Bananas + Chocolate = Yum!

Jenny posted a recipe for Roasted Banana Brownie bites over on Picky Palate the other day and I've just been eyeing a bunch of bananas that I've had waiting for them to ripen. They finally seemed good to go on Friday so I took off to Bed Bath and Beyond and got some mini muffin tins. If you've never used a mini muffin tin, they are so stinkin cute that I want to make everything into mini versions now.

Anyway back to the actual recipe. These are absolutely amazing. I had plans to give these away and they've been very well received and gobbled down =) Go make these!

Roasted Banana Bread Brownie Bites
(Source: Picky Palate)

3 large ripe bananas, sliced into 1/2 inch slices
3 Tablespoons cold butter, cut into pieces
3 Tablespoons packed light brown sugar

1 brownie mix, 9x13 inch size
1/4 Cup water
3 eggs

1/2 Cup chocolate chips
2-3 Tablespoons heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Place sliced bananas into a baking dish. Place butter evenly over bananas and sprinkle brown sugar on top. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden and bubbly. Remove and let cool for 10 minutes.

2. Reduce oven to 350 degrees F. Place brownie mix, water, eggs and bananas into a large mixing bowl. Mix until just combined. Scoop mixture into mini cupcake pan or mini cheesecake pan about 3/4 way full. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean from center.

3. Melt chocolate chips into a microwave safe bowl. Stir to smooth then add heavy cream until glossy and smooth. Dip brownie bites into chocolate and place an M&M in the center. Serve warm or room temperature.

Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies

I wanted something rich and chocolatey for Valentine's day... and these definitely fit the bill. I found these over on Bakerella's website and the original recipe is from RecipeZaar. I would suggest that you cut these into tiny squares b/c with the rich chocolate brownie AND the ganache, they are definitely better eaten in smaller portions. It's worth it though, and they're so good.

RecipeZaar mentions using good quality chocolate for this recipe. I ended up using Ghiradellli, but all I had for cocoa powder was Hersheys. I still thought they were great. I've also never even heard up mascarpone cheese before, or cooked with it for that matter. It's almost like cream cheese but it has less of of a sour taste to it. I can see why it would be used for baking and I'd like to try it in some other recipes. The only drawback is that it's a little more expensive.


Chocolate Mascarpone Brownies
(Source: RecipeZaar)

Brownies
1 cup unsalted butter
3 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 cup mascarpone cheese, softened
3 large eggs, at room-temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon salt

Ganache
6 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
6 tablespoons whipping cream
3 tablespoons unsalted butter


Preheat oven to 325°F; have ready a buttered 8-inch square glass cake pan.

In a small saucepan, melt the butter and bring it to just below a boil; have the chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl--pour the hot butter over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds.

Stir until chocolate is completely melted.

Sift in the sugar and cocoa powder (I do this through a sieve, not with a sifter).

With a wooden spoon, beat in the mascarpone, eggs (30 minutes on the counter brings them to room temperature) and vanilla, mixing until smooth.

Gently fold the flour and salt into the batter.

Pour batter into prepared pan and spread evenly--this is important since, if the batter isn't spread evenly, it won't bake evenly.

Place into preheated oven and bake for 45 to 50 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean (45 minutes did it for me).

Place pan on a cooling rack and let brownies cool for 10-15 minutes, while you now make the ganache.

Place chopped chocolate in a mixing bowl; in a small saucepan, bring the cream and the butter to just below the boiling point, over medium heat.

Pour this hot cream-butter mixture over the chocolate and let stand for 30 seconds, then stir until smooth; ganache is now ready to use and can be spread over the brownies.

Should you wish to wait a bit, make sure the ganache is warm when you spread over the brownies, as it does firm up which makes spreading hard to do.

Don't cut into the brownies until ganache has firmed up; I find it best to put the brownies into the fridge to speed this along; once the ganache is firm the brownies do not need to be kept in the fridge, though.

Superbowl Treats

I made Dorie's blonde brownies and chocolatey football bites for the Superbowl and they were both so easy and good!

Chewy, Chunky Blondies

(Source: Baking From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature

1 1/2 cups (packed) light brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

6 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate , chopped into chips (or 1 cup store bought chocolate chips) I used 1 cup of store-bought chips

1 cup butterscotch chips or Heath Toffee Bits I omitted these and added an extra 1/2 cup of store-bought chips

1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts I used pecans

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut I omitted this b/c Casey hates coconut =)

Center rack in the oven and preheat oven to 325 degrees. Butter (I use Pillsbury flour baking spray) a 9x13 inch baking pan and put it on a baking sheet.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Beat butter on medium speed until smooth and creamy. Add both sugars and beat for another 3 minutes, or until well incorporated. Add the eggs one by one, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. Reduce mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing just until they disappear into the batter. Using a rubber spatula, stir in the chips, nuts and coconut. Scrape batter into prepared pan and even out the top the best you can.

Bake for 40 minutes or until knife inserted into the center comes out clean. The blondies should pull away from the sides of the pan a little and the top should be a nice honey brown Transfer the pan to a rack and cool for about 15 minutes before turning the blondies out onto another rack. Invert onto a rack and cool the blondies to room temperature right side up.

Chocolatey Football Bites

(Source: Kraft)

6 squares Baker's semi-sweet chocolate

1/2 cup light corn syrup

1 tbsp. butter or margarine

1/2 tsp. vanilla

4 cups cocoa sweetened rice cereal

white decorating gel

Microwave chocolate, corn syrup, and butter in large microwaveable bowl on high 2 1/2 minutes, stirring after 1 1/2 minutes. Stir in vanilla.

Add cereal; mix well. Cool 10 minutes. Shape into 18 (3-inch long) footballs with moistened hands. Place on large sheet of wax paper and cool completely.

Use decorating gel to add laces. Let stand until gel is firm.

Oreo Truffles

I've seen this recipe floating around and it seems like almost everyone has either made these or at least tried them, except me. I don't really need anymore holiday candy (I have peanutbutter blossoms and two huge pans of fudge in the kitchen) but I was curious. These are GOOD. They are also very rich, so I think the 1/4 of one I had will sustain me for the next week. I've seen variations of this recipe, but I ended up using Vicki's recipe over at Vicki's Healthy Eats and Sinful Treats.

1 lb of Oreos

8 oz. of cream cheese, room temperature

1/2 tsp. vanilla extract

1 lb of milk chocolate (I used chocolate bark)

1/2 lb of white chocolate (I used white chocolate bark)

Grind cookies to a fine powder in food processor.

Blend cream cheese, cookie powder, and vanilla together with a mixer.

Roll into small balls and place on a cookie sheet lined with wax paper. Insert a toothpick into the middle of each ball and freeze until firm.

Dip balls into melted chocolate and remove toothpicks. Drizzle with white chocolate and decorate while still soft. Refrigerate until hardened.

Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake

I let Casey pick which cake recipe he wanted for his birthday (it was on the 17th) and he glanced through my Google Reader and found this recipe for Paula Deen's strawberry cake. I got this recipe from Celeste over at Sugar and Spice. It's a pretty easy recipe (it actually uses a box cake mix) and it's verryyy good. I hope he enjoyed it!

(Source: Paula Deen)

1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
1 (3-ounce) box strawberry flavored instant gelatin
1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water
Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease and flour 2 round 9-inch cake pans.

In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans, and cool completely on wire racks.

Spread Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting in between layers and on top and sides of cake.

Garnish with sliced fresh strawberries, if desired.


Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract (I used vanilla extract instead)
7 cups confectioner's sugar

Apple Turnovers

Holy amazing these were good, but extremely rich. They are composed of butter, bread, sugar, and moutain dew (and of course apples) which explains the richness. I barely got a picture b/c I wanted one as soon as it was out and while they were still hot. I gave them away, don't worry. I still had one to satisfy my craving though. It was worth it.

Check out Pioneer Woman's blog for the recipe and browse through her other recipes.. they're all amazing! She's not afraid of butter though, just as a reminder.

TWD: Chocolate Chunkers

This was my first Tuesday's with Dorie and I'm actually posting this on a Wednesday since I was gone all day yesterday. I'll be posting these on a Tuesday from now on, which is the whole point of TWD. There is a recipe picked every week and you must bake 2 out of every 4 recipes. It's a pretty cool way for me to try to improve baking. I don't think I'm a bad baker, I just know how many more variables go into baking and it's a bit more temperamental than cooking dinner for example.

This week was Chocolate Chunkers and they were really good. I probably wouldn't have made them if I was picking out a recipe on my own (which is another reason I'm doing this), but they turned out really well. Just like with the rest of my baking, I gave these away. Casey's co-workers are looking fordward to my TWD and for the record the entire bag of cookies was gone by the end of the day.

Chocolate Chunkers
(Source: Baking: From My Home to Yours by Dorie Greenspan)

1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 3 pieces
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, coursely chopped (I did 4 oz and then 2 of milk choc)
1 ounce unsweetened chocolate, coarsely chopped
2 large eggs, at room temperature
2/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup store-bought semi-sweet chocolate chunks
1 cup store-bought milk chocolate chunks
1 1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts (I used pecans)
1 cup moist, plum raisins (I omitted these)

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray baking sheets with Baker's Joy.

Sift together the flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder.

Set a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Add butter, bittersweet chocolate and unsweetened chocolate and heat, stirring occasionally, just until melted (chocolate should be smooth and shiny). Remove bowl from heat and set on counter to cool.

Mix eggs and sugar in a large bowl on medium-high speed for about 2 minutes, until pale and foamy. Beat in vanilla and scrape down bowl. Reduce mixer to low and add melted chocolate mixture and mix just until incorporated. Scrape down bowl and then on low speed add dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients disappear into the dough. Your dough should be thick and shiny. Scrape down bowl and mix in semi-sweet and milk chocolate chunks and raisins.

Drop dough by generous heaping tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets with about an inch between mounds of dough.

Bake cookies one sheet at a time for 10-12 minutes. The cookies will look dry but the interiors should be soft (mine were like gooey brownies on the inside, so good!). Using a spatula lift the cookies onto a cooling rack to cool to room temperature. My cookies were more mound like because I froze my dough. I always freeze cookie dough b/c I like for my cookies to be thicker and chewier as opposed to thinner. These were great!

Butter Cake with Cocount Cream Cheese Icing

This is the cake I baked for my sister's birthday. I got the butter cake recipe from the Joy of Baking and the icing recipe from Epicurious. The butter cake is not a cake that rises a lot (and the recipe warns you of that) but it had a really good flavor and the cake was really moist. I definitely plan on using this cake recipe again. The icing I used was meant to spread on top of a sheet cake so it probably wasn't the best idea to use for a layer cake and also the coconut flavor wasn't as prominent as I was expecting. I ended up increasing the powdered sugar in the recipe and adding more cream of coconut but I never got the coconut flavor I was looking for. The icing was good, don't get me wrong, just not really what I was expecting and I probably should've used a thicker icing in order to layer. It just ended up tasting more like cream cheese icing which was still good.

In the recipe it tells you to smooth out the cake batter to be even and I kind of semi-spread the cake like I usually do and it settles in the oven. This batter is so much thicker that it's very important to have the batter even when it goes into the oven. I also let the eggs, butter, and milk set out until room temperature. The modifications I made to the icing were that I added an additional 1/3 cup of powdered sugar and 1 tbsp. of cream of coconut. I tripled the recipe.

Yellow Butter Cake
(Source: Joy of Baking)

6 large egg yolks
1 cup milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups sifted cake flour
1 1/2 cups granulated white sugar
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
12 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature and cut into pieces

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray two 9-inch cake pans with Bakers Joy, line bottoms with parchment paper, then spray again with Bakers Joy. Set aside.

In a medium bowl lightly combine the egg yolks, milk, and vanilla extract.

With hand or stand mixer, combine the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder and salt) and mix on low speed for about 30 seconds or until blended. Add the butter and remaining 3/4 cup milk. Mix on low speed until the dry ingredients are moistened. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for about 2 minutes to aerate and develop the cake's structure. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. Gradually add the egg mixture, in 3 additions, beating about 30 seconds after each addition to incorporate the egg.

Divide the batter and pour into the prepared pans, smoothing the surface with an offset spatula. (Pans will be about half full.) Bake 25 to 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean and the cake springs back when pressed lightly in center.

Place the cakes on a wire rack to cool, in their pans, for about 10 minutes. Then invert the cakes onto a greased rack. To prevent splitting, reinvert cakes so that tops are right side up. Cool completely before frosting.

Coconut Frosting
(Source: Epicurious)

3 oz cream cheese, softened
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup confectioners sugar I added an additional 1/3 cup to increase thickness
3 tablespoons well-stirred canned cream of coconut (not coconut milk) I added an additional tablespoon
1 teaspoon dark rum (optional) I used vanilla extract instead
1/3 cup sweetened flaked coconut

Beat together cream cheese and butter in a bowl using cleaned beaters at medium speed until smooth. Reduce speed to low, then add confectioners sugar, cream of coconut, and rum (if using) and mix until combined. Increase speed to high and beat until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Frost cake and sprinkle with flaked coconut.