Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel

I made this last week for the first time to use up some bananas and try something new. The recipe is from Bon Appétit and you can find it and lots of reviews at Epicurious. Elisa and I thought there was a bit too much streusel (mostly brown sugar) on top, but the perfect amount in the middle. But Alex thought the thick layer on top was amazing. I only put pecans (I had no walnuts) on a small piece for me. I loved the bites with pecans even more than the ones without. Pefect combination.

Banana Coffee Cake with Chocolate Chip Streusel

1 1/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips (about 8 ounces)
2/3 c. golden brown sugar, packed
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1 T. ground cinnamon
1 1/2 c. flour
3/4 t. baking soda
3/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
3/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1 1/3 c. mashed very ripe bananas (about 3 large)
3 T. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 350°. Butter and flour 8-inch baking pan. Stir chocolate chips, brown sugar, walnuts, and cinnamon in small bowl until well blended; set streusel aside.

Sift flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt into medium bowl. Using mixer, beat sugar, room temperature butter, and egg in large bowl until fluffy. Beat in mashed bananas and buttermilk. Add dry ingredients and blend well.

Spread half of batter (about 2 cups) in prepared baking pan. Sprinkle with half of streusel. Repeat with remaining batter and streusel. Bake coffee cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Cool coffee cake in pan on rack.

Banana-Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies

I have a strange relationship with peanut butter. I love buckeyes and Reese’s cups, but don’t like peanut butter cookies or peanut butter sandwiches. But I decided to try this recipe I found at Abby Sweets because I’m kinda into sandwich cookies right now and I had bananas and yogurt that needed to be used. The cookie is a soft, cakey banana cookie with a creamy peanut butter filling. I thought it tasted like a soft banana peanut butter sandwich topped with chocolate. Although it wasn’t for me, Alex loved them and has eaten quite a few before I steal the rest with some other cookies to give away in Halloween treat plates tonight. Boo!

Banana-Peanut Butter Whoopie Pies
2 c. flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3/4 c. mashed banana
1/2 c. plain fat-free yogurt
1/2 c. unsalted butter, softened
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 c. brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/2 t. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350º. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In a separate bowl, mix together banana and yogurt. In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to combine butter and both sugars completely, ten add egg and beat until just combined. Add vanilla.

Alternately mix flour and banana mixture into creamed butter until just combined, beginning and ending with flour mixture. Scoop mixture into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/4 inch tip (or you can scoop it onto cookie sheet).

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and pipe batter into 1 1/4 inch rounds. Bake in oven just until the edges are slightly golden brown--you want the resulting cake to be soft and moist, not crispy. About 10-12 minutes. Transfer parchment to cooling rack and cool completely.

For the filling:
16 oz. cream cheese, softened
1 c. powdered sugar
1/2 t. vanilla
1/2 c. creamy peanut butter

In a medium bowl, use and electric mixer to beat cream cheese until fluffy. Add sugar, vanilla and peanut butter and mix until combined. Spoon mixture into a pastry bag with the end cut off.Pipe filling onto the flat side of half of the cakes and then top with the other half of the cakes. Drizzle with chocolate glaze.

Chocolate glaze:
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 T. butter
1 T. corn syrup

Melt all ingredients in double boiler, or a glass bowl over a pot of simmering water. Mix until smooth. Do not over heat, or it will become grainy. Drizzle over whoopie pies.

Crumb-Topped Banana Muffins

These muffins are moist and delicious with a great toppping. You can substitute oats for the nuts or just leave them out like I did. I've had several requests for this recipe when I've given them away. I think next time I'll add some mini chocolate chips to it.
Crumb-Topped Banana Muffins
1 1/2 c. flour
1 t. baking soda
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
3 large ripe bananas, mashed
3/4 c. sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten

1 t. vanilla
1/3 c. butter, melted

Topping:
1/3 c. packed brown sugar
1 1/2 T. flour
1/8 t. cinnamon, to taste
1 T. cold butter
1/4 c. chopped nuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 375°. Spray muffin pan. In large bowl, mix the dry ingredients. In separate bowl, mix bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla, and butter. Stir into dry mixture just until moistened. Fill muffin cups 3/4 full.

Combine first 3 topping ingredients. Cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over muffins. Bake for about 20 minutes, until muffins test done. Cool in pan for 10 minutes.

Yield: 12 muffins

Banana Streusel Cake

I really love this moist easy cake with a great streusel. I've made it perfectly so many times, but this time (since I was going to take a photo of it), the middle wasn't quite done and sunk in slightly. That's what I get to rushing it. I pulled it out of the oven right at 30 minutes, but usually cook it the full 35 minutes in my oven. If you like bananas, you will love this dessert!

BANANA STREUSEL CAKE

3/4 c. sifted flour

1/2 c. sugar

1/2 c. butter

1/4 c. sugar

2 eggs

1 t. vanilla

1 c. sifted flour

1 1/2 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/2 t. salt

1/2 t. cinnamon

1 c. mashed bananas

1/3 c. buttermilk

Preheat oven to 375°. Grease 10" pie plate. Combine 3/4 c. flour and 1/2 c. sugar in bowl. Cut in butter with pastry blender or two knives until mixture is crumbly. Reserve 1/2 c. of crumbs.

Add 1/4 c. sugar, eggs and vanilla to remaining crumb mixture. Beat until smooth.Sift together 1c. flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add dry ingredients alternately with combined bananas and buttermilk, beating well after each addition. Spread in pie plate. Sprinkle with reserved 1/2 c. crumbs. Bake at for approx. 30-35 minutes.

Soft Banana Cookies

These are low-fat, cake-like cookies. They aren't loaded with chocolate chips (or walnuts if that's what you use), but that makes the chips that are there even more of a treat. For some reason, the top of the cookies get kind of sticky overnight if you don't eat them right away, but they still taste really good!
Soft Banana Cookies

1 egg

1 c. brown sugar

¼ c. oil

1 ½ c. bananas, mashed (about 3)

½ t. vanilla

1 ½ c. flour

½ c. rolled oats

1 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

¼ t. nutmeg

½ c. walnuts, chopped or chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350º and coat 2 baking sheets with nonstick cooking spray. Beat the egg, brown sugar and oil with an electric mixer until smooth. Add the bananas and beat again. Add the vanilla, flour, oats, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg and beat until well mixed. Stir in the nuts or chocolate chips. Let the batter sit for about 5 minutes so that the oats can absorb the liquid. Drop the batter by rounded teaspoons about 2" apart onto the baking sheets and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cool on wire rack.

Banana Cinnamon Chip Cake

Elisa and I mixed this up in no time and they disappeared almost as fast. I love the crunchy crust the cinnamon sugar gives the top. I will push the cinnamon chips sprinkled on the top into the batter next time since they overcooked a bit being exposed. This cake is so moist and has great flavor. People won’t guess there is no added fat! Thanks to Two Peas and Their Pod for this great recipe! This is only the second recipe I’ve tried with cinnamon chips, but am looking forward to using them again in something new.
Banana Cinnamon Chip Cake
3 very ripe bananas
2 large eggs
1 t. pure vanilla extract
1 ½ c. flour
1 t. baking soda
2 t. ground cinnamon
1 c. granulated sugar
1 c. cinnamon chips
For topping:
3 T. granulated sugar
1/4 t. ground cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 375°. Spray an 8-inch square pan with cooking spray.

In a medium mixing bowl, mash the bananas well. Mix in the eggs and vanilla and mix until combined. Stir in the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and sugar. Add ¾ cup of the cinnamon chips, and stir briefly. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, and set aside.

In a small bowl, stir together the topping ingredients. Sprinkle the mixture evenly over the batter in the pan, and top with the remaining ¼ cup chips. Bake for 35-40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Banana Peanut Butter Cup Cookies

The Ultimate Blog Party Information follows this amazing recipe.

I found this cookie recipe at Baking and Boys! and kept thinking about them until I finally made it two days ago. It is an original creation by Jenny at Picky Palate . Her photos and Katrina’s photos both show how great their cookies turned out. I made them as directed, but the “dough” was very wet and I definitely couldn’t “scoop” it like the recipe instructed. I didn’t know what I did, but to try to fix it, I added flour a little at a time until I had added an extra ½ cup. It still wasn’t right and I couldn’t roll it in sugar. So I just dropped it by spoonfuls onto the sprayed cookie sheets and sprinkled sugar on top. (I need to get some coarse sugar to use next time so you can actually see it like at the other two blogs above.) We liked the cookies and they were gone quickly.

I wanted to figure out what I did wrong, so I sacrificed and made it again and taste-tested. I was careful to double-check everything the whole time (actually I triple-checked). I did everything as directed, but they were wet again. I just baked them like that to see how they would come out. They took longer to bake, and the texture not as good as the first batch. I don’t know if it’s the weather or the altitude, but I know that Jenny always has great recipes. So it sounds like I’m going to say that I’m not going to make the cookies again, but they are addicting. Although they are too wet to roll, it still bakes well and tastes so good. The flavor combination of bananas, peanut butter and chocolate is amazing. I’ll just have to work with the amount of flour. There is one thing wrong with it that I didn’t mention. It only makes about 2 dozen cookies and they disappear fast!



½ Cup mashed ripe banana, about 1 medium banana
¼ Cup granulated sugar
¼ Cup brown sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 medium egg or ½ of a beaten large egg
¼ Cup creamy peanut butter
¾ Cup whole wheat flour (if you substitute white flour, you’ll have to add more, about 1 Cup)
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
10 regular size Reeses Peanut Butter Cups, cubed (I cut them in thirds, then thirds again)
1/3 Cup additional sugar for rolling
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Place banana and both sugars into stand or electric mixer on medium speed and mix until well combined. Mix in vanilla, egg and peanut butter until combined on medium speed.

Place flour baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl. Slowly add to the wet ingredients until JUST combined, then add the Reeses Cups. Don’t over mix this.
Scoop cookie dough using a medium cookie scoop, roll into sugar and place onto a parchment or silpat lined baking sheet. Using the palm of your hand, gently press down cookies so they are about ½ inch thick, they don’t spread much. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cooked but still soft. Let cool for 3 minutes on hot cookie sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack.Makes about 20 medium cookies

Chocolate Swirled Banana Bread

Our Best Bites has great step-by-step photos of this recipe. I had some ripe bananas and wanted to try a new recipe. It was pretty good, but I'm not sure if I'll make it again. I have so many similar recipes and it wasn't special enough to me. I wasn't very good at marbling it. I somehow made an evil-looking smiley face with the chocolate.

2 c. flour

¾ tsp. baking soda

½ tsp. salt

1 c. sugar

¼ c. butter, softened

1 ½ c. mashed ripe bananas (about 3-4 medium bananas)

2 eggs

1/3 c. plain lowfat yogurt or sour cream

½ c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly spoon flour into measuring cups and level. Combine flour, baking soda, and salt. Cream sugar and butter. Add bananas, eggs, and yogurt, beating until just blended. Add flour mixture. Beat on low until just moistened. Microwave chocolate chips in a medium bowl for 1 minute. Stir until smooth. Cool slightly. Add 1 c. batter to chocolate, stirring until well-combined. Spoon chocolate batter alternately with plain batter (so you have stripes of plain and chocolate batter) in an 8 ½” x 4 ½” loaf pan coated with cooking spray. Swirl batters with a knife.

Bake for about 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan and then remove and cool completely on a wire rack.

Quick, pass me the chocolate!

Any other chocoholics out there? Sometimes I get in the mood for chocolate and I don’t want to wait long. I have found a few very quick and easy recipes in my search. If you’ve never baked a dessert in the microwave before, you might hesitate as I did, but these come out so great. The tops of them don’t look beautiful when they come out, but I almost always sprinkle with powdered sugar or put icing on top so it doesn’t matter.

5-MINUTE BROWNIES

My children love to make these because they don’t have to wait for long before they can eat. (Okay, me too!) It is very fudgy and a bit messy to get the individual pieces out, but it tastes so good that we don’t mind.

1 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter
2 eggs
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. flour
1/2 c. cocoa
½ c. chocolate chips or white chocolate chips, optional

Grease a glass pie plate; coat with sugar. Cream sugar and butter together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Stir flour and cocoa together, then add into egg mixture and mix well.
Pour brownie mixture into sugared pie pan. Microwave 4 ½ - 5 minutes. Do not overcook.

THE MOST DANGEROUS CHOCOLATE CAKE

I found this recipe one day while my children were at school and decided to try it out with pecans since they don’t eat nuts and it seemed like it would make one small, individual portion because it’s baked in a mug. It actually makes a small cake that could be shared. I noticed
that the cake rose straight up like a tower out of the mug while baking, but it went back down when it was finished. Then when my children got home, we made another one together without pecans so they could see the rising cake too and have some of their own. It was a fun experiment, but I don’t know that we’ll be having it again. It is a bit dry for our taste, but if you haven’t made it, you should try it!


4 T. flour
4 T. sugar
2 T. baking cocoa
1 egg
3 T. milk
3 T. oil
Splash of vanilla
3 T. chocolate chips
Few walnuts or pecans

Add dry ingredients to a mug, and mix well. Add the egg and mix thoroughly. Pour in the milk and oil; mix well. Add the vanilla, chocolate chips and nuts, if using, and mix again. Put your mug in the microwave and cook for 3 minutes on high. Allow to cool a little, and tip out onto a plate if desired.

QUICK MICROWAVE CHOCOLATE BANANA CAKE
This was the first dessert I made in the microwave and I have made it many times when I find out I will have guests coming and I don’t have time for other desserts (when I have a ripe banana, which I often do). It is moist, tall and the icing is very chocolatey.

2 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate
1/3 c. margarine
1 1/4 c. flour
1 c. sugar
1 large ripe banana, mashed
¾ c. water
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
Icing (recipe follows)
Banana slices, optional

Microwave chocolate and margarine in large microwaveable bowl on HIGH 1 to 2 minutes or until margarine is melted. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Beat in flour, sugar, banana, water, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and salt until smooth. Pour into greased 8-inch square microwaveable dish. Microwave on HIGH 8 minutes or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, rotating dish ¼ turn every 2 minutes if it does not rotate. Cool in dish on counter top. Frost cake with glaze. Garnish with banana slices if desired.

SEMI-SWEET CHOCOLATE ICING:
3 squares semi-sweet baking chocolate
1 c. powdered sugar
3 T. water
1/2 t. vanilla
1 T. margarine

Microwave chocolate, water and margarine in large microwavable bowl on HIGH 1 to 2 minutes or until chocolate is almost melted, stirring once. Stir until chocolate is completely melted. Stir in sugar and vanilla until smooth. For thinner glaze, add ½ to 1 teaspoon additional water.

CHOW MEIN CANDY
This isn’t really a recipe, just an idea, since I don’t have exact amounts. I melt a bag of chocolate chips or some chocolate candy melts and throw in some slightly crushed chow mein noodles and mix. Then drop on waxed paper in small mounds. You can throw anything into the bowl—nuts, raisins, craisins, mini marshmallows, coconut… You can also add butterscotch chips or peanut butter to the chocolate and melt before adding chow mein noodles.

This Week's Recipes

Irresistible Low-Fat Chocolate Brownies
This recipe is very easy and I don't feel as guilty eating them as other brownies. (So I can eat half a pan, right?) I have used fat-free sweetened condensed milk too. When I took the photo, I made the brownies and then used a cookie cutter to cut out circles. Then I stacked 3 per person and put each person's initials on their own tower. It's just sitting in pureed strawberries.
1 (14-oz) can low-fat sweetened condensed milk
1/3 c. cocoa
3/4 c. semisweet chocolate chips
4 Egg whites
1/4 c. flour
1 t. baking powder
1 t. vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350 F. Spray 13x9-inch baking pan with cooking spray. In 2-qt microwaveable bowl, combine sweetened condensed milk, cocoa and chips. Cook in microwave on 100% power for 2 minutes or until chips melt, stirring after each minute. Stir in remaining ingredients. Turn into prepared pan. Bake 20 minutes or until center is set. Cool. Store tightly covered at room temperature (if there are any leftovers).

Shishlik (Israeli Skewers)
This marinade makes the meat sooo tender and full of flavor. I grilled it outside and we all loved it.
1½ c. olive oil
2 T. lemon juice
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 onion, finely chopped
1/4 c. parsley, chopped
2 T. salt
½ t. pepper
½ t. dried thyme
2 lbs. beef steak, cubed

Make the marinade by combining all ingredients except the meat in a bowl and mix well. Add the meat to the marinade; mix and coat well. Marinate for 2 hours in the refrigerator; drain liquid and skewer the meat. Broil skewers in a preheated broiler for about 7 minutes on each side or until cooked OR cook on grill. Brush with olive oil before serving. Yield: 6 servings

Raspberry Cream

We love drinking our fruit...everyone except Sabrina.

1 c. orange juice
1 c. raspberry yogurt
1 c. vanilla frozen yogurt
½ banana chunks, frozen
1 ½ c. frozen raspberries

Pour all liquid ingredients into the blender. Add all frozen ingredients. Blend until smooth. Serve immediately. Yield: 3 to 5 servings

New Recipes This Week II

Last week I made a few new recipes. We didn't like the Spanish Baked Chicken so I didn't include the recipe. These two were good though. Sorry I forgot to take photos. I'll add them next time I make them.



Sweet and Sour Chicken
*****
This is really good and pretty simple. It takes a little time frying the dipped chicken, but it's not difficult and very worth it. I reduced the sugar to 1/2 cup and the vinegar to 1/3 cup and it was fine for us. I didn't need to make any additional sauce (like it suggests at the end of the recipe). It was perfect without it. Next time, I will probably add some green onions and red pepper flakes at the end for a little more flavor, but it was good without too.

3-4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
Salt and pepper
1 c. cornstarch
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 c. canola oil

Sauce:
¾ c. sugar
4 T. ketchup
½ c. vinegar
1 T. soy sauce
1 t. garlic salt

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Cut boneless chicken breasts into chunks. Season with salt and pepper. Dip chicken in cornstarch and then in egg. Fry a small batch of chicken in oil until brown but not cooked through. This may take a few batches. Place in a single layer in a baking dish. Mix sauce ingredients together and pour over chicken. Lightly toss chicken to coat in sauce.

Bake for one hour. Turn chicken every 15 minutes. If you like extra sauce, make another batch of sauce and bring it to a boil on the stovetop. Stir constantly and let cook over medium heat until thickened and reduced - about 6-8 minutes.


Triple Chocolate Banana Muffins

These are so moist, soft and taste more like a cupcake than a muffin to me. I didn't have white chocolate chips, but needed to use up some bananas so we made them into double chocolate instead of triple chocolate. The recipe said it makes 10 muffins, but it made 16 for me. Even better! It took 20 minutes in my oven.

1 1/2 c. flour
5 T. cocoa
3/4 c. white sugar
1/4 c. packed light brown sugar
1 t. baking soda
1/4 t. baking powder
1/4 t. salt
1 1/3 c. mashed bananas
1/3 c. canola oil or vegetable oil
1 egg
1 t. vanilla
1/2 c. semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 c. white chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350. Grease muffin pan or line with cupcake liners. In medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, sugars, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a separate bowl, combine mashed banana, oil, egg, and vanilla. Add wet mixture to dry mixture, stirring until just combined. Fold in chocolate chips. Divide batter between muffin cups. Bake 20-25 minutes until done. Do not overbake.