Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

My kids can go through bananas like crazy for weeks at a time.  I feel like I buy them and only a few days later they are gone, until I buy the bunch that I suddenly find left hanging unwanted, unloved and turning brown on the banana hanger.  But those are the bananas that are actually the ones that are loved the most because those precious little guys are the ones that get turned into banana chocolate chip muffins.  And my boys and my husband go crazy for banana chocolate chip muffins!  

A few weeks ago, I got the idea to make banana chocolate chip cookies but we were in the “I can’t keep bananas in my house for more than three days” phase with my kids and I was forced to wait until those few lone bananas were left on the banana hanger to get brown.  When that finally happened, I decided to experiment with the standard chocolate chip recipe that I use from the back of the Nestle Chocolate Chip bag.  Using the same rationale of substituting applesauce for fat in a recipe, I decided that the bananas could be a substitute for some of the butter in this recipe.  I also decided to cut out a little of the sugar because I knew the bananas would also add their own level of sweetness to the recipe.  The batter was a little stickier than my usual chocolate chip cookie recipe, but if you have a small scoop with a squeeze handle, it was easy to keep the size consistent and to get it on to the pan.  

I use a small scoop for cookies because I like to make cookies that aren't the size of your head.  That way, if I want to have something sweet, I don't have to feel guilty about eating a cookie.  With that in mind, I was able to get 72 cookies.  I would say the cookies were about an inch and a half to two inches in diameter.  About the size of the break and bake mini cookies.  Not that I have ever used them! :) (Funny side note, I always make cookies from scratch, but a few years ago for my son's birthday he asked if he could bring in chocolate chip cookies for his classroom.  I said sure, then came down with a terrible cold, the last thing I wanted to do was bake a batch of cookies.  So I ran to the store, bought the break and bakes, baked them up and took them into his school. Before I could tell him what I did, he starts telling everyone in his class what an awesome baker I am and how these will be the best cookies you have ever had.  I didn't have the heart to tell him what I did.  At one point one of his little classmates came up to me and said, "He's right! You are amazing! These are the best cookies I ever had!" The power of suggestion is an amazing thing!) Anyway, back to these cookies!!

The next area of experimentation was the baking temperature and time.  I turned the oven temperature down to 350 degrees from the 375 degrees that is normally used for my regular chocolate chip cookie recipe. I don't know if that made a huge difference, I was just afraid of over-baking them.  With the batter looking a little stickier I was afraid they might bake faster.  As for the baking time, I experimented with the first couple of trays and finally decided that 10 minutes was a good baking time.  This was a surprise to me as I normally bake my cookies for less then the time recommended in most recipes and allow them to cool on the pan for about 5 minutes.  They will continue to bake a little on the pan and I find this makes my cookies nice and chewy when they have completely cooled and not hard and crunchy.  The cookies were not hard, which is very important, because I hate over-baked cookies!  They did stick just a little to the pan, so I needed to use some care in getting them off the cookie sheet, but it wasn't that big of a deal.  

The consistency of these cookies was definitely more muffin-like than my normal chocolate chip cookies which, as I said are usually a more chewy cookie.  If you have had sugar-cake cookies (not just sugar cookies, but sugar-cake, I think it may be a PA Dutch thing) that was the consistency of these cookies.  But this is not a bad thing by any means!! They were very yummy and did not last long at all.  And while I may still experiment with the ratio of butter, eggs and bananas to play around with the consistency a little more to see if I can manage to make a chewier cookie, this recipe is definitely a keeper! 

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

2 1/4 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened

3/4 c brown sugar

1/2 c granulated sugar

2 bananas

1 tsp vanilla

2 eggs

12 oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 F

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl. Set aside.

In a mixing bowl, mix together butter and sugar until creamy.  Add vanilla and bananas.  Mix well.  Add eggs.  mix well.  Slowly add flour mixture until incorporated.  Stir in chips.  

Drop by rounded scoops onto pan and bake for about 10 minutes.  Edges should just barely be browned.  Allow to cool on pan for about 5 minutes.  Transfer to cooling rack and cool completely.  

Dark Chocolate Orange Olive Oil Cake with Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar

The other day I was making brownies for a bake sale for my son’s swim team.  Nothing special, just plain box brownies; but I started thinking about why it is that the only time I use oil in baking is in box brownies.  All the other baking I do calls for butter.  Was this just because it makes something as simple as box brownies, even simpler? Curious as to why that is, I searched on finecooking.com (one of my favorite websites) J to see what they had to say about it.  It turns out that I was missing out on quite a bit of interesting baking recipes! But as true with many ingredients, it seems that all oils are not created equal.  Not that this was any surprise to me from the cooking end of things, but it seems to have a difference in baking as well.

T\According to the article that I read , The Secret Ingredient for Tender Cakes, by Leslie Revsin, “the olive oil versions were moister and had a more tender, refined crumb (I’ve since learned that olive oil contains natural emulsifiers, which improve moisture and texture), but even more striking was their richer, deeper character,” than cakes made with vegetable oil.  Curiosity compelled me to give this a try.    The article had a link to a recipe for a dark chocolate cake made with olive oil.  Sounded good to me!  I did make a few changes to the recipe.  I got the idea, as did another baker, by their review at the bottom of the original recipe, to substitute blood orange infused olive oil for the plain olive oil because I like the combination of dark chocolate and oranges.  The flavor is just enough, without overpowering the chocolate in the cake.  My olive oil came from Sedona Olive Oil Company, that I purchased on a recent trip to Sedona, Arizona.  If you have a chance, you really need to check them out.  Another really good place for this is Fiore Artisan Olive Oils and Vinegars.  I discovered them on a trip a year ago to Bar Harbor, Maine.  Both of them have outstanding selections of artisan olive oils and vinegars.  (And they didn’t even pay me to say that!)

Anyway, back to the recipe.  I only had Hershey’s cocoa powder on hand, a mixture of regular and dark chocolate cocoa powder.  I used both and was just a little shy of half a cup, so I melted a few dark chocolate squares and added that to the mixture.  After reading the note about the size of the pan, I went with a 9” round cake pan.  It made the cake a little thinner, so I reduced the baking time a little as well.  I baked it for 45 minutes, but probably could have taken it out a few minutes sooner.  My edges were not burnt, by any means, but were a little crispier than I would have liked.   I also played around with the powdered sugar that I put on top of the cake.  I added just a hint of cinnamon and chili powder to the sugar, not a lot, just enough to cut some of the sweetness. I would not recommend using frosting on this cake unless you have a huge sweet tooth.  The cake is very sweet without frosting.  It was very moist, almost fudgy. Not quite like what you get in a flourless cake because there is flour in this recipe, but moister than a regular cake made with butter.   

It turned out amazing!! I gave each of my kids a piece and just told them it was chocolate cake; otherwise they never would have tried it.  It was a huge hit! More than that, I loved it! This will definitely be a recipe that I make again and again.  Perfect with a cup of tea, (or coffee) or a cold glass of milk!  

The recipe listed here is with the changes that I made.  For the original recipe and the nutritional information, follow this link.

Dark Chocolate and Orange Olive Oil Cake with Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar

Olive oil and flour for the pan
1-1/4 oz. (1/2 cup) cocoa powder (I used a mix of Hershey’s regular and special dark)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. almond extract
4-1/2 oz. (1 cup) all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. baking soda
3 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
2/3 cup orange olive oil
1-1/3 cups sugar

Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar -

1/4 cup confectioners' sugar

1 tsp cinnamon

½ tsp chili powder 

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Position a rack in the middle of the oven. Heat the oven to 325°F. Generously oil an 9-inch round cake pan with olive oil and line the bottom of the pan with parchment or waxed paper. Oil the paper and dust it lightly with flour.

In a small saucepan, boil about 1/2 cup of water. Meanwhile, sift the cocoa powder through a strainer over a small bowl. Stir 6 Tbs. of the boiling water into the cocoa until it's smooth and glossy. Stir in the vanilla and almond extracts. Set aside to cool slightly. In another small bowl, mix together the flour, salt, and baking soda and set aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the eggs and yolk, olive oil, and sugar. Using the whisk attachment, beat on medium-high speed until thick, lemon colored, and creamy, 2 to 3 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl. Reduce the speed to low and gradually add the warm (not hot) cocoa mixture until it's well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl once. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients until just combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl.

Pour the batter into the prepared cake pan and bake in the center of the oven until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs clinging to it but with no wet batter, about 40-45 minutes. Put the pan on a rack and carefully run a paring knife around the inside edge to release the cake. Let cool for 10 minutes. Using a second rack to sandwich the cake pan, flip the pan over. Carefully lift the pan from the cake, gently peel off and discard the paper liner, and let the cake cool completely.

Before serving, dust the top of the cake with the Cinnamon Chili Powdered Sugar.

Macaroni and Cheese, Panera Style

I can't believe it has been over two years since I started this blog!  I have been an undedicated blogger to say the least.  Hopefully with the start of the new year, I will find a renewed dedication to this blog and actually get some followers.

Some of you who know me, know that the title of this blog pretty much sums it about.  I love food, I love to find great recipes.  Sometimes I follow them to the letter because I figure, why mess up a good thing? Others, I recreate, doctor them up, make them my own.  I also love to come up with my own concoctions.  Most of the things I cook are healthy, some not so healthy.  Hey, a girl needs to indulge every once in a while, right?

So at the restart of this blog, I am sharing a recreation of the hugely decadent macaroni and cheese that my boys love from Panera.  Here is the link to Panera’s website for their recipe.  I made this to take to a big family dinner with my dad’s extended family.  If I was making this at home I would definitely cut it in half.  The original recipe said it served 4-6, so I doubled it and state at that bottom of the recipe that it serves 8-12, but I filled a 9x13 tray and was able to serve it as a side on the buffet table to a huge crowd of about 40 people.  I changed it up a little to cater to my own tastes, and I had to improvise a little because I ran out of milk this morning and made the mac and cheese before heading to the store. 

I am a firm believer in a well-stocked pantry.  It has gotten me out of more cooking jams and ingredient faux pas then I can count and today was no exception.  So, while the recipe says 4 cups half and half, I used a 15 oz. can of evaporated fat free milk because I didn’t have enough half and half.  Basically, when making a white sauce, the higher the fat content in the milk, the creamier it is going to be, but when using that much butter and half and half, the evaporated milk was still thick enough to keep it creamy.  Believe me, the substitution wasn't used as a way to lower the fat content of the recipe.  I look for ways to make a recipe healthy but for something that is being served as part of a (belated) holiday party, and it’s macaroni and cheese with all its cheesy goodness, I let the fat stay right where it is.  Everything in moderation…

If this is the first time you have made a white sauce, a couple of pointers.  When adding the flour to the butter to make the roux, don’t panic when it forms a big mass.  Once you incorporate the milk it will dissolve.  The trick that works for me is to remove the pot from the heat and SLOWLY whisk in the milk.  And a whisk is key; it will break apart the roux and help it dissolve into the milk.  Once I have added the milk and began to whisk it into the roux, I return it back to the burner and stir constantly to prevent sticking.  Once it gets good and thick and begins to bubble, I turn off the burner and stir in the cheese.  Once the cheese is melted I add the pasta.  I then transferred to a 9x13 baking dish to transfer it to the party, but it is ready at this point and could just be served from the pot.  I think another easy way to transport, and serve this would be a crock pot.  Wish I would of thought of that earlier!  

Macaroni and Cheese, Panera Style

Ingredients
2 (16-ounce) package of medium pasta shells

½ cup butter

1 cup all-purpose flour

4 cups half and half

1 cup chicken broth

5 oz shredded swiss cheese

3 oz cream cheese cut into pieces

8 oz shredded extra-sharp white Vermont cheddar

2 tablespoon Dijon mustard

2 teaspoon kosher salt

Directions
1. Prepare pasta according to package directions.
2.Melt butter over low heat. Whisk in flour and cook 1 minute, whisking constantly.
3.Gradually whisk in half and half and chicken broth; cook over medium heat, whisking until mixture thickens and bubbles. Remove from heat.
4.Add cheeses, mustard, and salt, stirring until cheese melts and sauce is smooth.
5.Stir in pasta and cook over medium heat for 1 minute (or until thoroughly heated).

Serves 8 to 12