Peanut Butter Banana Bread

Pin It Now!

I once again went on a recipe finding mission to find something to use those darn multiplying overripe bananas perpetually gracing my counter tops.  This mission led me to the Peanut Butter Banana Bread from Sweet Pea's Kitchen.  My faith in how wonderful her recipes always turn out lead me to do a double batch right off the bat.  I was not disappointing.  This is now my most favorite banana bread recipe, and I have made my share of them!  It had just a hint of peanut flavor, was fantastically moist with a tender, fine crumb, and the peanut butter glaze on top was the perfect cherry on top of a great recipe. 

I made a few alterations to accomadate what I had on hand, but I was very pleased with the outcome. 

Peanut Butter Banana Bread
(Adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen's Peanut Butter Banana Bread)

Ingredients:

Bread:

• 1 1/2 cups mashed ripe banana (about three medium bananas)
• 1/3 cup plain fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/3 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 1-1/2 cups all purpose flour (6.75 ounces)
• 1/4 cup almond meal
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

Peanut Butter Glaze:

• 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon 1% low-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon creamy peanut butter

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease bottom and sides of a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan and dust with flour or line with parchment paper (I did this, worked great).
2. In a medium bowl, using a hand mixer, beat together the bananas, yogurt, peanut butter, butter and eggs at medium speed until combined. Add sugars and beat until blended.
3. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, almond meal, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. Add flour mixture to banana mixture; beat just until blended.  Scrape batter into prepared loaf pan and smooth surface with a rubber spatula.
4. Bake until top is golden and toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 5 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then transfer to wire rack and cool completely.
5. Peanut Butter Glaze:  In a small bowl whisk together powdered sugar, milk and peanut butter until smooth. Drizzle glaze over cooled bread.

Blueberry Banana Bars

Pin It Now!

It seems like I am always left with more over ripe bananas then the amount of perfectly ripe ones I ever got to eat before they turned.  I have done banana bread and banana muffins to death.  Honestly, I am just burnt out.  The last several batches of over ripe bananas have honestly just gotten trashed.  Sad, I know.  Today, I decided to muster up some ambition, search for inspiration, and make something I could enjoy with bananas.  Inspiration led me once again to Sweet Pea's Kitchen, and her Banana Bars with Cream cheese frosting.  Man I wish I wasn't on a diet....I love cream cheese frosting, but I couldn't in good conscience add that much sinfulness onto something I was hoping could be a breakfast food.  Instead, I opted to throw in a bunch of plump, frozen blueberries, to give a little life and pep to it in a healthier fashion (it will never be as good as cream cheese frosting, but at least I can eat it for breakfast without feeling guilty.)  The results, a delicious, moist, not overly sweet banana bar, with blueberries bursting in every bite.  I must say, I am happy with the results.

I had so many bananas I actually doubled the recipe, and put probably (I didn't measure, boo me) 2/3's of the batter in an 13x18 sheet pan lined with parchment (the bars that are pictured) and the rest into an 8x8 pan lined with parchment. These came out twice as thick, and were more of "blueberry bottomed" banana bars, but they tasted just as good.  So, there are pan options, just depends on how thick you want them.  I would not fill any pan more than 2/3's to 3/4 of the way full though, otherwise you may have a big mess on your hands.  Last note, the blueberries make this take longer to bake since they are frozen and make the batter cold.  If you use fresh or canned blueberries, reduce the baking time, or start checking it about 5 minutes earlier.

 

Blueberry Banana Bars

(Recipe by Adapted from Sweet Pea's Kitchen's Banana Bars)

Yield: 24 bars

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup plain, fat free Greek yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup ripe bananas, mashed
• 1 cup frozen blueberries
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Cooking Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Place a piece of parchment in a 9x13 pan, letting the parchment extend up the sides of the pan and overhang slightly on both ends. (This will make it easy to remove the bars from the pan after they have baked.) Spray with non-stick spray.
2. In a medium bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt; set aside.
3. In a large bowl, using a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar on medium speed until light and fluffy.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then stir in the yogurt and vanilla.
5. Add flour mixture and mix until just combined. Fold in the mashed banana and then carefully fold in the frozen blueberries.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan, smoothing the top. Bake 25-30 minutes. or until toothpick inserted into the center comes out with just a few moist crumbs attached. Transfer pan to wire rack to cool completely.
7. Cut in to bars and enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Banana Mookies

Pin It Now!

No, I didn't spell cookies wrong, I know what you're thinking.  I really mean mookies.  Muffin cookies.  That is what these are.  They are not completely cookie, nor are they muffin.  Hence, mookies.  They are slightly chewy on the edges, soft and fluffy in the middle, chocolaty to a heavenly degree, full of banana flavor, and just all around divine.  I have been yearning for a banana cookie recipe for so long.  I am kind of tired of banana bread and banana muffins, but man, I never get tired of cookies!  The perfect portable, freezable package.  I found a recipe for chocolate chip banana cookies from Six Sister's Stuff.  I must say they have fantastic recipes.  This is based on their recipe chocolate chip banana cookies.

The changes I made to it were two fold.  I first added unsweetened applesauce for 1/3 of the butter called for.  This gave them their more muffin/cake-like texture.  I also added 1/2 cup extra of old fashioned oats, just because at our house, we love oatmeal cookies.  If you want more cookie-like cookies, then by all means, head on over to their site and use the recipe as written, they will taste phenomenal, and I will not be offended in the least bit.

Baking action!  Yummy yummy mookies!

If you like this, don't forget to Pin it!

Chocolate Chip Banana Mookies

Make approximately 40 cookies

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2cup unsalted butter, softened
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana (about 1 large)
1 1/2 cups old-fashioned rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  
2. Whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl and set aside.  
3. Place butter, and sugars into a mixing bowl and beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy. 
4. Reduce speed to low.  Add egg, applesauce, and vanilla and mix until combined.   
5. Mix in banana.  Add flour and mix until just combined.  
6. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Don't fear, this dough is very moist.
7. Using a 1 1/2-inch ice cream scoop or 2 Tbs cookie scoop, drop dough onto baking sheets spacing about 2 inches apart.  Using a fork, flatten the dough into a disk shape, they do not spread much.
8. Bake cookies until golden brown and just set, about 12 to 13 minutes.
   

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

Pin It Now!

I love chocolate.  If I can make something and somehow make it chocolatey, all the better I say!  I love making banana muffins.  Inevitably, I always have some ripening bananas lying around begging to be used.  Unfortunately, after making plain banana muffins dozens of times, I am kind of bored with the same old same old.  Then I had a brilliant thought.  Add chocolate!  It makes everything better.  I took one of my current  favorite banana muffin recipes, King Arthur Flour's Banana Muffin recipe, and after a nice online chat with one of the bakers there, set out to turn them in to double chocolate banana muffins.  The lovely baker on the other end of the online chat box gave me some measurements for adding cocoa to their recipe, I took it one step further and guiltlessly dumped a whole package of chocolate chips into the batter (I made a double recipe since I had like ten overripe bananas to use, otherwise a half a bag of chocolate chips is called for).

I think these still qualify as a good breakfast food, right?  I mean it has oat bran and bananas, ergo, must be a healthy breakfast food.  Ok, at least a yummy breakfast food.

Enjoy these moist, chocolatey, banana-y muffins.  If you want a finer texture, throw the oat bran in the food processor to make it finer, otherwise it will have a heartier texture to the muffins.  

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins Recipe

Makes approximately 16-20 per batch, depending on how full the muffin cups are.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup yogurt (I used Fage 0% Greek yogurt)
• 1 large egg
• 2 Tbs. vegetable oil
• 1/2 snack container natural applesauce (no sugar added) or 1/3 cup*
• 1 1/2 cups mashed banana; 2 to 3 large bananas
• ¾ cup granulated sugar
• 1 cup oat bran (If you don't have this, grind up rolled oats in a food processor)
• 1 1/2 cups All-Purpose Flour
• 1/3 cup dutch process cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
• 6 oz. semi sweet chocolate chips 

*If you double the recipe, I used 2 Tbs. vegetable oil, and a whole snack size container of applesauce, which is a little less than half a cup.  If you don't have or don't want to use applesauce, use 1/4 oil for a single recipe.  I like the applesauce to cut down on fat and calories, and I can never tell a difference.

Directions:

1) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Grease a standard muffin tin, or line with papers and grease the papers.
 2) Combine the yogurt, egg, oil, applesauce, mashed banana, sugar, and oat bran in a bowl. Whisk together and set aside for 10 minutes.
3) Whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and cocoa.
4) Whisk the banana mixture into the flour mixture.  Mix in chocolate chips. Scoop into the prepared muffin cups, filling them almost full; the muffins won't rise much.
5) Bake the muffins for 20 to 24 minutes, until the muffins are set and browned. Remove from the oven and let rest in the pan for 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and enjoy warm.