Pecan Topped Banana Bread

Pecan Topped Banana Bread

     The weather is quickly changing here in Minnesota. We had a beautiful Labor Day weekend and a fabulous summer, but like all good things it must come to an end. It seems that as soon as Labor Day was finished the weather was too. I wake up to 45 degree mornings. BRRR! Thankfully it warms up during the day, but it is still fall like weather.

     This past Saturday morning I decided to make some banana bread. It was such a cool morning and after walking the dogs around the block I decided I needed something warm for breakfast. I was at first going to make banana muffins, but opted for banana bread. This is my old recipe. I have no idea where I ever got it from, its been around so long.

     I did add a little bit to it this time. I sprinkled cinnamon on top and added chopped pecans before baking. There is just a hint of cinnamon, but it is so delicious and the pecans are equally delightful.

   Well here's to welcoming fall and all the chilly days it is about to bring to us. Time to enjoy the changing season and the changing leaves.

Pecan Topped Banana Bread

3 very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup sour milk, or 1/2 cup +1 teaspoon vinegar
2 eggs
2/3 cup melted fat
Beat these ingredients then add the following and beat well.
2 cups flour
1teaspoon soda
1 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
Pour in loaf pan sprayed with cooking spray.Sprinkle cinnamon on top of batter and add 1/4 cup chopped pecans. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Cool in pan
    

Chocolate Banana Bread

Chocolate Banana Bread

     I just had to share this super yummy banana bread recipe. Not only does it help me get rid of those over ripe bananas that I constantly seem to have it was a very moist and a delicious way to start my day. I also know I've shared a few banana bread recipes, but this one is the bomb.

     What two better things to put together than chocolate and bananas? Next to peanut butter and chocolate nothing. Right? The bananas help keep this bread moist and the chocolate makes it almost addictive. My whole house smelled like chocolate cookies when I baked it. In fact when my daughter came home late, late that night she said she could smell it the minute she walked in the door and just had to have some.

     I've been eating it every day for breakfast, hence the less than half a loaf left on the platter. (I've gotta remember to start taking a pic right away before my masterpieces are all eaten.)  I feel like I'm cheating a little when I eat this for breakfast, but I know that at least it's somewhat healthy. The recipe was originally tagged as a dessert, but I feel like banana bread should be eaten as breakfast, even if it does have chocolate in it lol.

     With this recipe I could see making muffins with the batter. It would really be like eating a chocolate cupcake in the morning, but I could think of worse things to eat. Hey you could even pass these off as cupcakes if you put a little frosting on them. Hmmm, that's a thought.

     The recipe did call for good-quality cocoa powder. I used the cocoa powder that I get from Aldis and it tasted fabulous. In fact most of my baking supplies are from Aldis. I just can't pass up the great prices on baking supplies when my products still look, taste and smell delicious.

     Give this one a try. I'm sure your family will love just as much as mine.

Chocolate Banana Bread
3/4 Cup sugar
1/2 Cup butter, softened
2 eggs
1 Cup mashed bananas (around 2-3 medium bananas)
1/2 Cup sour cream
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 Cups all-purpose flour
1/4 Cups cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 Cup mini chocolate chips (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Lightly butter a 9x5x3 inch loaf pan.
2. In a medium bowl, beat together sugar and butter until creamy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add the mashed bananas, sour cream and vanilla extract, and stir until smooth and creamy-looking.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder. Add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients and stir until  just barely combined. Fold in chocolate chips, if using.
4. Bake in preheated oven for about 50-60 minutes. Bread is done when the top is firm to the touch and toothpick inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. Allow to cool on a wire rack for at least 10 minutes before unmolding and slicing.

Recipe by http://www.crumbblog.com

    

Rhubarb Bread

Rhubarb Bread

     Aww yes! Another rhubarb recipe.

     I just couldn't resist. After all I've got a few rhubarb plants growing in my garden now and I really miss having all those yummy rhubarb treats that my mom made when I was a kid.

    I've never made bread before using rhubarb so I thought why not give it a try. I thought the cake had turned out well and I figured that the bread wouldn't be much different than the cake.

     Turns out the bread is AMAZING!!!  Super moist and full of sweet rhubarb flavor. I know you're saying right now that rhubarb is tart. Well yes it is, but in this recipe you taste the sweet tartness of the sugars mixed with the rhubarb. 

     This recipe makes two loaves. The loaves don't rise like a traditional loaf of bread. It's a little more dense. My family obviously loved it because when I got up this morning one loaf was already gone and they had started on the second one. 

     This recipe I got out of my mom's hometown newspaper, The Browerville Blade. A small town in northern Minnesota. Cute little town. I have fond childhood memories of visiting my grandparents in this town. 

Rhubarb Bread

1 1/2 C brown sugar

2/3 C oil

1 egg

1 C sour milk (1cup milk & 1 t vinegar)

1 1/2 C flour

1 t salt

1 t pure vanilla

1 1/2 C diced rhubarb

1/2 C chopped pecans

Topping

1/2 C sugar

1 T butter, melted

Combine first seven ingredients; stir in rhubarb and nuts. Mix well; Pour into two greased loaf pans. Mix 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon melted butter. Mix and spread over batter in loaf pans. It will have gritty texture. I sprinkled it on with my hands. Bake at 325 for one hour.

Adapted recipe from Browerville Blade.

Banana Bread

Banana Bread

     These cold mornings are starting to get the best of me. It is just freezing and it makes it hard for me to get out of bed. Then of course when I do get out of bed all I want is some hot coffee. Now of course I need to have something to go with my coffee. Bagels or toast have been the main course lately, but today I'm mixing it up.

     I had this craving for warm, sweet banana bread. Now I know that I've posted several different recipes for banana breads on my blog, but I don't know why I've never posted this one. This recipe is the very first recipe that I ever had for banana bread. I don't even know where I came across this recipe. It was either from a friend, family member or even a magazine. All I know is it was well before internet times.

     Anyways, it is super moist and has no nuts, not that you can't put nuts in if you desire. It seems that every time I make this bread it disappears quick. Obviously it is a hit with the family. Hope you enjoy it.

Banana Bread
3 very ripe bananas sliced
1/2 C sour milk, or 1/2 C milk & 1 t vinegar
2 eggs
2/3 C melted fat (or I sometimes substitute 1/2 C canola oil)
Beat these ingredients together.
Add and beat in;
2 C flour
1 t baking soda
1 C sugar
1/2 t salt
Pour into a greased loaf pan. Bake at 325 for 1 hour and 20 minutes. Cool in pan on a wire rack.

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

  

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

 My summer vacation is finally here! Eleven weeks off of work to recharge the batteries. Teaching is a very mental and emotional job. It is very draining on a person. I, however, would not trade it for the world. I don't know what I would do if I didn't teach. I love it too much!

     I do still plan for the kiddos a lot during the summer. Yesterday I started making book bags for reading time for all of my students. So far I have 9 bags completed. I would like to have 30 bags done by the end of summer, but I'd be happy if I got at least 27. I'm going to keep plugging away on them until I'm done. Once I'm done I'll be making 30 more for a friend, but they will be awesome!

     Most of my fabric was bought on clearance at the fabric store and I found some at Goodwill. My bags so far are costing me about 80 cents a piece. Can't beat that deal. I'll keep checking the clearance rack at the fabric store and Goodwill for more fabric.

    I also did some baking yesterday morning. I of course had some banana's that needed to be made into something quick. I didn't want plain old banana bread again so I scoured Pinterest for a new recipe. I did find one that I thought sound different and it was well worth the effort.

     The only thing that I would change in this recipe is to make sure to use a really good flavorful peanut butter. I used a generic brand and it just didn't have a strong enough peanut butter flavor. When I make this again I would make sure I buy Jif. Jif peanut butter has a wonderful peanut flavor that it would make this bread taste just awesome. 

     Even though the peanut butter I used wasn't the best I would still make this bread again. My daughter just spread a little more peanut butter on a slice and said it tasted wonderful with that little extra spread of pb.

   
Peanut Butter Chocolate CHip Banana Bread
makes one loaf
Ingredients
2 cups AP flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 medium ripe mashed bananas
1/2 cup creamy Peanut butter
3 TBSP butter, softened, divided use
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup milk
3/4 cup semisweet, dark, or milk chocolate chips (I used more, duh.)
1 1/2 tsp Turbinado sugar for sprinkling
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Coat a 9 inch loaf pan with cooking spray or butter.
IN a medium sized mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together banana, peanut butter, 2 TBSP butter, and both sugars until creamy, about 2 minutes; beat in eggs and vanilla extract until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and beat in milk and flour mixture until just combined; stir in chocolate chips.
Pour batter into prepared pan; bake for 50 minutes. Remove pan from oven, melt additional TBSP butter, brush evenly over the top, and top with Turbinado sugar. Continue to bake for an additional 5 minutes or until golden brown.
Cool for 20 minutes before running a knife around the edges, removing, and transferring to a wire rack to cool an additional 30 minutes before slicing.

Recipe from  http://dutchsisterscreate.wordpress.com/tag/peanut-butter/



    

Banana Nut Bread

Well this past weekend was a rainy, cold weekend. There wasn't much going on outside that I could do so I had to do some baking inside.

Now of course I had 3 bananas laying around way past their time and I had to do something with them. I wasn't in the mood to make the same old banana bread that I usually make, so I was on the hunt for a new recipe.

I started combing through my stack of recipes that I've cut or printed from the internet. After flipping through a few I found a recipe that Amy Grant had printed in a magazine. It was her grandma Grant and it look like just what I was looking for, so I decided to give it a try.

So I went to work making this recipe and it turned out to be amazing. It had hardly cooled when my family started cutting into it. I made this late Saturday afternoon and by Sunday afternoon only about 1/3 of the loaf was left.

This Banana bread is very good. It has chopped pecans in it which gives it a wonderful flavor and it is very moist. I am most definitely going to make this one again.

Banana Nut Bread
1 C sugar
1/2 C butter (1 stick)
2 lg. eggs
3 bananas, sliced (2 c)
2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C pecans, chopped
1 t baking soda
1/4 t salt

1. Greased 8 1/2 by 4 1/2  metal loaf pan.
2. Cream sugar with butter. Mix in eggs, bananas, flour, pecans baking soda and salt. Pour into prepared pan.
3. Place loaf pan in cold oven. Set oven control to 300 degrees F and bake banana bread 1 1/2 hours or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
4. Cool bread in pan 5 minutes on wire rack. Then remove from pan and cool completely, right side up. Makes 1 loaf. 

Banana Pecan Bread

Happy New Year!

I hope this greeting finds you well as we enter into the year 2012. This is a time to make resolutions and to start or try something new in our lives. Sometimes our resolutions don't go as planned, but I look at it not as a failure, I look at it as an opportunity to experience something new and see if it's going to work for me. After all there are just somethings I don't want to or just can't get into because either I don't like it or it's just not my style after all. So don't be afraid to try something new this year if it doesn't work Oh well, you tried and maybe it's just not the year for you to do this new adventure.

Today I thought I would try something new right away this morning. I decided to make Banana Pecan Bread. What better thing to eat on a cold snowy day than a warm slice of Banana Bread? Besides I had these really ripe bananas staring me in the face and I just hate to throw them away. So I opted to make some bread with them.

Now this recipe I found in my October issue of Taste of Home. I know, I know! What was I doing looking at a magazine from October when it's the first of January? Well I had marked this page quite awhile ago and I'm just now getting in the kitchen to make it. I did, however, add one little ingredient to the recipe in hopes of making it a little moister.

This Banana Bread has pecans in it and they absolutely give the bread a magnificent wonderful taste. My little extra ingredient that I added was a 1/4 cup of sour cream. I did this for two reasons. One I thought it would make it a little bit moister. Two I needed to use up some sour cream in my fridge. I think adding the sour cream helped, so if you want go ahead and add some.

One other suggestion I would add to making this bread is to tent foil over the top if it is getting too brown on top. I baked it for 50 minutes and then checked it. It looked like it was getting too brown so I put foil over the top so it wouldn't burn.

I hope you enjoy it!

Banana Pecan Bread
1/2 C butter, softened
1 C packed brown sugar
2 eggs
3 medium ripe bananas, mashed
1/4 C sour cream (my addition)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 t baking soda
1/2 t salt
1/2 C chopped pecans

Directions
1. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in bananas. Add sour cream. Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; add to creamed mixture. Fold in pecans.
2. Transfer batter to a greased 9-in x 5-in loaf pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing loaf from pan to a wire rack.

Source: Adapted from the Taste of Home



 

Cranberry Bread

Well I'm on a roll with this comfort food thing. The weather has been a little bit chilly and a little bit rainy, which has enhanced my desire to bake and cook those yummy goodies that make us feel good all over.

Now my scale has not been too friendly to me lately, but I just can't resist the desire to make some homemade sweet bread. After scanning my freezer I found that I still had a bag of cranberries in there. 

I now right now many of you are saying, "OMG! Those have been in your freezer how long and you're going to bake with them?" Well I know I've question that myself, but I did read on another blog that someone else did just the same thing. Their cranberries had been in the freezer for quite some time too and her creation came out just fine.

With that said I decided to make Cranberry Bread! I had been keeping a Taste of Home magazine set aside with a cranberry bread recipe that I wanted to try. This recipe just so happened to be under the Kids in the Kitchen section, so I figure it must be fairly easy to make.

Well after making this tasty little loaf of bread I can attest to the ease of making this yummy bread. This bread is wonderful for those Sunday brunches or for a quick little snack with a glass of milk. 

I did, however tweak this recipe a little bit. I left out the raisins and I had no oranges for the orange peel. I probably would put a splash of orange extract in place of the peel if you have it on hand.The glaze has a wonderful orange flavor and I think with a little orange flavor in the bread would be a nice compliment.

Give this bread a try and I think for those of you that have a college student far away I think you could wrap and ship this with ease.

Cranberry Bread
2 C all-purpose flour
3/4 C sugar
1-1/2 t baking powder
1 t salt
1/2 t baking soda
1/4 C cold butter
1 egg
3/4 C orange juice
2 t grated orange peel
1 C chopped fresh or frozen cranberries
1/2 C golden raisins

STREUSEL
1/3 C packed brown sugar
3 T all-purpose flour
2 T cold butter

GLAZE
1/2 confectioners sugar
2 t orange juice

In a large bowl, combine the first five ingredients; cut in butter until crumbly. In a small bowl, whisk the egg, orange juice and peel. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. Fold in cranberries and raisins. Transfer to a greased 8-in X 4-in loaf pan. 

Combine brown sugar and flour; cut in butter until crumbly. Sprinkle over batter. Bake at 350 for 55-65 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes before removing from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

For glaze, combine confectioners sugar and orange juice until smooth. Drizzle over bread.