Banana Loaf with Cashews

It has come to my attention that the last time I shared a recipe on the blog was in the middle of summer. That is not acceptable in my book in anyway so I have done what I had to do to fix it. After evening class, I drank my third cup of coffee to unwind in our messier-than-usual kitchen and bake.

Just a few weeks ago, Ron's dad got us a tub of (extra fancy) unsalted cashews from Costco and after seeing the super old and sad bananas in the fridge that I have been saving for a day when I would feel like baking, I felt responsible about not letting the bananas go to waste. So here I am now.

Drenching the cashews with the batter was my favorite part. Just look at this beautiful confusion-filled chaos.

My search for the recipe was not at all far and wide, it was one of the first recipes on Google. I was a little surprised but maybe it's because people usually use walnuts in their banana bread? This recipe is fairly easy and delicious. Ron wanted it to be just a tad bit sweeter but I think it's a perfect match to a sweet cup of coffee or tea with sweet creamer. :) Keep scrolling, I promise you, you're almost at the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
• 1 1/3 cups sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 cup mashed banana (I used 3)
• 2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup chopped cashews

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350. Prepare a 9x5 loaf pan by buttering and flouting it.
2. Sift together flour, baking powder and soda, and salt. Set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, one at a time, continuing to beat followed by the vanilla and mashed bananas. Gradually mix in the dry mixture, Be careful not to overmix -- stop mixing when ingredients appear to be well-incorporated.
4. Fold in chopped cashews.
5. Pour batter into the pan. Bake for one hour or until tests clean with a toothpick.

After baking, I let the loaf cool down on a wire rack for 10 minutes before I took it out and let it cool down outside of the pan. When it was cold enough for me (it was still a little warm), I put it on my favorite platter and sliced it because Ron wanted to try it already. LOL

How to Chop Nuts

While I was baking the other day, I did not know what do with the whole cashews that I needed chopped for the recipe** I was following. Then a little light bulb lit up so I immediately grabbed a sandwich bag, the cashews and my favorite knife. This is such a basic and simple kitchen trick that I think we will all find useful once in a while. :)

**Recipe to follow! :)

Moist One-Bowl Chocolate Cake

As I was putting away dishes from the dishwasher one night, I noticed that I had so many Hershey's unsweetened cocoa in my baking cupboard. Upon seeing them, I knew I had to do something about it, and decided to bake a cake. I was also craving for chocolate all day that day so it was perfect timing!

I began researching for recipes and found this gem on AllRecipes.com. So here goes...

Before anything else, put water in your kettle and start the water boiling process and preheat the oven. Next is mix the dry ingredients until all the ingredients are well distributed, then mix in all the wet ingredients EXCEPT for the water. 


I did not put a lot of water in my kettle so when I was done mixing the ingredients, the kettle started to whistle. Talk about perfect timing. ;) Pour the water in the batter and mix on low for 1 minute.
At this point, the batter will be runny and watery. Don't worry, it means you're doing it right. ;) Pour the batter onto prepared 9x13 pan.

Ingredients

• 2 cups white sugar
• 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 to 1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 cup boiling water

Directions

1. Preheat the oven at 350 degress, start boiling the water and prepare the 9x13 pan.
2. Put all the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix until eveything is evenly distributed.
3. Mix in the eggs, vegetable oil, milk and vanilla extract and keep mixing until all the ingredients are well incorporated.
4. Pour the boiling water into the mixture and mix on low for a minute.
5. Transfer the batter into the prepared 9x13 cake pan and bake for 35 minuntes or when the toothpick comes out clean.
6. When the cake is ready, take it out of the oven and let it sit in the pan for another 10 minutes, then transfer it onto the cooling rack.

And there you have it, a super easy chocolate cake recipe! 

Lengua de Gato

Last week, my cookie press (along with a ton more baking paraphernalia) from my super awesome auntie was delivered by my sister to our house, so I HAD to bake something on Sunday night...instead of doing the laundry like I planned because baking. ;) Off I was to the interwebs to look for a recipe I can base of my recipe off of, when I found one, I pulled my KitchenAid mixer from its spot and began to mix away.

 

Lengua de Gato is a popular cookie in the Philippines. Upon doing a little research for this post, I learned that it is not only made in my home country, it also has various versions and names; "langue de chat" (French), "Lingua di gatto" (Italian) and "Língua de gato" (Portuguese).

The real lengua de gato looks much better than what I was able to do but for my first time using the cookie press, I think they're good enough because Ron loved them. Also, mine was airier and a little on the breadier side. I suggested that he dip it into our Mango Jam (which he hates) or whatever spread we have at home. He didn't want to because he said the sweet after taste was good enough for him. After a few more (like five) tastings, we decided that it tastes like a hybrid between lengua de gato and Madeleines but I'm sticking with the former because they look more similar and the crunchy part around the cookie/pastry tastes more like lengua de gato.

Ingredients:

• 9 tablespoons butter, softened
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 3 egg whites
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg whites one at a time until batter is light and fluffy. Stir in the vanilla. Mix in the flour just until blended.
3. Using a cookie press or a pastry bag with a medium star tip, press dough onto prepared baking sheet into 3-inch lengths. I used two pumps while pulling the cookie press.
4. Bake cookies in preheated oven until it has a light brown shade, about 7-9 minutes. Cool on wire rack.
5. When cookies are cool, dip in your favorite sweet dip and enjoy! For "extra" cookies , store in a cool place.

Peanut Butter Banana Carrot Pupcakes

Because I did not want to make a whole cake for Fox's birthday last month, I decided to make little servings that we can give out to the other dogs at the dog park...which did not happen because there were too few dogs and the owners were sitting at the other end of the park from us. LOL Nevertheless, Fox and his cousin Tashi gobbled them up. Tashi even ate Fox's muffin's last bite. Haha!

I started with putting together all the wet ingredients mixing them until they are well incorporated.

 

 Then I folded in the carrots.

 Then mixed in the sifted wheat flour and baking soda.

 Then off it goes to the oven!

 TA-DAAAA!

 And of course, the taste test... I also included a link of his video eating it below. :)

Ingredients:

• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup peanut butter
• 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce
• 1 mashed banana
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/3 cup honey (optional)
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Prepare muffin pans by lining them.
2. Combine the egg, peanut butter, apple sauce, mashed banana, vanilla, and honey, if desired, in a large bowl; blend well. I wanted to add plain non-fat yogurt but we don't have any on hand. It could have made the muffin a lot more moist.
3. Stir in the carrots and mix thoroughly. Sift together the flour and baking soda and fold into the carrot mixture. Scoop batter into muffin pans. I used my normal cookie scoop for this.
4. Bake in preheated oven for 8 minutes for the mini muffins and 15 minutes for the bigger muffins. Turn out onto a wire rack immediately to cool completely.

Note: Now Fox's muffins did not come out moist like the reviews from the original recipe I got this from because I did not use oil. It just felt wrong to put oil into something that my dog would eat. However, if you're okay with giving your dog oil, you can do that as well.

And as promised, here is Fox's taste test video:

Banana Oatmeal Bars with Chocolate Chips

I'm finally back in the kitchen to bake and I admit, that was a very long hiatus especially for me, a self proclaimed baker. But hey hey, I'm back now! So what brought me back? The incessant need to think of something to eat for breakfast. We need something yummy, not too sweet and with some sort of fruit in it because Ron and I have become the worst people when it comes to eating fruits. We've had a Cadbury-eggs-trumps-fruits-for-dessert situation here as of late.

Oh how I've missed these mixing bowls!

Mine was done in exactly 45 minutes and it came our PERFECTLY golden brown!

I always use a plastic knife to make sure that my cut comes out clean and I don't scrape my non-stick pan! #bakingtip

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 cup old fashioned oats
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 2 eggs
• 3 bananas, very ripe and mashed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 and 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Prepare 9x13 baking pan.
2. Combine the flour, oats, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.
3. Beat the butter and sugars in a large bowl with an electric mixer at high speed until fluffy.
4. While waiting for the cream and butter to fluff up, wipe the paper wrapper of the butter onto the baking pan.
5. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition.
6. Beat in the bananas and vanilla.
7. Gradually add the flour mixture, beating at low speed just until well incorporated. Don't over-beat!
8. Stir in the chocolate chunks and walnuts by hand; spread evenly in the prepared pan.
9. Bake for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.
10. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack.
11. Cut into however many bars you like.

Here's the base of the recipe as well its reviews: Food.com.

Recipe: Big Fat Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

I think I found the one, you guys. That one cookie recipe that I will make over and over and over for Ron and anyone who comes to our house. Ron asked to take four of these huge cookies to eat for breakfast - they are THAT good. 

First, I put the dry ingredients together, no sifting was necessary for this recipe. Just make sure you mix it with a whisk so the ingredients are distributed evenly.

Obviously, mixing the wet ingredients is next. Make sure to used melted butter. MELTED.

Pour the bag of chocolate chips. Don't bother measuring if you 're using the $2.50 dollar Nestle Toll House semi sweet chocolate morsels. ;) Just pour and fold in everything that came out of the bag.

Put it in the fridge overnight. Not kidding here. I was very patient with this recipe. I say that because you'll be needing more patience later on. ;) If I were you, I would make the dough tonight. Heehee!

When the dough is hard enough, it's time to scoop them up. I used my 1/4 measuring cup and a spatula for this and was able to make 14 cookies.

Pop it in a pre-heated oven at 325 degrees and bake it for 16 minutes. After taking it out, leave it on the pan or sheet for an additional 2-3 minutes then transfer it to a cooling rack to finish cooling.

Based on my experience, these cookies are best after a few hours of letting them cool so (like I said)be super patient! I found that making these in the morning will help you forget about them as you're spending the rest of the day doing chores.

Have I mentioned how big these cookies are? The only problem I encountered was that I cannot just have one!

Ingredients

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2. Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3. In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4. Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Thanks to the trusty AllRecipes.com for this recipe!

PS
You know who else will love these cookies? Santa!!!

Recipe: Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

My days have been spent doing chores, looking for jobs I can apply to, looking for things I can rearrange, clean random parts of our tiny townhouse, play with Fox and wait for the weekend so Ron's home all day. I've also been baking a lot and here is another of my recipe tests. ;) This recipe is like making banana muffins but with chocolate, meaning it's easy, simple and delicious. Like I said, if you're a newb, start with baking muffins.

These muffins were so moist, and are best served warm. It's good as is but warming it up a bit adds delight to the chocolatey experience.

You don't need anything special for this recipe either, this one uses very common pantry items. You just have to make sure that you're not out of any of them yet! :) Now let me barrage you with pictures followed by the recipe!

Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/3 cups mashed ripe bananas (approx 3 large bananas)
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, combine the first six ingredients.
2. In a small bowl, combine bananas, oil and egg.
3. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Fold in chocolate chips.
5. Fill greased or paper lined muffin cups three fourths full.
6. Bake at 350 deg F for 20-25 minutes for regular muffins, 10-12 minutes for mini muffins or until muffins test done.

I was able to make 24 mini muffins and 6 regular muffins with the recipe.

CLICK HERE to view the source and the reviews for these muffins.