Tasty Tuesday: Delicious Banana Bread!

Stephanie is very into baking lately, and asks me every day what we're going to make. I love the time that she and I get to spend together in the kitchen, and I have to say that she's a very good helper! She pours things into the bowl and mixes everything together for me. She is always proud of our final product and tells me that she is my star chef. 

One of our favorite baked goods is banana bread, and after trying many different recipes I finally found the perfect one. The original recipe came from SimplyRecipes.com and can be found here: Simply Recipes Banana Bread

I modified it very little because it was almost perfect the way it was. I've made it twice now, and the first time it came out a little overdone, so I shortened the baking time by 5 minutes. I added walnuts the first time, which was delicious as well. (My husband likes chocolate chips in his banana bread so I'll be adding those next time.)

Here is the recipe. Enjoy!

Banana Bread

Ingredients

3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed (I used 3 each time and let Stephanie mash them with a potato masher. It was her favorite part of the whole process.)

1/3 C melted butter

1 C sugar 

1 egg, beaten

1 teas vanilla

1 teas baking soda

pinch of salt

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour

Instructions

1) Preheat oven to 350 

2) With a wooden spoon, mix butter into the mashed bananas, in a large mixing bowl

3) Mix in sugar, egg and vanilla

4) Sprinkle in the baking soda and salt. Mix.

5) Pour mixture into a buttered 4/8 inch loaf pan. (I used cooking spray instead of butter)

6) Bake for 1 hour (As I stated above, I took it out 5 minutes sooner.)

7) Cool on a rack, then remove from pan. Slice to serve. (We ate this yesterday while it was still warm from the oven. SO delicious!)

*I'm linking up with my friend Candice over at The New Modern Momma today for Tasty Tuesday! Hop on over to get some other delicious recipe ideas from some amazing bloggers.

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Tasty Tuesday: Sugar Cookies!

My mom is a fabulous baker. She bakes all year long, but she truly shines at Christmas time. Each year she makes all of her friends and family members huge trays, loaded with a wide variety of different types of cookies. I will never have the patience or the love of baking to create the same kind of cookie masterpieces that she does, and I've accepted that that's just the way I am. (Even though I would love to bake like her.) However, one of her simplest and easiest recipes is, in my book, also one of the best tasting. I used to love helping her make them when I was a kid, and the recipe was one of the first I asked for when I moved out. To this day, for any occasion, I make her sugar cookie recipe.

Thanks to different cookie cutter shapes I've made sugar cookies for holidays, for my sister's baby shower, as gifts for people, and sometimes just because I feel like having them. Pretty soon I'll be making them for Valentine's Day, and I'm excited to get Stephanie in on the action this year! (They are a great cookie to make with little kids.)

Sugar Cookies

Ingredients:
~6 Tbsp butter
~6 Tbsp shortening
1 C sugar
2 eggs
1 teas vanilla
2.5 C flour
1 teas baking powder
1 teas salt

*Mix shortening, butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla
*Blend in flour, baking powder & salt. Cover and chill 1 hr (I have made the dough and chilled overnight also. It comes out fine.)

~Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
~Roll the dough and cut out shapes.
~Decorate with sprinkles (optional)
~place shapes on un-greased baking sheet (I use parchment paper. Clean-up is much easier that way!)
~Bake 6-8 minutes at or until very light brown.

My favorite part as a kid was decorating with the sprinkles. Now for some reason I find that part tiresome, but I know Stephanie will have a blast with it. You can also add food coloring to the dough to make it different colors. (My mom always made orange at Halloween and I swear for some reason they tasted better than any other time she made them!)

Enjoy!

Linking up with The New Modern Mom today for Tasty Tuesday! 

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