BANANAS muffins – with serious nana flavour

it’s strange for me to be sharing a muffin recipe because it seems that making muffins is all I do these days. why would that be strange for me then? well, most posts on the firdge are from food things I build here at home because I really like them. I of course love muffins, but they’ve become a work-associated food item as I make between 250 and 400 a week.
work or not, banana muffins are an essential in any baker/food preparer’s repertoire. these are dense, moist, and super-duper flavourful. I like them a lot.

before embarking on this, make sure you have 4 really ugly, super brown bananas, otherwise get out:
4 super ugly brown bananas, peeled
1/2 C oil
1/2 C milk
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp banana extract (this is essential!)
1/2 C white sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
2  1/2 C flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cinnamon

. crank yer oven to 375
. in a bowl, chuck in the bananas. mash them with a fork until they’re mostly just mush… or mash if you prefer
. add the eggs and give them a little whip with the end of a spatula

. add the oil, milk, and extracts and stir
. dump in the sugars and stir
. in another bowl, combine all the dry ingredients and wisk
. dump the dry into the wet and stir until just incorporated. remember it’s important not to overmix muffin batter because it will get very hard, very quickly. if there are some smaller bits of flour it’s ok, they will get absorbed during the baking process

. spoon the mixture into a greased muffin tin. I like big bulgey muffins, so I fill the cups to the top
. bake at 375 for 20-ish minutes or until they’re a light goldeny colour

. a couple minutes after they’ve come out of the oven, pop them out of the tins with your hands, or with a knife if they’re too hot, and get them into a big tupperware and slam the lid on them. this way they will steam a little and become sticky and moist, just like a banana! if you like your muffins to be less awesome, you could just let them cool in the pan and eat them dry-ish… maybe with butter though.
. also, these are craaaazy good with a cup of blueberries added in with the wet mix

enjoy your newfound bad-banana-user-uppers and how awesome your house smells after baking them!

 

Mint Cocoa Cookies – think chewy girl guide… oh my!

a while back I stumbled upon a very simple idea: mint chocolate cookies.

I was perusing the local downtown bakery, erwin’s, on a lunch break. I felt terribly lucky after sampling a few of these baddies: dark chocolate and a minty chewy/soft loveliness… the most basic, unflowery way I could describe these. anyway, since starting my new job at a coffee shop that shall remain nameless (though I’m sure lots of you know where and what it is) and overhauling the baked-goods menu, I knew I wanted something similar to this awesome cool-weather treat.
enough banter and on with the goods!

spread before you is:

1 1/4 C unsalted butter at room temp
2 C sugar
2 eggs, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp peppermint extract (for the love of god, not spearmint… unless you want toothpaste cookies…)
2 C flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt plus a little more… so more like 3/4 tsp
3/4 C to 1 C good cocoa, dutch processed works

. cream the soft butter with the sugar
. add the vanilla, peppermint extract and eggs and mix

. in another bowl, add all the dry ingredients together. you may want to sift in the cocoa or sift the whole mix before adding it to the wet ingredients. cocoa has a lovely way of being all clumpy and difficult to incorporate…
. dump the dry into the wet and stir to combine
. wrap the bowl with cling film and let it hang out in the fridge for an hour or so

. crank yer oven to 325.
. take the dough out of the fridge and use a spoon to scoop bits of it onto a cookie sheet. you could make them into balls and squish them down with your hand if you like round cookies, but I like mine rustic and fat so I bake ’em as they fall to the pan: wonky
. bake for 10-15 minutes or until the edges are done but the middle still looks a bit undercooked… though it’s really not

these should end up being soft and chewy on the inside and just slightly crunchy around the edges. if that’s not happening for you, try baking them at 300 or at 350 for different amounts of time to get the right texture

enjoy your weirdly refreshing, house and heartwarming mint cocoa cookies!

amber sunshine oatmeal cookies – they’re soft

right off the bat, I’ll confess to not coming up with this recipe in anyway. not only that, I have also forgotten where I got it from. so, someone, somewhere, I’m sorry for ripping you off. I find this recipe is fairly versatile as far and the chunks-of-something you can add into them. I prefer diced apple or dried blueberries, but raisins or chocolate chips or nuts or cranberries and orange zest would probably be pretty nice as well.

spread out before you is:

1 1/4 c rolled oats
1 c all-purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c unsalted butter, at room temp
3/4 cup sugar
2 tbsp molasses
1  egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup dried blueberries (or some other fruit, nuts, etc. chopped [if necessary] into smallish pieces)

. set le oven to 350
. cream the butter, sugar, vanilla, and molasses. add the egg and stir until it’s smooth
. combine all the dry ingredients except for your fruit addition
. dump the dry into the wet and add the fruit or nut selection. stir until all combined and there aren’t any dry bits of oaty flour
. form the dough into whatever sized cookies you like to eat. they won’t spread out much, so keep that in mind when it comes to the thickness you desire. or you could mash it all together on one sheet and bake as a giant cookie you can cut into bars or wedges

. bake for 16-20 minutes depending on how crispy or soft you want them. they should be golden on the edges and cooked through in the middle, but not hard

fall standby in what should be early spring: apple crisp

we should all know what to expect in an apple crisp… but for those sad few who don’t or have forgotten, it’s about tender baked apples, coated in a cinnamon, brown sugar glaze and topped with a crunchy oat crumble. warm or cold it makes getting up early for breakfast exciting, or sneaking out of bed in the middle of the night to get an extra mouthful before your boyfriend does, quite a thrill.

you will need:
6 medium sized apples (I prefer granny smiths because they don’t turn to mush and aren’t too sweet)
1/4 brown sugar
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tbsp flour
* optional – 1/4 C chopped walnuts and/or dried cranberries

. crank yer oven to 350
. peel and slice the apples into thin wedges
. toss the slices in the sugar, juice, cinnamon and flour (and the optional things iffin you desire)
. place in a baking pan, preferably ceramic or glass

then you’ll need:
1/3 C flour
1/3 C brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 C oats
1/4 to 1/3 C cold butter, depends how you like it

. mix all of these things in a bowl with your hands. press the cold butter into the mix to make a crumble, but not a paste, i.e. don’t overwork it
. evenly distribute the crumble on the apple wedges
. bake for 45 minutes to an hour uncovered, or until crunchy on top and the apples are cooked through

Serve hot or cold, with whipped cream, or vanilla ice cream, or maybe even some cottage cheese, whatever you like really.

this sunday, baking means chocolate chip cookies

oh yes, and how! without introduction (or much of one), chocolate chip cookies:

with the utmost enthusiam, establish the following:

½ C white sugar
½ C brown sugar (demerara, please, it really does make a difference, and that ‘golden’ crap just isn’t going to cut it)
1/3 C butter (unsalted)
1/3 C shortening
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (if you respect yourself, you’ll use real vanilla…)
1 ½ C flour
½ tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
1/2 pack semisweet chocolate chips

. preheat your oven to 375
. in a bowl, mash the butter and shortening together until combined and smooth
. add the sugar, egg and vanilla. mix until smooth
. in a separate bowl, have you boyfriend (or you can do it) mix the flour, baking soda and salt with a whisk or run it through a sieve
. add the chips to the wet mix, and then dump in the flour mix. stir gently so you don’t send flour everywhere, but get everything incorporated and happy. the dough should be fairly light, but not crumbly
. place semi roundish balls on baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes or until they’re the sort 0f doneness you like

if you like granola, I suggest baking these at 325 for longer so they’re rock hard. then bang ’em up with a rolling pin and sprinkle into unsweetened yogurt. in my house, this is known as róny granoly.
if it’s luxury you crave, rather than chocolate chips, do a mix of 75% cocoa chocolate (you know the lindt bars with different percentages that are supposed to be from different places like cuba, columbia, all that nonsense) wunked into little pieces along with chopped up frozen caramilk bars (as my dear friend Emelia and I used to do). they are special, let me tell you