Banana Cranberry Cookies

Bananas are a great healthy substitute for oil and sugar in cookies. I have played around with banana and oat cookies with mixins, so when I saw this version, I wanted to give it a try. This version uses a few more ingredients, but is just as simple to make. The cookies were good, but with the maple syrup, bananas and the dried cranberries they were a bit too sweet. Next time I will leave the maple syrup out because the fruit provides enough natural sweetness. With no flour, eggs or oil, these little treats won't leave you feel guilty and can be whipped up in a matter of minutes. The best part about this recipe is that you can experiment with the ingredients for whatever your taste buds want.

Ingredients:
3 bananas, very ripe
2 cups of oats
1/3 cup applesauce, unsweetened
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon wheat germ (Note*: you can also use ground flax seed)
1/2 cup dried cranberries

Directions:

 Using a potato masher or fork, mash the bananas in a small bowl.

Add the oats, applesauce, maple syrup, wheat germ and dried cranberries to the bananas. Mix all the ingredients together.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper. Using a cookie scoop or tablespoon, scoop put the dough onto the pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 24 minutes.

Morning Muffins

Breakfast during the week is difficult because I don't always have the time or feel like cooking something to eat. However, I know that breakfast is the most important meal of the day so I try to find things I can make ahead. I found this recipe from Yummly for Morning Power Muffins that sounded healthy and filling. There were some bananas that were becoming dangerously ripe so I figured this was a a good option to use them in a different way besides banana bread. However, if you need to use up bananas be sure to check out this recipe for two ingredient cookies. These turned out to be super moist so don't let that scare you in thinking they are undercooked and sweet without being too sweet for first thing in the morning.

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas
1/4 cup canola oil
1/4 cup applesauce, unsweetened
5 tablespoons honey (or agave nectar)
1 cup oats, quick cook
1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or almond flour)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

Note: the recipe says it makes 20 muffins, but mine only made 18 which is odd since I usually end up with more servings not fewer servings. 

Line two muffin pans with cupcake liners or spray generously with cooking spray. Peel the bananas and break into pieces. Mix on low for about 1 1/2 minutes.

Add in the canola oil, applesauce and honey. Mix on low until well incorporated.

Thoroughly mix in the baking powder, baking soda, salt and ground cinnamon for 2 minutes.

Next, add in the whole wheat flour and the oats. Mix only until combined. I mixed for about 30 seconds and then finished by hand just to make sure there wasn't anything at the bottom of the bowl that got missed. 

*Note: If you want to add in dried cranberries, raisins or any kind of nut, this is where you would fold them in. However, I didn't have any of that so I didn't add anything in.

Use a tablespoon or cookie scoop to fill the cupcake liners 3/4 full. Bake at 350F for 15-20 minutes. The muffins will still look wet when you take them out, but as long at the toothpick comes out clean, they are ready. Let them cool in the pan for 10 minutes before letting them finish cooling on a wire rack. You can eat these plain, with a drizzle of honey or some kind of nut butter. You are ready to enjoy your breakfast, knowing you have fueled yourself properly for the day!

Clean Banana Bread

I love when I get requests from people to make them different things. Selfishly it makes me feel good about my cooking abilities, but I really do it because I know that they appreciate my cooking. This time the request was for banana bread. I haven't made it in quite a while actually, so I was excited about it. She also wanted me to make it healthy which was a fun challenge. These days I am beginning more and more to look at recipes and see how to make them my own. I have a recipe for "clean" banana bread which means that there are no processed ingredients. This was my first shot at this recipe and I was told that she would like pecans and coconut incorporated into the bread. I was a bit skeptical about the coconut, but it seemed to go over well.

Ingredients:
3 egg whites
2 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup honey (you can also use agave or another sugar substitute)
2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup pecans, chopped
1/4 cup shredded coconut, sweetened

Directions:

Here's the fun part...mashing the bananas. The riper they are, they better they are for banana bread and the easier they are to mash. You can use a fork or potato masher if you have one.

Using a hand mixer or a stand mixer, beat the egg whites. The recipe didn't say for how long, so I just beat them until they were nice and frothy. Next add in the applesauce, honey and mashed bananas and mix until ingredients are well combined.

In a large bowl, mix all the dry ingredients together. Add in the vanilla to the wet ingredients and then mix the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until everything is just mixed.

This next step is optional. If you want to add any additional mixins to your bread, now is the time to fold them in. I added in chopped pecans and shredded coconut. Once it is all incorporated, put the batter into a nonstick loaf pan. I sprayed mine with cooking spray just to be on the safe side.

Bake at 325 for 45-50 minutes. Mine was in for 45 minutes, but probably could have done a few minutes less. It will be done when a toothpick comes out clean. Let the bread cool for 10 minutes and then you can serve. This turned out to be a pretty dense bread, but it wasn't heavy. Next, I think I could do just nuts or maybe chocolate chips to make a fair comparison with the other recipe I have tried. The good part about this recipe is that the middle got fully cooked. This is a great recipe if you are looking for a lighter, healthier version of a classic bread.

Celebrity Cupcakes

Cupcakes make everything better and I was super excited when my friend brought me Celebrity Cupcakes. This cupcakery is located in Rice Village. There were two cupcakes nestled in their holders when I opened the box. These were banana nut and s'more flavored. The banana nut had a nice subtle flavor and the cream cheese icing was the perfect touch. It wasn't overly sweet and the best part was that the cupcakes weren't super crumbly. I think however, the s'mores was my favorite. The frosting was torched so that it looked like a toasted marshmallow. There was a graham cracker crust on the bottom and the cupcake was a chocolate cake with pieces of chocolate in it. These were interesting flavors and fairly good cakes. If you are ever in The Village be sure to stop by Celebrity Cupcakes and give them a try.

Two-Ingredient Cookies

My taste for sweet things comes and goes, so I am trying to look for some healthier options that I won't feel guilty afterwards for eating. This of course lead me on another Pinterest adventure to see what I could find. I was trying to find a recipe for something with the ingredients I have on hand. This is a good way to challenge my creativity and helps a bit with my budget. I had remembered seeing a few recipes for simple banana and oatmeal cookies, so I started searching for those. Low and behold, I found one from iAManRD that used only bananas and oatmeal. Awesome since I happened to have both of those things on hand. Literally all you do is mash two bananas with one cup of oatmeal and bake a 325 for 10-12 minutes. The recipe calls for a potato masher, but oddly enough that is one kitchen tool that I don't have so I went for the next best tool - my hands. With your hands you always have the tools you need, even if it gets a little messy.

I had a few chocolate chips left over from another recipe so I threw those in, along with some raisins. Be careful not to add in too many mix-ins because then the batter won't stick together. You could also try any kind of dried fruit or spices...this is a really basic batter that you can totally make your own. I used two small bananas and got 10 small cookies from the batch. The number of cookies you get will depend on the size of the bananas you use. These will look a little undone because of the bananas, but of the toothpick is relatively clean then they are ready. This is would be great alternative to the traditional banana bread when you have some super ripe bananas and definitely healthier. Plus they tasted exactly like a chocolate chip banana bread, so it's kind of like you get the best of both worlds. 

Take a Walk Down Butter Lane

There is something magical about a cupcake. I think it's because they come in so many different shapes, sizes, and flavors. During our travels, we decided to take a walk down to East Village to Butter Lane for one of their cupcake classes. We made three different cakes: vanilla, chocolate, and banana with six different icings: vanilla, raspberry, chocolate, peanut butter chocolate, cream cheese, and cinnamon cream cheese. Now I know that banana sounds weird (and I was skeptical at first too), but it was light and delicious. The teacher was really knowledgeable and made the process really easy. Though it helped that everything was measured out already, but it the cupcake process is really easy. The thing I found interesting was that the batter was mixed for a lot longer than I thought. I guess that's how they get the light and airy cake. The basic steps to making a cupcake start with creaming the butter and sugar together. While that's mixing you put together the dry ingredients which were flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the eggs one by one until they are fully incorporated. Then you mix in half the dry ingredients, all the buttermilk, and the other half of the flour mixture. I thought it was also interesting that we used buttermilk...Something I will have to try when I make these at home. Lastly, gently add the mashed banana and then it's time to go into the pan. *Side note: apparently the best way to mash a banana is with a paddle attachment in the mixer. We used an ice cream scoop which I have recently started using because it makes for much easy batter filling and more even cupcakes. They go into a 300 degree oven for 23 minutes and when they come out they are delicious.

While we were waiting for the cupcakes to bake, we started on the three basic icings. We were handling the cream cheese icing which only included butter, cream cheese, and confectioner's sugar. So, obviously not the most healthy, but then again icing isn't really healthy, but it was delicious. It wasn't overly sweet, didn't leave a film in your mouth, and was light and airy. Another interesting lesson I learned from the class was the best way to test if a cupcake is cool enough to ice is to test it on the inside of your wrist that way you avoid destroying the top of the cupcake. As they finished cooling, the teacher showed us how to make the other three icings. I guess I never really thought about making a few different ones. Butter Lane makes their cupcakes with as many fresh and local ingredients as they can. They make all their preserves in house and you can really taste the difference. When she was demonstrating how to do the chocolate peanut butter icing, she said you can't use organic peanut butter because it is too oily, which is good to know.

Next, we were shown the proper way to ice a Butter Lane cupcake. Interestingly enough, you take a dollop of icing and smooth it out on the side of the bowl. That gets all the air bubbles out and makes it easier to smooth into a ball. Once you have the small icing ball, you hold the spatula at a 45 degree angle and put the icing in the center and spread it out. Then for the finishing touch, you put an indentation in the middle and leave a little bit of the cake showing. You each get to take home a box of 9 cupcakes and get to eat a few while you are there, so this is definitely worth it. However, there was no way that we were going to eat 18 cupcakes in a day, so we gave them away but of course saved a few to try. If you get a chance, take the class because you get to make some new friends, learn how to make a few varieties of cupcakes, and you get some to go! There is really no losing in this situation. We had so much fun and really enjoyed Butter Lane!

Fresh From the Oven

I just got this brand new KitchenAid mixer as a graduation present and decided to put it to good use. While trying to think of what I wanted to make, I looked at the counter and saw that I had some bananas that were ripening quickly. Not wanting to make a dessert, I thought why not make something I haven't had in forever. Chocolate chip banana nut bread. As much as I like regular banana nut bread...and know that it is much healthier, the combination of chocolate, bananas, and nuts is magical. Plus, I knew it was someone's favorite, so I decided to make it especially for them.

Almost done, just a bit longer!

Sometimes banana nut bread can be very fussy. The bread can be overcooked and dry or it can have a golden crust and be barely cooked on the inside. I took a shot and used a recipe I found via Pinterest from Tidy Mom. What I found interesting about this recipe was that it did not use buttermilk. I have not made tons of banana nut bread, but I am fairly certain that most recipes called for it. Visit my 'Foods to Die for' board on Pinterest to find the recipe or feel free to find it on her website.

Perfect Golden Brown Crust

Luckily for me, I had a kitchen helper which made it more fun and a bit more interesting. Sometimes carefully reading directions is not always easy for him, so we had a few mishaps. However, those are usually just his added touches to make everything more enjoyable. Despite a few mix ups, the batter came together and made it into the pan in one piece. The most difficult thing was mashing the bananas since I don't have a potato masher. Other than that, it was super simple. You mix the wet ingredients and dry ingredients separately and then combine. Fold in the chocolate chips and nuts and put into the pan. I have found that my oven bakes much more quickly, so I usually cut the baking time down. The recipe called for 60 minutes, but mine was done in 45 minutes.

Ready to be Devoured!

Let's just say that this recipe was a keeper and I will be using it again because it was fantastic! The outside had a golden crust and the inside was thoroughly cooked through. It was moist and the chocolate chips had melted slightly, but still held their shape. Honestly, I am not sure if it was the new mixer, my kitchen helper, the new pan, the recipe, or all of these things, but this was the most perfect loaf of chocolate chip banana nut bread I have ever made!

If you have another great recipe you would like me to try or decide to make this one, come back and let me know how it turns out. Make sure that you try out this recipe immediately. For now, the smell of freshly baked chocolate chip banana nut bread that has just been pulled out of the oven is calling my name! Bon appetit!