snow day baking: banana chocolate oat muffins with almond meal

On a recent snow day,

when the playroom looked like this {by 7am},

I'd made my coconut oil coffee and

snuck into the living room to quietly read. Dinner was made, thanks to a well-stocked freezer. But something nagged at me. I couldn't go a whole day without cooking something…. and, truth be told, I wanted chocolate.

I'm not a big baker, but three ripe bananas winked at me from the kitchen counter. I had some cashew meal in the fridge, along with a few eggs and oats... Perfect, banana-chocolate chip muffins it would be. I improvised a recipe, adding a little of this, a little of that, while asking myself whether baking soda was really necessary? But imagine my dismay when I realize the bag of chocolate chips I thought I saw in the pantry was actually black beans. Dismay doesn't adequately describe my emotions at that moment. 

I blame Captain Holly Short for distracting me. {Artemis Foul reference, for those who aren't listening to the book on CD during drives to and from skiing this winter…} But the bananas were mashed, and the nut-based batter was ready to go. All I needed was chocolate.

I had some high quality, unsweetened cocoa on hand and, after a little more scrounging, I sprinkled the last of my foodie crush Cacao Prieto hot cocoa into the bowl.

And then I popped those bad boys into the oven and 

went back to my fire, as the smell of molten chocolate and baking bananas filled our house.

Oh my.

I ate more than my fair share. I gave some warm muffins to the snow plow guys. I had the kids walk some to a neighbor.

And continued to enjoy them for snacks the next few days.

They were so good that I was a little miffed that I hadn't jotted the recipe down. Who knew if I could recreate them?…

As a ate the last muffin, I decided this recipe was worth figuring out and saving.

The second go round, I made sure to have chocolate, not black beans.

I recreated the batter, while jotting down notes.

Then held my breath...

Actually, I didn't hold my breath. I took deep inhales of sweet goodness

and went back to recipe testing for the Second Edition of Stock Your Freezer in a Snap.

Batch two lacked eggs. Because I forgot to put them in. Apparently this recipe doesn't need egg(s). And now I knew how to make them again. And again. To rave reviews.

Banana-Chocolate-Oat Muffins with Almond Meal
(makes 24 muffins)

3 or 4 large, ripe bananas, mashed
2 cups almond flour or cashew meal
1 cup all-purpose flour (or gluten-free all-purpose flour)
2 cups oats (or gluten-free oats)
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup honey
4 Tablespoons butter, softened
1 teaspoon baking powder
2 Tablespoons vanilla
3 Tablespoons dark cocoa
1/4 cup dark chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin tin with muffin cups. Add all ingredients to mixing bowl and blend using a hand mixer. Divide evenly among muffin cups and bake for 20 minutes, or until muffins sprain back when touched. 

This post contains affiliate links, meaning same price of goods to you, but the small commission I earn keeps the blog from turning into "hobby" status.

eggnog bread pudding... with caramel sauce

As if it could have been improved upon.... I added homemade caramel sauce to my super simple (but to-die-for) Eggnog Bread Pudding.  Click here if you'd like to go over to Walter Stewart's Market's website for the latest Eggnog Bread Pudding recipe that I tinkered with to use the panettone they sell in their store + that caramel sauce recipe!  Enjoy this ahhhhmazing make-ahead brunch dish or special (and still super easy) dessert!!

orange-cardamom cookies

I am one of those people who tears recipes out of magazines and let's this enormous pile amass on my desk. Then, a few times a year I go through the pile and I neatly file the recipes into these (totally type-A) binders in my home office...and then I usually forget to go look at the binders, until the next time I am busy filing a stack of recipes. This recipe, however, stuck in my mind and I did go dig it out of the office last night. With cooking I just wing it, and come up with my own recipes. Those of you who bake know you can't wing it. This probably explains why I don't call myself a baker any other time except Christmas...Anyway, I made these last night and they are amazing. Think dense shortbread-like cookie with the flowery, Indian taste of cardamom alongside the zest of orange. Not too sweet. Perfect with a cup of tea. An adult cookie.

Here are the caveats:

• This recipe is a lot more work than I usually like to spend on a recipe (unless it's my go-to gingerbread or a batch of traditional sugar cookie cut-outs around Christmas). If you're looking for a quick cookie, skip this one.
• I love the taste of cardamom, but give the spice a sniff before you make a double batch to make sure you like it too!
• These cookies aren't going to elicit a lot of oohs and ahhs on a cookie exchange table...they're simple: round and white, flecked with a bit of orange zest and a drizzle of royal icing if you add that. That said, they pack a lot of interesting flavor into their demure appearance.

Assuming you are undeterred by my caveats, let's go! I'm reprinting the Gourmet recipe here + giving you a few pictures of the recipe in action, so you have everything in one place:

Orange-Cardamom Cookies

(makes 2 dozen cookies)

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

zest of 2 large oranges

1 1/2 teaspoons cardamom (ground)

1 teaspoon salt

2 sticks unsalted butter, softened

3/4 cup sugar (I used Turbinado)

1 egg yolk

2 Tablespoons heavy cream

parchment paper

Royal Icing (optional):

1 cup powdered sugar

1 Tablespoon powdered egg whites

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/4-1/2 cup warm water

To make the dough:

Mix flour, orange zest, cardamom and salt. Beat butter, sugar, yolk and cream with a hand-mixer until well blended and fluffy. At low-speed, mix in the flour until dough forms. It will be very granular. Split the dough into four portions and wrap them in parchment or plastic wrap and store in fridge until firm (about 2 hours).

To bake the cookies:

Preheat oven to 350. Roll out 1 piece of dough, in between 2 pieces of parchment paper until it's about 1/8 inch thick. (You must do it this way. I tried to simply roll the dough on a floured surface and it did not work!! The dough broke apart in a crumbly mess.) Cut dough into circles, using a cookie cutter, and transfer to a parchment lined baking sheet, 1 inch apart. The original recipe says you can only re-roll the scraps once...but I am not much of a baker (or spatial planner apparently), so I definitely did it several more times until all of the dough was cut... Bake for 9-12 minutes, until edges are golden. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a rack to cool completely.

If you choose to drizzle with royal icing:

Combine the powdered sugar, egg white powder, vanilla and warm water until desired consistency (should be like thick glue, malleable to drizzle with a spoon or spatula but not runny). Drizzle across cooled cookies. Let icing harden before storing cookies in an airtight container, or freezing a batch.

I did not read that the dough was supposed to be pressed into a disk shape before chilling it in the fridge. I made these balls of dough and wrapped each one in parchment paper...but rolling it out would have certainly been easier if I'd made them disks instead! (P.S. That's a double batch of dough you're seeing here.)

So, when it came time to roll, I had to press down on each one to get it into that disk shape before grabbing the rolling pin...

Rolling each ball of dough out first time was tough...

but eventually each ball of dough became a nice, even disk ready to be cut.

While the cookies tasted amazing: not too sweet, full of flavor...they looked a little too plain for a Christmas cookie...

so I did drizzle each one with a bit of royal icing. And that little additional bit of sweetness made them perfect.

kerry's super simple coconut macaroons

My friend, Kerry, told me about these Real Simple coconut macaroons, which she and her children have been whipping up as holiday gifts. I'd never made macaroons, though I do love a good, chewy macaroon. So, last night, we gave these a test whirl. Not only are they delicious, but they are so simple to make...perfect for little hands that want to help!

Real Simple's Coconut Macaroons

(makes 50 teaspoon-sized macaroons)

14 oz bag of sweetened shredded coconut

4 egg whites

2/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon of salt

parchment paper

round measuring spoon: teaspoon

Preheat oven to 325. Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl, using a hand-mixer. The original recipe says to "drop packed tablespoonful onto a parchment lined baking sheet". At Kerry advice, we did teaspoonful and they were plenty big, especially since they're so sweet! Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Will store for 7 days in an airtight container, if they last that long.

For extra decadence, you can make them chocolate dipped, though I thought that seemed unnecessary, since they were so delicious as is...

eggnog bread pudding

I saw this eggnog bread pudding recipe last week and knew I had to give it a try. I happened to have a ginormous panettone on my kitchen counter. One of those impulse purchases, where I knew I wanted a panettone...but somehow I neglected to notice the size of the thing. So anyway, I come across this recipe that promises to turn half of my (huge) sweet bread into an equally decadent dessert-- or in our case, brunch-- and I knew it was fate. OK, fine, I don't need to get all dramatic about it. But seriously, you must try this recipe. Not only because it is so, so easy, but because it's Christmas-y and special and soooo good.

Eggnog Bread Pudding

based on this recipe from Cooking with Trader Joe's

(makes a 9x13" dish of decadence)

750g loaf of panettone*

6 eggs

1 quart of eggnog (4 cups)

1-2 Tablespoons of vanilla

zest of an orange, optional

cooking spray or butter

Preheat your oven to 350. Butter your baking dish, or lightly coat with cooking spray. Cut the panettone into roughly 1" cubes and place the bread in the baking dish. In a mixing bowl, combine the eggs, eggnog, vanilla and orange zest (if you are adding it) and mix until well blended. Pour evenly over bread. Let this sit and continue to soak while the oven is warming up. The original recipe has you making a water bath and baking the bread pudding for about 1 hour. You can go that route, or you can skip the water bath (as I did) and bake it (normally) on the middle oven rack, uncovered for the first 45 minutes. Then, I covered mine with foil because the top was starting to brown quite a bit, and I continued to cook it for another 45 minutes. You'll know it's done when a butter knife inserted in the center comes out clean. As you all know, my ovens are dying a slow death, so you can assume that the whole cook time is somewhere around 1 hour...but it could be as long as 1.5 hours, depending upon how pesky your oven is. (Plan ahead if you're having guests!!)

Speaking of planning ahead, this dish can be made in advance either fully baked (and then warmed in the oven, covered loosely with foil) or you can pour the egg mixture over the top and pop it into the fridge, and bake it the next day if you want to wow your family/friends/house guests with an absolutely amazing smelling kitchen. That said, if it's going straight from the fridge into the oven, count on it taking more like 1.5 hours to bake.

Here are action photos for those who like to see the step by step:







*A little side note: panettone is studded with dried fruit and has quite a distinctive taste. I thought that was what made this bread pudding special...I loved the plump raisins and bits of orange rind in the finished product. But, if you think your family would prefer it with plain bread, you can make the recipe I posted above with about 5 cups of French bread, also cut into 1" chunks.

another homemade gift idea: pumpkin bread

Yesterday's post about the Pumpkin Cannelloni with Sage Cream Sauce inspired a bunch of emails from friends who said they liked the idea of making something for their teachers/friends/neighbors, but wanted a less time-consuming idea. Here's another good one: Jane's Pumpkin Bread. Depending upon when you want to deliver it, it freezes well. So, maybe it would be a perfect recipe to make together this weekend, before launching into your Thanksgiving recipes!