Chocolate Chunk Banana Bread

As some of you know, I am allergic to many, many things. Potassium is among the long list... which means no bananas and no nuts. But one of my most treasured smells for a house to hold is homemade Banana Nut Bread. You can almost see the flavor tendrils weaving their way through every nook and cranny in the house.

My hunny also loves this smell and most definitely eating it. As you may remember, I posted a recipe last year featuring my bread with a nice homemade icing that was "TO-DIE-FOR"! I had some friends out here in the wild west try it out and felt the same way. It's one of those things I HAVE to make once or twice a year, regardless of the reactions I get.

This time around I made 2 loaves... one for him and one for me. Since nuts and bananas both have Potassium I chose to forgo the nuts and replace them with chocolate chunks. All I did was follow the original recipe (find it here) and instead of one loaf, I poured the batter into two loaf pans. On his, I added nuts and gently stirred them in. On mine I chopped up a chocolate bar (about 1 ounce) and gently stirred it in. The baked for the same amount of time in the old recipe for the small loaf.

Chocolate Chunks

Original

Brownie Pudding

While watching The Barefoot Contessa, I saw a mouthwatering dish she had made for her husband. Now I do love my chocolate... in ANY form, and I figured it would be something I could probably make. I saw "probably"  because as I have stated before, getting certain ingredients in this area is down right impossible! Like the Vanilla Bean she calls for. The employees at the store just give you a bewildered look when you tell then "No, I do not want extract, I want the whole bean!". I used to love going food shopping. *Sigh*

But not to fear, I came up with my own version of this great dish that tastes heavenly! So grab a spoon and dig into this! It serves any where from 4 (if you really really like chocolate like I do) to 8 (for those trying not to be a pig like my dear hunny). Its easier than it looks so give it a try!

2 Sticks Butter, melted and cooled
4 Eggs
2 cup Sugar
3/4 cup Cocoa Powder
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Cinnamon
2 tsp Vanilla
1 tbsp Red Stag (Cherry Bourbon) or  Framboise (Raspberry Liquer)
Chocolate Chips (Optional)
Walnuts (Optional)

1) In saucepan, melt the butter and set pan aside to cool. Preheat oven to 325. Prepare 9 inch oval baking dish by greasing it, set aside.

2) In food processor cream together eggs and sugar. In medium bowl, sift together flour, cocoa and cinnamon. Back in processor, add vanilla and bourbon, pulse to blend. Slowly begin to add the dry ingredients and finally the butter.

3) Pour batter into prepared dish. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips and nuts if desired. Set dish into a larger casserole dish and fill the larger one up with water to about the same height as your batter.

This will give it a good even baking on the edges. Bake for 1 hour to 1:15. It's done when you can insert a toothpick into the center and pull it out still wet with the edges pulling away from the sides.

Chocolate Covered Cherry Cake & Muffins

This is something I came up with years ago out of necessity. I was working on a cake to bring to work and realized I didn't have any oil. It was right around eleven at night and I was not about to head to the store... after all, everything else was ready to go. So I went on a hunt and found a can of cherry pie filling. The cogs in my head slowly started to turn and the little light finally came on. Why not use the filling as the oil? It came out marvelous!

I can't tell you how many people have begged for the recipe over the years, but I always held onto it like my life depended on it. Not even to family would I hand it over. So feel lucky my loyal readers, I am finally going to hand it over to you... if I can ever hit the "Post" button that is! ;-)

(So good it doesn't need frosting! But you can frost away if you want!)

1 box Chocolate Cake Mix
2-3 Eggs (depending on the amount the box calls for)
Water (depending on how much we improvise)
2 can Cherry Pie Filling, drained (reserve liquid)
Chocolate Chips
Frosting, optional

For Cake:

1) Grease and flour your cake pans. Spread drained cherries in a single layer in each pan. Set oven to 350 (or which ever temp your cake mix calls for).

2) In large bowl mix eggs. Look at the amount of oil on the box and use the appropriate amount of reserved cherry liquid instead and pour it into the bowl. Same thing with the water. If you do not have enough liquid to make the water, add water from the tap to fill it up. Mix your ingredients with a hand mixer for about 2 minutes unitl the batter is nice and smooth. Pour over top of the cherries in the prepared pans. Sprinkle the top with chocolate chips to cover it. Bake according to package length or until the center is set and a toothpick comes out without cake on it (although you might have cherry or chocolate on it).

3) Let cool a couple of hours on a wire rack before removing from pans. This is sweet enough for most tastes but go ahead and ice it if you want.

For Muffins:

Same ingredients as above.

1) Line your miffin tin with muffin paper cups. Set oven to cake mix temp.

2) Mix ingredients as stated above. Using spoon add batter to muffin cups to fill halfway. Place 2-3 cherries in each muffin and press down slightly. Fill muffins with remaining batter. Spinkle 6-8 chocolate chips on top and lightly press into batter. Bake for reccomended time on package.

Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Here is the "To Die For" biscotti recipe. For those of you on facebook who read that I was making it for my trip down to Bastrop, sorry it took so long to get it posted. I'm going to try and get another post or two up while Im here but if not, everyone deserves a Christmas Holiday!

3/4 cup Walnuts, whole
2/3 cup Sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla
1 tsp Baking Powder
1/4 tsp Salt
1 tsp Cinnamon 
1 3/4 cup Flour 
1 cup Chocolate Chips

1) Line baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside. Preheat oven to 350.

2) Pour walnuts onto baking sheet and bake at 350 for about 8-10 minutes, just until you begin to smell the nut oils. Take out and chop.

3) In medium bowl beat eggs and sugar together until they become pale and fluffy. Add vanilla and mix well to incorporate.

4) In a large bowl whisk together flour, cinnamon  salt and baking powder. Pour in egg mixture and beat until combined. Fold in nuts and chocolate. At this point you might want to flour your hands and use them to blend in the last ingredients.

5) While still in the bowl, begin to form a log about 12x3" and finish it on the parchemnt paper. Place in oven and bake 25 minutes until it is firm to the touch. Reduce oven to 325. Let cool 10 minutes!

6) Using a bread knife, cut diagnal slices about 3/4" thick. Lay them out on the parchment, cut side down and bake 10 minutes. Remove from oven, flip each slice and bake another 10-12 minutes until its baked through but not brown. Let cool before eating!

Oatmeal Cranberry Chocolate Bars (No Baking!)

So, the other day I was hungering for something sweet. My first thought was to try making Divinity... after all, I had just bought everything to make it. Or so I thought. Apparently my hunny had a hankering for eggs one night and used them all up. At least he didn't find the cherries!

Well, off I went in search of a recipe that was quick, easy and most importantly, something I had all the ingredients for here at the house since town is 17 miles away. I finally settled on Oatmeal Bars. Although, I was unable to come up with all the "proper" ingredients, I WAS able to get this one together. It wasn't quick, but the results were great! I had to hide them in the fridge until they were ready to take pictures of since my hunny kept trying to get into them before they were ready.

This recipe was made for a small amount but can easily be doubled.

1 1/4 cup Oatmeal (quick oats)
1/3 cup Brown Sugar, packed
1/3 cup Butter
1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/4 cup Light Corn Syrup
1 cup Cranberries, dried (Craisins)
1/2 cup Chocolate Chips
1/4 cup Peanut Butter

1) In large bowl mix oats, sugar, butter, cinnamon and syrup. Place in microwave and heat 2-4 minutes until mixture becomes bubbly.

3) Spread mixture evenly in bottom of foil lined loaf pan. Top with cranberries and pat down. Chill in refrigerator 2 hours.

4) In bowl mix together chips and peanut butter. Heat in microwave 1-1/2 minutes, just until chocolate becomes soft. Remove and immediately begin to stir. Continue until all is smooth and blended well. Spread over top of oat bars and place in refigerator another 2 hours for chocolate to set.

5) Slice into bars and keep in air tight container in the refrigerator.

Triple Chocolate Cookies

Oh yeah... doing the happy white girl dance (its not a pretty thing)... I baked edible cookies! More than edible... these are the bomb! I might turn out to be a baker after all!

It all started on a search for some good ole chocolate chocolate chip cookies. It's one of those recipes that you just can't find anywhere... so I made my own. And it worked! Can you tell how excited I am yet? This recipe will make between 12 and 24 cookies... depending on how big your spoon is.

2 1/4 cup All Purpose Flour

3 tbsp Cocoa Powder

1 tsp Baking Soda

1/2 Tsp Salt

1 cup (2 sticks) Butter, softened

3/4 cup Sugar

3/4 cup Light Brown Sugar, packed

2 tsp Vanilla

2 Eggs

1 cup Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips

1 cup White Chocolate Chips

1 cup Walnuts, chopped *(optional)

1) Heat oven to 350 (325 for a toaster oven).

2) Whisk together flour, cocoa, soda, and salt until incorporated.

3) In large bowl beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add vanilla and eggs and beat until smooth. Slowly add in the flour mixture until all is blended. Stir in chips and nuts.

4) Drop mixture by the spoonful onto a lightly greased cookie sheet, sides not touching. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Let cool 5-10 minutes before removing from pan.

*Since I am allergic to nuts, I put them all on individually.