Chocolate & Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Makes a 9x5 Loaf

Filling
2/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa powder
2/3 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup peanut butter


For the filling, mix sugar and cocoa in a small saucepan.  Gradually stir in milk.  Cook until boiling.
Remove from heat.  Stir in peanut butter and vanilla.  Set aside.


Streusel
1/2 c brown sugar
1/2 c flour
1/4 c butter
1/4 c peanut butter


Mix sugar and flour.  Cut in butter and peanut butter.  Set aside.


Banana Batter
1 c sugar
1/4 c butter
3/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp kosher salt

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

3 medium bananas

2 c flour

Cream sugar with butter, soda, and salt, using a mixer.  Beat in eggs and vanilla, adding one at a time.  Mix in bananas.  Stir in flour.

2 or 3 bananas sliced thinly lengthwise

In a buttered 9"x5" pan, pour half of banana batter.  Pour over half of chocolate filling.  Top with other half of batter.  Then top with remaining chocolate filling.  Draw a knife through to swirl.  Cover top with sliced bananas.  Top with streusel.  Bake at 350F for 75 minutes.

Cinnamon Raisin Bagels

Makes 2 Dozen


Make Smitten Kitchen Bagel Dough


Before shaping, mix 1 T cinnamon
with 1 c sugar.  Cover 1 c raisins with water and microwave until boiling.  Drain raisins.  Add both of these things to dough and proceed with Smitten Kitchen recipe.


Before baking, add struessel topping:


Streusel Topping:
2 T butter
6 T sugar
4 T brown sugar
6 T flour
4 T rolled oats
2 tsp cinnamon


Bake as directed.

Witch Fingers

A Halloween necessity at our house.

Makes 3 to 4 Dozen

pretzel dough
green and yellow food coloring
large pot of boiling water
1/4 c honey
1 egg beaten with 1 T water
roasted pumpkin seeds
rosemary
salt

Add food coloring to pretzel recipe.  Let dough rise as directed.  Roll pretzel dough into long ropes.  Cut slightly longer than size of finger.  Squish dough in the spots for knuckles, twice in the middle and again at one end.  Add honey to boiling water.  Drop fingers in boiling water.  After fingers rise to the surface place on parchment lined cookie sheets.  Cut slits in knuckles.  Brush with egg wash.  Add seeds for finger nailes and rosemary for hair.  Sprinkle with salt.  Bake at 450F for 10 to 15 minutes, depending on finger size.

Pastry Pocket Dough

The filling should be cooked ahead of time so that it isn't too runny.
For these, I mixed apple slices with lemon juice, sugar and cinnamon and let sit close to an hour.
I drained and reserved the juice.  Sauteed the apples on the stove top.
Added the juice, mixed with corn starch.  Cooked until thick.
Then, I stirred in a little apple sauce and vanilla.
You could also make cherry pie filling or any other fruit filling.

Makes 12

8 oz cream cheese
16 oz unsalted butter
1 tsp kosher salt
3 c flour
1 egg white
1 T water

Cream cheese and butter with salt in mixer using paddle attachment.  Add flour and mix on low, just until combinded.  Chill in fridge for 4 or more hours.  Roll into a 8"x15" rectangle.  Fold top and bottom of rectangle over, like a letter.  Turn a quarter turn.  Roll again to 8"x15", fold, and rotate.  Do this 4 times, total.  Chill again for at least an hour.  Divide dough in half.  Roll out and cut 6 6" circles from each half.  Chill again for at least 30 minutes.  Fill with prepared pie filling.  Gather ends and tie with string.  Freeze for at least 30 minutes.  Mix egg white with water in a small bowl.  Dip tops and bottoms of pastries in wash or brush on.  Sprinkle with sugar.  Bake for 40 minutes on parchment lined cookie sheets for 40 minutes.  Tent tops with foil if browning too quickly.

Summer Vege Sandwich (Tian)

This is my favorite way to use garden zucchini and tomatoes.

These are as good cold on the second day
as they are straight out of the oven.

Ingredients
1 crusty loaf of bread
olive oil
caramelized onions
roasted red peppers
1 to 2 zucchini, sliced thin
3 to 4 tomatoes, sliced thin
sea salt
cracked pepper
thyme

Slice bread open.  Drizzle oil in a 9x13 pan or other of desired shape and size.
Pack bread slices, cut side up, very close together so they are touching but not on top of each other. Drizzle bread tops with more oil.  Top with caramelized onions.  Lay roasted peppers on top of onions.  (Or mix onions and peppers, if sliced, together and then top bread.)  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Layer zucchini and tomatoes on top, alternating, and being sure to keep a little of the outside of the bread slices showing. Drizzle with a little more olive oil.  Sprinkle with salt, cracked pepper, and thyme.  Cover with foil and bake at 350F for 1.5 hours.  Uncover and bake another 10 minutes.

Cinnamon Rolls

Makes 2 9x13 pans

Dough
4 1/1 tsp yeast
2 1/4 c milk, warmed
1 c 2 T sugar
2 c mashed potatoes
1/2 c butter
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
8 c a.p. flour

Filling
1/2 c butter, melted
2 1/2 c sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
3 T cinnamon

Icing
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c butter
1 tsp almond extact
1 tsp vanilla
4 c powdered sugar

Warm milk to 110F.  In a mixing bowl, whisk milk with yeast and 2 T sugar.  Let sit until foamy.  In a medium saucepan, warm 1 c sugar, potatoes, stick of butter, and salt just until butter melts.  Making sure the potato mixture is under 125F, add to yeast mix.  Add eggs and half of flour.  Using a dough hook, mix until smooth.  Add remaining flour and mix until a somewhat smooth dough is formed.  Grease a large bowl, empty dough into bowl, turn to cover all sides with oil, cover with plastic wrap or towel and let rise 1 to 2 hours.
Divide dough in half.  On a floured surface shape dough into two large rectanges.  Mix filling ingredients and spread evenly on top.  Roll and cut, placing rolls in two buttered 9x13 glass pans.
Let rise 45 minutes to an hour.  Bake at 350F for 29 minutes.  I like to check the center with a thermometer.  The dough should be 190F when it is done.  Immediately flip rolls onto a cookie sheet or serving dish.  While rolls are baking mix the icing ingredients until smooth.  Spread on rolls while they are still warm.

Nutella Cookies

Taken from sammyw.wordpress.com

Makes 2 dozen

1 stick unsalted butter

3/4 cup peanut butter

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup sugar

3/4 t baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher salt

1 egg

1/2 t vanilla extract

1 3/4 cups flour

1/4 cup Nutella

Preheat oven to 350. Cream butter, peanut butter, sugars, salt, soda, egg, and vanilla. Mix until well blended. Stir in flour until dough is crumbly. Drizzle Nutella on top of the dough then swirl it through the dough with a butter knife. Chill dough 15 minutes in the refrigerator. Roll into balls by hand. Place on parchment lined cookie sheet. Using a fork, press down the balls to flatten slightly. Bake until edges are very lightly browned (about 7 to 10 minutes). Allow to rest 2 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring cookies to a cooling rack.