Banana Pumpkin Muffins

This year, I am determined to follow my sister-in-law's lead and start baking and freezing well ahead of time. Enter, Banana Pumpkin Muffins.

Since we spend a couple of days in Iowa, I always like to bring a few breakfast treats. This year I plan on making the sour cream muffins that all the kids loved, but I also had a bunch of quickly rotting bananas (now doesn't that sound yummy?) so I decided to make muffins with them as well. I have a wonderful recipe from Skinny Taste for low-fat banana nut bread but it calls for apple sauce, which I was out of. Instead I tweaked the recipe to include pumpkin instead, with half the sugar of the original recipe. They turned out dense and rich. Not sure if the kids will like them, but I know it's going to be hard for me to stay away from them before Christmas!


6 ripe medium bananas, mashed
3/4 cup canned pumpkin
2-1/2 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 tbsp butter, softened
1/2 cup light brown sugar
4 large egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°. Grease muffin pan with baking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt with a wire whisk. Set aside.

In a large bowl cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer. Add mashed bananas, pumpkin and vanilla to the creamed butter and beat at medium speed until thick. Scrape down sides of the bowl.

In a small bowl, whisk egg whites. Fold egg whites into butter mixture. Add flour mixture, then mix using a wooden spoon until combined. Do not over mix.

Pour batter into muffin pan and bake on the center rack for about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. NOTE: My mix actually made 16 muffins, but you can make them larger and only make 12.

Let the pan cool at least 20 minutes.

Pie anyone?

Pies intimidate me. Most recipes I've read for pie crusts usually include strict directions like "use COLD butter," and "For the love of God whatever you do DO NOT let the butter/lard warm up or your crust will FAIL, and you will FAIL, and you will be an utter disappointment. " 

Ok, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but still, scary stuff. So when I offered to make desserts for Thanksgiving, and my husband made it clear that pies were the "traditional" requirement, I knew I needed help. Buying pie crusts would have been the smart thing to do, or better yet, a gorgeous $5.99 pumpkin pie from Costco that could easily feed 20 people, but I am not smart. So I turned to Zoe Francois, who I swear I would trust with my life, and certainly with my baking. Sure enough, she promised THE BEST APPLE PIE EVER, on her blog. And it was. It really, really was. 

I doubled the recipe because I was actually making three, count 'em, three pies, one of which was a double crust apple pie. For the pumpkin and pecan pies I used other recipes for the fillings with Zoe's crust recipe.  

This looks like a mess, but it's actually an amazing chocolate pecan pie from Paula Deen. I cut the sugar in the recipe in half, because, you know, it's Paula Deen, and I used orange juice instead of the bourbon. I would also recommend melting the chocolate first rather than leaving it in chunks like she recommends.

I don't even like apple pie, but this one is truly successful. It seems like you can't really over bake it, but don't test it. 

Luscious brown sugar pumpkin cream pie from Martha Stewart.

At the last minute, I decided the pies weren't enough so I made some bars. I wanted to use a can of organic butternut squash I had, so I put a few recipes together, tweaked them to my taste, and made some bars that turned out to be the run-away hit of the day.

For Friday's breakfast, I made simple sour cream muffins with a little sugar and cinnamon on top. Also a big hit.

Today I ran to Costco on the way back over to my sister-in-law's and picked up a Cheesecake Factory cheesecake. I'm tired.

Salted Nut Roll Ice Cream

My friend Kurt likes ice cream. A lot. Recently he presented me with a challenge I could not pass up. Over brunch, he said, ever-so-slyly, "You know what no one has tried yet? Salted nut roll ice cream." And I was off.

First, I had to deconstruct a salted nut roll, which I was not very familiar with. I found a nice web site that featured a home-made version of the confection. I learned that the nougat center is replicated with marshmallow cream. That I can do. Obviously the chewy texture would not be possible in ice cream, but I found a promising recipe for marshmallow ice cream and forged forth undeterred.

To the ice cream I folded lightly salted peanuts. Note to self, don't be a wuss, use saltier peanuts next time.

I used my old stand-by salted caramel sauce from smittenkitchen both to add into the ice cream in what I had hoped would be a beautiful golden ribbon, and to use warm as a topping for extra indulgence.

The results were mixed. While the final ice cream was a decadent twist on rich vanilla, with some peanuts tossed in, it was not nearly salty enough. The caramel I mixed in dissolved into the ice cream too much so it didn't offer that creamy texture I had hoped for. However, dousing the ice cream with a warmed tablespoon or four of the stuff may make you forget what the original challenge was and just enjoy the treat for what it is. And according to Kurt, he did. A lot.