Reese's Banana Bread

I found this recipe HERE and made it just like the recipe except I dont have a bread pan so I made them into muffins. This recipe made 10 regular size muffins. SOOO good!!!

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 oz bag of Reese’s Mini cups

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease your loaf pan (I used an 8 x 4 pan) with butter or shortening.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
4. In a large bowl stir together your bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars.
5. Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until just combined. Batter will be lumpy.
6. Fold in your Reese’s Mini cups and spread batter into prepared pan.
7. Bake for approx 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
8. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and remove from loaf pan, transferring bread to a cooling rack.

Sweet Potato Muffins

Since I boiled up some sweet potatoes last night to make the sweet potato waffles I had some puree leftover. So I decided to see what I could use it for. Sweet potatoes are rich in vitamins and very good for you. I found this recipe for sweet potato bread on allrecipes.com and decided to make it into muffins. . .

1 cup Sugar (recipe called for 1-1/2 cups but I cut it back and they taste just fine)
1/2 Cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1-3/4 Cup Flour
1 teas. baking soda
1/4 teas. Salt
1/2 teas. cinnamon
1/2 teas. nutmeg
1/3 cup water
1 Cup sweet potato puree

Combine sugar and veggie oil, mix well. Add eggs and mix well again. In another bowl combine the baking soda, salt, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg. Add to the sugar mixture alternately with the water. Add Sweet potatoes. Pour into muffin tins and bake at 350 for 15 minutes.
These freeze well also!

Garlic Cheese Flatbread

I made a big pot of Chicken soup today in my crockpot so I decided to try and make some cheese bread to go with it. I took 2 different recipes, one from my mother in law and one from allrecipes.com and combined them. It was good but I would personally add more Garlic powder or a little garlic salt plus the garlic powder cause it didnt have any garlic taste.

• 1 (.25 ounce) envelope active dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 2 cups bread flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons white sugar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil

I made the dough in my bread machine. If you use your bread machine pour in the water & olive oil first. Then add the flour, salt, sugar and the yeast last. Set your machine to the dough setting and let it go! I had to add a bit of water to the dough after the first few minutes in the machine because it was really dry so just check it after a few minutes.
If you dont have a machine here is the instructions to make the dough by hand:

In a cup or small bowl, sprinkle yeast over the surface of the lukewarm water. Let stand for 5 to 10 minutes to dissolve.In a large bowl, stir together the flour, salt and sugar. Pour in the yeast mixture along with the olive oil. Beat with a sturdy spoon until dough is stiff enough to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Cover, and set aside until doubled in size, about 35 minutes. Remove the dough from the bowl and knead briefly on a floured surface. Roll the dough out to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thickness or to the size of your baking sheet.

Once the dough is rolled out onto your baking sheet. I used a round pizza stone. Spread a generous amount of softened butter with your fingers or a spoon whichever is easier for you onto the dough. Then sprinkle the dough with
2 T. Garlic Powder
1 T. Oregano
Generous sprinkling of Grated parmesan cheese
2 cups Shredded cheddar cheese
Like I said earlier it didnt have much garlic flavor so I would add more garlic powder next time or add the 2 T. garlic powder it calls for and then add some garlic salt also.

Bake at 350 for about 20 minutes. I left mine in a little longer until it was golden brown on the edges but I like mine crispy.

Soft Pretzels

Friday night Chadd and I got the wild urge to make soft pretzels. Well, I used a recipe I had here and lets just say they didnt work out so hot. So Saturday we decided to try again. I got online and found a recipe that says its supposed to taste just like Auntie Ann's pretzels. I have never had one so I dont know for sure if these taste just like it but they were pretty good pretzels!
(No the photo of the pretzel is not mine, its a Auntie Ann pretzel. Mine were a little funny looking so you dont get a photo of mine :-)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cup warm water
1 1/8 teaspoon active dry yeast
2 tablespoons brown sugar
1 1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup bread flour
3 cups regular flour
2 cups Warm water
2 tablespoons baking soda
to taste coarse salt
4 tablespoons butter (melted)

Directions:
Sprinkle yeast on lukewarm water in mixing bowl; stir to dissolve. Add sugar, salt and stir to dissolve; add flour and knead dough until smooth and elastic. Let rise at least 1/2 hour.

While dough is rising, prepare a baking soda water bath with 2 cups warm water and 2 Tbsp baking soda. Be certain to stir often. After dough has risen, pinch off bits of dough and roll into a long rope* (about 1/2 inch or less thick) and shape. Dip pretzel in soda solution and place on greased baking sheet. Allow pretzels to rise again. Bake in 450 oven for about 10 minutes or until golden. Brush with melted butter and enjoy!

Toppings: after you brush with butter try sprinkling with coarse salt. or for Auntie Anne's famous Cinnamon Sugar, try melting a stick of butter in a shallow bowl (big enough to fit the entire pretzel) and in another shallow bowl make a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Dip the pretzel into the butter, coating both sides generously. Then dip again into the cinnamon mixture. Enjoy!

* The longer and thinner you can make the dough rope, the more like Auntie Anne's they will be.

This made about 6 pretzels but I didnt roll my dough ropes really thin so you could probably get 8 or more if you tried. I also melted butter and dipped all the pretzels in it right after they came out of the oven and 1/2 of them I sprinkled with sugar and cinnamon and the other 1/2 I sprinkled with salt. They were both good.

Cheddar Biscuits

Well I dont have any pictures of these since when I made them a friend had borrowed my camera for a wedding, but they are really yummy!!!
They taste just like Red Lobsters

Cheddar Biscuits
2 Cups Bisquick mix
2/3 Cup Milk ( I used a bit more than this)
1 Cup Shredded Cheese
Mix all together and drop by spoonful onto a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes or until bottoms are brown.
Immediently after taking out of oven melt 3 T of Butter and mix in some Garlic Powder. Spoon butter mixture over hot biscuits. .
Serve!