Thursday, July 3, 2014

Banana Bread & Oatmeal Cookies

Today's recipe share is a two-fer! I'll be sharing with you my absolute favorite Banana Bread Recipe and my favorite Oatmeal Cookie recipe.

My banana bread recipe comes from my best friend back home, Mike. Back in high school and college, he would have summer parties every week, where all our friends would get together and catch up on our weekly happenings. One week he had made this banana bread and I still remember thinking, "This is the BEST banana bread I have ever had!!" My mom had her own recipe when I was growing up, and while that was good, Mike's recipe is great!

Is your mouth watering yet in anticipation? ;)

Here's a preview of what you get:


So this is the loaf I made yesterday... and accidentally took out of the pan too early... and I realized I totally forgot to take a picture of the first loaf I made last week. I really need to work on taking more pictures if I expect to blog so much!!

But doesn't that still look delicious??

Here are all the ingredients you need:

Banana Bread with Walnuts (Optional)
     3 ripe bananas
     1 cup sugar
     1 egg
     1 stick butter
     1.5 cups all purpose flour
     1 tsp baking soda
     1 pinch salt
     1 tsp cinnamon
     1 cup unchopped or 1/2 cup finely chopped walnuts

Mix the bananas, sugar, and egg. Add the butter. Gradually add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Fold in the walnuts last. Grease a load pan and bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees.


I started with the butter, egg, and bananas. You want to mash them up well. The first loaf I made, I used the spoon and my bananas weren't quite soft enough to get mashed completely, so I had some bananas chunks, but that's okay :) Yesterday, I used my handheld mixer and they beat up a little better. It's your personal preference.


Here's the goopy banana chunks:


Then mix in the sugar, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. I like adding the smaller quantity dry ingredients first to make sure they get mixed in equally.


Finally, you can add in the flour. I prefer to add flour last since it is the driest ingredient.


And you end up with something like this! It smells delicious with the banana and the cinnamon, and the butter flavor comes out too.


Finally, mix in the walnuts and then transfer to a greased bread tin:


Mmmm!!! I personally have found that turning the oven heat down to 325 and cooking for a few more minutes (usually 10-15) works out better for the bread. I kept having a browned outside, but very gooey inside if I cooked it for 60 minutes at 350 degrees. 

Yesterday, I tried substituting a half cup of wheat flour for the all purpose. I haven't had a full slice of that bread yet, but the crust that I tried tasted great with this modification! 

If you like banana bread and need a new recipe, try this one and let me know what you think please!

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies
     1.5 sticks butter
     3/4 cup granulated sugar
     3/4 cup light brown sugar
     2 eggs
     1 tsp vanilla extract
     1 tsp baking soda
     1/2 tsp salt
     1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
     3 cups oats
     1 3/4 cup chocolate chips

Mix the ingredients in order, starting with the wet ingredients. Place tablespoons of dough on baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes. The cookies may look slightly underdone but will finish cooking on the pan while it cools. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 



Looks so good!



If you were to follow my Recipe Board on Pinterest, you would find TONS of dessert recipes. Surprisingly, I found this oatmeal cookie recipe on the butterscotch chip bag. There's a reason why Hershey publishes recipes on their products - they're really good! Although these cookies are amazing with the butterscotch chips, I didn't have any on hand so today's cookies featured a mix of white and dark chocolate chips.
A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.
Usually I can hold myself to two cookies, pretty sure I ate five yesterday :[
You won't be disappointed, I promise :)


Readers: What's your favorite type of cookie?


2 comments:

  1. Next time you buy cinnamon try Saigon cinnamon. It is a bit pricy, but I promise you ,you never use anything else. Worth it's weight in gold. There is also roasted Saigon cinnamon, it is more robust. I keep both on hand. chatty cathy" Nana

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    Replies
    1. I've never heard of saigon cinnamon, I'll have to look for it!

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