Bananas Foster Muffins

I love Bananas Foster.  There is something about slices of ripe bananas in a brown sugar butter sauce over vanilla bean ice cream that just makes perfect sense.  Yum.  If you want the history and original recipe check out Brennans, the New Orleans restaurant where Bananas Foster was born.  

When the bananas on my counter start to turn black I'm always looking for a recipe to use them up that isn't just run-of-the-mill banana bread.  This recipe makes it socially acceptable to eat Bananas Foster all day long--just in the form of a muffin (rum and all).

Bananas Foster Muffins
based on Caramelized Banana Bread
from The Chef Next Door

You may ask: "Is a crumble topping really necessary?" Look at
the toasty oats and almonds in the crumble on these muffins--
does that answer your question?

Muffins:
1/4 cup salted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 medium ripe bananas, sliced (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/2 cup milk
2 tablespoons rum
1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
1 cup oatmeal
1 1/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda

Crumble Topping:
1/4 cup salted butter, softened
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup sliced almonds

Muffins: Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease a muffin tin.  In a medium skillet or sauce pan melt butter with brown sugar, add sliced bananas and simmer on medium low for 5 minutes, stirring often, until bananas are considerably softened.  Remove from heat and cool for 10 minutes.

Meanwhile whisk together milk, rum, vanilla, and eggs. In a separate bowl stir oatmeal, flour and baking soda together.  When the bananas are cool whisk them into the milk mixture, breaking down the bananas as much as you see fit.  Stir in the dry ingredients just until moistened.  Scoop batter into the prepared muffin tin.

Crumble Topping: Add butter, brown sugar, oatmeal, and almonds to the bowl of stand mixer (or use a hand mixer--I like to use a mixer to make this crumble because it breaks down the sliced almonds into beautiful fragments that get really toasty when baked) and mix for about 30 seconds on medium speed until the ingredients are combined and the almonds are somewhat broken down.

Generously sprinkle the muffins with crumble topping and bake for 12-15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.  Remove immediately to a cooling rack, when cooled store for up to 5 days in an air tight container.

Yields 1 dozen muffins

Fudgy Walnut Pie

At every Culinary Science Club meeting we have a drawing for prizes that our awesome advisor, Erica, finds.  Sometimes the drawings are for cookbooks and sometimes for small kitchen items like cookie cutters or fun dish towels.  This is the best way to end a club meeting.  We finish all the important business about fundraisers, cooking competitions, etc. then do a drawing for awesome kitchen stuff.

I have been lucky enough to win a few times (probably due to the special Grinde Slip Folding Technique, perfected by my mother.  Just write your name on the slip for the drawing, then employ the Technique (sorry, I can't reveal the specific paper folds found in the Technique; if you want it bad enough you'll have to marry into the family) and you are guaranteed 1 win for every 10 drawings you employ the Technique.). ANYWAY, one time at Culinary Science Club I won a recipe box filled with recipes from Jello, Kraft, Cool-Whip, and many other brand name products.  I've made a few recipes out of this collection, but the Fudgy Walnut Pie has been  my favorite so far.  The buttery graham cracker crust is the perfect counter point to the smooth and sweet filling.  If eaten while warm (who has the patience to wait until it is cooled and refrigerated?)  this pie has the texture of an underbaked brownie, if you let it cool and then get cold in the fridge it has more like a dense cheesecake texture: either way, this pie is delicious.

Fudgy Walnut Pie
based on this recipe from Kraft

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
1 tablespoon of sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling:
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 squares (1 oz. each) unsweetened baker's chocolate, chopped
1 cup (6 oz.) semi sweet chocolate chips
1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup chopped walnuts, divided
1/4 cup toffee bits, divided

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. For the crust, stir together crumbs, sugar, and butter press into a 9 inch pie pan.

For the filling, cream together the butter and sugar in a stand mixer until light and fluffy, about 1 minute on medium speed.  Add 1 egg at a time, mixing it in then scraping the bowl after each addition.  Melt the unsweetened and semisweet chocolate then slowly pour into the butter, sugar, and eggs, while the mixer is on low.  Add the flour and all but 1 tablespoon, each, of the walnuts and toffee bits.  Stir until smooth and pour into the crust.  Smooth the top with a spatula, then sprinkle with the reserved tablespoon of walnuts and toffee bits.  Bake for 23-25 minutes or until the center of the pie is set and the crust is starting to brown.  Let cool completely then refrigerate.

Brie Apple Tarts

Last week I bought a wheel of brie and intended to eat it with crackers and grapes like normal, but then I happened upon this recipe while browsing through my pins on Pinterest.  I pinned that recipe a year ago and still had not made it (that statement holds true for too many recipes and crafts on my pinboards) until today.   

I modified the recipe slightly, adding a little veggie cream cheese and thyme to pump up the mild flavors of brie and apples.  I really love this recipe because it finds the perfect balance of sweet and savory, all wrapped up in the buttery crunch of puff pastry.

They smelled so good coming out of the oven I didn't even try to get a good picture.  This is just evidence that there were tarts.  We ate them in 5 minutes flat.  

Brie Apple Tarts

based on Individual Brie and Apple Tarts by BlogHungry

1 (17.3 oz) package puff pastry (2 sheets), thawed

2 oz. vegetable cream cheese

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme leaves

1 apple, peeled and thinly sliced

8 oz. wheel of brie, cut into 16 wedges

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 egg

1 tablespoon honey

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Unfold the sheets of puff pastry on a large cutting board and cut each sheet into 4 equal sized squares.  Spread a thin layer of the cream cheese equally over each of the 8 squares, making sure to leave an inch un-cream-cheesed around the edges so you can wrap it up.  Sprinkle the thyme over cream cheese, cover with apple slices.  Place two slices of brie over the apples and sprinkle equally with brown sugar.  In a small bowl, whisk the egg and brush the un-cream-cheesed 1" edges with the egg.  Fold 2 opposite corners of each square over the brie and egg wash the tops.  Place tarts on a greased baking sheet and bake for 18-20 minutes, or until the tops and edges are golden brown.  Serve hot, drizzled with honey.

Cheeky Chocolate Cheesecake

Lately my favorite Youtube channel is Sorted Food.  It is a group of British 20-Somethings who get together and make simple and interesting recipes.  The guys were all University friends, and one of them is a chef.  The chef picks the recipe and keeps the other guys on task as they prepare the recipes.  They are funny and thoughtful, the videos are short and to the point, and the recipes are interesting and multicultural.

One of my favorite recipes is the Cheeky Chocolate Cheesecake.  It is a simple refrigerator cheesecake made with a lot of chocolate and Bailey's Irish Cream.  I converted the recipe from milliliters and grams to cups, teaspoons, and tablespoons and took a few liberties with the recipe.  Also I don't know what Maltesers are, so I used Whoppers.

Cheeky Chocolate Cheesecake
based on Cheeky Chocolate Cheesecake by Sorted Food

Crust:
1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 tablespoons sugar
1/4 cup butter, melted

Filling:
8 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup Bailey's Irish Cream
1 teaspoon vanilla
12 oz milk chocolate chips
2 tablespoons butter

1/2 cup Whoppers, roughly chopped

For the crust: Combine graham cracker crumbs, sugar and butter until the mixture resembles wet sand.  Press into a 9" pie pan.

For the filling: Whip cream cheese with sugar until fluffy, while the mixer is still on low slowly pour in Bailey's and vanilla until combined.  Melt the chocolate chips with the butter and then fold into the cream cheese mixture.  Pour into the prepared crust and top with Whoppers.

Refrigerate for at least 4 hours before serving.

Bran Muffins

My family has few formal traditions.  How we celebrate birthdays and holidays varies a lot.  There is one weird Grinde Family Tradition that has been a constant in my life: Bran muffins on Christmas morning.  I have no idea how this started, probably by happenstance one year and it just stuck.  You see every December my mother spends most of her evenings in the kitchen making chex mix, cookies, fudge, whiskey caramels, and Irish Cream to distribute to our neighbors, friends, and her co-workers.  The other thing she makes is bran muffing batter and puts it in quart mason jars, attaches a label with baking directions and puts them in the fridge until she delivers them.  She always keeps one jar for us, and opens it on Christmas morning, spoons in into muffin tins and bakes in while we open gifts: a homemade breakfast while avoiding having to get up extra early to prepare something.

Everyone's seen those muffin mix dry ingredients layered in jars, where you have to add an egg, some oil and water.  Those are great, they are beautiful and a very practical gift but my mom likes to give away muffin batter so people don't have to add anything, just bake it.  She got this idea from the Colo United Methodist 1983's Cookbook, my maternal grandmother's sister's church (we all know that church cookbooks are the best cookbooks).  The recipe for Bran Muffins states that the muffin batter can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 6 weeks.  My mom has stored the muffins for up to a month before that batter starts to get weird, so I wouldn't recommend keeping it for more than 4 weeks. 

This has perplexed me (as well as Melissa : I sent her this recipe and she wondered the same thing) because the recipe's leavening comes only from baking soda, which would react immediately with the acidic buttermilk to create carbon dioxide.  So if I was just reading this recipe (and not have seen it create beautifully raised muffins after a month in the fridge a hundred times)  I would think you would need to put it in the oven right away to not lose the carbon dioxide. The recipe does specify that after removing the batter from the fridge you should NOT STIR it, just spoon it from the jar into the pans and bake.  This must be the secret to not dislodging too many pockets of carbon dioxide and getting perfect muffins every time.

No matter why the tradition was started or the magic of how the muffins work: they are delicious.  The muffins are always tender and moist, perfect right out of the oven with butter and jam.  On Christmas morning or any day these muffins never disappoint.

Bran Muffins

from Colo United Methodist 1983 Cookbook, p.57

2 cups boiling water

2 cups Kellog's All Bran (Bran Buds)

1 cup shortening

3 cups sugar

4 eggs

1 quart buttermilk

1 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon + 2 teaspoons baking soda

5 cups flour

4 cups Kellogg's All Bran (Original)

Pour hot water over Bran Buds and let sit for 5 minutes.  In a large mixing bowl (use the biggest one you have; this makes a lot of muffins) cream together shortening and sugar; mix in eggs, milk, and the soaked bran buds.  Stir in salt, baking soda, flour, and All Bran until the dry ingredients are all moistened.   Spoon batter into quart mason jars or large tupperware containers (this recipe will fill 4 quart mason jars + plus about 1 cup of leftover batter) and refrigerate for up to 1 month.

When ready to bake do not stir the batter, just spoon into greased muffin tins and bake on 400 degrees for 12-14 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffin comes out clean.

Just for clarification (there are so many bran cereals out there) these are the cereals you are looking for to make this recipe:

Oatmeal Cake Cookies

A couple years ago my friend Melissa introduced me to Peas and Thank You, the food and life blog of Sarah Matheny, and I have loved it ever since. Sarah was an attorney (and is married to one) but once she had kids she decided to stay home with them.  Her blog is filled with healthy and flavorful vegan and vegetarian recipes.  Last summer, when I was working for The Soyfoods Council writing recipes for them I took a lot of inspiration from Sarah, especially in her unique uses of tofu.  In addition to being an incredible cook Sarah is also a woman of faith who doesn't shy away from sharing stories on her blog about what God is teaching her.  She often talks about She Reads Truth; a movement to get women reading the Bible daily.

I have always struggled to have a daily devotional.  I'm in the Word on Sunday mornings at worship and in preparations for the Bible Study I lead; but other than that I have been less than faithful in regularly reading the Bible and meditating on its wisdom.  So after months of seeing Sarah post on her blog about She Reads Truth I finally got signed up.  Everyday I get a devotion sent to my email including a scripture reading.  Each day I'm reading through the devo and journaling about the topics it includes.  I'm only 11 days in, but I am loving it...and keeping up with it. Hooray!

Today I was flipping through Peas and Thank You: Simple Meat-less Meals the Whole Family Will Love and found the recipe for Anytime Cookies (if you have the cookbook, it is on p. 201, last Christmas Melissa and I gave this cookbook to each other, it was pretty funny).  It is a fairly standard oatmeal cookie recipe just veganized, no butter or eggs, and healthified, lower sugar and some whole wheat flour (spell check says "veganized" and "healthified" are not a real words: whatever).  It sounded great, so I modified it slightly with different mix-ins and used chicken eggs rather than "flax-eggs."

This recipe is super simple to mix up just with a spatula or spoon, there is no need for a hand or stand mixer because the recipe uses oil instead of solid fat so you can skip creaming the fat with the sugar: just stir them together.  The dough is softer than normal cookie dough and spreads some while baking, once baked the cookies come out of the oven rounded and cakey.  Yum.

Oatmeal Cake Cookies

adapted from Anytime Cookies by Sarah Matheny

1/4 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil

1/4 cup milk

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup old-fashioned oats

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup Craisens

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 cup pecans

Preheat oven to 350 degrees, and lightly coat 2 baking sheets with cooking spray.  In a medium bowl stir together sugars, oil, milk, eggs, and vanilla.  In a large mixing bowl stir together flours, oats, soda, cinnamon, and salt.  Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until incorporated.  Add Craisens, chocolate chips, and pecans: stir until evenly distributed.  Scoop cookies onto prepared baking sheets and bake cookies for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown on the edges.

Makes 24 large cookies.

Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese

Every year the students of the Culinary Science Club volunteer their time to help at the Beer, Wine, and Food Expo at HyVee Hall in Des Moines.  In return for our help we get a free glass for tasting all the  alcohol we want to try.  It is a wonderful thing.

Me and my friends: Lauren, Krissy, and Celia at the Expo

Krissy and I got to spend our time volunteering at the Local Stage, where Kristin, a food, exercise, and travel blogger from IowaGirlEats.com  was presenting about Butternut Squash Gnocchi and paired it with a beer sauce.  It was incredible.  If you scroll to the bottom of this post you can see Krissy and I looking sharp in our Chef coats in the background.  For the most part we just stood there being in awe and excitement about getting to be around a beloved blogger...and the gnocchi, but sometimes we helped pass out samples.

After this event I have been constantly on IowaGirlEats.com getting tons of inspiration from her recipes.  One that caught my eye was Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese.  I've made pumpkin Mac&Cheese before, but with canned pumpkin, this Mac&Cheese was made with a fresh squash and retained some of the texture in the final product.  Sounds Good!!

This is my version:

Check out that beautiful 9x13" pan!  I got it for my birthday from a good friend and it is changing my life!

Look at all those chunks of butternut squash!!  DELISH!!

Butternut Squash Mac&Cheese

3 cups milk (because I'm lactose intolerant I made this with unsweetened almond milk, but whatever milk you have on hand is fine)

2 cups diced onion (I LOVE onion, so I used 2 cups, I won't be offended if you use less, but even with 2 cups, the onion flavor by no means overpowers the squash and cheese)

5 cups finely chopped butternut squash (about a 1.5# squash, peeled and deseeded will yield 5 cups)

8 oz. whole wheat pasta (about 2/3 of a 13.25 oz. box), boiled in water for only 8 minutes

1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt (Lawry's)

1/2 teaspoon salt free seasoning (Mrs. Dash)

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/4 teaspoon thyme leaves

2 Tablespoons flour

1/4 cup water

8 oz. shredded sharp cheddar

8 oz. shredded pepper jack

Preheat oven to 400F and grease a 9x13", pour pasta (that has been boiled for 8 minutes) into the pan.  

In a large saucepan, preferably nonstick, bring milk, onions, and butternut squash to a boil.  Reduce to a simmer for 10-15 minutes or until squash is tender.  Use a potato masher to break down squash as much as you want.  

In a small plastic container add seasoning salt, salt free seasoning, garlic powder, thyme, flour, and water.  Close lid tightly and shake container until no flour clumps remain.  Stream flour slurry into milk, stirring constantly.  Stir and simmer for 2-5 minutes more or until sauce is thickened.  Stir in 6 oz. of each cheese and mix until cheese is melted.  

Pour the sauce over the noodles in the pan and stir gently to combine.  Sprinkle with remaining cheese and bake for 15-20 minutes until bubbly and the cheese is starting to brown.