Banana Toffee Nutella Bread (Alternative title: I'm sorry I'm a lazy blogger)

Didn't I used to have a blog?   Wait, do I still have a blog?  Crap, I do...and I haven't updated it in 6 months.  SIX MONTHS?!?   I'm the worst blogger ever.

 

It's not like nothing has happened in the past 6 months that is worth posting; exactly the opposite, actually.   Since my last post we traveled to Europe, Jim defended his thesis and graduated from Wash U, I traveled to Hilton Head Island with friends, family & friends celebrated Jim's graduation at a fun party, we traveled to Boston to find an apartment, I gave my resignation at Sigma, we celebrated my birthday, I had my last day at work, we visited with friends and family, and we moved to Boston.   Phew, I guess that's why I haven't posted anything since April!

 

However, since moving to Boston I really don't have an excuse for not updating the blog because I haven't been working.  Instead, I've been getting our apartment together, exploring our neighborhood, cooking/baking, and doing fun Pintrest projects.   Oh, I've also been trying to find a job but all those other things are just so much more fun!   Because I've had the opportunity to do some cool things lately, I've decided to pick up the whole blogging thing again, just in case anyone wants to see what I've been up to and maybe get some ideas for fun activities/projects.  I have been trying to be diligent about taking photos of what I've been doing so there are a number of posts that I have on the docket...get ready!

 

In keeping with the blog's title, I'll get back into the swing of things with a "sweet" post - a recipe for banana toffee nutella bread.  Since that is a mouthful of a name, I wanted to come up with a shorter name, like "banafee nutella bread" or even "banafeetella bread".  Both good ideas in theory, but out loud they sounds weird so I'll stick with the long name (Note to self: do not go into advertising, people will not understand your weird ideas.)  When I headed to the kitchen to bake I initially planned on making regular old banana bread; however, I found a jar of Nutella hiding behind the brown sugar and thought that incorporating it with banana could be good (think banana Nutella crepes!).  I had seen marbled pumpkin bread on Tastespotting and decided to apply the marbling technique to my bread, using part banana bread batter and part nutella-flavored batter.  As a last minute addition I also threw in some crushed Heath bar, mostly so that I wouldn't scarf it down in some future willpower-deprived eating spree.  I hope you try and enjoy this recipe!

Banana Toffee Nutella Bread

1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
8 tbsp (1 stick) salted butter
2 large eggs
2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
3 ripe bananas
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp milk
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 Heath bar, crushed
3 tbsp Nutella
1 tbsp milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Prepare a loaf pan by spraying with cooking spray or greasing with butter.  (Even though I used a non-stick Calphalon loaf pan, I still greased it to make sure the bread would come out clean!)

 

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

 

Using a stand or handheld mixer, cream butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, mixing to incorporate after each addition.  After adding eggs, gradually add flour mixture (keep the bowl for the next step!) and beat until thoroughly mixed.  Set batter aside.

 

Add the bananas, vanilla, cinnamon and 1 tbsp milk to the medium-sized bowl (that held the flour); mash together until no large lumps remain.  Stir in crushed Heath bar.

 

Divide batter in half; add half to banana mixture and stir with a rubber spatula to combine.  Pour banana toffee batter into prepared loaf pan.  To remaining batter, add Nutella and 1 tbsp milk; stir with spatula to combine.  Pour or spoon Nutella batter on top of banana toffee batter.  Using a rubber spatula or knife, gently pull batter from bottom to top and side to side; this will create the marble.  *Don't over mix at this point or else the bread will end up as a singular bananatoffeenutella batter instead of a marbled bread.

 

Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until cake tester inserted in the middle of the bread comes out clean.

 

Enjoy!

 

Banana Toffee Nutella bread, too tasty to calculate calories!

 

Oops, I did it again...

I played with your heart...and didn't blog for a whole month. Crap.

This time I have (somewhat of) an excuse, besides just being lazy. Over the past month I've been spending my extra time doing internet-independent things, like spending more time outdoors, reading and...doing other stuff that just isn't blogging, I suppose. When I have been able to get to my computer I have had other, higher priority things to use the internet for, like research our impending vacation! We leave in less than two weeks for a trip to Amsterdam and Paris - I can't wait!

To try and ease myself back into blogging, I'll be making this a short and sweet post dedicated to the cutest dog in the world, whose birthday was this past week.  After a recent trip to the spa (dog groomer) I took Charlie to play in our back yard and noticed that the light was perfect for photos!  Some of the images turned out looking very formal, like senior portraits.

Charlie Mohan, Class of 2012

But eventually Charlie lost his interest in being incredibly good-looking and instead wanted to play.  Have I mentioned that Charlie has a crippling addiction to fetching tennis balls?  We actually have a theory that he doesn't really enjoy fetching but rather has obsessive-compulsive disorder that drives him to retrieve the ball every time its thrown.  This diagnosis is based on the fact that even if it is too hot out (which is over 70 degrees for the pup) and Charlie is pathetically splayed out on the grass panting, he will run after the ball if its chucked.  Poor OCD dog, I'm sorry you're a little bit crazy (probably inherited it from me).

This sequence is on repeat any time a tennis ball is around

So, as I mentioned, Charlie recently celebrated a birthday.  We celebrated his third birthday on Wednesday with a trip to Dairy Queen.  Charlie absolutely loved his vanilla ice cream and provided a great deal of entertainment when trying to get the last licks from the flimsy plastic container...I'm sure at that point his birthday wish was for thumbs (or that his stupid owners would hold the damn cup for him).  Also entertaining?  Jim's concern over Charlie getting brain freeze - he was certain that Charlie would hurt himself so a couple times he separated Charlie from the ice cream.  This would last for a few seconds until Charlie wiggled his way free and beelined back to the prize.

Lay off me, I'm starving!

I'll try to blog again soon, I have a couple recipes that are worth passing along!

Blog? What blog?

It has been over a month since I last posted on the blog...you could say I've just been taking my sweet time getting around to it (get it?).  During this time I've still be cooking, baking, taking photos of things, but I just haven't been able to get around to blogging any of it.  And by "been able to get around to" I really mean I have been too tired/lazy/etc.  I know my many loyal followers have been antsy for a post (<-- sarcasm font), so here it is and it is sweet...literally!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupakes

I recently stumbled upon a new blog that I immediately fell in love with - Bake at 350.  This blog has amazing ideas, recipes, tutorials and has completely inspired me to try new things in my baking.  One recipe that grabbed my attention was that for Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes, so I desperately looked for an excuse to make them (since I can't bake just because...that is how I end up with half as many baked goods as intended and a childlike sugar-induced stomach ache).  Fortunately, Jim had a Sunday lab meeting one weekend so I was able to make these cupcakes and cast them out of the house...after trying just a bite of one, of course!

The final result was a chocolate chip cupcake topped with brown sugar cookie dough frosting.  The inspiring blog post provides a recipe for filled and frosted cupcakes, but since I was sending these to a group of scientists who actively study diabetes (albeit Type 1 diabetes, which is not the type that can be induced by diet) then I scaled back and did not include the filling.  I also was probably just a little bit lazy, too.  Nonetheless, the cupcakes turned out amazingly! 

The actual cakes themselves were literally the most perfect-looking cupcakes I have ever made; I'm not sure if this is a function of the recipe, batter level in the tray, or some other variable but I was excited to see such pretty little domes.  They were quite tasty too - moist and light with a subtle flavor that allow the frosting to be the star of the show...and boy was that frosting a star!  I don't know why I didn't expect more out of the frosting when I first saw the recipe, but it really does taste exactly like cookie dough!  Trying a bit of the frosting transported me back to the special times that my mom would buy us refrigerated cookie dough and let us eat it without baking any cookies at all (back before the days that I knew, or even had to know, what a calorie was!).  Taken together, this cake and frosting combination is delicious and I can see why Bake at 350's son asked for these as a birthday treat!

Not too flat, no "muffin top", golden brown domes - perfect!

 Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes (from Bake at 350)

For the cupcakes:

3 sticks of butter*, room temperature

1 1/2 c. brown sugar, packed

4 eggs

2 2/3 c. flour

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 c. milk

2 tsp vanilla

1 c. chocolate chips

*Even though most baking recipes call for unsalted butter, I usually use salted butter because I feel like it can balance out sweetness sometimes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare a muffin tin with cupcake liners.

In a separate bowl, whisk dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt) together.  Set aside.  With a stand mixer or an electric handheld mixer, cream butter and brown sugar on medium-high speed until fluffy.  Add  vanilla and eggs (one at a time); beat until incorporated after each addition.  While mixing on low speed, add flour mixture in 3 batches, alternating with milk.  Using a rubber spatula, fold in chocolate chips.

Fill lined cups two-thirds full with cupcake batter.  Bake for 10 minutes, rotate pan, and bake for another 10 minutes (20 minutes total) or until a cake tester inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean.  Cool cupcakes completely before decorating with frosting (recipe below).

For the frosting

3 sticks butter, room temperature

3/4 c brown sugar, packed

1 lb (16 oz) powdered sugar

1/2 tsp salt

3 tbsp milk

2 1/2 tsp vanilla

Mini chocolate chips*

*The original recipe doesn't include chocolate chips in the frosting.  I added chips to transform the frosting from "brown sugar cookie dough" to "chocolate chip cookie dough".  Unfortunately the chips caused a bit of a problem during decorating when they occasionally clogged the tip of my pastry bag, so I can understand why they weren't in the original recipe.  However, they tasted good in the frosting so I'm glad I included them.  I would recommend using mini chocolate chips to avoid clogs during decorating.

With a stand mixer or an electric handheld mixer on medium-high speed, cream butter and brown sugar until fluffy (about 5 minutes).  Reduce speed and slowly add powder sugar; mix until just incorporated.  Add salt, milk and vanilla; mix to combine.  Transfer frosting to a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip and frost cooled cupcakes.

Delicious, but now I want a cupcake!

I have more blog posts up my sleeve, hopefully I can get some momentum going again!

Quick, use it or lose it!

Occasionally I run into a situation in which I need to use perishable foods before, well, they perish.  This is usually the result of over-ambitious dinner planning plus laziness ("This week I'll make dinner every night!" followed by "I'm too tired tonight, can you eat leftovers instead?").  The following recipe came from a situation like this - I ended up needing to use a pound of chicken breast before it went bad!  I browsed some chicken salad recipes on the web and chose two to guide me in the the flavors and/or amount of different components to use.  The Fancy Schmancy recipe inspired me to include apple cider and vinegar while the Chicken 'n Apple recipe helped me to determine the amount of ingredients to use.  Though both recipes looked good, I had to improvise a bit based on what was hiding in my fridge and cabinets.  Somehow, from all of this, a pretty decent (and healthy) chicken salad emerged!

Impromptu Chicken Salad (guided by the recipes listed above)

1 lb chicken breast

2 tbsp finely chopped red onion

1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar

1 1/2 tbsp honey

1/4 cup fat free plain yogurt

1/4 cup light Miracle Whip

2 tbsp Dijon mustard

1/4 cup dried cranberries, roughly chopped

1/4 cup pistachio nuts, roughly chopped

1/2 Fuji apple, chopped into small chunks

Fill a large saucepan with water and bring to a boil.  Add chicken breast and boil until no longer pink in the center (I can't remember how long this took...maybe 10-15 minutes?); remove from pan and set aside to cool.  In a small bowl, combine vinegar and honey; whisk together until mixed.  Add red onions and set aside to marinate.  In a separate bowl, combine yogurt, Miracle Whip and mustard; mix to combine and set aside.

When chicken has cooled, cut into small cubes or shred using a fork and knife.  Add chicken to yogurt mixture and toss to completely coat.  Add onions (including marinating liquid), cranberries, pistachios and apples; mix thoroughly.

Makes 6 servings, approximately 210 calories per serving

Chicken salad is a healthy lunch option!

I served this to Jim on toasted sourdough (verdict = good) and I have enjoyed it as a topping on an avocado half or as a sandwich on a multi grain skinny bun!