In a separate bowl mix flour, soda, nutmeg, cinnamon and chocolate chips. Stir this mixture a few times and make sure the chips are fully coated with flour.

Working slowly, stir flour mixture into egg mixture. Keep stirring until all flour is fully incorporated. The batter may still be a little lumpy from the bananas, this is normal.

Pour batter into prepared loaf pan. Bake for 45 – 50 minutes or until top is golden and a cake tester comes out clean.

Cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Then, carefully remove it from the pan and let it cool on a wire rack before serving.

*You can also divide the batter into smaller loaf pans, or mini loaf pans if you want to make smaller breads.

Freezer Tips: This bread freezes well. If you want to save it for later simply wrap it tightly in plastic wrap. Then wrap it again with an outer layer of aluminum foil. Make sure none of the bread is exposed to air. It will last in the freezer for 2-4 months.

Dorie Greenspan's Corniest Corn Muffins

Another Dorie Greenspan recipe...anyway, I also made this on Thanksgiving. I made 1.5 batches of this recipe by doubling the whole egg but not the yolk and it turned out fine, and I got like...about 20 good-sized (not large) muffins. You can find the recipe here, or find it in Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. People really liked these. Real cornbread, real corn...I could have done without the actual corn myself, but everyone else loved it!

Banana Bread

I've been wanting to bake banana bread for a while, so as soon as my landlord claimed my oven fixed, I started gathering the ingredients I needed for when I had time. So on Saturday I finally made it! And it worked! Actually, I was impatient and so the bananas weren't really overripe and it still worked great. It wasn't sweet, which I didn't want anyway. My oven still has a lot of kinks that I don't understand yet so after 50 minutes the top got a little overbrown in some places but that's okay that was my fault. Next time if I make this recipe again, I want to try adding the walnuts (and using reallly ripe bananas)! I used Fage 0% greek yogurt because I forgot about buying plain yogurt and that's what I had. Next time I might want to try using not low or nonfat yogurt, but I love greek yogurt so I might still have to use that.

Banana Bread
Adapted from Cook's Illustrated by Christina

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups walnuts, toasted and chopped coarse (optional)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup plain yogurt
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tbsp of unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Turn on the oven to 350F.

Butter and flour the bottom of a loaf pan.

Mix the mashed banana, eggs, yogurt, melted butter and vanilla in a large bowl.

Stir the walnuts into the banana mixture (doing so will reduce the risk of over-mixing).

Sift flour, sugar, salt and baking soda into the banana mixture.

Using a rubber spatula, very, very, very gently mix the flour with the wet ingredients. Stop as soon as the dry ingredients are moistened. The batter should be chunky instead of smooth.

Bake for 55 minutes or until a wooden skewer comes out clean after inserted into the bread.

Let the bread cool in the pan; slice and serve.

Vanilla Yogurt Cake with Orange Glaze

I've been dying to make this recipe for so long, and finally got the opportunity for my mom's bookgroup retreat (which was actually a long time ago). I was also dying to try this, but unfortunately, the dog ate the rest that my mom brought home. Oh boy.

I altered the recipe from making two mini-loaves, to making one big loaf. I also made a mistake and added two extra tablespoons of orange juice to the batter instead of putting over the fresh-from-the-oven loaf, but apparently it was delicious, so maybe I'd do that again if I were to make this again (which I probably will, since I still really want to try it). For the original recipe, you can click the link.

Vanilla Yogurt Cake with Orange Glaze
Recipe adapted from Culinary Concoctions by Peabody

1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1 cup granulated sugar
1 vanilla bean, seed scraped out, pod discarded
1 ½ TBSP vanilla extract
7 oz Greek Yogurt
½ cup vegetable oil
4 TBSP orange juice, divided

Spray an 8x4 loaf pan with baking spray. Or coat with butter and flour.

Preheat oven to 350F.

Using a stand mixer (or a large bowl and and electric hand mixer), beat together the egg, egg yolk, and sugar on medium-high speed, until it turns pale yellow, about 3 minutes. Add the vanilla beans, vanilla extract, and oil, beat another minute, until fully incorporated.

In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

With the mixer on low speed, add half the amount of dry ingredients. Then add half the amount of Greek yogurt, and 2 TBSP of the orange juice. Add remaining dry ingredients and followed by the remaining yogurt and the rest of the orange juice. Remove from mixer and finish mixing by hand using a spatula until all of the ingredients are fully incorporated.

Pour into prepared pan til it's 2/3 the way full and bake for 1 hr to 1:05 hrs.

Remove from oven. Using a toothpick or large wooden skewer poke holes into the cake.

Let cool for 5 minutes and remove from pan. Place on wire rack to finish cooling. When cool, glaze cakes.

Orange Glaze

1 cups sifted powdered sugar
3 TBSP orange juice

Combine the two ingredients together with a whisk. Pour over cake.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls (A failure)

Now that I did a little more research as to where this recipe came from, and actually found pictures of what it was SUPPOSED to look like, I realized I must have screwed the whole thing up.

But although for me these weren't particularly visually stunning, which is why I didn't end up taking too many pictures of them, they weren't too too bad. They smelled like oatmeal and didn't expand into "rolls", more like just drop biscuits or scones. They tasted strongly of oatmeal, which with any other dinner might have been just too annoying, but paired with last Tuesday's Turkey Spinach Lasagna, it was excellent to soak up the marinara sauce left behind.

I probably wouldn't make them again because I don't know what I did wrong (most other reviewers had good results, but some described rolls that sound similar to mine), but they weren't a complete dud. I baked these for five or ten minutes longer than the recipe calls for, because I thought they weren't baking properly.

Oatmeal Dinner Rolls
Recipe from Southern Living

2 cups water
1 cup quick-cooking oats
3 tablespoons butter or margarine
2 (1/4-ounce) envelopes active dry yeast
1/2 cup warm water (100° to 110°)
1 tablespoon sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/3 cup firmly packed brown sugar

Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a medium saucepan; stir in oats and butter. Boil, stirring constantly, 1 minute. Remove from heat; let cool to 110°.

Stir together yeast, 1/2 cup warm water, and 1 tablespoon sugar in a 2-cup measuring cup; let stand 5 minutes.

Beat oat mixture, yeast mixture, flour, salt, and brown sugar at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth.

Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Place in a well-greased bowl, turning to grease top.

Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 1 hour or until dough is doubled in bulk.

Punch dough down, and divide in half; shape each portion into 16 (1 1/2-inch) balls. Place evenly into 2 lightly greased 9- x 1 3/4-inch round cakepans.

Cover and let rise in a warm place (85°), free from drafts, 30 minutes or until doubled in bulk.

Bake at 375° for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

Dorie Greenspan's Sweet Potato Biscuits

When my brother went to visit college last week, my mom was the one who drove him all day, so I told her I'd make dinner. It probably would have been more helpful if it was during one of the days where she worked, because since she took the day off to drive my brother, she actually got home pretty early. But oh well: I wanted something light, so I made Cooking Light's Chicken Cobb Salad, and made these biscuits that I've been wanting to make for a while.

I'm not a big fan of sweet potatoes, but my mom loves them. So I'm pretty sure my mom liked these, but again, they weren't MY favorite.

This recipe is from Dorie Greenspan's Baking: From My Home to Yours. Occasionally I post these recipes on my blog but I really shouldn't. Instead, you can find the recipe in that book, or from Prudence Pennywise.

This first batch I did, I rolled the dough out too thin and they turned out kind of thin, but didn't overbake and were still great:

The rest were better.
And here's the salad I made: