A Tale of Two Banana Nut Breads

I'm an absolutely horrible blogger, the posts coming in fits and spells.  I'd thought about doing a histiocytosis awareness post back in September when it was Histiocytosis Awareness Month.  I thought about doing another dental visit post similar to the last one.  I also thought about doing a combined post, championing histio awareness and dentistry, considering most of us adults with the disease (even in remission) seem to have a host of dental difficulties.  A recipe post on the fresh apple cake was almost written but, at the last moment, it was decided that posting it straight to the notes in FB would be a lot easier. I'd even considered writing a post on how I've gotten over food, previously my best friend, and lost 60 pounds this spring/summer/fall.   Days and weeks came and went.  Words didn't gel together.  Those five posts didn't get written.

And so it goes.  There's nothing much to tell these days, no amusing stories coming forth from Mama, no misadventures beyond taking a wrong interstate and driving completely around Birmingham, Alabama.

And it isn't that there's less free time to be a better blogger.  Free time exists.  Life gets complicated; minds get tired of thinking.  At the end of the day, I'd rather open a book and disappear into it than think another thought. Unless the book is thought provoking.  I like thought-provoking books...

Annnnyways.  I'm using a lot of words to apologize for not keeping to my own set standard of a post a week (on average).  I'll try to do better.  I will.

To kick off getting on the proverbial bandwagon, I've two recipes for Banana Nut Bread.  TWO.  Both of them start with a cake mix.  I'd been to the Pig earlier in the week and spotted a big bag of bananas in the reduced-for-quick-sale produce cart.  There must've been five pounds of bananas in the bag for a dollar.  A dollar!  Even after sharing half with Mama, there was still a huge bunch of bananas to do something with.

 Holidays are quickly approaching.  What better time to get a headstart on holiday baking?  Banana nut bread freezes very well, you know...

Except there were other cakes to be made and icing to be whipped and cardboard to be cut and covered.  I needed a recipe that wouldn't require a lot of preparation.  I googled recipes for banana nut breads and combined a couple of them to come up with two very tasty, quick and easy recipes beginning with butter cake mixes:  Pumpkin Spice Pudding Banana Nut Bread aka The One with Pudding In It, and Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread.  I didn't photograph for tutorials;  just the ingredients and finished breads.

So, without another moment's procrastination, here are the ingredients for
Pumpkin Spice Banana Nut Bread

One butter golden cake mix
Four eggs
One half cup oil
Two to three bananas - mashed
Three fourths cup of buttermilk
One box of Jello brand instant pumpkin spice pudding mix
One teaspoon vanilla
One cup nuts

Despite all the directions to combine all the wet ingredients first and then add all the dry ingredients, I absolutely dumped everything but the pecans together in the KitchenAid bowl and let it do the work all at once.  Life is easier if you plow around the stumps.  It worked a charm.  Try, yourself, and see if it doesn't.  Stir in the pecans when it's all mixed well.

Pour into two greased and floured loaf pans or a small bundt pan.

Bake at 350 for an hour or so until it's done.
                                     

Maybe I should've rechopped Mama's chopped pecans.

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

Five bananas - smashed

Three eggs

One butter cake mix

Eight ounces cream cheese - room temperature

One tablespoon vanilla

One cup chopped pecans

Seriously.  Just dump everything together and mix well, stirring in the pecans before pouring into two greased and floured loaf pans.

These are larger sized loaf pans 8 x 4 x 2 1/2.  If you've smaller

loaf pans, best to grease and flour one more.

Bake at 350 and hour or so until done.

At the point this was photographed, I was already well

into an insulin response over having consumed a slice of the

first banana nut bread.  It's a fuzzy photo.  My body was

feeling fuzzy and warm, too!

Both recipes yield a less bread-like i.e. dense loaf of tasty bread.  The pudding recipe, with oil in it, not to mention buttermilk, definitely is the moister of the two.  And the flavor the pumpkin spice pudding gives it is out of this world.  BUT, the cream cheese and banana-ness of the second recipe???  It's difficult to decide which recipe is the better one.

I've only found pumpkin spice pudding at WalMart.  Other food bloggers had been ranting and raving over it and I had to have it also.  It's worth tracking down, but you can use whatever pudding tickles your taste buds.  The original recipe had, of all things, instant banana pudding in it!

There.  It's a two-fer:  Two recipes for banana nut bread in one blog post after a month's slacking...

Y'all enjoy!

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cream Filling (or dip {or garnish [or late night decadence]})

This past Tuesday afternoon, on the flat coastal plain road of Highway 59 in Baldwin County, Alabama, the gray matter was wrapping itself around an idea for a new cake filling made from a local favorite sweet dip.  There's no tutorial here, the excitement of an idea working out having put all thoughts of documenting the procedure out of mind.  It's the combination of the chocolate chip cookie dough dip and sweetened whipped cream into a very rich (but light?) creamy recipe that's easily spread.  Chocolate chip cookie dough cream filling, to be exact.

I did away with the diet for this one:  the chocolate

chips mesmerized the will power right out of me.

Chocolate chip cookie dough dip, if you're not familiar with it, it everything lovable about chocolate chip cookie dough, minus the eggs.  It's an excellent selection for incorporating fruit arrangements and cookie bars into one, along with two or three other sweet dips.

This was a baby (boy) shower.  I'd used white chocolate chips

   in the dip for it.A double batch is almost always made to 

assure plenty arrives at the event it was intended for.

I'd thought about using it for a cake filling several times before, but it's so thick, more like a spread and less like a dip.  How could the consistency be made creamier?  WWwwwwell.  By adding cream -- whipped cream, of course.  

By rearranging the way the dip is put together, the filling was made quickly and easily.  Here's what you'll need:

One cup butter

One-half cup brown sugar

Two teaspoons vanilla

Two eight ounce cream cheeses

Two cups thick whipping cream

Two cups confectioner's sugar

One cup mini chocolate chips (or the whole bag {why not?})

Put mixer bowl and whisk attachment for whipped cream in refrigerator to get cold.

Melt butter and brown sugar together for three or four minutes on medium setting in microwave (or until the sugar is thoroughly smooth).  Let cool slightly until just warm.  Beat the cream cheese (still cool and not at room temperature) into the butter and sugar until a smooth mixture is achieved.  Add vanilla and beat again.

Put the whipping cream in cold bowl with wire whisk attachment and whip until folds begin to form in cream and soft peaks form.  Slowly add confectioner's sugar to blend and proceed to whip until stiff peaks form.

With speed at lowest setting, whisk brown sugar/butter/cream cheese to whipped sweetened cream a spoonful at a time until all is added in.  Stir once from the bottom and process only long enough to mix in the stuff from the bottom of the bowl.

Gently fold in chocolate chips, cover, and chill.

That's it!

The filling will firm up only slightly, retaining a spreading consistency after it's cooled.

It debuted in this chocolate cake with chocolate truffle butter cream icing.

The client tells me the cake and filling were

very well received.  Very well.

I like that...

This is a recipe that can be tweaked a hundred ways to become a pie filling, a lighter version of the dip, an incredible garnish for a slice of cake, a tad of rum or bourbon or Kahlua added instead of vanilla for a cool topping for a bread pudding... so many things.  Y'all make it yours (figuratively speakings) and enjoy!

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Ever time I think a climactic plateau of chocolate cake garnishing has been reached, another one appears.  Sharing with y'all the chocolate cake that went out this morning:

Brownie Caramel Cheesecake

There's not really a backstory for this recipe.  Twenty or so years ago I thought I'd subscribe to one of those menu clubs.  You know them... Pay x amount of dollars and receive a dozen recipe cards to go in the bulky unwieldy large couldn't find a place for it  handy complimentary cheap plastic beautiful acrylic file box behind the confusing appropriate tabs.  You could have an entire year of expensive meals and non-kid-friendly desserts taking up a whole corner of the counter at your fingertips!  After three months I cancelled the subscription.  The plastic box became storage for Lego pirate weapons.  I did keep one recipe, though, and have made it for us through the years:  Brownie Caramel Cheesecake.

The pecan crust recipe comes from Brother #3.  I think he got it from Emeril but I wouldn't swear to it.  I use roasted pecans in everything but pecan pies.  Roasting brings out their nutty flavor and keeps them from getting soggy too quickly in cakes and salads.

Pecan Crust
2 cups all purpose flour
2 sticks butter
2 cups chopped pecans
1/2 teaspoon salt (strictly optional - I never use it)

Preheat oven to 450.  Mix flour, salt, and butter until consistency of cornmeal.  Add ground or finely chopped pecans.  Press mixture firmly in bottom and two inches up sides of a nine inch springform pan.  Bake for ten minutes until golden brown.

Now that's what the instructions say do.  You can certainly get cornmeal texture if the butter is cold.  I'd forgotten to leave the butter cold, having icing in mind this afternoon.  Does it make a difference if it's cold or not?  Not in this crust.

See?  All nice and mixed together and I didn't even get

the pastry knife thingy dirty!

I've discovered over the years to NOT start on the bottom

of the springform pan and then up the sides.  I start on the

sides, making them artfully not level all the way around.

And then I press the crust into the bottom.  This is a ten inch pan, 

by the way.  The recipe says nine inch but you'll regret using it.

And do yourself a favor and put the springform pan on or in 

something else.  Butter has a way of cooking out of the crust

to make a mess in the oven.

Let the crust cool completely.

Brownie Caramel Cheesecake:

Ingredients

1 14 ounce package caramels

5 ounces evaporated milk

2 cups crumbled unfrosted brownies

3 8-ounce packages cream cheese

1 cup firmly packed brown sugar

3 large eggs

8 ounces sour cream

2 teaspoons vanilla

Combine caramels and milk in a small heavy saucepan; cook over low heat, stirring often until caramels melt.  Pour over crust.  Sprinkle crumbled brownies over caramel.  Beat cream cheese at medium speed of mixer until light and fluffy.  Gradually add sugar, mixing well.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating just until blended.  Stir in sour cream and vanilla.  Pour batter carefully over brownies.  Back at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes or until cheesecake is almost set.  Turn off heat and let cheesecake remain in oven another hour, undisturbed.  remove from oven and let cool to room temperature on a wire rack.  Cover and let chill at least four hours.  remove sides from springform pan.  Garnish with chocolate curls and whipped cream, if desired.

That's the EXACT recipe.  Do I do it that way?  uhmmmmm No'm.  I don't.

I make 'from scratch' brownies.  Did I have to?  Nope.

In a bind for time, I've used mixes.  In a real bind for

time I've used Little Debbie brownies.

 Do you see a pot?  No.  Microwave these candies.  Two minutes on
high, stirring to break up the candies and then three minutes on medium.
The quick-melt caramel chips work great!

A whisk will make the melted caramel nice and smooth.

Let it cool while putting together the rest of the cheesecake.

 Whip the cream cheese until very fluffy.  It makes for a
very smooth texture.

 Pinky extended is the only way to gradually add brown sugar.

 If you're using farm eggs like I am, always (and I do mean always)
break them individually into a bowl or cup.  Forget a rotten apple.
A rotten egg really will spoil the whole recipe.

 MMMmmmmmm...  Look at that KitchenAid go!

 Stir in the sour cream?  I don't think so.  Turn the KitchenAid or
mixer down to the lowest setting.

 Putting the caramel on the bottom could possibly result
in baked caramel under the crust. You'll need
a prybar to get it out of the pan.  If there is the smallest
fissure in the crust, the caramel will go through it if put on the crust first.
Trust me.  I know these things...  Put the brownies on first.
This is THREE cups of brownies, by the way.
Two cups just doesn't cover.

Pour the batter on ever-so-gently.  It'll push brownies and melted

caramels around if rushed.

 Bake.

It'll take another thirty minutes beyond this point.  

I don't know why but it can't be rocket

science.

Everything else is pretty much like the recipe says.  As much as I love chocolate, I don't garnish this cheesecake.  It'd be more awesome if it were, I'm sure, but a chocoholic has to draw the line somewhere.

Y'all enjoy!

RaCK-It-Up-To-Goodness Filling (Raspberry, Chocolate, and Kahluah, that is...)

I know.  It's a cheesy name for a cake filling:  RaCK-it-up-to-Goodness??  I can't help it, though.  I've watched Waitress again so everything coming out of the kitchen is going to have a kitschy name until the novelty wears off or y'all tell me to stop - whichever comes first.

Why did I come up with another filling?  I've a lifelong friend who's baby is graduating high school.  He'd called last week wanting one of the chocolate overloads, or whatever might be good.  He's trusting in what he's had from this cakery before for something appropriate, meaning good enough to amaze half of Hattiesburg.   And then there's a local youngster graduating high school Friday, dear to my heart...one of the fellows in and out of here often enough he has a house key.  I know both of these young men love chocolate and the chocolate overload.

But I wanted something a littttttle more for them.

I thought and thought, "Okay, Mayree.  Chocolate cake.  How 'bout the J-Rob Special (thin chocolate layers of cake with melted raspberry jam on each layer, each layer covered with dark chocolate ganache, stacked, and covered with ganache again)?  No.  Need to save that specialness.  Uhmmmmm...Hmmm.... OH!  Raspberry cream filling?  It's a start but not quite right.  Raspberry chocolate cream filling?  Sounding better.  Raspberry, chocolate, and Kahlua??  Yes!"  See how I think in incomplete sentences?

So.  Without further ado, I present RaCK It Up To Goodness creamy cake filling (which will also make one fine pie filling).

Ingredients:
2 - Jello Chocolate Fudge instant puddings
2 - 8 ounce cream cheese
1 cup chocolate syrup
1 1/2 cup raspberry jam
1 cup milk
1/2 cup Kahlua
1/2 cup coffee
2 - 16 ounce tubs of whipped topping

This makes a very large bowl of filling but remember I've two large cakes to fill.  It can be easily cut in half.  This is one of the few places where the brand matters:  Polaner All Fruit is worth the extra money for intense flavor uncomplicated by pectin.

I didn't have milk but did have evaporated milk.  Y'all know to thin it with equal amounts of water, right?  I used one half cup evaporated milk and one half cup water.  Lots of folks don't like the taste of evaporated milk.  I grew up on it and don't have a problem substituting it for regular milk.

I nuked the raspberry jam to make it less lumpy and more readily mixable.

In a large bowl mix the cream cheese, chocolate syrup, and raspberry jam.

This is lots easier if the cream cheese is room temperature.  It smells absolutely wonderful at this point.

I didn't bother washing the measuring cups;  it's all going in the same filling.  Conserve water, it's not nearly as renewable a natural resource as folks say it is.  Now mix the cup of milk, Kahlua, coffee, and two packs of instant pudding.

 

Mix the pudding mixture into the cream cheese stuff

until everything is well incorporated.

And lastly, fold in the two tubs of whipped topping

until everything has been thoroughly blended.

Give it a taste.  You know you want to.

"Mayree?"  you ask, "Wouldn't this be better with real whipped cream?"  You betcha.  Profit margin notwithstanding, though, most folks in these parts won't know the difference -- and couldn't afford it if they did.

Like I said, this is one huge bowl of incredible filling.  Kind of like Jenna's chocolate strawberry oasis pie from the movie Waitress, the flavors are complex, presenting themselves one by one.  The immediate taste is chocolate, followed quickly by coffee with a punch (that'd be the Kahlua), rounding out with a definite raspberry finish.  It's a very rich and very light filling, all at the same time.  

I'm tickled with it.  Y'all find some occasion to try it out.  I don't think you'll be disappointed.

Cream Cheese Pound Cake

This is probably the best cream cheese pound cake.  Period.  It's creamy and cream cheesy, dense, moist, buttery, and cream cheesy.  I had to put cream cheesy in there twice because the cake has a full pound of cream cheese in it.

It came from the Faith Presbyterian Church cookbook, Recipes and Remembrances.  The recipe is from the kitchen of Mrs. Martha McKay, long-time member of the Presbyterian church, Ladies' Variety Club, and styling Southern women everywhere.  She's the epitome of class, coaching the Junior Miss contestants on manners and propriety.  Don't quote me on it, but I'd swear she was a debutante in her youth.

I made this ingredients-smiley-face just for y'all

'cause having you here is better than sliced bread.

 She's the best small-talk-maker I know, her ease of dismissing a conversation as simple as looking down and away. She's a retired teacher but substitutes quite often.  I understand the youngsters groan to see her walk in the classroom, an expected easy day of loafing in class effectively rearranged into productive school work by her very presence.  

I compared her recipe with a dozen others this afternoon and the only thing really different is the amount of cream cheese.  The ingredients show eight eggs.  These are eight medium eggs that were a bit on the small size for medium.  When substituting medium for large eggs always add one more to the number -- two if they're small like these are.

I love the long loaf pan for this cake.

The cake itself is put together like almost any other pound cake.  The directions say to combine the cream cheese, butter, and sugar.  I like to mix the butter and cream cheese first.

 Did you remember to pan coat the loaf pan?  

Go to the Dollar Tree and purchase a multi-pack of these

cheap cheap economical brushes.  When they get yucky

after a couple of uses and washes, throw them away.  

Add sugar when butter and cream cheese are well mixed, creaming together until **snicker** well creamed together.  If you mix it until it's very light and fluffy something weird happens; there'll be a layer of butter going through the cake after it's baked.  That's not a BAD thing and I don't know exactly why it does this although I bet my nephew could, trained chef that he is.  I'm not professionally trained -- I'm learned!

Alternate adding two eggs to the butter/cream cheese/sugar mixture with the flour.  I try to do it in three additions.  It doesn't always work that way, sometimes the flour blops out or three eggs glop in at once.  It's not rocket science:  alternate the two so there are no big clumps of one or the other in the batter.

Add the vanilla last.

:o(  Almost out of Mexican vanilla...

Pour/spoon into prepared pan.

This is a lot of cake batter, making one very large loaf pan full or

one very large tube cake, or two medium loaf pans.
And that's my batter on the spatula.  nnnnomz...

It goes into a cold oven that's now been set to 250 F.

Find something to do for a while, like two and a half to three hours.

I like to blog, listen to whatever I feel like on Pandora,

lurk on FB, and have something good in the

Waterford (never save the good stuff for a perfect day - 

every day is perfect).

Ding!  Give it the toothpick test when it gets to smelling too delicious to stand.  It's done!  Cool five minutes before turning out.

Did it turn out perfect?  Nope.  The top crust cracked and some of it broke.  I could google it and tell you every single thing done that made this happen.  But I don't have to.  This cake is delicious (not just this cake but this recipe).  Unless you absolutely burn it up, it will be moist, with continuing moistness until it's completely consumed.  It keeps well, covered, on the counter and it freezes better than any other cake made here.  If you've not made a cream cheese pound cake - well - tomorrow's Friday;  it's as good as any reason I know to make one.

The ingredients and instructions per the cook book are:

16 ounces cream cheese
  2 sticks butter
  1 stick margarine (I used three sticks butter -  I can't tell that it makes a lot of difference)

  3 cups sugar
  3 cups plain flour (cake flour makes a slightly less dense cake)
  1/4 teaspoon salt
  6 large eggs
  1 teaspoon vanilla

Set out overnight the cream cheese, butter, margarine, and eggs.  Cream together the cheese, butter, margarine and sugar.  Alternate adding the 2 eggs and 1 cup of sifted flour with salt added until all mixed.  Add vanilla.  Put in sprayed and floured bundt pan.  Bake for 2 1/2 hours at 250 F.  Start in cold oven.  Makes a large cake.

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And there you have it and there I did!!!

Y'all enjoy.