Banana Chocolate Chip Nut Loaf

These are kind of like really big muffins. I didn't want to make normal sized muffins and I didn't want to make a loaf shape. So I just thought why not in between? How about a really big Muffin!

So that is what I did.

I was making them for my brothers and guys don't always like the small portion sized items. So I made mid-sized muffins.

In my house there are always bananas... and sometimes they don't always get eaten before they get lots of nice little brown spots on them. And if you know me I like greener bananas. I don't like the yellow ones, they are a bit to mushy for me. So even if some people think they are just perfect... I have to disagree.

These muffins are quite good, I like the gooey chocolate chips and the crunch of the pecans with the mellow banana flavor. I think banana muffins have to be one of my favorites.

Yield: 24 normal sized muffins

3 c. flour
1 1/2 t. baking soda
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
7 ripe bananas
1 c. sugar
1/2 c. honey
3 eggs
3/4 c. oil
1 T. vanilla
1 1/2 c. pecan or walnuts
1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350*F.

Mix the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together in a medium bowl.

Mix the bananas, sugar, honey, oil, eggs, and vanilla in a larger bowl with a hand mixer or a wooden spoon. Add the dry ingredients and mix until just incorporated. Do not over mix. Stir in the nuts and chocolate chips. Spoon into which ever sized loaf pan or muffins tins you would like. If you use loaf pans make sure to grease and flour them.

Bake for about 20-25 minutes until slightly golden and fairly stiff in the middle.

Let cool for about 2 minutes in the tins then remove and cool on a cooling rack.

Eat and enjoy!

Recipe adapted from browneyedbaker

My Henry Is growing up!

On the 24th of February I got a kitten! I named him Henry and he is a little over 3 months old now, and he is getting bigger every day. It seems as if he didn't grow the first few weeks I got him and now he is just so big. It makes me sad to see him getting bigger. I love kittens, they are just so cute and little. 

Henry is a very prefect cat, his face, ears, legs and tail are all grey and he has white paws and a cream colored body. 

He is a very pretty boy, with his bright blue eyes. 

Henry is a very playful kitten and he really likes legs... and I don't just mean human ones. He loves wooden chair legs, other animals legs, human ones. He will attack almost any leg he sees. 

But he is very smart, he never uses his claws unless you are wearing pants. He knows that it is not nice to claw someones bare legs. 

 He loves the sunshine and he enjoys most of his afternoons outside playing with the bugs that like to fly around my house. He loves rolling around in the grass and chasing his tail when the other  kitties don't want to play... Which is always.

But he doesn't really care what they think, he still attacks them anyways. He usually loses, but he always persists. He doesn't like losing a fight. Especially to a girl (all our cats are girls :))

 Henry also loves to come inside, he is not aloud on the furniture so he prefers the wooden chairs around our dinning room table. He likes to sit on something high and those are the only things he can get up on besides the table which he occasionally tries to climb on. He is soon put back on the floor and told that he is bad. Who wants a cat on their table?!? Not me.

Henry often sleeps... he is not usually too cuddly so when he is I make sure to cherish it. 

 He is just too cute! I love my Henry lots and lots. 

Cinnamon Buns

I have been making cinnamon buns at work for over a year now. All of the bakers don't like making the cinnamon buns because they are the most time consuming product we have to make in the mornings. I guess they just don't like doing the same thing for about half an hour. The other bakers always call my cinnamon buns 'perfect' because I take the time to roll the dough out properly and in a square ;) where as they just try to rush and make them as fast as possible. Then they always look funny.

So... everyday that I work I always make the cinnamon buns. I used to really like it, then I hated making them, and now I like making them again. I always go through sprits of liking and disliking certain things. I don't know why?!? I guess I just change my mind-setting.

Since I make the cinnamon buns everyday I never really make them at home, even thought I love homemade cinnamon buns. Homemade baking is always better, even though our bakery has AMAZING baking. It is still not quite as good, as the good old home baking.

This recipe is from my Great Aunt Mabel. She is 90 and still lives on her own on a farm in Saskatchewan.  I always want to be like her when I get older. She is an amazing baker and I always loved going to her house, she always had her fresh cinnamon buns for us. We always got to eat them for breakfast too.

~you can also add nuts if you like, I added pecans~ 

Here is her recipe:

You can also use it for sweet white dough buns.


Yield: 48 small cinnamon buns or 24 large ones.


1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. sugar
1 c. warm water
1/3 c. oil
3 eggs
1 c. warm water
3 T. yeast
8 c. flour (approx.)
2 t. salt


Filling: Use more filling if you want gooeyer cinnamon buns

2 c. brown sugar
1 c. almost melted butter
4 t. cinnamon


Mix the yeast and 1 c. of the warm water together and let sit about 5 minutes. Until it has grown and frothy. While you are waiting for that, mix the milk, sugar, water, oil and eggs together in a medium bowl.

Add the yeast to the milk mixture and mix together, then add 5 cups of flour with the salt. Keep adding flour until the dough is a good consistency (not to sticky but still a little bit). Knead until the gluten is developed and it passes the window test.

Let rest for about 45 minutes. Punch down and let rest another 10 minutes. Divide the dough in half if you are making the small cinnamon buns. If not use all the dough at once.

 Roll the dough out in a rectangle. Make sure it starts out square. Otherwise it will become a oval. Roll till about a 1/4 inch thick.

Spread all or half of the filling on (depending on size of dough). Leave about 2 inches on the bottom empty.

Roll up the dough until you reach the empty dough.

Spread some water on the dough and seal it up into a roll.

Cut the dough into about 1 inch sections. Or about 24 in each portion of dough.

Place in greased 9x13 inch pans. Sprinkle some brown sugar on top. Let rise in a warm dark place until all sides are touching. Bake at 350*F until golden brown. About 15- 20 minutes.

These smell so good when they are baking... I could just eat all of them.

Enjoy!

Banana Muffins

One of the ingredients that I liked best about this recipe was the coconut. I have never added coconut to banana muffins before and I thought it would be a good idea. Because coconut makes almost everything better. Especially if it is toasted! These muffins are a good way to use up ripe bananas, or over ripe ones as well. We all know that bananas don't keep well for a long time. Especially since I like mine green. 

Hope you enjoy this recipe. Please feel free to comment if you have tired it or any changes that you may suggest. I am always open to suggestions :) Thanks

Yield: 2 1/2 dozen muffins

4 c. bananas, pureed 

3 3/4 c. flour

2 c. sugar

1 T. baking powder

1 t. salt

1 t. baking soda

1 t. cinnamon

6 eggs

1 1/2 c. melted butter, cooled

1 1/2 c. sour cream

1 T. vanilla

3/4 c. coarsely chopped pecans

1 1/2 c. quick cooking oatmeal

1 c. coconut, shredded sweetened 

Pre-heat the oven to 350*F

Puree the bananas in a food processor or blender until almost smooth. Set aside.

Mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, soda, oatmeal, pecans, coconut and cinnamon together in a medium bowl. Set aside.

Whisk the eggs, melted butter, sour cream and vanilla together in a larger bowl. Then alternate with the flour mixture and the bananas. Starting and ending with the flour. Make sure you do not over mix the batter or you will get tough muffins with tunnels in them.

These muffins are very versatile and you can add many different things to them. Some examples of what I added are, chocolate chips, peanut butter chips, a half a teaspoon Nutella and cranberries. They were all delicious. You can add any add-in that you would like, most things work with this recipe.

Bake for about 18-22 minutes or until lightly browned. These muffins are quite moist so they stay fairly well. They also freeze great as well.

~Cranberry~

~Chocolate Chip~

Enjoy!  

Masquerade Birthday Cake!

This past weekend, one of my best friends came over and we baked lots of delicious things for our Masquerade party, we have been planning it since October. It has been a long time since we first thought of planning a masquerade. We decided it would be fun to have a combined birthday party. So we planned a masquerade. It was very exciting and we made a very fun cake.

Chocolate cake with chocolate mousse and peanut butter cream cheese filling! I never actually tried it... I don't know how that happened but I am kinda sad cause I think that it would have been amazing. Everyone that I talked to liked it, but I was wearing a really big dress that was very tight and I can never eat when I am wearing it :(

SO... I never got to try the cake.

I do have some pictures of it though. It has rainbow butter cream icing with disco dust (edible glitter) and some plastic ballerinas!

It was a very pretty cake and Meagan and I had a lot of fun making it. We were like little kids swirling all the icing together and trying not to get any crumbs in it :) It was a good time.

I hope you enjoy the photos.