Carrot Zucchini Banana Bread

The sun FINALLY came out and it is absolutely GLORIOUS! I guess Mother Nature got the message I was a force to be reckoned with.

Funny thing about me. First sign of great weather and I suddenly have this need to eat healthy. It's weird really. I'm pulling out the whole wheat flour, using recipes that call for fruits and/or vegetables, substituting butter for applesauce. Okay, perhaps I'm going a bit far there, but you get the idea.

This is one on my most favorite feel good recipes. My daughter loves it and I don't ever feel guilty about giving it to her anytime of day.

Or eating half the loaf myself. Oops.

CARROT ZUCCHINI BANANA BREAD

2½ cups whole wheat flour (You can also use all white flour or half white and half whole wheat!)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

¼ cup ground flax seeds

½ cup oatmeal

2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 cup unsweetened applesauce

1 cup brown sugar

1 cup grated unpeeled zucchini

1 cup grated carrot

1 cup ripe bananas, mashed

OPTIONAL: ½ cup raisins or ½ cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 325º F. Grease two 8-inch loaf pans with non stick cooking spray. You can also use a 9x5 loaf pan, but you'll get a larger and denser bread. I opted to use the 9x5 loaf this time to show you what you'll get.

Sift flour(s), baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, flax seeds, oatmeal, and salt in a large bowl until well blended.

Mix eggs, bananas, applesauce, brown sugar, vanilla until until well combined.

Add flour mixture, stirring just until blended. Stir in zucchini and carrots until just combined. (Mix in raisins and walnuts/pecans if using).

Divide batter into prepared pan(s). I like to sprinkle oatmeal on top just before baking for visual effect once loaf is baked. It just looks healthier too.

Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 1 hour for the 8-inch pans and 1 hour 20 minutes for the 9-inch loaf pan. Cool bread in pans for 10 minutes, then remove, and cool completely on a wire rack.

Yield: Two 8-inch loaves or One 9-inch loaf.

Happy Baking!

Chipwich

Today is May 18th. It's 43 degrees. It has been so gloomy for weeks and raining non-stop for the past 5 days. What. is. going. on?

I'll tell you what's going on. Mother Nature is asking for the worst kind of trouble. From me. Oh yeah, I can be pretty scary if provoked enough.

While I could complain all day about the lack of sunshine, I decided to shake off the blues, take the high road, and make chocolate chip cookies. What the heck, let's up the ante and make ice cream sandwiches out of them.

I'm very well aware that these treats could be dangerous to a serious cookie addict and ice cream lover like myself, but you know what? I just don't care today. All bets are off. Screw the whole calorie counting.

While we're at it, Mother Nature can go jump off a bridge.

That is until she produces some rays for this frustrated gal.

Then all will be forgiven. Maybe.

CHIPWICH

Recipe adapted and slightly modified from the Cook’s Illustration Recipe

For the cookies:

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon baking soda

¾ cup butter, melted and cooled slightly

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup granulated sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 teaspoons vanilla

1½ cup white, milk, peanut butter, semi-sweet, bitter or dark chocolate chips
1 cup pecans or walnuts, optional

Heat oven to 325º degrees.

Mix flour, salt, and baking soda together in medium bowl; set aside. Either by hand or with electric mixer, mix butter and sugars until thoroughly blended.

Mix in egg, yolk, and vanilla.

Add dry ingredients; mix until just combined. Stir in chips. I used both semi and milk chocolate chips because my semi-sweet chips were seriously starting to bloom, so I threw them in. (When a white coating appears on the surface of any chocolate, it's called bloom.)

I have to disagree with this next step. However, I did both my own way and CI's way to show the outcome. They taste the same, but presentation is a whole other ballgame....

CI's TECHNIQUE:

Form scant ¼ cup dough into ball. Holding dough ball using fingertips of both hands, pull into two equal halves. Rotate halves ninety degrees and, with jagged surfaces exposed, join halves together at their base, again forming a single cookie, being careful not to smooth dough uneven surface. Place formed dough onto one of two parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about nine dough balls per sheet. Smaller cookie sheets can be used, but fewer cookies can be baked at one time and baking time may need to be adjusted.

MY TECHNIQUE:

Use an ice cream scoop.

WHEN PLACED SIDE TO SIDE:

Three rows on the LEFT side of the tray: CI's form.

Three rows on the RIGHT side of the tray: My form.

Bake until cookies are light golden brown and outer edges start to harden yet centers are still soft and puffy, 15 to 18 minutes (start checking at 13 minutes). Cool cookies on cookie sheets. Be sure cookies are completely cool before adding next step.

Scoop a generous portion of your favorite ice cream and sandwich between two cookies. Roll in sprinkles, nuts, candy bits, coconut, etc. if desired.

Yields: 2½ dozen cookies or about 15 Chipwiches.

Happy Baking!

Ultimate Brownies

Today is Sunday. It's gloomy, rainy, and cold. A PERFECT time to bake!

A few posts back, I told you the story of the 10,000 Chips Ahoy cookies I have in my possession. Thankfully, I'm down to about 4,000 cookies now, but for a cookie addict like myself, that's still 4,000 too many! Since they're individual wrapped, they won't go stale anytime soon, but I would like to use them up before I lose all self control.

Today, I was hankering for a good brownie. A brownie that has all the bells and whistles - moist, chewy, chocolaty, sweet, salty and peanutty. I started sifting through my cookbooks as well as the internet, but I didn't find one that said, "I'm it Baby. Make me yours!"

So I took matters into my own hands and created what I think are Ultimate Brownies.

Oh yes ladies and gentleman, these are ultimate. It has everything Mama is craving today. Throw on some Barry White, dim the lights, and close the blinds.

It's brownie time.

ULTIMATE BROWNIES

½ cup butter, melted

½ cup cocoa powder

1 cup granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

3 eggs

¾ cup flour

¼ teaspoon salt

¼ cup peanut butter

¼ cup dulce de leche sauce

1 teaspoon instant coffee granules

½ teaspoon cinnamon

½ cup mini white chocolate chips

12 chocolate chip cookies – I used Chips Ahoy

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with foil cupcake wrappers. Place a chocolate chip cookie in the bottom of each; set aside.

Combine flour, salt, sugar, cocoa powder, cinnamon, and coffee granules into a bowl and mix well. Add eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. Mix well. Add peanut butter and dulce de leche into flour mixture and mix well. Add white chocolate chips. 

Divide mix into 12 muffin cups.

Bake for 22-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Do not over bake.

Yield: 12 brownie cups.

Happy Baking!

Rainbow Cupcakes

Believe it or not, some of my favorite quotes come from buxom country gal, Dolly Parton. She once said, "If you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain".

To take her quote literally, I'm done with the rain. And the cold. Give me the rainbow for crying out loud. What's going on with you Mother Nature? It's the middle of May! We should be basking in the sun, getting out patio furniture out from its long slumber in the shed, the flowers should be showing off their blossoms, and I should be able to crank the windows open, listening to the birds. Instead, I'm wearing wooly socks, long sleeves and drinking ridiculous amounts of tea, trying to ward off the chill - not to mention getting serious cabin fever.

Since she couldn't be found for a comment, I decided to take matters into my own hands and make my own damn rainbows.

Rainbow cupcakes that is. These are very cute, super colorful, and a nice way to take my mind off the weather for a bit. Consider these little lovelies your sunshine, rainbow, and pot of gold all in one.

If you're waiting for Ms. Nature to send any of those gifts to you, you could be waiting a long time. 

I also think she may have stolen my garden gnome. 

RAINBOW CUPCAKES

You can certainly use a box cake mix for these as well. If you do, be sure to use a white cake mix. If you cannot find a white cake mix, no worries, you can still use golden or yellow cake mix, just be sure to use ONLY the whites of the eggs. The yolks will make it yellow and it will be difficult to get true colors.

½ cup butter, room temperature
¾ cup sugar
3 egg whites
2 teaspoons vanilla
1½ cup flour
1½ teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ cup buttermilk (You can substitute sour cream here as well)

Preheat oven 350ºF.

In a bowl, sift flour, baking powder, and salt together; set aside. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar together until creamy. Add egg whites, beating well. Add vanilla and mix until incorporated.

Using mixer, add flour mixture and milk, alternating between the two - beginning and ending with the flour.

Using a ladel, spoon exact amounts of batter into 6 cups.

Once that step is done, use food coloring to make desired shades. The bolder and deeper the color, the better.

Line a 12 cup muffin tin with foil cupcake liners. (Mine are paper lined foil wrappers). Starting with purple (or blue if you choose to omit purple) carefully layer colors on top of each other, finishing with red. If you're a bit heavy handed, you can transfer colored batter into squeeze bottles. It will yield almost perfect layers.  

Bake cupcakes for 17-20 minutes or until a toothpick is inserted and it comes out clean. Don't worry if the colors bubble to the top. You can cover up any imperfections with frosting.

Allow to completely cool and frost cupcakes with desired frosting. I used a chocolate buttercream frosting.


CHOCOLATE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING  - This recipe makes quite a lot of frosting, but you can freeze what you don't use.

½ cup shortening
½ cup butter
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 cups powdered sugar, sifted
¾ cups cocoa, sifted
3 to 4 tablespoons milk
3 tablespoons light corn syrup

Cream shortening, butter, and vanilla together until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in sugar and cocoa on medium speed, scraping down bowl often. Add milk and corn syrup until light and fluffy.

Yield: 12 cupcakes.

Happy Baking!

Flower Cake Pops

Sunday is Mother's Day.

In honor of a few special Mama's I know, I made cake pops. If you've never heard of them before, you will now. These ingenious little treats are the brainchild of Bakerella. The flower idea I got from Bridget over at Bake at 350.

I've seen these cake pops making their way around the internet for a few years now; I've also noticed them recently popping up in a popular coffee house chain. Heck, I've even picked up Bakerella's how-to book a few times when I visited the book store, but they kept missing my 'need-to-make-these-like-yesterday' radar until I was looking for fun treat my daughter and I could make together. 

Well slap me silly for waiting so long and call me Crazy. I am in love. These pops have two of the three most important factors to earn the BB's stamp of approval: easy and delicious. I guess you could also classify them as authentic. The third most important factor. 

Be sure to treat your Mama real good this Mother's Day. Buy her something that she has had her eye on for awhile or something she wouldn't buy for herself and take her out for a delicious meal. Be sure to wear clean underwear, tuck in your shirt, and comb your hair.

She'll be so proud you've listened.

Happy Mother's Day to all you Yummy Mummies out there. You are beautiful. You are one of a kind. You are loved.

CAKE POPS

Recipe adapted from Bakerella

1 box of cake mix
1 tub frosting (or you can use your own) in the SAME flavor as cake mix

Assorted colors of candy melting wafers. We used orange, purple, and pink.

Lollipop sticks

Bake cake according to box. Once cooled, score cake into a few pieces.

Pulverize it until it looks like small pebbles.

Add about ¾ of the frosting from the tub and mix well. I made my own frosting and used ¾ cup.

Mix well and form balls.

Freeze balls for 15 minutes ONLY! This is important that they are not cold when dipping into the candy coating! If they are too cold, they WILL crack upon cooling!

Getting ahead of myself, but once they dried, this was the result from cold cake balls and warm candy coating.

Melt wafers in a heat-safe container deep enough to coat entire ball in one shot.

* I apologize, but my camera went a bit wonky at this point for some reason, so the many of the photos came out VERY blurry. However, the show must go on....

Dip lollipop stick into candy about an inch before inserting into the cake ball. This will help secure the stick and ball a bit more. Dip in candy and pull straight, allowing excess coating to drip off. Do not swirl around in coating or you will loosen the ball from the stick! Add sprinkles at this time if desired.

Place coated balls into a piece of styrofoam and allow to cool. Once cooled, you can wrap individually in cellophane or leave as is. They do not need to be refrigerated after they have been dipped.

Yield: About 40-50 cake pops

Happy Baking!