Banana Bread

My son-in-law actually asked if I COULD make banana Bread. I know he didn’t mean it that way but today he got, in his words, the best Banana Bread ever. Must be true because he was on his third piece when I left.

Ingredients

1 stick Butter1/2 (8 Tblsp)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs, beaten
3 bananas, finely crushed
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup shredded coconut

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°.
Cream butterand sugar together.
Stir eggs into mixture.
Add bananas and mix well.
Mix dry ingredients together and add.

Pour into greased loaf pan (9×5 inch)
Bake 45 to 50 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean

Apple Pie – No Sugar

This is a great tasting pie. The taste is amazingly reminiscent of classic apple pie but without the white sugar.

2 (9 inch) pie shell
3 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 (12 fluid ounce) can unsweetened apple juice concentrate, thawed
6 cups sliced green apples

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
In a small bowl whisk together cornstarch, cinnamon, and 1/3 cup of the apple juice concentrate. Set aside.
In a large saucepan simmer apples with remaining apple juice concentrate until apples are tender, about 10 minutes. Stir in cornstarch mixture and continue to simmer until thickened. Remove from heat.
Spoon apple mixture into pastry-lined pie plate. Cover with top crust. Seal and flute edges. Cut steam vents in top.
Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Banana Nut Muffins

Banana Nut Muffins
From shine on beautiful

Banana Nut Muffins
makes 9 regular size muffins

Ingredients:
2 medium bananas, roughly mashed
1 flax egg (1 Tbs ground flax + 2 Tbs water, mixed together and set aside to thicken)
1/4 + 2 Tbs sucanat (or brown sugar)
2 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp sea salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 Tbs coconut oil, melted
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup raisins, optional
1/4 cup crush walnuts plus more for topping, optional (but really good!)

Directions:
1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a muffin pan.

2. Whisk together the mashed banana, flax egg, sucanat, baking soda, salt, and vanilla. Whisk in the coconut oil and then the whole wheat pastry flour. Fold in the raisins and walnuts (if using).

3. Pour even amounts of batter into 8-9 muffin tins (each tin should be 1/2 to 2/3 of the way full). Sprinkle with chopped walnuts. Bake for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 3-5 minutes before removing from the muffin pan and placing on a cooling rack. Enjoy with nut butter, earth balance, or pumpkin butter! YUM!

Ice Cream Cookies

You can spend $2.49 for one or follow my sugar cookie recipe and add the ice cream of choice.

Traditional Blueberry Pie

Ingredients:

6 cups of fresh (or frozen) blueberries, rinsed and stems removed (if using frozen, defrost first)
1 Tbsp lemon juice
3 Tbsps cornstarch
1/2 cup white granulated sugar (100g)
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 to 3 Tbsp butter (salted), cut into small pieces
Egg wash ingredients:

1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Directions:

1 Fit the dough over a 9-inch pie pan, and trim the edges to a 1/2 inch over the edge all around the pan. Put into the refrigerator to chill for about 30 minutes.

2 Mix the blueberries, sugar, flour, cinnamon and lemon juice in a large bowl. pour them into the chilled bottom crust of the pie pan. Dot with butter pieces. Cut the top dough into strips for lattice crust. Crimp the edges with your fingers. Transfer the pie to the refrigerator to chill until the dough is firm, about 20 to 30 minutes. Heat oven to 425°F.

3 Whisk egg and milk together to make an egg wash.

4 Remove the unbaked pie from refrigerator. Brush the top with egg wash. Place the pie on the middle rack of the oven with a baking sheet on the rack below. Bake for 20 minutes at 425°. Reduce heat to 350°F and bake for 30 to 40 minutes more or until juices are bubbling and have thickened. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Let cool completely before serving.

Cranberry Orange Walnut Coffee Cake

makes two 9×5-inch loaves

For the Cake:

4 cups all-purpose flour
2 cup granulated sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into medium chunks
2 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 cups fresh squeezed orange juice
2 tablespoon orange zest
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups coarsely chopped fresh cranberries
1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

For the Topping:

4 (30 ml) tablespoons unsalted butter, cold
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup coarsely chopped walnuts

Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan. Line loaf pan with parchment paper, leaving a few inches of overhang on each side. Grease the parchment paper and dust with flour on all sides. Set aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add chunks of butter and work the butter into the flour with your fingers. Try to blend the butter into each bit of the dry ingredients. The mixture will resemble a coarse meal.

In a medium bowl whisk together eggs, orange juice, orange zest, and vanilla extract.

Add the wet ingredients all at once to the dry ingredients. Stir together to incorporate. Add the cranberries and walnuts and fold into the batter.

To make the topping combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips until crumbly.

Divide the batter between the two loaf pans. Sprinkle each loaf with topping. Place in the oven and allow to bake until the cake is golden brown and the center is cooked through. Insert a skewer into the center of the cake to ensure that it’s cooked through, about 50 minutes.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pans for 15 minutes. Use the parchment paper to life the loaves from the pan and allow to cool further on a wire rack.

For the glaze I whisked together 1 cup of powdered sugar and just over a tablespoon of milk. I drizzled it over the cooled coffee cake.

Cake can be stored, well wrapped at room temperature, for up to 5 days.

Banana Cookies

These are amazing. They come out light and fluffy, like a banana cake.

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup shortening
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon lemon extract
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Directions

1/2 cup ground walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a large bowl or mixer bowl cream the shortening and the sugar together. Beat in the eggs, vanilla and lemon extract. Beat in the bananas and the nuts. Gradually add the flour, baking powder and salt.

Drop the dough by spoonfuls onto the prepared baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 12 to 15 minutes or until lightly colored. Transfer to wire racks to cool.

No Bake Cherry Cheesecake

Ingredients:

1 pkg (250 g) cream cheese, softened
1 can (300 mL) Sweetened Condensed Milk
1/3 cup (75 mL) lemon juice
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
1 (9”/23 cm) prepared graham cracker crust or baked pastry shell
1 can (19 oz/540 mL) herry pie filling, chilled

Preparation:

1. Beat cheese until fluffy. Gradually beat in sweetened condensed milk until well combined. Stir in lemon juice and vanilla.

2. Pour into prepared crust. Chill 3 hours or until set.

3. Top with desired amount of pie filling before serving

4 eat and enjoy.

Angel Food Cake

INGREDIENTS

1 cup cake and pastry flour

1 cup granulated sugar

8 large egg whites, room temperature

½ teaspoon cream of tartar

⅛ teaspoon salt

½ cup icing sugar, sifted

½ teaspoon vanilla extract

Food colouring of choice

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 325 F.

2. Sift the flour and granulated sugar.

3. Whip the egg whites with the cream of tartar and salt until foamy, then gradually add the icing sugar, whipping until the whites hold a medium peak when the beaters are lifted. Stir in the vanilla.

4. Add the flour to the whipped whites in 2 additions and using a whisk to fold in the flour evenly and easily. Scrape the batter into a 10-inch ungreased tube pan, spread it to level and bake the cake for 30-35 minutes, until it springs back when gently pressed (try not to open the oven before 25 minutes).

5. Add the flour to the whipped whites in 2 additions and using a whisk to fold in the flour evenly and easily.

6. Gently blend in colouring with a spatula.

7. Scrape the batter into a 10-inch ungreased tube pan, spread it to level and bake the cake for 30-35 minutes, until it springs back when gently pressed (try not to open the oven before 25 minutes).

Strawberry Vanilla Pancakes

Ingredients;

Original recipe makes 6 to 8 pancakes

1 cup all-purpose flour (Red Roses)
2 tablespoons brown sugar (Lantic)
2 teaspoons baking powder ((Magic)
1 teaspoon salt (Sifto)
1 egg
1 cup milk 2%
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (Club House)
1 cup chopped fresh strawberries

Directions

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Pour in the milk, oil, egg and vanilla, and mix until well blended. Stir in the strawberries.
Heat a large non stick skillet over medium heat, and coat with butter or cooking spray. Pour batter into desired size of pancakes. Flip when bubbles appear in the center.