Showing posts with label bananas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label bananas. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Breakfast

I woke up today to a text message from my mom saying "today would be a good day for banana pancakes and a blog post." At this point I've got five posts worth of pictures saved up, but since it's midterms (and, since I'm taking that half-semester class, one final) time is pretty cramped and I'm just going to share today's breakfast and hopefully have time soon to get the rest of those up.

On the plus side (well, plus side for blogging), the second half-semester class I was going to take was canceled, which means I'll have lots of free time for the rest of the semester. Woo!


BANANA PANCAKES--Recipe!
(adapted from Recipezaar)

Ingredients:
-1 cup flour
-4 tsp sugar
-2 tsp baking powder
-dash of salt
-1 large egg
-1/2-1 cup milk (less for fluffier pancakes, more for denser)
-2 tsp almond extract
-2 tbsp vegetable oil (or melted butter)
-2 large overripe bananas
-Butter (for the pan)
-Maple syrup (because they're pancakes)

Instructions:
1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda and salt) in a small bowl. (Really--you only have a little over a cup of stuff here. You don't need a huge bowl for it.)
2. Mash the bananas in a large bowl until they are mostly liquidy, but with a good amount of banana-chunks left.
3. Add the egg. Mash it in with the bananas. (You could probably toss it in when you're mashing the bananas in the first place, now that I think of it.) It's not really necessary to have the egg "slightly beaten" when you add it. I don't know why people always say to do this.
4. Add 1/2 cup milk, almond extract and vegetable oil/melted butter to the banana and egg mixture. Stir.
5. Add the flour mixture to the banana mixture. Stir until combined. Don't over-stir, a few clumps of flour are okay.
6. Add more milk, stirring, until the batter reaches your preferred consistency. I probably added another quarter cup after the half. The more liquid your batter is, the denser your pancakes will be.
7. Cook pancakes in a well-buttered frying pan over medium heat. (I use a 1/4 cup measure to pour the right amount of batter into the pan.) Flip when the sides look solid and the bubbles on the top are beginning to pop.
8. Transfer cooked pancakes to a plate and cover with a clean dishtowel to retain heat. Continue repeating steps 7 and 8 until all the batter has turned into pancakes.
9. Top with real maple syrup and enjoy!

I loved these. You could probably use whatever kind of extract you want, but I like almond. And I loved how fluffy they came out; I always have a hard time with fruit pancakes because of the added juices.

How do you like your pancakes? Do you prefer the authentic maple syrup, or the "Mrs Butterworth's" type? And what do you drink with pancakes? Milk? Orange juice?

Friday, January 15, 2010

Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies--with recipe!

I know, earlier this week, I said something about banana bread. I was fully intending to make banana bread. The bananas were getting old, and it seemed like an awesome idea at the time. (I should mention that I usually hate bananas. I'll never eat a banana. But I think they're delicious baked in things, so I let them get old and bake them into things.)


However, sometime between then and now, I was given a recipe for banana COOKIES and I couldn't resist making them. I'm very glad that I didn't. They are absolutely amazing.

These cookies include bananas, chocolate chips, AND peanut butter chips. I had to go buy banana extract (the store only had imitation, boo) and when it came time to add the butter, I realized I didn't have any and had to walk to to convenient store down the street. Well worth it. So, here--have a recipe. Go make some cookies.

RECIPE: Peanut Butter and Chocolate Chip Banana Cookies
makes about 36 medium-sized cookies
Ingredients:
-2 and 2/3 cups flour
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/4 tsp salt (optional; I always leave the salt out of baked goods if possible)
-2 sticks butter (salted or unsalted)
-1 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup granulated sugar
-3 large (or 5 medium) overripe bananas
-1 tsp banana extract
-1 large egg (should be at room temperature)
-1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
-1 (10 oz) bag peanut butter chips

Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. Mix together the flour, baking soda, and salt if you're using it. Set aside.
3. Cream together the butter and both sugars.
4. Add the bananas, banana extract and egg. Mix well.
5. Add the flour mixture and chips. Mix until the chips are well-integrated into the dough.
6. Realize you forgot to preheat the oven, and figure it's probably better this way, since it'll heat in the amount of time it takes you to scoop out the cookie dough. Turn the oven on to 325 degrees.
7. Scoop out the cookie dough, leaving a decent amount of room on the side of each ball (the actual amount of room depends on how big you're making the cookies).
8. Bake for 18-22 minutes (and pay attention while they're baking so you can take them out earlier if they look done; they come out sort of crispy if you've only got one sheet in there. //Edit: they're not actually that crispy. They end up with a slightly harder outer layer but remain soft and chewy on the inside. These cookies may just be the most perfect cookies ever.)

Step 4


Step 7


Step 9 (eat)

Update, 17 June 2010: This recipe won a banana-dessert-recipe contest over at Haute Whimsy--you should check it out!