Recipes Worth Repeating

Banana Bread

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Bananas go brown too soon? I got you, boo.

INGREDIENTS

4 tablespoons butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

2 large eggs

3 tsp vanilla extract

4 medium bananas (good and ripe!)

1 1/2 cup all purpose flour (may sub GF! King Arthur Measure-for-Measure works)

1 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup chopped pecans or walnuts, optional

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

1/2 pumpkin pie spice (or even ground clove)

1/2 tsp salt

Optional— nutmeg, cardamom, ginger, or a splash of whiskey (or banana liqueur if you have it on hand!)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Blend together sugar and softened butter. Add eggs, vanilla. Mash the bananas in with a potato masher. Add the rest of the dry ingredients. Put parchment paper in a greased loaf pan, let it hang over the sides to lift the bread out when it’s done baking. Add batter. Sprinkle the top of the loaf with demarera sugar or plain white sugar. Bake for 55-60 minutes and double check it’s done using the ol’ toothpick trick.

Serve with butter (or if you’re feeling fancy, make salted maple butter by mixing together a stick of butter and a few tablespoons of maple syrup with a sprinkle of salt). OR, you can try this with cream cheese! The banana bread is best when slightly warmed.

I highly recommend this pan, which makes 4 small loafs (perfect for sharing with friends!) instead of one large loaf. This recipe is the perfect size for this pan.

Pumpkin Bread

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  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1 tablespoon cinnamon
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tablespoons finely grated fresh ginger
  • 15oz can of Libby’s Pumpkin Purée
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 1/2 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup canola oil
  • 2 large eggs

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 325°. Coat a 9×5″ loaf pan with canola oil. Line the pan with parchment, leaving a generous overhang in order to be able to lift out the bread easily.
  2. Stir together all the dry ingredients.
  3. Mix together the eggs, pumpkin purée, oils and grated ginger. Then combine the wet and dry ingredients together in one bowl.
  4. Transfer batter to the pan and then sprinkle the top with sugar.
  5. Bake bread for 80–90 minutes.

This recipe is inspired by (but not exactly like) the one demonstrated by Molly Baz, which you can find here.

Fair warning: this recipe will ruin Starbucks’ pumpkin loaf for you forever. There’s no going back when you realize how cheap and easy it is to make at home- and tastier too!

Cream Cheese Frosting

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In honor of turning 34, I’m sharing my favorite frosting recipe. It’s excellent on cinnamon rolls, carrot cake, red velvet cupcakes, sliced fruit, hummingbird cake… or right off the spoon.

Cream Cheese Frosting

  • 8oz Philadelphia Cream Cheese, never fat free (you might as well eat salad)
  • 1 stick Salted Butter
  • 1/3 cup Greek Yogurt
  • Splash of Vanilla Extract (and/or Rum)
  • 1 1/4 cup Powdered Sugar
  • Sprinkle of Cardamom
  • Use a mixer on high speed to combine the wet ingredients above and beat well, then add the powdered sugar last and beat again- just when you think you’re done, beat it for another 2 minutes, then chill well.

Pop Quiz— Do you know the difference between frosting and icing? Frosting is thick and spreadable and made with a fatty base, often butter. Icing is thinner and usually made of powdered sugar mixed with a liquid such as water or milk.