Banana Bundt

Everyone Wednesday night we hang out with Genna and Daniel, and tonight we decided to bake a Banana Bundt Cake. It came out really well...tastes a like banana bread, but the consistency is a little lighter. It goes great with butter pecan ice cream :)




Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups sugar
3 large eggs
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 ripe LARGE bananas (or 3 medium ones) mashed (about 1 cup)
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup sour cream

Preheat the oven to 350. Cream together the butter and sugar. Mix in the eggs and vanilla. Next, add in the mashed bananas. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Add half of the dry ingredients into the butter/egg mixture. Add the sour cream, then add the remainder of the dry ingredients. Pour into a bundt pan. Bake for about 45 minutes, or until lightly browned.

-Irene & Scott

White Chocolate Chip, Cranberry, Macadamia Nut Cookies

So I tried modifying a couple of recipes and ended up with a really delicious cookie recipe with white chocolate chips, dried cranberries, and macadamia nuts in them. The chewability on these is pretty high :)

I didn't get a chance to take any pictures of them, they were devoured too quickly! But next time I make them, I'll be sure to snap a few.

1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (unless using salted butter)
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
1/2 cup macadamia nuts (or walnuts if you prefer)
3/4 cup dried cranberries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together the butter and sugars. Add in the egg and vanilla.
In a separate bowl, mix together flour, salt and baking soda. Add the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients. Stir in white choc. chips, nuts, and cranberries.
Drop about tablespoon sized balls onto a baking sheet. Bake for about 9 minutes, until the edges are lightly browned. They will still be slightly doughy when you take them out of the oven, so let them cool on the baking sheet for about a minute before transferring them onto a wire rack...or into your mouth.
Enjoy!

-Irene

Our First Post

Scott was just bitten by my snake, so I am going to start off with the first blog while he tends to his wounds. We just baked some scrumptious snickerdoodle cookies (from my NEW oven!) for my friend Naif in payment for him dropping me off at the airport last week. We found this recipe from: http://www.life123.com They must be good because my roommate Bobby likes them, and he "doesn't usually like Snickerdoodles, but approves of this batch."





Ingredients:

1 stick (half cup) unsalted butter (room temperature)

1/4 cup canola oil

1 1/2 cups white sugar

2 eggs

2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons white sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions:

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Then cream together (in a mixer or by hand) the butter, oil and sugar. Next, add in the eggs and mix well. In a separate bowl mix together flour, baking soda, salt, and cream of tartar (I mixed these ingredients while I made Scott cream the wet ingredients by hand). Mix the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture until well-combined.

In a separate bowl mix together sugar and ground cinnamon. Make approximately one-inch size balls and roll them in this mixture. Place on a greased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart and flatten them. Bake for about 8-9 minutes. The cookies will stay pretty light in color, but will be firm when ready.

Eat and enjoy :)

-Irene & Scott