Practice, practice, practice....

  Look what happens when you get help from a pro! This weekend my very talented friend and co worker gave me a cookie decorating lesson. She was full of great advice and information. Plus I learned how to make polka dots, hearts and flowers using the wet on wet icing technique! So the coolest thing about using royal icing (in my humble opinion) is it allows you to make multicolor designs that blend into each other to make one smooth surface. As you can see, I am now a huge fan of polka dots!!
  In other news...  I have had the whole weekend off. So that means lots of baking time. I made two loaves of bread, decorated cookies. I plan to make apple crisp later on today. And I made chocolate chip banana bread this morning.
  I talked to my mother this morning. I mentioned I was making chocolate chip banana bread. She was appalled. She said adding chocolate chips to banana bread was a bastardization. Well frankly, I don't care because it is super yummy!! And as you can probably tell, I love chocolate. And I am willing to add chocolate to any baked good. I mean come on...It's good stuff!
  Here is the recipe. This began as a Joy the Baker recipe before I made several adjustments. It's a sickness, but I have a difficult time not changing recipes to make them my own. But thanks Joy the Baker, you know what you are doing!!

The Ingredients:

4 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup melted unsalted butter
2 eggs
1 and 1/2  tsp vanilla
1 and 3/4 cup AP flour
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chocolate chips

Directions:

preheat oven to 350F

In a large bowl mash bananas.  Add the melted and cooled butter, the eggs and the vanilla. Mix together these until everything is incorporated. Add flour, baking soda, sugar, salt and cinnamon. Mix together until just incorporated. At this point, fold in chocolate chips. Spoon mixture into a prepared loaf pan. Bake at 350F for 55-60 minutes. Make sure to do the toothpick test. If the toothpick comes out clean you are good to go!

Let the bread cool in the loaf pan for a bit before turning it out.

This is a dense, yummilicious bread. Great for breakfasts in a hurry. Or really, great for any old time!!

In Search of the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

  From a young age I had clear preferences when it came to cookies, much to my mother's dismay. I did not like peanut butter cookies, oatmeal cookies with raisins, coconut macaroons or chocolate chip cookies with nuts. Of course, my mother loved all of these. When she attempted to bake any one of these I would give her a very hard time. Some things never leave a person. The fact that my mother was never allowed to bake the cookies she wanted has never left her.
  Fast forward thirty years....Certainly my palette is much broader. I like the peanut butter cookie. I make a mean variation of the oatmeal raisin cookie that contains five spices. I will tolerate coconut macaroons, although they are not my favorite. But one thing that has not changed - Chocolate chip cookies WITHOUT nuts are still my absolute favorite!
  If you read my previous post about chocolate chip cookies with cayenne pepper and peanuts you must realize that I do eat nuts in cookies now. But, if you want a deliciously soothing cookie, there is none better than a warm chocolate chip cookie! Period. End of story.
  I believe I have found the perfect cookie recipe. It is the basic cookie recipe from the peanut -cayenne cookies. Here it is:

The Ingredients:

6 TBSP unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 large egg
1 and 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup AP flour
1 cup chocolate chips

To Make:
  
Preheat oven to 375 F.

In a mixing bowl cream together  butter and brown sugar until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract. Mix until well blended. Add baking soda, and salt. Slowly add flour until well blended. Fold in chocolate chips with a spatula.

Using a small cookie scoop, drop the dough on an ungreased baking sheet. Bake for about 9 minutes.

Makes about 3 dozen smallish cookies.

  This is my favorite. I believe it makes the perfect cookie. But it may not be yours. A week or so ago, I stumbled upon an article that highlights the science of the chocolate chip cookie. It discusses what happens when you use different amounts of ingredients or different ingredients entirely. It even had  comparison pictures. I like pictures. Pictures are helpful. Here is the site:

The Secret to Baking the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookie

Check this out. If you are on a quest for the holy grail of chocolate chip cookies this will help. Cause there is nothing better in this world than a warm chocolate chip cookie.... without nuts.

Double Chocolate Happiness

  Well, the inevitable happened. I purchased too many bananas. You know how that always happens, right? You buy a big bunch thinking you will get through them all. But you never do. And that means either you freeze them for smoothie making at a later date or you are forced to make banana bread.

  My decision was made easy since I adapted the perfect banana bread recipe from Smitten Kitchen. Smitten Kitchen is a fantastic blog. If you have never visited it before you should!

  Oh, I forgot to mention that this recipe is called DOUBLE CHOCOLATE BANANA BREAD. This means that it is for those who are serious about their pursuit of chocolate. If you love chocolate, you will be down with this bread, just saying!

Take out some frustration and mash 3 bananas

Add your melted butter, brown sugar. Add the egg and vanilla.

Add salt, baking soda, cinnamon, flour and cocoa.

Add the chocolate chips and chocolate pieces.

Spoon the whole delicious mess into a prepared loaf pan!

Double Chocolate Banana Bread

3 large very ripe bananas
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3/4 cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chunks or chips. (I like a combination of both!)

  Heat your oven to 350°F. Butter a 9×5-inch loaf pan.

  Mash bananas in the bottom of a large bowl. Stir in melted butter, then brown sugar, egg, and vanilla. Next add your dry ingredients. If your flour or cocoa powder is a bit lumpy, you might want to sift it into the mixture. For the final touch, add you chocolate chips. Stir until just combined.

  Pour into prepared pan and bake for about 60 minutes. It's a good idea to do the toothpick test. If your toothpick comes out clean, you are golden! 

  Cool in pan for 10 to 15 minutes, then run a knife around the edge and invert it out onto a cooling rack. Then eat and enjoy!!

Let this magical bread cool in the pan for a bit.

Then enjoy a slice or two of gooey chocolate happiness!