Posted by Michelle on January 27, 2010
We’re watching the State of the Union Address. Can someone please tell me why there’s so much goddamn clapping? I mean, I get it; you like what he’s saying. Can’t you just clap once or twice politely? If there was less bowing and scraping during this thing, it’d be on for half the length of time it is.
You know what you should be clapping about? This recipe I’m about to give you: caramelized banana cupcakes. I KNOW! They were delish.
I was looking for something to make that wasn’t banana bread, but would still use up the extra bananas we had laying around that I bought with the best of intentions, but as usual took forever in using them. I ended up stumbling across a recipe for caramelized bananas, which sounded like it would pair awesomely with a somewhat lighter, less spiced version of my carrot cake.
Caramelized Banana Cupcakes
2 – 3 bananas, sliced
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 cup spiced rum
1 teaspoon cinnamon, divided
1 3/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cups white sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 cup oil
3 eggs
Preheat oven to 350. In a 8 or 10 inch skillet, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the sliced bananas and cook for about a minute. Add the rum and sprinkle in half of the cinnamon. Let cook another two minutes, until the banana is warmed through and starting to caramelize. Lower heat, cook another two minutes then set aside to cool.
Blend together eggs, oil and sugar. Slowly add in all dry ingredients and mix until batter is smooth. Add in cooled banana mixture. Evenly divide batter into cupcake pans (I filled 16 cups). Bake for 16 – 18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
These came out really well; cooking the banana rather than just mashing up the raw banana adds a whole new depth of flavor to it. The banana flavor was much more pronounced and was nicely complemented by the spices. The cake itself is one of my favorites – it’s a nice dense cake that manages not to be too heavy. We had some of these plain, but I felt that for the sake of completeness I should try frosting them as well. I used a store bought [*gasp!*] cream cheese frosting. It did add a nice extra layer of flavor, but these cupcakes totally don’t need frosting. And I’m not just saying that because a) I’m not a big frosting fan and b) I will never, ever make frosting on this blog.
Posted in baking, recipes | Tagged: banana, bananas, cake, caramelized banana, cupcakes, recipes, spiced rum | 6 Comments »
Posted by Michelle on January 20, 2010
Yes yes, long time. I know, okay? Gimme a break.
This past weekend I had to make some baked goods for work. Thankfully, this should be my last time for awhile, as we’ve recently promoted several people, so now they can bake for the ingrates in my department. Anyhoodle, I wanted to make something different, so I looked up recipes for some sort of minty brownie. I’m not a big chocolate fan, so when I make it, I want it to be something different than the norm. [The exception to this is boxed brownie mix on poker night, because those people don't pay me enough of a rake to get fancy.]
I stumbled across the recipe for this on the Hershey website. And before you think I’m starting to shill for companies, I’m not; there were no Hershey products used during the dubious recreation of this recipe. [But hey, if anyone wants to send me free crap, feel free.] The recipe looked good because the work involved was minimal but it would still taste like something special when I brought to it work. And when I taste-tested it at home the night before.
Peppermint Brownies, adapted from Hershey’s Sensational Peppermint Pattie Brownies
24 small (1.5 inch) chocolate covered peppermint patty candy
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup oil
3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
5 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cocoa powder [I prefer Dutch-processed, but that's up to you and your conscience.]
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
Heat oven to 350 F [or 325 F if using a glass pan as I did].
Mix together butter, oil, sugar and vanilla. Add eggs and beat until blended. Slowly stir in dry ingredients. Reserve two cups of batter, and spread remaining batter in greased/lined pan. Place peppermint patties on top of batter, roughly 1/2 inch apart. Spread remaining batter over the patties.
Bake for about 50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly dry or the brownies start to pull away from the pan.
Now, my end product looks quite different than the one on the original recipe; I assume if I had used the Hershey’s candy recommended, it would have looked more similar. Regardless, these were really tasty, if a bit sticky on the bottom from the melted candy.
Posted in baking, recipes | Tagged: baking, brownies, chocolate, cocoa powder, hershey's, peppermint, peppermint patties, recipes, work treats | Leave a Comment »
