Banana Bread and Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here is the banana bread recipe! The bread came out great. I took a picture, but blogger won't let me add pictures to the post. I will try to add them later. I made 3 mini loaves, so they only took about 35 minutes to bake.

1 ¾ C. flour
2 TSP baking powder
½ TSP salt
¼ TSP baking soda
1/3 C. shortening
2/3 C. sugar
2 eggs
2-3 bananas

Heat oven to 350F

Sift together flour, baking powder, soda, and salt
Mix in shortening
Add sugar gradually until light & fluffy
Add eggs and beat
Add flour mixture alternately with mashed bananas little at a time
Beat until smooth

Bake 1 Hour or until done

I also made Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies. I use a crisco recipe which can be found here. I simply substituted the rasins and walnuts for a cup or so of chocolate chips.

Snow Day # 4

We got hit with some bad weather overnight, so today is snow day number four! I'm actually not complaining. I finished any homework I had last night, so I'm free to do other things. Like watching a movie, reading a book, blogging, and baking. I have been wanting to bake something for a few days. One of my friends at school said she wants banana bread. We have bananas, so I guess that's what I'm making. Banana bread is easy to make, and easy to give away to people! The worst thing about baking for me is the temptation to eat everything. I like going to my Aunt Jen's house to bake- she has a huge kitchen and there are always tons of people there to eat the food. I will post the banana bread recipe later, along with pictures.

My sister and I need to pick restaurants we want to eat at when we go to Disney World next month. This is the first real vacation we've ever had, so we're all wicked excited! I want to visit all the different 'countries' they have there, and try new foods. It's going to be a busy week...

Coconut Macaroons and a Comic

Usually if you buy a bag of baking coconut it will have a recipe on it for coconut macaroons. That’s where I got mine at least. Here it is, I hope if you make them they come out great. They’re good.

1 Package (2 2/3 cups in this case) sweetened coconut
1/3 Cup sugar
3 Tablespoons flour
1/8 Teaspoon salt
2 Egg Whites
½ Teaspoon almond extract

Mix coconut, sugar, flour, and salt in a large bowl. Stir in egg whites and almond extract until well blended. Drop by tablespoonfuls onto greased and floured cookie sheets. Bake at 325F for 20 minutes or until edges of cookies are golden brown. Immediately remove from cookie sheets onto wire racks. Makes about 1 ½ dozen.

For chocolate dipped macaroons-

Prepare and bake cookies as directed and melt chocolate as directed on package. Dip cookies halfway into chocolate, place on cookie sheets covered with wax paper, and cool in refrigerator until chocolate is firm.

Enjoy!

And if anyone's feeling guilty about all that food they ate yesterday, or about the leftovers they're eating today, check out this Oh My Gods! comic.

Cookie Dough

Mmm. I just ate cookie dough in place of dinner. So much for healthy eating. It is the best cookie dough I’ve ever had, and the cookies aren’t bad either. xD So I figured I would post a short blog that included the recipe. I got it out of a murder mystery book called Double Shot by Diane Mott Davidson. The recipe is called Goldy’s Nuthouse Cookies.

1 1/2 cups blanched, slivered almonds, toasted and cooled
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups (41/2 ounces) cake flour
1 cup (41/2 ounces) all-purpose flour
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
2 2/3 cups (10 ounces) sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Blend the almonds, baking soda, salt, and flours; set aside

In a large mixing bowl, beat the butter until creamy, about 5 minutes. Add the sugar and beat on medium low until very creamy, about 5 minutes. Reduce the beater speed to low and add the egg and vanilla; continue to beat until well blended. Stir in the flour mixture just until well combined; do not overbeat.

Divide the batter into 3 equal pieces and equally distribute them in the bottom of zipped plastic freezer bags. Roll each section of the dough into logs. Zip the bags closed and place them in the freezer overnight.

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Remove one log at a time from the freezer. While each log is still frozen, place it on a cutting board. Use a large, sharp knife to divide each log into 24 equal pieces. Place 12 of the cookies on an ungreased Silpat sheet on top of a cookie sheet. Flatten each cold cookie slightly with the palm of your hand. When the first two dozen cookies are baked and cooling, you may remove another roll from the freezer and start on it. (The cookies hold together better, cook more evenly, and develop a better texture if they are placed in the oven while they are still frozen.)

Bake one sheet at a time for about 10 minutes, or until the cookies have turned golden brown at the edges. Rotate the cookie sheets from front to back after 5 minutes. Cool completely on racks.
MAKES 6 DOZEN

I love this recipe. I cannot ever get six dozen cookies out of it (and that’s not because I eat the dough.) I get approximately a dozen cookies from a log. I find that if I cut them too thin they fall apart. It is still delicious. I hope you enjoy the cookies!

Book Recommendations: Double Shot and any other books by Diane Mott Davidson. The stories are interesting, well written, and the recipes are wonderful.