Sunday Sweetness: Super Easy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

You’ll notice in this week’s post, there are no pictures of my smiling children. That’s because I sold them they were too busy to help out today – there was a very important Wii game going on, apparently. That’s fine, because, let’s be honest, sometimes things take longer when kids are involved. I’m writing this on Saturday while trying to get too many things done at once: pack Beans for camp, get the house straightened up, finish sewing the binding on Bean’s quilt so she can take it to camp – and did I mention I’m running  The Boilermaker 15K on Sunday?

That’s why this recipe is great. You smush up the bananas, dump all the ingredients in a bowl, mix them up and then stir in the chips. Then bake. That’s it. Which is great, because that’s about all I have time for today!

Super Easy Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup mashed ripe banana (2 to 3 medium)
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• Heat oven to 350°F.

Grease bottom only of 9×5-inch loaf pan. Put all ingredients except chocolate chips and in a large bowl. Blend well, using medium speed. Stir in the chips. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake 60 to 65 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes; remove from pan. Cool completely on wire rack.

Full disclosure: I realized as I was typing these ingredients in that I actually used a whole stick of butter instead of a half. (That’s pretty typical of my “cooking.”) So mine was extra rich – but still delicious!

*This post was also featured as one of a bunch of yummy recipes on Sweet as Sugar Cookies!

Sunday Sweetness: Super Easy Oreo Bombs

These are just so…wrong. Oreos are my downfall. Honestly, I try not to even buy them because I can finish a row out of the package faster than you can say “Weight Watchers wha?!”

However. A friend, whose excellent cooking skills are apparently committed to getting me over my absolute loathing of cream cheese, brought these over for our little True Blood premiere party. They were almost as delicious tasting as Alex Skarsgaard is delicious looking. I knew I had to share. And readers, they take only three ingredients. Three.

I assure you, if you bring these to the next pot-luck you’re invited to – people will think you are a culinary genius.

Super Easy Oreo Bombs

1 – 16 oz package of Oreo’s
1 – 16 oz package of semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 – 8 oz block of cream cheese, softened

My little chef had a great time making these today. I'm not sure if he's cute enough, though.

Crush 9 of the cookies to fine crumbs in food processor – set aside. (Cookies can also be crushed in a resealable plastic bag using a rolling pin.) Crush the remaining 36 cookies to fine crumbs and place in large bowl. Add cream cheese and mix until well blended.

Roll cookie mixture into 42 balls, about 1-inch in diameter.

Melt the chips in a heat-proof bowl set over simmering water, or a double boiler. Dip balls in chocolate and place on wax paper-covered baking sheet. Sprinkle with reserved cookie crumbs.

Refrigerate until firm, about 1 hour. Makes sure you store these bad boys in the fridge in a sealed container.

If you try these, let me know!!

Sunday Sweetness: Magnolia Bakery Peanut Butter Cookies

In the interest of full disclosure, I should tell you that the kids wanted me to make a cake but I still haven’t fully recovered from my last cake disaster. (Read about that here.) I made an executive decision (5 loads of laundry a day and stretch marks give me that power ) to make a cookie, while easing my way toward another cake attempt.

I’m really enjoying writing these baking posts because it forces me to crack open cookbooks I may not have looked at recently ever. I bought the Magnolia Bakery Cookbook a while ago. I’m not sure I’ve ever baked anything out of it, to be completely honest. I’m a little bit of a cookbook hussy like that – I check them out, fondle them, take them home with me and then – nothing. Except for Ina Garten, I have totally had my way with her. Over and over again. I think I’ve made her Asian Chicken Salad about a hundred times, it’s that good.

Anywhoozle, the kids and I flipped through the Magnolia Bakery recipes and could not agree on a recipe. There may have been a few times “eww, gross” was uttered – which, frankly, I can’t understand in relation to a dessert. Ah, youth. I decided on the peanut butter cookies because they seemed pretty simple, which shouldn’t have posed too much of a challenge to my slim baking skills. That turned out to be not exactly correct.

First, the recipe:

Peanut Butter Cookies

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter (1 stick), softened
1 cup chunky peanut butter
3/4 cup and 1 tbs sugar (1 tbs for sprinkling)
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 tbs milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup peanut butter chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine in large bowl: flour, baking soda, baking powder, and the salt. Set aside.

In another large bowl (I used my stand mixer with the whisk attachment), beat the butter and peanut butter until smooth. Add the sugars, beat until smooth. Add the egg and mix well. Add the milk and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture and beat thoroughly. Stir in the peanut butter chips. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls onto cookie sheets. Sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Using a fork, press a criss-cross pattern into the cookie but don’t smush them flat.

Bake for 10-12 minutes. Do not overbake. Cookies may look underdone, but they’re not.

The girls helped me bake these babies, so I can’t exactly vouch for the precision of the ingredient measurements but I know that we ran out of regular sugar, so I threw in a little extra brown sugar and I didn’t have enough to sprinkle. Did I mention that I went to the grocery store this morning? And that I didn’t realize that I was out of sugar? I do, however, have 5 bags of flour. I also couldn’t find chunky peanut butter, only EXTRA chunky. So that was strike one.

Strike two? They seemed a little wet. There was no chance there was going to be any fancy criss-cross on top – the fork practically stuck to the cookies.

Strike three? I put three cookie sheets in the oven and the top one got a tad…browned.

BUT – in spite of all that – these cookies tasted great! Crazy, right? Peanut buttery, but not too sweet. (Because of the missing sugar?)

If I were to make these again, I would omit the sprinkled sugar and throw in some chocolate chips in place of half of the peanut butter chips. Really, isn’t everything made better by chocolate?

We all thought these were delicious. Give them a try and let me know what you think!

Sunday Sweetness: S’more Rice Krispie Treats

I think Sundays are the perfect day for lounging around the house and enjoying family time. Maybe while eating bon bons.

Ha.

Around here, Sundays consist of running to soccer games, more laundry and finishing up homework and last-minute house projects. Sundays already have that little tinge of dread happening, in anticipation of the dreaded Monday so I thought, what better way to counter-act that than by whipping up a special sweet?

My baking record is pretty spotty. I’m good with chocolate chip cookies, most of the time – I just follow the recipe on the Tollhouse bag. There was one truly tragic incident with a chocolate cake on Thanksgiving. The cake was so granular and gritty that it induced the gag response in those unfortunate enough to try a bite, an audience that of course, included my in-laws. It was like watching an accident in slow motion – I ate my bite first, recognized it for the culinary catastrophe that it was in seconds, but wasn’t fast enough in my reaction time to stop the others from suffering the same revolting fate. I imagine that’s what chocolate sand must taste like – if you scraped it off your feet first. It was humiliating and hilarious at the same time. Which, come to think of it, summarizes large portions of my life.

I assume that a domestic goddess has the ability to create mouth-watering delicacies at the wave of a spoon. Me, not so much. But, in my never-ending quest for domestic goddess status, allow me to present the first installment in Sunday Sweetness: S’more Rice Krispie Treats.

These are fairly straightforward to make (perhaps why I started with them?) – you just need to have everything ready to go because you need to work quickly once the marshmallows are smooth. Since half the prep takes place off the cooktop, it’s a great recipe to include the kids on.

S’more Rice Krispie Treats

1/2 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter

1 – 10 oz package of marshmallows

4 cups of Rice Krispies

2 1/2 cups of Golden Graham cereal

1 1/4 cups of chocolate chips

Coat the inside of a 9″ x 13″ baking pan with cooking spray. Heat the butter in a large NON-STICK saucepan over low heat until melted. Add the marshmallows and continue cooking, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the cereal and chips, mixing well. (Try not to crush the Golden Grahams.) Press the mixture into the pan evenly. (I find it easier to do this if my hands are a little wet.) Let mixture cool for at least 20 minutes before cutting into bars.

Recipe adapted from The Only Bake Sale Cookbook You’ll Ever Need by Laurie Goldrich Wolf and Pam Abrams.

These were super easy to make and yummy! The kids gave them two chocolate-covered thumbs up!