Loaded Banana Bread

My dear, sweet Benny (2 years old) is really into bananas.  

His love of bananas runs deep.Yet, the depth of said love lasts only 

about 3 bites per banana and then he refuses to touch the half eaten 

banana again. And we must start over with another whole banana. 

Lordy. 

I, being the practical 'thou shall not waste a perfectly

 good half of banana' mama that I am, 

started storing the remaining bananas in a container in the 

refrigerator and decided it was high time I create a go to banana recipe. 

So Benny, keep up the good work, I could eat this goodness all year long!

This recipe will yield 2 large loaf pans of outrageous 

quick bread or ~32 large scoop muffins. 

What you need:

1 cup of butter (soft)

4 eggs

2/3 cup sour cream

1 cup granulated sugar

2/3 cup brown sugar 

1 tsp pure vanilla extract

With an electric hand mixer (or stand mixer) blend the above ingredients

4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp fine sea salt

2 tsp baking soda 

Place dry ingredients in a sifter

5 ripe bananas (peel and mush finely with a fork) yields ~2 cups

1 cup finely chopped raw pecans

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

2/3 cup shredded, unsweetened coconut (+ additional 1 cup for topping)

 Sift the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients in three heats.  

That way the wet dry integrates very well.  I always hand

mix at this point, as to not over mix.

Fold in the banana

 Fold in the pecans, coconut and chocolate chips

Use a large scoop if you are going the muffin route, otherwise 

coconut oil two large loaf pans.

For muffins I am borderline obsessed with parchment muffin

liners.  They do not stick to the muffins, like the fluted cups

sometimes do and they look so dang cute, which is obvy 

important!  I buy them in big bunches on the internet.

here's a little picture from an old post.  After coating

the pan with coconut oil, cut a piece of parchment paper

for each pan, allowing a bit higher up the sides, so after

baking you can run a knife along the two shorts sides

of the pan, then use the parchment like handles to lift the 

bread out, and transfer it to a cooling rack.  

Top with a good sprinkle of coconut 

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes if baking muffins and I would

guess at least one hour to one hour and 15 minutes for 

the loaf pans.  Make sure you do the toothpick check!!

Although them to cool a bit and then get your gobble on!!

 Benny Approved!!

Enjoy!

xo

Chocolate-Peanut Butter-Pretzely 'Easter Eggs'

I was spreading peanut butter on some crackers for my little sweets, remembering 

that peanut butter crackers are the second best thing to peanut butter pretzels 

(in the peanut butter department).  Well thank the lawdy for some little elves living 

in a tree, as they were wise enough make straight up pretzel crackers...not pretzel thins.  

These are pretzel on one side and butter cracker on the other.  Amazing!  Of course 

I then remembered that chocolate makes almost anything better, 

so I give you my 'gas station style' Easter egg treat!

What you need:

pretzel crackers

peanut butter

semi-sweet chocolate chips

On a nonstick surface (parchment paper or Silpat)

place crackers, pretzel side down, and spread with

peanut butter.

 

Pop the chocolate chips in the microwave for 25 seconds at a time,

this is after 2 spins in the microwave (stirring after 25)

This is after the third spin in the microwave (3-25 second spins)

This is after the fourth spin in the microwave (4-25 second spins)

For every peanut butter cracker, you need a cracker mate.  Spread

the melted chocolate on the cracker side of each mate.

Sandwich the chocolate cracker with the peanut butter cracker.

Same chocolate melting steps, but 3-25 second spins in the microwave,

as I melted less chocolate.  Transfer melted chocolate to a bottle.  I have

a few squirt bottles, one from the grocery store (pictured), and a couple

from a baking/restaurant supply store...you can even find them at a 99 cent 

shop. I only let the chocolate fall to the bottom of the bottle, for this pic.  

otherwise, I work  to keep it at the top, filling bottle on it's side...it is easier 

than knocking the bottle on the counter until all the chocolate is back at the top...

which you want before 'decorating the eggs', to avoid air bubbles.

No rhyme or reason to the 'decorating'...just make sure the chocolate

is at the top of the bottle to avoid air bubbles.

After each 'egg' had a bit of decoration, I popped the tray in the 

refrigerator.  An hour later the chocolate was set.

Reason #24 that you need to raid the kitchen aisle at TJ Maxx...

a ceramic egg tray! 

Funky Dipped Pretzels...OMGeezy these are Easy!

We all have a friend who pays a cople dollars a pop, for a dipped pretzel rod...

what a rip off!  These tasty treats are so easy to make!  

What you need to create these treats:

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

22 pretzel rods

Then all the goodies you can think up for topping the dripped pretzel rods...there are no limits to the possibilities!  My little sous chef (Logan) and I whipped these up while Zac and our friends from MN are up mountain, skiing for the day.  I just know they will love the Samoa-esque (yes, the Girl Scout cookie) goodies we top the chocolate pretzel rods with.  

 Fill a sauce pan with a couple inches of water,

then place a glass or stainless steel bowl over the sauce pan.

Make sure the bottom of the bowl does not touch the water.

Over medium heat, slowly melt 1 and 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate chips.

(if you don't have a way of doing this, pop the chips in the
microwave, but be diligent...20 second intervals in the
microwave, and give a stir after each interval.)

Stir often. Be patient. You don't want to rush the

process, or the chocolate will burn.

 Heat until completely smooth.  Remove the

bowl from the sauce pan.

Stir 1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips into the melted 

chocolate.  This will help temper the chocolate (this is not
the proper way to temper, but it works just fine for this treat!).

 

I placed sweetened coconut flakes in a dry saute pan and toasted

over medium heat, keeping them moving in the pan with a fork.

Keep a watchful eye on the pan as the oils and sugars from the 

coconut will go from toasted to burnt in a jiffy.  

 After I removed the toasted coconut from the pan, I put in some

chopped raw pecans (yes, I recognize these are not in the beloved

cookies, but I think they make for a legit dipped pretzel).  Use

the same technique as for browning the coconut, as the pecans will

also go from lightly toasted to burnt wildly fast!

For the caramely goodness of the Samoa cookie, I decided to use

Heath Bits-o-Brickle (which is just the toffee bits, no chocolate...you 

will find the bag of bits in the same area as chocolate chips at the market)

All the goodies, ready for assembly!

Dip the pretzel, using a spoon to coat and then using the spoon to 

drag off excess chocolate.

If your chocolate starts to set up in the bowl, as you 

are working on dipping the pretzels, pop the bowl

in the microwave for 10 seconds, or pop the bowl 

back on the double boiler to make it smooth again.

Place the dipped pretzel on a Silpat or parchment

lined baking sheet.

Immediately sprinkle with the toppings.

The nice thing about me doing this, and working the 

kinks out before I share with you is that instead of sprinkling,

I ended up placing all the toppings on a plate and rolling the 

chocolate dipped pretzel in the goodies, then placed the 

fully dipped stick on the Silpat to set.  Easy Peasy!!! 

 

Allow the chocolate to set, and enjoy!

Report back the tasty treats you roll your dipped pretzels in!