Bomb Oatmeal cookies

As much as I would like to be I am not much of a baker. I do keep trying and some things work and some do not. The other day I decided to make oatmeal cookies. the recipie was really easy. I got it from the Joy of Baking. I love this website. They have so many things that look so yummy and they have lots of info and pictures.

I started by letting my 3/4 cup butter sit and warm to room temperature which did not take long and added my cup of brown sugar. I got to use my "new to me" electric hand mixer. This is actually my late grandma's and I love the idea of baking treats with the same equipment that she did. Any way....
I whipped the butter and sugar and added 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of vanilla and mixed gain.

In a 2nd bowl I put 3/4 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, salt and cinnamon. and mixed them together. I then added that to my wet ingredients. I would have added nuts, raisins or dried fruits but I did not have any and they were still great.


after mixing the dry ingredients with the wet I added 3 cups of oats. I did not have any parchment paper or even spray for the cookie sheet so I just tried my luck. They did not stick to bad.

I used a 1/4 cup scoop and made little balls and then pressed them slightly. They turned out great. They were really tasty. I cannot wait to make them again.

Banana Bread

okay, I made this banana bread the other day and it was great but I did not get many pictures. Well, with how easy this banana bread was to make I decided to make it again.

However, this time I had some leftover tropical pancakes that had been soaking in syrup. I really did not want to throw these away for a few reasons. For one we are totally broke. We really do not throw away much. But also, these were whole wheat pancakes, with kiwi, papaya and mango!!! I thought that sounded perfect for banana bread.

The basic recipe was really easy. I got it from the Joy of Baking site. I am in love with this site. But 1 problem I knew I was going to have was that I do not have any baking soda. We only have baking powder. After doing some research online I was able to determine that I could sub baking powder pretty easily for the same measurement. So that is what I did.

The recipe as called for by Joy of Baking is below.

After I got all my wet butter, banana, eggs and villa all together I threw in the rest of the kids pancakes. after mixing in the dry ingredients it seemed a little wet so i threw in a little more whole wheat flour.




I put it into a heart shaped baking dish (still the only 1 that I have!) The bread was great. It was finished off for breakfast the next day. The pancake did add to the flavor not only in the tropical fruit and syrup but also in making the bread a little heavier. It did more to fill you up.


Recipe:

1 cup (115 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped (optional)

1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour

3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar

1 teaspoons baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled

3 ripe large bananas (approximately 1 pound or 454 grams), mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Garnish: (Optional)

1 large banana, sliced or dried banana chips