Chocolate Chip Peanut Banana Loaf

I particularly liked the top most part of this loaf. It's like all the banana gooey goodness concentrated on the top part which made me want to eat only the top part.

Of course, you can not go wrong with banana! Throw in a little peanuts and chocolate chips, now that's what I call an awesome combination. Thanks Magnolia Bakery for this recipe.

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Chocolate Chip Peanut Banana Loaf

from The Complete Magnolia Bakery Cookbook

1/3 cup unsalted butter, softened

½ cup sugar

2 large eggs, at room temperature

1 ½ cups mashed ripe bananas

1/3 cup milk

2 cups sifted self rising flour

½ cup finely chopped, unsalted peanuts

¾ cup chocolate chips

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees

Grease and flour a 9 x 5 x 3-inch loaf pan.

In a large bowl, on the low speed of an electric mixer, cream the butter and the sugar until fluffy, about 2-3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the mashed bananas and the milk. Mix in the sifted flour until well combined. Stir in the peanuts and the chocolate chips. Pour the batter into prepared pan and bake for 45-55 minutes or until a cake tester inserted into center of the loaf comes out clean.

Let cool for 20 minutes before serving.

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Happy cupcaking,

Aikko

Banana Cinnamon Chip Cookies

I forgot about these pictures. Didn't know I have them in my SD card. I thought when my PC crashed these were lost. Good thing I haven't been deleting pictures from my SD card lately.

I have stash of cinnamon chips on hand. I thought of making cookies out of them. But I was in dilemma. What goes well with Cinnamon? Apple is classic but after a few grocery trips here and there, I realized apple extract is not sold here. So I settled for banana instead.

Love Love the combination. It turned out pretty well. One of my friends even said it has some bubblegummy flavor to it. Cool!

Happy cupcaking!
Aikko

Banana Walnut Pancake with Caramel Syrup

Not quite baking yet but I made something for breakfast today.

My parents are here for a visit and since we don’t see each other that often, I made an effort to wake up at 6 AM (and for me, believe me, that IS an effort) and be a kitchen slave for two hours to make breakfast.

Here are the recipes I used. The pancake recipe is from recipezaar (http://www.recipezaar.com/The-Best-Fluffiest-Buttermilk-Pancakes-on-the-Planet-167914)
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The Best Fluffiest Buttermilk Pancakes on the Planet!

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons baking powder
3-4 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cups buttermilk
1/2 cup sour cream
5 tablespoons melted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla (optional)

Directions
1In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and salt.
2In another bowl whisk together eggs, buttermilk, sour cream, melted butter and vanilla (if using) add to the flour mixture; whisk until smooth (the batter will be thick!).
3Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes at room temperature.
4After 5 minutes whisk or mix again.
5Drop about 1/4-cup batter onto a medium-hot skillet; cook until lightly browned on the bottom, turn and cook until browned.
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Love the pancake it’s really fluffy. Though I think I tried a few times before I finally got it right.
The caramel syrup I was tempted to just go the supermarket and buy an instant one but I was too lazy to go there so I just made one instead. I got the recipe from cooks.com(http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1923,148178-235194,00.html
). I doubled the amount of cream so it wouldn’t crystallize. But nevertheless, love the homemade caramel flavor.
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CARAMEL SYRUP

1 c. brown sugar
1/2 c. cream
1 tbsp. cornstarch
1 tbsp. butter

Bring to boil. Cool several hours in refrigerator or overnight.
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Still happy cupcaking!
Aikko