B is for Banana

On my counter this morning sat a pile of ripe banana's, once they start to age a bit nobody in my house will touch them. So I found myself browsing some online recipes for bananas, usually I just make banana bread but that takes an hour to bake and I didn't want to be heating up the house for that long. I found a recipe on AR for Banana chocolate chip cookies that had pretty good reviews, people had made some various changes to it though. The link for the original recipe is there, I changed the ingredients up a bit and this is what I ended up with-

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies
Ingred;
3c. whole wheat flour
1t. b powder
1/2t. salt
1/4t. b. soda
1/4c. sugar
1/4c. brown sugar
1/2c. butter
2 eggs
1t. vanilla
2 mashed bananas
1c. chocolate chips

Oven 375
Beat together the butter and sugars, add in the eggs, mix well.
Then beat in the bananas and vanilla. With the mixer running, add in the b.powder, b. soda, and salt, mix well. Add in the flour, mix until well combine and then add in the chocolate chips.
Scoop out by spoonful onto a greased cookie sheet, bake for 5-10 minutes.
This got 4 thumbs up from the Kiddos and is going to be made again at my house :)

I used 2 of the remaining bananas to let the Kiddos make an afternoon snack-
I melted some chocolate chips for them to dip them in, then they rolled them in graham cracker crumbs and froze them for about 2 hours. It's a semi-healthy snack, I suppose there are worse things :)

Snickerdoodles are SO much better as a bar cookie

In fact they should always be made as a bar cookie, I have never liked Snicker Doodles because they are a crisper, dryer cookie than I like.
This Bar Cookie recipe is really, really good. They are cinnamon-y and chew-y and perfect-y :)

I am giving you the link so that you can print out the recipe, because you NEED to make these, they are that wonderful. Thank you to Heidi at Tried-and-True cooking with Heidi for this wonderful recipe :)

It just wouldn't be Christmas without....

Cookies (lots and lots of cookies)-

Fudge (Hubby's favorite)-

And Gingerbread (my favorite)-

With the kiddos on break I thought we better make some fun cookies, these Melt-Away Peppermint Wreaths are great, especially if you have little ones who want to help you bake. The recipe is from AR and definitely needs to be doubled. A very yummy cookie, it tastes just like you would assume from the name. And as you can see my girls had a great time helping me roll balls, and snowmen and flowers and stick people. What can I say they ARE girls, it was a little hard to keep them on task but it was fun.






The Layered Mint Chocolate Fudge recipe is also from AR, I didn't change it but am wishing I had. It needs a little change, I didn't have time to check the review for it or I suppose I would have known that. It was a bit dry, and didn't quite fill the pan size it called for, but still pretty tasty, it's chocolate right? ;)

The Gingerbread, ahhhh the gingerbread, it makes things smell like Christmas :) Once again the recipe is from AR Favorite Old Fashioned Gingerbread, I got all 3 of these from my recipe box where they have been saving for some time. Sadly this was not the perfect gingerbread recipe, I have had better. It was pretty good topped with some whip cream but the search for the perfect gingerbread recipe will go on.

So, of all these goodies the cookies were my favorite, which was completely unexpected.

Do you have enough Christmas Goodies at your house yet?

I do, I finished my Christmas goodie baking and such this morning.

And I ask you, what is cuter than a button sized cookie?

Maybe a bowl of button size cookies, what do ya think :)


Peanut Butter Buttons
Ingred;
3/4c. creamy pb
1/2c. shortening
1/3c. sugar
1/3c. packed brown sugar
1 egg
3T. milk
1t. vanilla
1-1/2c. flour
1/2t. baking soda
1/2t. salt

sugar for rolling
chocolate chips

Oven 350
Beat PB and shortening, beat in the 2 sugars. Add the milk, egg and vanilla, beat until fluffy. Mix in the flour, baking soda and salt, let dough chill for 10 minutes, or overnight.
using a 1/4 t. scoop and roll balls of dough, roll into reg. sugar then place on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 5-7 minutes, remove from oven and immediately press a chocolate chip into each cookie.

I also made a few of these-

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Truffles
Ingred;
1/2c. butter, softened
3/4c. packed brown sugar
1t. vanilla
2c. flour
1-14oz can sweetened condensed milk
1/2c. mini chocolate chips
1 bag semi sweet chocolate chips

In a large bowl beat together the butter and brown sugar, beat in the vanilla. Gradually add in the milk then the flour, stir in the mini chips. Form dough into 1 in balls and chill until your chocolate is melted.
Melt the chocolate chips in the microwave in a glass bowl stir after each 30 second interval until melted. Dip each ball into the chocolate and place on wax paper to dry. Store in the fridge.

And for Teacher gifts, along with a shopping gift card I gave them Cinnamon Pancake mixes. Which I have no picture of, sorry, but here is the recipe-

Cinnamon Pancake Mix

Ingred;
3c. flour
2T. sugar
2T. baking powder
4t. cinnamon
1-1/2t. salt

Mix all together and store in an airtight container.
To use the mix you-
Combine in a Medium bowl- 3/4c. milk, 1 egg, 2 T. oil and 1-1/3c, mix.
Mix until moistened and cook on a hot lightly greased griddle.

I need to bag up and give out a few more bags of these goodies and I am done with that. I hope you are all having a Wonderful Holiday Season.

Me Like Cookies

I am a big fan of Cookie Monster, seriously how could you not like a Cookie Loving Monster?

This recipe is one I found a few years ago when I was looking for a Vegan Cookie recipe. I liked to bake and send cookies with Hubby to the Lab he worked in and there was a girl he worked with who was from India, she is a Vegan. So whenever I sent in treats I would have Hubby calling me asking what was in them because she wanted to eat them but wasn't sure if they met her dietary requirements. This girl is also a big fan of chocolate, so I went online and googled chocolate vegan recipes. I found this recipe- Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies. I baked up a batch of them and a batch of regular chocolate chip cookies and sent them to work with Hubby. He told me that the Vegan ones disappeared almost as a soon as he set them out, they were the favorite hands down.

This is probably my families favorite cookie and we make them pretty often. I like to make them without the chocolate chips in them, but everyone else here always out-votes me. We have made them with reg. chocolate chips, white and peanut butter ones. The first pkg of chips I grabbed today happened to be Peanut Butter Chips so that's what I went with.
So, being Vegan, these are completely egg and dairy free- no animal products. The cookie is a dense, chewy, brownie like cookie. Be careful not to over-bake these.

Chewy Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingred;
3/4c. canola oil (I use olive oil)
2c. sugar
2t. vanilla

1T + 1t. ground flax seed
1/2c. soy milk (If don't care about them being non-vegan you can use reg. milk)

2c. flour
3/4. c. cocoa powder
1t. baking soda
1/2t. salt
1c. chocolate chips

Oven 350.

Blend together the flax seed and milk, set aside. Beat together the sugar and oil, add in the flax/milk, stir, add in the vanilla.

Beat in the cocoa powder, then the salt and baking soda. Stir in the flour, it makes a pretty stiff dough. Stir in your chocolate chips. Place by spoonful onto ungreased cookie sheets and bake for exactly 10 min.

Cookies, Cookies and more COOKIES-

So remember yesterday when I said I was off to make cookies?? I made cookies alright, it's been awhile so I went a little overboard, I wanted to have them for Thanksgiving and to try out some new ones to practice for Christmas cookies. The result? LOTS of cookies!! :)
Not that anyone is complaining around here :)

This first cookie is a variation of a cookie my Gram used to make, it's her recipe.

We always went to my Grandparents house for Thanksgiving and the cookie jar was ALWAYS full. As my Grandparents got older sometimes there would be store bought cookies in it and my Gram would joke and say that Grandpa made the cookies, because he was the one who did the shopping.
When she made cookies it was always a huge batch and when it got to the end of the stirring she would call Grandpa in to help her stir. They are the sweetest couple in the world, they were definitely made for each other.
They, very conservatively, had only 2 children, a girl and a boy, who then went on to give them 17 grandchildren, lol. As for Great-Grandchildren I am making a guess of 30 + 2 on the way. They had no idea it would happen that way :)
My Wonderful Grandpa passed away last year and he is very much missed. The holidays last year were really hard, I thought this year might be easier but I know he is still missed much by all. He had a long battle with Parkinsons, cancer and heart problems so I know he is no longer in pain, but I still miss him very much.

Cookies, back to the cookies, this cookie is my favorite of hers. I have many happy memories of making these with her-

Thumbprints

Ingred;
1-1/4c. flour
3T. sugar
1/2c. butter

Oven 325
Stir together the flour and sugar- cut in the butter- if dough is too dry add in a little water.
Roll into balls, place on greased cookies sheet and make thumbprint in them. Bake for 15-18 minutes. When done immediately fill with jam or jelly.

I added green food coloring and mint flavoring to the dough. Then I made a chocolate mint ganache for the filling-
1/4c. chocolate mint coffee cream
3/4c. chocolate chips.
Then topped them with andes mints.

These are called Monkey Peanut Butter Bars I got the recipe for AR, they turned out pretty good, the peanut butter frosting needs to be doubled though. The recipe is HERE.

Then I made an old favorite from AR- Big Soft Ginger Cookies. These are Awesome. Recipe is HERE.

And last, and my childrens favorite of the bunch, Andes Creme De Menthe Chunk Cookies, from Donna's- My Tasty Treasures- Thank You Donna! The only thing I did different, I didn't chill the dough like I was suppose to, I just went ahead and baked it. No patience, remember? :)

The result of my crazed baking?

COOKIES FOR EVERYONE!!!!!

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookie Sandwiches

Since today is October 1st and October first in Homemade Cookie Day I decided to try out a recipe for a yummy Fall treat-

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip
Cookie Sandwiches
Ingred;
1/3c. olive oil
7.5 oz (about 3/4c.) pumpkin
1 egg
3/4c. sugar
2t. vanilla
3c. flour
1t. baking soda
1t. baking powder
1/2t. salt
1c. mini chocolate chips :)

Cream Cheese Frosting- I got my recipe from here- What's for Dinner?

Heat oven to 375.
Mix together oil, pumpkin, egg, sugar and vanilla. Stir in flour, baking powder, soda and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips.
Using a large scoop put scoopfuls onto a greased cookie sheet.
Bake for about 10 minutes. Cool.
Spread cream cheese frosting onto the flat surface of one cookie top with the flat surface of another. Enjoy :)

Brown Sugar Shortbread

Ingred;
1c. softened butter
1c. dark brown sugar
2c. flour
1/4t. salt
1t. vanilla
2T. cinnamon sugar

Oven 325.
Beat together the butter and brown sugar, add in the vanilla then the flour and salt. The mixture will be slightly crumbly. Press into a greased 9x13 pan and sprinkle with the cinnamon sugar. Bake for 35-45 min. Cool and cut into bars. These would be excellent dipped in chocolate :)

Almond Citrus Biscotti Rolls

Awhile back I saw on another blog where they had baked cookies in round coin wrappers. They were so cute and round, I have been dying to try it. So I bought a pkg of these

And whipped up a batch of Biscotti dough to stuff in them

And ended up with these

Almond Citrus Biscotti
Ingred;
1/2 softened butter
1-1/2c. sugar
3 eggs
1t. lime juice
1t. almond extract
3-1/2c. flour
2t. baking powder
pinch of salt
chocolate for dipping
toasted, chopped almonds

Oven 350
Cream together the butter and sugar, beat in the eggs one by one. Beat in the extract and lime juice. Combine the flour, baking powder and salt slowly add in. Mix until dough starts coming together. Press into coin wrappers, and place them all on a cookie sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove them from the oven, trim off any ends, take wrappers off the cookies. Place them bake in the oven for 10 min. more, turn oven off and leave cookies for about 15 min.
Cool, dip in melted chocolate and almonds.

*As cute as these are they were a LOT of work, so I'm thinking they might be for special occasions only. Also the Biscotti recipe needs a little adjusting, next time I will be adding 1/4c. lime juice instead of 1 t. and an extra 1/4c. flour. They just need a little more citrus flavoring, I suppose a little lime zest would be good too.