Crunchy Cornflake Cookies

I ate a  cornflake cookie at a cafe when we lived in Oklahoma and it was 

love at first bite!  I threw this recipe together almost 5 years ago, 

and the taste is deliciously spot on! These cookies are loaded with some 

of the best pantry goodies imaginable, so of course they are certain to be a hit!

 What you need:

 1 cup Butter, soft

1/2 cup + 2T Oil

1 cup Granulated Sugar

1 cup Brown Sugar

2 Eggs

2 cups Cornflakes

1 cup Quick Oats

1 cup Raw Pecans

1/2 cup Shredded Coconut (unsweetened)

3 1/2 cups AP Flour

1 T Baking Soda

3/4 tsp Salt

2 tsp Pure Vanilla Extract

1/4 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Place the oats, coconut and pecans in a food processor fitted with the

sharp blade. Pulse until consistency of large crumbs.

I feel certain we over pulsed the three ingredients as I had eager helpers

in the kitchen, after their soccer game. Wouldn't have it any other way!

Next, pulse in the cornflakes until bits of cornflakes appear throughout.

Then set the food processor aside

In the green bowl are the wet ingredients whipped together: butter, oil,

eggs, granulated sugar, brown sugar and pure vanilla extract. I use an 

electric hand mixer to blend the wet ingredients.

In the sifter, awaiting a sift, are the dry ingredients: AP flour, 

salt, baking soda and cinnamon.

Slowly sift and hand mix the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. 

Then fold in cornflake crumble goodness.

 Use a small scoop (this is ~2 T scoop, but you could do as small as 1 T)

Line 12 on a parchment lined baking sheet and press the dough 

balls flat with clean finger.  

Bake for ~13 minutes in a 325 degree oven.

Remove the cookies from the oven, then edges should be a tad 

darker in color than the centers.  Allow the cookies to cool for 

a minute on the baking sheet, then transfer to a wire rack 

for complete cool.

Enjoy. 

xo

Deluxe Banana Bread

I am so happy to be blogging again!!!  So much to catch up on.  For instance, WE HAVE A KITCHEN AGAIN...wooo hoooo!  It is totally fabulous, and the transformation still gives me goosebumps (promise the before and after will be shared soon!).  But, most importantly, I CAN GET MY BAKE ON, again.  Finally.  Phew, this has been a long couple of months! I wasn't planning on blogging this recipe, just yet...but it turned out perfectly the first go (yay) so many apologies on the lack of pictures/picture quality.

I decided to make banana bread because I had some ripe bananas on hand.  As soon as I grabbed the bananas, I decided I wanted to add some more goodies to the quick bread, to kick it up a notch. Here's the recipe:

• 1 3/4 cups sugar
• 1 cup butter, room temperature
• 2 T. coconut oil (if you don't have coconut oil, canola would work just fine)

CREAM THE ABOVE INGREDIENTS, THEN ADD:  

• 1 cup sour cream
• 1 tsp pure vanilla extract
•  4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 2/3 c. grated carrot (I used a fine microplane, but a standard grate would work as well), set the wet mixture aside.

IN A SEPERATE BOWL, SIFT TOGETHER THE FOLLOWING:

• 4 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon 

SLOWLY ADD THE DRY MIX TO THE WET INGREDIENTS.  WHEN FULLY INCORPORATED FOLD IN:

• 3/4 cup quick oats
• 3 T. flax seeds
• 1/2 cup dried blueberries

Divide the batter into OILED AND PARCHMENT LINED loaf pans (I made 5 medium size loaf pans, with this recipe).  Then sprinkle a mixture of  2 PARTS OATS AND 1 PART BROWN SUGAR on top of each batter loaf.   I used old-fashioned oats, because I like the look and thought a touch of crunch on the top would be delish.  Quick oats would work just fine though too. 

Bake at 350 degrees (if you are doing small loaves, start checking at 25 minutes, if you are doing a large loaf pan start checking at 45 minutes).  Add additional time until the center of the bread is cooked through.

Here you can see how the parchment paper peeks out

the 2 long sides of the loaf pan.  Makes bread extraction,

after cooling, very simple.  Just run a butter knife along the

2 short sides of the pan and use the parchment like handles

to lift the bread out.  Easy Peasy!

I packed up the loaves for a daddy/daughter camping trip that Zac and Logan
were heading out on this weekend with friends.  So, I labeled a piece of parchment
with the add-in ingredients, and slipped it under the loaves in the storage container. 
 

Enjoy!