Best Banana Bread Recipe EVER - Apple, Cinnamon, Raspberry, Banana Bread!

I love to experiment with conventional recipes and add and tweak them, just pretty much not follow recipes. Usually I have some successes and some less successes, but I almost never write the recipe down because I am lazy and I'm impatient, always off to find the next exciting concoction. This recipe however I stumbled onto - is so good I've made it several times, and tomorrow I will be serving it at my daughters 2nd birthday party, masquerading as a cupcake! So with all this in mind I made sure I got a very clear perfectly followable recipe to share with everyone. Seriously make this bread, you will not be disappointed!

Preheat oven for 340

Bread Loaf: 40-50 minutes.

24 cupcakes: 27 minutes

                                                        1/2 Stick Butter (Room Temp)

                                                        2-3 Very ripe bananas (chopped)

                                                        2 Eggs

                                                        2/3 cup Sugar

                                                        1 tbsp Cinnamon*

                                                        1/2 tbsp Nutmeg*

                                                        1 Fuji Apple (pealed and diced)

                                                         Lemon Juice (drip on apple pieces)

                                                        1 1/3 Cup Flour

                                                        3/4 tsp salt

                                                        1/2 tsp baking soda

                                                        1/4 tsp baking powder

                                                        15 Raspberries (broken into smaller pieces) 

Combine butter, bananas and eggs, mashing up bananas so there are no large pieces. Add sugar, *1/2 the cinnamon and *1/2 the nutmeg, mix together. 

  Then add apple pieces.

In another bowl combine the flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, the remaining cinnamon and remaining nutmeg, whisking together to combine well. Pour into wet ingredients and stir til it comes together.

 Fold in the raspberry pieces. The raspberry is great in this so feel free to add a few extra.

 

Put in greased loaf pan or lined muffin pan. I filled the liners almost to the top - they puff up good at that level. OPTIONAL: Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture on top of either loaf or muffin/cupcake to get a sweet crispy top. Good without it too!

With cinnamon

Without Cinnamon

Mmmmmm

Best served fresh and a little warm, but its amazing out of the fridge too! HOPE YOU ENJOY!

Zucchini/Blueberry/Oat Muffins - Only 140 Calories per Muffin!

Hey Everyone,

Its been a while, but here is another yummy, low-calorie recipe for you!

I love Zucchini bread, and I love Blueberry/Oat Muffins, so I figured, why not put it all together, get a lot of your food groups, and a tasty treat, plus something to help get your kids to eat veggies without even knowing it!

Here is the breakdown:

Started off by buying 1 &1/2 cups of Rolled-oats at Whole Foods, pulsing them in my blender for a minute it they were semi powder, semi granulated, semi oaty. Added them to 1 cup of milk. Add a bit of cinnamon/nutmeg/allspice and orange zest and let sit for 30 minutes. Softens up the oats and thickens up a bit.

In another bowl add the brown sugar and the white sugar, the eggs (1 whole and 1 just white), vanilla, applesauce, oil and grated zucchini and mix until well incorporated.

In YET another bowl mix dry ingredients: flour, more cinnamon, nutmeg, all-spice, baking powder, and baking soda, and whisk.

Mix Oat mixture and Zucchini mixture together, and slowly incorporate the dry ingredients. Line muffin pan with liners and lightly spray with baking spray. (may not be ness).

Bake at 400 degrees for about 20-22 minutes!

VOILA! Delicious, nutritious and low calorie goodies for you and the whole family!

ENJOY!
Thanks for reading!
-Kela

Reese's Peanut Butter Cup inspired Cake!

Recently I was asked to create a birthday cake for my father in-law and after thinking about the man at great length, I came up with this idea: A Birthday Cake that looks, tastes and feels like a Reese's Peanutbutter Cup!

Not being a super savvy baker - I started off with some boxed items and tinkered a bit to get personalized and where I wanted it to be.

Basically I took these boxed cake mixes cooking them as directed except in place of the oil I put in a blend of crunchy and creamy peanut butter, I had to add a tiny bit of vegetable oil to make it blend.

I was surprised how well it worked, the cakes came out light, fluffy, with a nice hint of peanut-butter. If I could say anything, I wish it could taste MORE like peanut-butter. But more will be coming into the recipe so just wait. I added the peanut-butter to both the yellow and chocolate cake.

Now for the fun part - while these cakes are cooling - make your chocolate ganache! I thought ganache would be hard to make, but after finding this recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/chocolate-ganache/ (minus the rum cause that would be weird in a Reese's cake) I realized not only is is super easy, its fun and amazingly delicious!

I used the Ghirardelli Semi-Sweet chocolate chips, and heavy whipping cream as directed, if you melt the chocolate first and add the heavy cream to that, it will seize up a bit and take longer to incorporate, so I really recommend following the directions exactly adding the warm cream to the cold chips, works like a champ! And frankly its easier that way anyway! Now I didn't do this, but I might recommend adding a little bit of PB to this mix too, just to really cement home that PB & Chocolate flavor.

Next I made a peanut butter and chocolate chip ganache - same recipe as above, just use the pb/chocolate chip package shown below (or one like it). I also added fresh pb as well, makes it a little softer and spreadable which is nice when icing a cake.

At this point you can do one of two things. You can use the warm ganache as a dippy sauce - its quite possibly the most delicious liquid ever created. Creates a shiny, amazing topping to cupcakes or fruit or whatever.

Just dip it in and let it set (if you cool it, it becomes a sort of hard chocolate shell, or eat it warm, both are tasty!)

Or you can put the bowl of warm ganache to the side, and let it cool a bit, then whip it up and use it as a frosting. 

Slice your chocolate cake in half, and trim the peanut-butter cake so you have a nice flat surface:

Spread on the peanut butter and chocolate ganache generously as you layer:

Then to get it to look more like a Reese's Cup - trim up the sides at an angle. Now I did mention that my baking skills are not spectacular so know that you can do this, and you may even do it better then I did! 

Used the whipped up Semi-Sweet chocolate ganache as frosting and do a nice even coat around the whole thing. Smoothing it out the best you can. keep in mind as its out to the air it will dry, and get harder to work with, so move quickly - also if you put it in the fridge or cool it TOO much it will also firm up quicker then you might like. I had put mine in the fridge in hopes to get it fluffier, but it sort of separated slightly, so just FYI.

And no that isn't some weird naked chick behind the cake, its my sister in a nude colored shirt, didn't even realize she was in the shot til later, and decided it was artistic and fun, so enjoy that. 

The last step is to pipe a bit of decoration around the cake using the peanut-butter and chocolate ganache, to simulate the Reese's look. My piping skills are even worse then my baking skills, but I think it came off looking pretty good!

And there you go! A Reese's Inspired Cake! :D

ENJOY!

Death By Garlic Bread - For a splurge!

I know it's super unhealthy, but sometimes you just got to have a big Italian dinner and say to hell with it! At least I do. :) I have a pretty intense recipe for garlic bread that is a HUGE family favorite, so I thought I should share. It is really garlicy, but more then just that, its herby, buttery, cheesey, and not soggy!

Here's how I do it:
Take french bread, and cut into nice servable sized slices for garlic bread. Sprinkle with a little Parmesan and pepper. The Parmesan will help to absorb the butter so it doesn't make the bread soggy, plus add a salty element.  Place on an oven safe dish. I used a glass pyrex casserole dish as it keeps them upright with the sides, but as long as you cut it pretty straight it should be fine.

 In a saucepan melt one stick of unsalted butter over low heat, just want it to gently melt. When it is all melty, add an obscene amount of garlic, I used about 2 whole garlic balbs, probably like 15+ cloves, you really can't make too much! Add some fresh chopped basil, a little pepper, a tiny bit of red chili flakes are optional if you want a little more spice, but trust me the garlic will be a bit spicy on its own. Don't cook it long, just a minute or so to bring it all together, it will cook a little in the oven, and if you over do it, it will come out less flavorful.

 I used a tablespoon to carefully get nice spoonfuls of mostly garlic/herb leaving much of the butter in the pan, as to not immediately soggy the bread. Remember the Parmesan will help with that too, but only if you hurry to get it in the oven.  Once you've gotten a good amount of the garlic/herb mix onto the bread, drizzle each slice with a bit of the left over butter.

 Put in the oven on broil and for 5 minutes or until lightly brown and has come together happily.  Let cool for a minute or two before serving.  Best while its still pretty hot though.

 Serve with your favorite italian dinner, here it is with my homemade turkey spaghetti, a Caesar salad and some yummy Pinot!

Remember it's not super healthy to eat like this all the time, but once in a while is good for the soul. ;)

Hope you enjoy!
Kela