Butterscotch Glazed Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

I have this bad habit of every few weeks deciding that I am going to commit to eating cereal and a banana every day for breakfast. I stock up on Total, bananas and good intentions. Sadly the good intentions only last about two days and then I go back to eating my usual combination of granola bars and fruit smoothies.

This "habit" doesn't seem so bad on the surface, but what ends up happening is I'm left with a slowly blackening bunch of bananas which more often than not ends up in the trash. My kids are not the biggest fans of bananas so they don't usually eat them...but I really, really hate to throw away food so the solution became obvious: banana bread. Now every few weeks I have a bowl or two of cereal with a sliced banana followed up later in the week with a tasty banana bread-maybe it's a pretty good habit after all.

It's teacher appreciation week and I volunteered to bake something for our high school teacher breakfast--so this week they are the recipients of my blackened bananas (that doesn't sound like a very nice gift). I feel very fortunate to live in a town with some incredible teachers and my little banana bread is just a small thank you for their big job that they do so well...thank you teachers (everywhere).

So I finished typing this post and grab my camera to upload my photos and guess what?? I never put the memory card in!! There should be a bell that goes off or a warning screen that comes up for careless photographers such as myself. Well trust me when I tell you it looked really pretty!

Butterscotch Glazed Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
5 tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 medium very ripe bananas
1/4 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease the bottom and sides an 8x4x2 1/2 inch loaf pan.

In a medium sized bowl sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and baking powder.

In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugars, using an electric mixer, until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time beating just until incorporated. Add the bananas and beat until combined; stir in the chocolate chips. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan.

Bake bread in the 350 degree oven for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick or cake tester inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes. Gently remove from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack. When completely cooled top with the butterscotch glaze (recipe follows).

Butterscotch Glaze:

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
1 cup sifted confectioner's sugar
1 tablespoon heavy cream

Bring the butter, sugar and water to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat; boil for 1 minute. Whisk in the confectioner's sugar and the heavy cream. Spoon the glaze over the cooled bread.

Twinkie-like Cupcake Sweetheart Treats

I am pretty sure I've mentioned this before...but...I have an embarrassing weakness for Twinkies. I'm not proud of this-I am well aware of the nutritional shortcomings of my secret love (I know, I know "shortcomings" is probably an understatement-I probably should say that I am well aware of the fact that my secret love contains absolutely no nutritional value). But deficits and all I love them.

When I saw this bargain in the supermarket: Duncan Hines Cupcake Mixes 2 for $1.00 I couldn't resist tossing a few boxes into my cart.

After baking, I immediately thought of filling them with Twinkie-like filling to create a little Valentine's Day treat. I love these cupcake mixes; they are the perfect size for a family dessert. Making cupcakes with an ordinary cake mix yields way too many cupcakes for a weeknight family dessert but using the cupcake mix will leave you with 12 full size cupcakes or 24 minis-plenty for dessert and plenty for some lunchbox leftovers. I went with the minis.

I found a recipe at Cooks.com for Twinkie-like filling and adapted it for this recipe...it was a delicious, beater licking treat. For frosting I improvised a frosting with butter and sour cream.

Twinkie-like Cupcake Sweetheart Treats

Duncan Hines Moist Deluxe Cupcake Mix prepared according to package directions

1/4 cup butter, room temperature

1/4 cup Crisco

1/2 cup sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup evaporated milk

Frosting:

1/4 cup butter

1 cup confectioner's sugar

1/4 cup sour cream

1 teaspoon milk

pink food coloring (I used Wilton Rose Petal)

Cinnamon flavored sprinkles

Prepare the cupcakes according to package directions baking them at 350 degrees in a mini muffin tin lined with paper liners for 10-12 minutes. Cool completely.

For the filling, in a mixing bowl with an electric mixer combine the butter, Crisco, sugar, vanilla and evaporated milk; beat on high for 20 minutes. (It will initially look like a nasty scrambled egg in a mixing bowl, but don't worry it will come together!)

Transfer the filling to a pastry bag fitted with a small tip; pipe the filling into the centers of each of the cupcakes. (I left the cupcakes in the muffin tin to make it easier to keep them still while filling.)

At this point you can either leave the cupcakes as is or you can frost them. Beat together the butter, sugar, sour cream, milk and food coloring; mix together until smooth and well combined. Spread or pipe frosting onto cupcakes then top with the cinnamon sprinkles.

Moist Butterscotch Apple Pecan Bars

Hold on shoppers, don’t wheel your cart out of the produce aisle yet-I’ve got another apple recipe…a tasty snack cake.

In an effort to eat more fruit (and because they are just so good right now) I am trying to eat an apple a day for (at least) the next month. It’s what the doctor says we should be doing, right? Don’t worry; I’m not counting apples baked into a snack cake or biscuits as my apple for the day-that can just be a bonus. I am going to eat a sliced apple every day.

Are your kids picky about how you slice an apple? My kids never have been, but recently my daughter had a friend over who would not eat the apple the way I sliced it. For the better part of the last six years I have had one or more of my children in braces and I have been slicing my apples not into the (apparently) more popular wedges but rather into almost paper thin slices and although we are (temporarily) braces-free we all now prefer paper thin slices…of course I sliced some wedges for the friend, but geesh it’s not like she’s a toddler-she’s twelve!

Super tips for selecting and storing apples:

Choose firm apples free of bruises or brown spots

Not all tasty apples are red-just look for clear smooth coloring

Store apples in the crisper drawer in your refrigerator away from other strong smelling produce (like leeks or other onions) apples will pick up thier odors

While apples look lovely in a bowl on your table, just remember that they will not last as long-so eat or use them quickly

1 medium sized apple will equal about 1 cup diced

1 pound of apples yields about 3 cups of diced fruit


The Cook's Thesaurus had a great breakdown of the best apples for whatever you are making:

Best for eating out of hand: Gala, Fuji, Mutsu, Jonathan, Cameo, Golden Delicious, Cortland, Empire, Red Delicious, McIntosh, Braeburn, Winesap, Pink Lady, Sundowner
Best for pies: Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Rhode Island Greening, Pippin, Granny Smith, Pink Lady, Gravenstein
Best for applesauce: Pippin, Rhode Island Greening, McIntosh, Elstar, Cortland, Fuji, Gala, Gravenstein
Best for baking: Rome, Jonagold, Granny Smith, Pippin, Gala, Braeburn, Northern Spy, Gravenstein, Rhode Island Greening, York Imperial, Cortland, Winesap
Best for making salads: Cortland, Golden Delicious, Empire, Gala, Red Delicious, Fuji, Winesap, Criterion, Pink Lady

Moist Butterscotch Apple Pecan Bars

1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
2/3 cup fat free milk
1 large egg
2 cups diced, peeled apple
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Butterscotch drizzle:
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Lightly butter and flour a 13x9 inch baking pan.

In a large mixing bowl beat together the butter and the sugar with an electric mixer. In another small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt and baking soda. Gradually add the flour mixture to the butter, beating just until combined. Mix in the vanilla, milk and egg. Spread the batter into the prepared pan.

Scatter the apple and pecans over the mixture, pressing down gently.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

For the butterscotch drizzle, melt the butter and the brown sugar in a skillet over medium high heat until smooth, about 2-3 minutes. Stir in the heavy cream and cook for 30 seconds; drizzle over the warm cake; allow the cake to cool slightly before cutting into bars to serve.

You know you want a scoop of ice cream with it…go ahead wheel your cart over to the frozen food section for a pint of vanilla.