Banana Chocolate Chip Bread

I'm still adjusting to the transition from an electric oven to this gas oven. I think the temperature is a bit off... I need to buy an oven thermometer to confirm my guess. The reason that I think the temperature is off is that I slightly burnt the banana bread I made today.

I added chocolate chips to half of the batter (1/2 cup of chocolate chips). Banana bread with chocolate chips is a delicious thing. I advise you try it. It probably tastes better not burnt.

I'll start posting new recipes once I figure out how to not burn things!

New Kitchen

I had to patiently wait nearly a week before I could bake after moving. The oven wasn't lighting, so it couldn't heat up. Can't really do much with a cold oven. So these are the first cookies in my new kitchen. The first thing I have baked here, actually. Peanut butter cookies! 

I need to work on the lighting for pictures. The lighting right now is awful, but I don't care too much. I can use the oven! 

I have a decent amount of counter space, which is nice. And a shiny new mixer.

The mixer mixes quite well.

The dough is also nice.

I need some cookie sheets, but this worked out okay with the parchment paper.

I hope to update more often now that I should have more time to bake! 

Chex Muddy Buddies

Chex muddy buddies are something we used to make a lot. I would always stray from the directions a bit and add a lot more vanilla and powdered sugar than the recipe called for. You can find this recipe on pretty much any box of Chex cereal. I prefer to make it with the rice Chex.

Chex Muddy Buddies

1/4 C butter

1/2 C peanut butter

1 C chocolate chips

1 t vanilla

9 C Chex cereal

1 1/2 to 3 C powdered sugar

Place the Chex cereal into a large enough bowl. I used a 1.5 quart storage bowl (with a lid!). A lid is important.

Place the butter, peanut butter, and chocolate chips into a small sauce pan. Melt them together over medium heat, stirring frequently at first and constantly near the end. Don't burn the chocolate! 

Remove the pan from the heat and add the vanilla. I usually add double the amount of vanilla, but I rarely measure vanilla. Too much hasn't been a bad thing yet.

Pour this mixture onto the the cereal.

Stir it up a bit. Eventually get frustrated that you are breaking the cereal too much. Place the lid on the container and shake it for a bit. It is nearly impossible to get the cereal evenly coated, so don't worry about it. 

Remove the lid and pour the recommended 1 1/2 C powdered sugar on top of the coated cereal.

Replace the lid and shake for a bit. Flip the container upside-down in an attempt to evenly distribute the powdered sugar. This won't be coated enough. See? You can still see the chocolate coating; it's ridiculous.

Add some more powdered sugar and repeat the shaking process. Now it looks better.

Occasionally shake the container as the coated cereal cools to room temperature. You can eat this immediately after coating and continuously over the next few days. Everyone will be aware that you consumed some of this delicious mess, because spots of powdered sugar will be all over your shirt. 

Pumpkin Bread

Instead of pumpkin pie, I present you with pumpkin bread. And just in time for Thanksgiving! This bread is pretty amazing. It tastes just like pumpkin pie, but has a bread texture instead. The texture is similar to banana bread. So if you enjoy that sort of thing, you should absolutely try this.

I made this pumpkin bread a few weeks ago as a single loaf, but the middle remained a gooey mess. I made another attempt the following week, but split the batter between two bread pans, and it was a wonderful success. I can't remember where I found this recipe, I just remember that when I went back to check it, the website was down. If I find it again, I'll share the source.

Pumpkin Bread
2 1/2 C flour
2 1/2 t baking powder
3t cinnamon
2 t ginger
1/2 t cloves
1/4 t nutmeg
1 t salt
1 C brown sugar
1/2 C white sugar
1 1/2 sticks butter, melted and cooled
15 oz can of pumpkin
3 eggs
1 1/2 t vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and prep the bread pans

Place the first seven ingredients (flour, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, salt) into a bowl and whisk together. Set aside.

In another bowl, stir together the brown sugar, white sugar, and butter. Mix in the pumpkin, eggs, and vanilla.

Combine the contents of the two bowls together until just blended.

Split the batter between the two bread pans. You can put it all in one, but I didn't have success with that method. Don't let that stop you, though.

Bake for 45 minutes (2 pans) to 1 hour (1 pan). Test with a toothpick to determine doneness. (The toothpick test can lie, just so you know.)

Let cool for 15 minutes before removing from the bread pan.

Optional: Drizzle the bread with a simple glaze made from 1 cup powdered sugar, a bit of vanilla, and almost 2 tablespoons of milk. Be sure to place a paper towel under the cooling rack unless you want to scrub a sugary mess off your table/counter.

Chocolate sugar cookies with mint chips

I made these cookies again, but I changed the recipe a bit. I think they are a lot better now! I increased the amount of flour, swapped the butter for shortening, added a bit more salt, and completely neglected to measure the vanilla when I added it. (You can never have too much vanilla.) I will include the new recipe below.

Did you know that teaching is a very time consuming occupation? I have to write out lecture notes, create exams, and then, the most time consuming part, grade the exams and homeworks. And quizzes! So much grading. So much.

And that is why I haven't been updating too often. I haven't even really had time to bake lately. Until this past weekend, that is. I baked these delicious cookies again and both of the posted recipes of banana bread. I will let you know which version of banana bread is better, if I can figure that out.

Chocolate sugar cookies with mint chips (updated!)
1 C sugar
1/2 C shortening
1.5ish t vanilla
1 egg
2 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate, melted and cooled
1/2 to 1t salt
1 1/4 C flour
1 C Andes Creme De Menthe baking chips
Some sugar for pressing

The method follows the same as before (can be found here). It still only makes about 3 dozen cookies, which is probably plenty for most people.

Chicken & Rice Soup

Now that I've survived grading nearly 100 exams plus homeworks during the first exam week of the semester, I can get back to cooking and baking. I'm lucky that my phone has a super awesome camera or there would be no pictures. Technology isn't always my friend, but everything is working out fine so far.

Today was the first day of fall, so I wanted what I made to reflect that in some way. It was a rainy, cloudy, and cool day: a perfect day for soup. I've recently discovered that I enjoy chicken and wild rice soup, so I attempted to make some. I looked for a recipe online, but ended up combining bits and pieces of different recipes into my own version. It is essentially just chicken noodle soup with rice instead of  noodles. This makes a lot of soup, so feel free to cut the recipe in half!

The only problem I had with making this soup had to do with the rice. First, I had no idea they only sold itty-bitty boxes of wild rice and that each box was $5. I discovered this lovely fact at the grocery store. I decided to buy brown rice instead. And... then I burned the brown rice because I forgot to turn down the heat. I finally gave up and used minute rice.

Chicken & Rice Soup
6 C chicken broth
2 chicken breasts (more or less depending on how much meat you want)
1 C carrots, sliced
2 stalks celery, chopped
1/2 an onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 T butter
1 C long grain rice, uncooked
Salt & pepper to taste

When you cook the rice depends on what type of rice you are using. Cook the rice according to package directions and add to the chicken broth after everything else.

Boil the chicken breasts in the chicken broth until fully cooked. The length of time will vary depending on if the chicken has bone in or not.

Meanwhile, cut up the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic.

Melt the butter in a pan and saute the carrots, celery, onion, and garlic until the onion is tender. This will take about 10 minutes.

When the chicken is fully cooked, remove it from the chicken broth and cut or pull it to pieces. Return the pieces of chicken to the broth.

When the onion is tender from being sauteed, and the chicken is fully cooked and pulled apart, add the veggies to the chicken broth as well.

Add the fully cooked rice. Bring the soup to a low simmer to continue cooking the carrots. As you can see, I added way too much rice to my soup (1.5 cups instead of 1). It is more of a casserole now, but still delicious!

Eat while warm and enjoy!

Garlic Bread Sticks

I eat a lot of pasta. I could easily live on pasta. I enjoy pasta so much that I've even had pasta for breakfast many times. Besides the combinations of noodles and sauces, the bread that goes with the pasta is very important. Different sauces and noodles go better with different sorts of bread, although any freshly baked bread will be just fine.

I love the bread sticks from Olive Garden, so I wanted to give one of the many recipes online which claim to be "just like the real thing!" a try. I got this recipe from The Country Cook. They are delicious and relatively easy to make.


Garlic Bread Sticks
1 1/2 cups very warm water
1 package active dry yeast 

4 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, sotened

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon salt

Garlic Butter topping:

1/2 stick unsalted butter 

1 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon table salt

Proof the yeast in 1/4 cup of water with a bit of sugar until nice and foamy.

Place the sugar, salt, and butter in a bowl. My softened butter melted a bit, but that is okay!

Add the remaining 1 1/4 cup of warm water to the bowl of sugar, salt, and butter. Mix in one cup of flour.

Add the yeast and mix. Slowly add the remaining flour until a slightly sticky dough is formed.

Knead the dough until smooth.

Break the dough up into several pieces and roll these pieces into strips. The size and number of strips will depend on how many bread sticks you want and how big you want them.

Cover with a non-fuzzy towel and let rise until doubled in size.

While the dough is finishing it's rise time, preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

Bake the bread stick dough for 6 minutes. 

While the bread sticks are baking, melt the 1/2 stick of butter and mix it with the garlic powder and salt.

Remove the bread sticks from the oven and brush with the garlicy butter. Return bread sticks to the oven for an additional 6 minutes.


Remove the bread sticks from the oven and brush them with the garlicy butter yet again. 


Let cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

Quick Rolls

These rolls are quick to throw together... compared to the other dough that I have made. No kneading is required, so that is nice. You just mix up the ingredients, let it rise, make whatever shape of roll you want, and bake. The entire process still takes at least an hour and a half.

I didn't think these rolls had enough flavor, but other people absolutely loved them. Putting butter on them is a good idea. They would most likely go well with anything that tends to go well with bread or dinner rolls.

Quick Rolls

1 C milk

1/4 C sugar

1/4 C shortening or butter

1/4 C warm water

1 packet dry active yeast

1 egg, beaten

3 to 4 C flour, sifted

1 t salt

Scald the milk. Proof the yeast in the 1/4 C water (add 1/4 t sugar if you want).

Meanwhile, assemble the ingredients. Sift the flour into a bowl and put the butter/shortening, sugar, and salt into another bowl.

Pour the scalded milk into the bowl with the sugar. Stir until the butter/shortening melts almost completely. Let cool to lukewarm.

Add a cup or two of flour and stir until well mixed. Add the proofed yeast and stir.

Mix in enough flour to make a thick dough. This will take nearly 4 cups of flour and you may have to mix with your hands near the end.

Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a non-fuzzy cloth, and let rise until 3 times the original size (around an hour or so).

Shape the dough into a roll shape. I greased two muffin pans and made cloverleaf rolls (place 3 small balls of dough in each cup).

Bake at 375 degrees Fahrenheit until lightly browned.

Enjoy!

A frog! (not a recipe)

Notice the lack of posts lately? Yeah, sorry about that. A lot of recipe failures and prepping for teaching in a few weeks hasn't really motivated me to type up recipes.

Until the next recipe... enjoy a few pictures of a cute little frog who lives in the pond outside. Click the images to view them in a nifty larger size.

Tomato Soup Fail

I made some tomato soup from the tomatoes that my mother grew. The recipe was for "creamy tomato soup". It was the worst tasting tomato soup that I have ever tasted. I won't be sharing the recipe here. I see no need to inflict that flavor upon anyone else, intentionally or not. Here is a picture of the soup. It looked much better than it tasted.

I made some rolls to go with the soup. Those turned out okay. I'll post that recipe later this week.

Grandma's Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies

Finally! A new recipe! The delay in posting was caused by a few things. First, the power cord for my laptop decided to break in half. My laptop sadly does not operate on magic and needs electrons to function. Second, I picked up the textbooks that I will be using for teaching, so I've been busy over-preparing for the fall semester. The one book is just weird which makes the scheduling of what to teach when complicated.

Anyway...

These cookies aren't my grandma's sugar cookies, that is just the title of the recipe in the one cookbook. These cookies are very soft and they retain their softness. The sugary-ness isn't overwhelming, which is nice. You can frost these or just sprinkle them with sugar. I would try using a large crystal sugar and not a fine sugar like I used.

The recipe suggested rolling the dough out and cutting out cookies, but I just rolled the dough into balls and smushed them with a sugared glass. This recipe made around 5 dozen cookies. It will make more or less depending on what shape and size you want your cookies to be. The recipe was also lacking directions, so I'm not sure if I was supposed to let the milk mixture get sour before using it or not.

Grandma's Old Fashioned Sugar Cookies
2 C sugar
1 C shortening
2 eggs
1 t baking soda
1 t vinegar
Milk (almost 1 cup)
2 t baking powder
4-5 C flour

Cream together the shortening and sugar. I did this with a wooden spoon. Wooden spoons are the best kitchen utensil.

Add the eggs and mix until blended.

In a measuring cup, combine the baking soda and vinegar. Add enough milk to make 1 cup. Stir together. Slowly stir this into the sugar mixture. This will make it very thin.

Add 1 cup of flour to the mixture and stir. Add the baking powder and slowly add more flour, mixing between each addition. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Near the end, you may need to mix by hand.

Roll the cookie dough into balls and press with a sugared glass. Or roll out the dough on a floured surface, sprinkle generously with sugar, lightly press in the sugar, and cut into shapes. Or anything else you can think of doing to make a cookie shape.

Bake at 400 degrees Fahrenheit for 6-10 minutes, depending on the size of the cookies. The bottoms will start to brown, but the tops will not.

Cool for a minute and then remove to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Brownies

This is possibly the best tasting peanut butter dessert I've ever had. These brownies have the flavor of a salty peanut butter cookie while being chewy and moist like a brownie. The only change I will suggest is to make this in a smaller pan so the brownies are thicker.

In addition to the amazing taste, these are very simple to make. I mixed everything in a medium sauce pan with a wooden spoon. Just be sure to have a sink full of hot soapy water to toss measuring cups and such in as you are finished. This will speed up the cleaning time!

Peanut Butter Brownies (Printer-friendly PDF Version)

1/2 C unsalted butter

2 C brown sugar, packed

2 eggs

1 C flour

2 t baking powder

1 t salt

1 t vanilla

3/4 C peanut butter (smooth or crunchy)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Melt the butter over low heat in a medium sauce pan.

Remove the melted butter from the heat and stir in the brown sugar. Mix well.

Make sure the mixture is cool and then stir in the eggs. Just stir this until it seems combined.

Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir this into the sugary mixture.

Mix in the peanut butter and vanilla.

Spread the batter into a well greased 11x15 inch jelly roll pan.

Bake for 20 minutes or until done. If you are using a smaller pan, increase the bake time accordingly. Let cool for a few minutes before cutting.

Enjoy!