White Chocolate Banana Bread

Yum.  That's all I can say about this bread.  I made it a couple weeks ago and David ate half the loaf the following day!  The only unfortunate thing about this bread, is the bananas don't ripen fast enough!

White Chocolate Banana Bread

1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 (heaping) teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 egg, beaten
3 medium ripened (black) bananas
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup melted butter
1/2 cup white chocolate chips


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x5x3-inch loaf pan.


In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg.  Set aside.


In a medium bowl, mash bananas with fork until no lumps are visible.  Add beaten egg, sugar, and oil.  Stir well.  Pour over flour mixture and stir until just moistened.  Lumps are OKAY!


Fold in white chocolate chips.  Pour batter into baking dish.  Bake for 45-50 minutes.  Or, until toothpick (or, butter knife in my case) inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.  


Surprisingly, this bread tastes best after it's been completely cooled!


Enjoy!

Holiday Baking and Snacks- Part 2

This recipe has a lot of history with me. It reminds me of snowy school mornings when my mom would make this for breakfast while we started opening our textbooks.

This coffee cake is so light and buttery. It just melts in your mouth. It's paired perfectly with a cup of coffee and tastes best warm, right out of the oven.




Velvet Crumb Coffee Cake
1 1/2 cups Bisquick mix
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup milk (I used unsweetened vanilla almond milk- I like it in everything!)
1 egg
2 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla

Whisk all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl until smooth. Pour into a greased 8" round or square baking pan.

Crumb Topping
3 tablespoons cold butter
3 tablespoons Bisquick mix
3 tablespoons brown sugar

Using a butter knife, cut butter into the brown sugar and Bisquick mix until small pieces form.


Evenly sprinkle crumb topping over coffee cake batter.



Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes. Serve.

Holiday Baking and Snacks- Part 1

It's been awhile! I have a bunch of recipes and other cool things to post, I've just gotten behind. But, what better to get back in with then Holiday Baking and Snacks?

For the past 3 years, I make up gift bags stuffed with little bags of my favorite holiday treats. I normally give these bags away to co-workers and some of my parents' friends. One of my favorite gifts to receive is home made goodies. Here is a recipe I made that everyone raves over.




Emily's Party Mix
3 cups corn chex cereal
3 cups rice chex cereal
3 cups wheat chex cereal
3 cups small pretzels*
1 stick unsalted butter
3 tablespoons worcestershire sauce
2 teaspoons seasoned salt
1 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon onion powder

Combine cereal and pretzels in a large microwavable bowl.

In a small, microwavable bowl, melt butter. Add all seasonings. Pour butter mixture over cereal and pretzels. With 2 large spoons, toss until shiny and coated well.

Microwave uncovered for 6 minutes. mixing thoroughly every 2 minutes. Pour on a baking sheets to cool.

*An alternative to using 3 cups of pretzels would be to add 1 cup of mixed nuts, 1 cup of bite-sized bagel chips, and 1 cup of pretzels. I didn't do that in this batch because I LOVE the chex and pretzels alone. But, feel free to mix it up a bit.

Enjoy!

Vegan Pumpkin Spice Muffins

Hey everyone! It's been awhile since I've posted anything! Life has me full to the brim this month. But, I managed to find time to make these easy vegan muffins. The taste is amazing! You won't even know it's vegan!

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly grease a muffin tin. I used a 6-muffin tin so these muffins would be more like a meal, not a snack.

T= tablespoon t= teaspoon

Start by sifting the follow dry ingredients into a large mixing bowl:
1 3/4 c. all-purpose flour
1 1/4 c. pure cane sugar
1 T. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 t. ground cinnamon
1/2 t. ground nutmeg
1/2 t. ground ginger
1/4 t. ground allspice
1/8 t. ground cloves



In a small bowl combine:
1 (15 oz.) can pureed pumpkin (NOT canned pumpkin pie mix)
1/2 c. almond milk (you can use rice, soy, or even coconut, I just had almond on hand)
1/2 c. vegatable oil
2 T. molasses



Whisk the wet ingredients together as best you can. The oil wanted to stay separated for me. If that happens to you, don't worry about it! At this time, you have the option of folding in nuts or dried fruit. I would suggest a cup of chopped walnuts. Doing this would enable a more proper protein/carb balance.



Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix until batter is smooth with no lumps.

Fill your muffin tins. Two-thirds full for the 12-muffin tin and three-fourths full for the 6-muffin tin. I baked mine at 400 degrees for about 18 minutes, then dropped it down to 375 for about 4 more minutes.



*A note you might want to know- vegan baked goods tend to have a doughy texture on the top even though they are done in the middle. To prevent this, I have learned to lower the baking temperature by 25-50 degrees. This ensures it doesn't burn and allows it to go longer to get fully baked.

Let the muffins cool and enjoy, or individually wrap for an easy, on-the-go breakfast grab!