Banana Oatmeal Bread

The sun is starting to shine a little more and more each day, trees are budding, and bulbs are spouting. Hooray! Spring is here. I cannot wait for warm weather and sunny afternoons with my boys, even if it means breaking out the shorts.... or dare I say bathing suits.  Which brings me to this recipe. I have already posted my most very favorite banana bread. It's the one Momma Daisy has always made and probably one of the most perfect comfort foods I can think of! So why post another? For several reasons. First, my kiddos have this weird allergy to the dairy protein as infants {they magically outgrow it around the age of 2}, and with our little Baby A on the way, I am on the quest to add some dairy free recipes to my collection. I also like to have a stash of healthier recipes (which you'd never know from the length of sweet things in my recipe box) to treat my family to. I stumbled across this recipe and was intrigued... bananas, oatmeal, and without dairy. However, I wanted to beef things up with some whole wheat flour, and didn't want to mess around with throwing any part of the eggs out, so I adapted the recipe to suit my needs. This isn't a super sweet bread, not that I minded, but most of all, my kids didn't seem to notice as they gobbled it down. I think it would be fabulous spread with Nutella, or dotted with chocolate chips, particularly because it's not overly sweet as is, but we enjoyed sliced warm and plain jane. Maybe next time. Supposedly, this bread freezes well when sliced and wrapped tightly into individual pieces. I haven't tried it yet, but intend make a loaf for my son's school lunches and will let you know how it works out.
Banana Oatmeal Bread
*Adapted from Joy of the Baker

1/2 cup whole wheat flour
3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup uncooked old fashioned oats
2 medium eggs
3 large ripened bananas
3 teaspoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350. Grease and flour a loaf pan, set aside. In a large bowl, stir together dry ingredients including oats and cinnamon.

In mixing bowl, beat eggs well. Add bananas one at a time and beat until smooth and mixed well. Add oil and vanilla and beat until mixed well. Add dry ingredients, in three additions, mixing until well incorporated.

Pour batter into pan and bake until loaf is firm to touch, 45-50 minutes. Remover from oven and cool in pan for 5 minutes. Turn out and cool on wire rack. Slice and enjoy.

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Cinnamon Crackle Zucchini Bread

While fall is still in the air, and you may still find zucchini in your kitchens, I thought I would share another one of my favorite zucchini recipes with you. I received a loaf of this bread as a gift once and had to have the recipe. Thanks, Genny! Since, I have adjusted the method, amount of sugar, and added a yummy crackle topping. I love how the sweet yummy spices pair with the crunchy cinnamon crackle topping. Plus, I love how you end up with two loaves, one to keep and one to share. Give it a try, I don't think it will disappoint.

Cinnamon Crackle Zucchini Bread
Recipe by Crazy Daisy adapted from Genny Schaffner

3 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
3 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon allspice
3 eggs
1 cup oil
1 1/2 cups sugar (you can add or subtract 1/2 cup depending on how sweet you like things)
2 cups grated zucchini
3 teaspoons vanilla

Cinnamon Crackle Topping
2 Tablespoons white sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

Preheat oven to 325. Grease and flour two 9x5 loaf pans. In medium bow, whisk together flour, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, and allspice. Set aside. In mixing bowl, cream together eggs, oil, and sugar. Add zucchini and vanilla and stir well.  Slowly, stir in the dry ingredients and mix until everything is just wet and incorporated. Pour evenly into prepared pans. Bake for one hour, or until bread springs back when touched lightly, or a toothpick comes out mostly clean when inserted in the center of the bread. Let cool on wire rack for 10 minutes and then remove from pan to finish cooling. While yummy warm, I think this bread is actually better cooled and even better the next day.

Very Good Recipe Tags: Quick Breads, Zucchini, Fall Flavors

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Banana Bread

If I had to choose one food that represents my childhood, it would be this Banana Bread. My mom made it often (always in a bundt pan as pictured) and it has always been one of my favorites. I make it now and send it to my brother as a little taste of home.  That's it, it tastes like home, perfect and comforting. Or, atleast I think so. I will never look for another Banana Bread recipe, because I know it would only end in disappointment. I love its soft moist texture, somewhere in between cakeish and bread-like and its slightly sweet banana flavor, with just a hint of whole wheat nuttiness. Ummmmmm, so good...

You know that great debate between mixing wet and dry ingredients separately, or simply combining them altoghter in one step, and even better, into one bowl? Depending on the recipe, I use both methods, but another reason I claim perfection with this recipe is because it works perfectly if you mix everything all together in one bowl. Which means less dishes and who isn't all for that?

I place all the dry ingredients into my mixing bowl and give it a little whirl with a wisk just to help it mix evenly. Then I dump all the wet ingredients right on top. Sometimes, if I am in a hurry, I don't even mash the bananas!

After a little mixing,

I pour the mixture into a prepared pan (my well-loved bundt pan makes yet another appearance),

pop it in the oven and VOILA! Isn't that Beautiful!

After cooling,

Slice,

Smear, (butter of course!)

And enjoy (that's what my boys say anyways!)

Banana Bread
*Recipe by Momma Daisy of Crazy Daisy
*note high-altitude directions

2 cups flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
4-5 very ripe large bananas, mashed (about 4 cups)
1/3 cup butter, softened
3 tbls. orange juice
2 eggs
1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)
1/2 cups raisins (optional)

Preheat oven to 325°. Grease and flour a 12 cup bundt pan or a 9x5 in. loaf pan. Place dry ingredeints in a large mixing bowl. Whisk a few times. Add wet ingredients. Blend on low spead and mix for three minutes on medium speed. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 325° for 55-65 minutes in bundt pan or for 1 1/2 hours in loaf pan (toothpick will come out clean). Remove immediately from pan. Cool on wire rack.

*High Altitude (I live at  high altitude, so this is the version I use)

Change these ingredient measurements:

1 1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 cup orange juice

Bake at 350° for 55-65 minutes.

Blueberry Muffins

If you have spent much time around here, you know that there are tons of recipes that I love! You also know that I am always on the hunt for that perfect recipe; the one that stops my search and I will make forever more. I do believe that I have found that recipe for blueberry muffins! These are soooo good! I usually have pretty good self-control, and I am almost ashamed to admit it - but I have already eaten THREE of these scrumptious muffins! That's not counting the pieces I snuck off of my kids' blueberry cupcakes (that's what the three-year old calls them!) Moist, sweet -but not too sweet, blueberry heaven! They are wonderful and perfect for a Mother's Day brunch! I don't know what it is about brunch on Mother's Day, but it is my very favorite way to celebrate (it probably has nothing to do with homemade berry syrup, muffins, quiche (I LOVE QUICHE), sticky buns, fresh fruit... ok, I better stop there). I think you get it, I heart these muffins and I hope you do to!

Blueberry Muffins
*From Fine Cooking SweetCakes


Vegetable oil or cooking spray for the pan
3 1/2 cups flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/3 cups sugar
10 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup whole milk
1 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest, OPTIONAL
1 1/2 cups freshed (washed and dried) or frozen blueberries (don't thaw)


*Note - I was hurrying to make these and forgot I was out of milk. I used water instead, and they were delish! I also left out the lemon zest because I wanted a more classic taste, but add it if you prefer. I also just used softened butter instead of melted and cooled butter. And one last thing - I misread the egg yolk and used an egg white instead - this recipe must be pretty forgiving because there isn't much I stuck with and they were so yummy. Now you get to decide how you want to make them.

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease the top of the muffin pan (this keeps tops from sticking) and line with paper cups.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt, in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, whisk sugar, butter, milk, sour cream, eggs, egg yolk, and optional zest until well combined.

Pour the wet ingredients over the dry ingredients and fold gently with a rubber spatula until ingredients are mostly moistened. The batter will be lumpy with quite a few streaks of dry flour. Sprinkle blueberries on the batter and fold in until everything is just combined. There will still be lumps. Don't wait to mix berries in our the batter will become over-mixed.

Fill the paper cups so that the batter is evenly spread and mounds a little over the top of cups. (I ended up with 16 muffins. You could easily stretch the batter if you use less batter per cup.

Bake until golden brown and muffins spring back lightly when pressed in the middle, 30-35 minutes. Let  muffins cool on a rack for 15-20 minutes. Use a table knife to separate the tops (they will probably meld together) and pop out the muffins.

After eating all those muffins today, I have a date with Jillian.

Happy Mother's Day!

Old Fashioned Lemon Bread

I sometimes find myself on a quest in search of a certain recipe. You know, the one that perfectly defines my idea of a certain food. The perfect Sugar Cookie. The perfect Carrot Cake. Recently, the perfect Chiken Penne. I stress, my idea, because I am sure that we all have different opinions about what perfect may be. Hopefully our stars will align and occasionally we will find perfection together. In this case I was wishing for a soft, warm, moist, lemon-drop tasting delight of a little treat.... and I found it! The recipe that would end my search.... at least for lemon bread.


Old-Fashioned Lemon Bread

1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup (5 fluid-ounce can) evaporated milk
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 8x4-inch baking pan.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in large bowl. Beat eggs, evaporated milk, oil, and lemon zest together in medium bowl. Pour egg mixture into flour mixture. Stir until just combined. Pour into prepared pan.

Bake for 55-60 minutes or until wooden skewer inserted into center comes out clean. Using skewar, poke numerous holes in the hot bread, piercing all the way to the bottom. Slowly drizzle the hot Lemon Syrup over the bread (syrup will soak into the bread). Cool on wire rack for 15 minutes; runknife around edge of bread. remove bread to wire rack to cool completely.

Lemon Syrup:

Combine 1/2 cup sugar and 1/4 cup lemon juice (@ 1 lemon) in small, heavy-duty saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, for @ five minutes or until sugar is dissovled and a light syrup is formed,

*From Nestle Holiday Favorites