Foodie Friday -- Banana Nut Bread

Yeah, yeah, don't fall off your chair just because I'm finally posting a Foodie Friday blog post.

It all started when I bought a bunch of bananas. And they ripened. Quickly, too quickly. I had four that were seriously overripe and I needed to do something with them. Previously, I would peel, slice and freeze them for smoothies, but I didn't want to have a bunch of bananas in the freezer.

So I dug out my mom's banana bread recipe.

Besides, I wanted to try out my Mother's Day gift--Temp-tations Bakeware.

Here's the recipe:

Banana Nut Bread

2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
3 Tbls. sour milk or buttermilk
1 cup mashed bananas
2 cup flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup chopped nuts

Thoroughly mix together sugar, shortening and eggs. Stir in milk and bananas. Mix dry ingredients together and stir in. Blend in nuts. Pour into well-greased 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf pan. Let stand 20 min before baking. Bake 60-65 minutes at 350 degrees until done.

Hints & Suggestions:

• check for doneness by inserting toothpick into center of loaf. Gooey on the toothpick means it needs to cook longer
• spread the raw dough to the edges, indenting the center--if you want it to be more even than the poofy one I turned out.
• my loaf pan was slightly smaller than the recommended size--adjust the cooking time, as needed
• Other fruit can be used: apples, finely diced, or canned pumpkin, but you might want to add spices: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, etc.

Enjoy!
Later, Peeps

Breakfast Apple Cake--redo

I woke up at the abominable hour of 3:20 AM. I lay in bed until I decided that I wasn't getting back to sleep again and proceeded to haul my sorry a$$ out of bed at 4:05. After a cup of coffee, a little FB surfing and email reading, I decided to read a couple of chapters of THE HOBBIT. This is about the gazillionth time I've read this story, but I needed to read my new copy prior to the release of the first movie due out in Dec 2012. I also organized my WW blog posts so I can get to town on my non-fiction story.

Sometime during these last two hours, I decided to make Breakfast Apple Cake for the family. Usually, they wake up around 8:00-8:30 and want a coffee cake for breakfast. I usually have to break it to them that coffee cake tends to take 45-60 min. to bake, then they opt for pancakes. This time I'm thinking ahead! I had everything on hand, except raisins, but I'm not much of a raisin fan so no loss.

Plus my poor kidlet has been fighting a cold all week and this was the first day she could actually sleep past 6:10.

When I went to link the recipe to the title, I realized that the one posted was the lower calorie one with Splenda and applesauce. If you want that recipe, here's the link.

Erm . . . here's the real recipe.

Breakfast Apple Cake

1 cup sugar
1 cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. baking soda
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup butter, melted (1 stick-nuked in 30 second intervals until melted)
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup raisins (omitted)
1 cup chopped nuts (pecans)
2 1/2 cups peeled apples, small diced (2 med. Granny Smith's green apples)
1 Tbls. vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 8 x 8 square pan with cooking spray.

Mix together sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Add melted butter (cooled), eggs and raisins. Fold in vanilla, nuts, and apples. Pour into prepared pan, spread flat. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean in center of cake.
It took about 35 min. in a glass Pyrex dish in my gas oven.

FOODIE FRIDAY -- Spiced Pumpkin Nut Bread

I don’t really have a story about this recipe. I wanted a pumpkin bread recipe for the holidays. I searched on the Internet. And I found one that I liked. Simple. The Internet is a wonderful thing. I made this bread a few days ago. It cooked quicker than I expected--probably due to the dark loaf pans that I used--so it’s a good thing I tend to set my timers a little on the early side to check them. The bread has a nice moist texture to it.

Spiced Pumpkin Nut Bread

4 cups flour

1 Tbls. pumpkin pie spice
2 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
¾ tsp. salt
1 can (16 oz.) Libby’s 100% pure pumpkin
2 cups brown sugar, packed
1 cup apple juice
4 large eggs
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts, divided

Preheat oven to 350° degrees. Grease 2 (TWO) 9 x 5-inch loaf pans.

Sift flour, pumpkin pie spice, baking powder, baking soda and salt into medium bowl. Combine pumpkin, sugar, apple juice, eggs, oil and vanilla extract in large bowl, stir well. Stir in flour mixture and ¾ cup of nuts just until moistened. Spoon into prepared loaf pans. Sprinkle remaining ¼ cup of nuts over top of loaves.

Bake for 60 to 70 minutes or until wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes, remove loaves from pans to cool completely.

 Later, Peeps!

I have to pack up my Christmas stuff today. Hopefully, I'll be back 100% next week. If you haven't done it yet, you might want to look at your 2011 goals and see how you did. And think about your 2012 goals. Remember to keep your goals within YOUR power.

Getting started

Setting yearly goals