Cream Cheese Banana Bread

hmm..what do you do when you have nervous energy and the house is already clean? BAKE! I had some not so great looking bananas in the house and decided to make the kiddies an afternoon snack. They absolutely love this banana bread. I have been making this for years and the hardest part is deciding what topping to add. I made mine into one loaf and made the rest into muffins to freeze for later. I made the Peanut Butter Topped but have also made the Toasted Coconut..I'm telling you this is good stuff! This recipe is from Southern Living and if you have yet to find a good banana bread, try this..it's the best!

Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread

Ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups mashed bananas (1 1/4 pounds unpeeled bananas, about 4 medium)
1 cup chopped pecans, toasted
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preparation:

Beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add sugar, beating until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating just until blended after each addition.

Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; gradually add to butter mixture, beating at low speed just until blended. Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanilla. Spoon batter into 2 greased and floured 8- x 4-inch loafpans.

Bake at 350° for 1 hour or until a long wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean and sides pull away from pan, shielding with aluminum foil last 15 minutes to prevent browning, if necessary. Cool bread in pans on wire racks 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool 30 minutes on wire racks before slicing.

Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Muffins: To bake muffins, spoon batter evenly into 24 paper-lined muffin cups. Bake at 350° for 25 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pans 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Makes 24 muffins. Prep: 15 min., Bake: 25 min.

Orange-Pecan-Topped Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread: Prepare bread batter as directed, and spoon into desired pans. Sprinkle 1 cup coarsely chopped, toasted pecans evenly over batter in pans. Bake as directed. Cool bread or muffins in pans 10 minutes; remove from pans to wire racks. Stir together 1 cup powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons fresh orange juice, and 1 teaspoon grated orange rind until blended. Drizzle evenly over warm bread or muffins, and cool 30 minutes on wire racks.

Toasted Coconut-Topped Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread: Prepare and bake bread or muffins in desired pans. While bread is baking, stir together 1/4 cup butter, 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar, and 1/4 cup milk in a small saucepan over medium-high heat; bring to a boil, stirring constantly. Remove from heat. Stir in 1 cup sweetened flaked coconut; 1 cup chopped, toasted pecans; and 2 teaspoons vanilla extract. Remove baked bread or muffins from oven, and immediately spread tops with coconut mixture. Broil 5 1/2 inches from heat 2 to 3 minutes or just until topping starts to lightly brown. Cool in pans on wire racks 20 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool 30 minutes on wire racks before slicing.

Cinnamon Crisp-Topped Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread: Prepare bread batter as directed, and spoon into desired pans. Stir together 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar; 1/2 cup chopped, toasted pecans; 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour; 1 tablespoon melted butter; and 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon. Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter. Bake and cool as directed.
Peanut Butter Streusel-Topped Cream Cheese-Banana-Nut Bread: Prepare bread batter as directed, and spoon into desired pans. Combine 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour and 1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar in a small bowl. Cut in 1/4 cup butter and 3 tablespoons creamy peanut butter with a pastry blender or fork until mixture resembles small peas. Sprinkle mixture evenly over batter in pans. Bake and cool as directed.

Amish Friendship Bread

I had a flashback to Olympia, Washington when I visited Leigh last week and noticed her Amish Friendship Bread starter sitting on her kitchen counter. I have only made this once and obviously it was years ago (around eight to be exact) but I still remember Baylee and I enjoying this recipe together. Leigh was right at the last day when you divide the starter and make the actual bread so it was fun to do this together with Leigh because let's face it..when her and I get together we're a little like four year olds ourselves (that's how old Baylee was when we last did this.) It truly made the name "Friendship" bread much more special when you are actually making it with friends.

I finally got to make mine today and split up the starter to take back to Pittsburgh with me. I made four small loaves and one larger one..perfect to give to others or stick in the freezer for later.

If you have never made one or you have years ago and would like to do another to share with friends here's a recipe for the starter that I copied from allrecipes.com:

INGREDIENTS:
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C)
3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
3 cups white sugar, divided
3 cups milk

DIRECTIONS:

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in water. Let stand 10 minutes. In a 2 quart container glass, plastic or ceramic container, combine 1 cup flour and 1 cup sugar. Mix thoroughly or flour will lump when milk is added. Slowly stir in 1 cup milk and dissolved yeast mixture. Cover loosely and let stand until bubbly. Consider this day 1 of the 10 day cycle. Leave loosely covered at room temperature.

On days 2 through 4; stir starter with a spoon.

Day 5; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.

Days 6 through 9; stir only.
Day 10; stir in 1 cup flour, 1 cup sugar and 1 cup milk.

Pour four 1/2 cup starters into separate one-gallon ziplock bags. Squeeze the air out. Give three away,keep one for yourself, and make your bread with the remaining batter!

Here is the recipe once your ready to make the bread.

Put the following ingredients into a non metal bowl and mix with spoon:

1 cup oil

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

In a separate bowl combine the following dry ingredients and mix well:
2 cups flour

1 cup sugar

1-1/2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 - (5.1 oz) box instant vanilla pudding

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup nuts

Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Mix and pour into two well greased and sugared bread pans. Bake at 325 degrees for 1 hour.

Savory Christmas Bread

Did someone say bread? Even though I have to be very careful about my gluten I hate to have the rest of the family suffer especially where homemade bread is concerned. They love breads, rolls, biscuits, anything with gluten. I love the King Arthur website..in fact I love all King Arthur products so when I ran across this recipe I had to try it. I mean it has cheese, red peppers, and onions so what's not to love? (Unless your Felecia which means this bread is a strike for both of us.)


I love that this bread has no yeast so no need to carve out a few hours of your day to make it...it was mixed and done within an hour. A must try! Look how pretty it is!!

Not bad, huh?!?!

I ate the very end of the bread (my favorite) just how my Nana used to fix it for me..with plenty of sauce and cheese

Check out the recipe here

You Gotta Ciabatta

I am not a great bread maker despite my obvious talent in the baking department:) I can make pizza dough (because I make it every Friday) and quick breads are a cinch, but, anything that involves a "starter" or "spritzed water" I am horrible at.



I came across this recipe for Ciabatta on the King Arthur Website and thought I should give it a shot since I had nothing better to do today. I made the starter before bed last night and hoped that this morning it would have the "bubbles" that the recipe stated it would have and amazingly it did!

I knew at that point that I could move on to the next stage. I mixed up the rest of the ingredients, let it rise, and then formed the Ciabatta on the sheet pan. Amazingly enough..they started to rise..so I made the indentations that the recipe called for, let it rise again, and then it appeared as though I could actually go through with putting it in the oven.

After a quick spritz with warm water and around 25 minutes in the oven I pulled out what looked and smelled like real bread. I couldn't wait to slather butter over a huge chunk (I was willing to take the gluten hit) and taste what appeared to be a successful Ciabatta. The result: it is all gone..both loaves. We completely ate them up..every last delicious crumb.

If you have yet to try your hand at making bread give this a try...it took a while to make but well worth it. I plan on making this quite often, but, I think I need to double the recipe next time!