Whole Wheat WW Banana Bread

This is an adaptation of the Roasted Strawberry Banana Bread from SkinnyTaste. I didn't have any strawberries, so I just kept on with the banana bread :) It ended up being completely fine and tasted great! One loaf makes 16 servings for 2 pts+ a piece!

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

Ingredients: 
1 1/4 c. whole wheat flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
2 Tb. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar (not packed)*
3 very ripe bananas
2 Tb. applesauce
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large egg whites

*When putting sugar into measuring cup, use a fork to run through the sugar to fluff it up and make it easier to scoop.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

Mix flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a small bowl and set aside. Put sugar and butter in mixing bowl and beat on medium speed for several minutes. Add in bananas, vanilla, applesauce, and egg whites. Mix for several more minutes until combined. Add in the flour mixture and mix on a low speed until just combined.

Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan. Bake in oven for 40-50 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean!

Sweet Blueberry Biscuits

UPDATE: Welcome Pinterest people! this recipe has gotten my lil blog so much traffic and I'm so happy you are here! If you have any questions, feel free to comment and I'll do my best to get back to you! Thanks!

I cannot say enough about these biscuits. The first time I made them was a huge experiment, but they turned out so good and got rave reviews!!!

Sweet Blueberry Biscuits

Biscuits:
adjusted from the Buttermilk Biscuits post
2 cups All-Purpose Flour (I used White Lily, a flour available in most Southern stores)
1 Tb. baking powder
1 1/2 tsp salt
3 Tb. sugar
1 stick unsalted butter (VERY cold)
3/4-ish cup buttermilk (use enough until the dough is just barely wet enough)
1 c. frozen blueberries (we used fresh blueberries that had been frozen overnight)
1/2 stick melted salted butter

Sauce:
1 c. powdered sugar
3 Tb. milk (or more if not thin enough)
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Cut butter into small pats and lay out on a cookie sheet lined in wax paper. Stick in the freezer for at least 10 minutes. Prepare cast iron skillet with a tiny amount of bacon grease, if available. Easiest thing: fry one piece of bacon, wipe out the pan, and you're good to go!

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Stir the sauce ingredients together (powdered sugar, milk, vanilla), and make sure the powdered sugar is completely dissolved.

Combine all the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, salt, sugar) together and then cut in the cold unsalted butter. Cut in until the butter is about pea sized, relatively well mixed in. Add buttermilk. Add slowly until you have just enough where the dough separates from the sides of the bowl. Stir until just combined and roll it out onto a well-floured surface.

Before kneading, prepare a large area for kneading. (I use a large cutting board for easy clean-up!) Sprinkle the area with some flour. Put the dough on the floured area and sprinkle some flour over the dough. Press the dough out (no need to roll with a pin) and flatten to about 1/2″ thickness. Put blueberries over dough. Knead a couple of times and flatten back out to about 1″ thickness. (Honestly, the thicker the better, because they rise so beautifully!) The berries will likely start to bleed onto the dough and you’ll start to see flecks of blue as the berries defrost.

Place biscuits in a cast-iron skillet and be sure biscuits are touching.

Bake at 500 degrees for about 10-12 minutes. Somewhere around 6 to 8 minutes, take the skillet out of the oven and brush the biscuits with melted salted butter. This is an integral part of the baking process. And be liberal with it, brush on the sides of the biscuits if they are showing. When you begin to see the tops lightly brown (and the blueberries burst), take them out. The temperature in the middle of the biscuits will remain very hot once out of the oven and will continue the cooking process.

NOTE: Some people have mentioned that they have to leave their biscuits in for longer than 10 or 12 minutes. I have never had to leave mine in for longer, but if you fear yours aren't getting done and want to leave them in for longer, be sure to watch them like a hawk! I promise, they will go from done to burnt in just a few seconds!

When you take the biscuits out of the oven, let the pan cool for about 10 minutes. Pour the sauce over the biscuits after 10 minutes. Use as much or little of the sauce as desired.

Serve immediately!

Banana Nut Bread

I love baking. Its probably my most favorite thing ever. I hate when a recipe that sounds great turns out gross, but I suppose that sort of thing is inevitable sometimes. This recipe, however, is not one of the failures.

I had some dying bananas on my counter one day and started googling recipes for banana nut bread. I came across quite a few, of course, but paid special attention to the comments and reviews. This one from The Neelys was rated pretty highly, so I gave it a shot. IT IS SO GOOD!!

Banana Nut Bread
1 stick butter, salted
1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
3 large very ripe bananas
1 cup sugar
2 eggs OR 3 egg whites
1/2 cup reduced-fat sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a bundt pan and set aside.

In one small bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. In another small bowl, mash up the bananas, leaving a small bit of texture. In a large bowl, mix together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time. Stir in the bananas, sour cream and vanilla and mix until just combined. Add the dry ingredients slowly, mixing as you go. Finally fold in the walnuts.

Bake for 40-50 minutes.

The BEST cornbread

My husband grew up in a family with some pretty good cooks. Not only his parents and sister, but his extended family are pretty talented too. I've got a few of those recipes waiting to be made, but for the time being, I have to share BC's sister's cornbread recipe. It is seriously so good. I have always tried to find the perfect balance of corn-y taste to sweetness, but never could figure it out. Once I had his sister's cornbread, I was sold! I had to have that recipe. And now, I share it with you.

Anna's Cornbread
1/2 c. butter (salted)
2/3 c. sugar
2 eggs
1 c. buttermilk
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 c. yellow cornmeal (fine ground is best here)**
1 c. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 375.

Butter and flour an 8x8 baking dish. In a large bowl, melt the butter. Stir in the rest of the ingredients, in order. Stir vigorously until few lumps remain. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake for 30 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean. Be sure not to over-bake!

**A swap-out: use a 8.5 oz. box of the Jiffy corn muffin mix instead of the fine ground cornmeal. It tastes great as well! If you make this swap, drop the flour amount down to 3/4 cup.

Cinnamon Rake

I stumbled across this recipe after I saw a very delicious-looking picture on Pinterest. I followed it to this recipe on Cookin' Up North's site. I decided to shorten up the name a bit to a "rake"--part roll, part cake, completely delicious.

I was a little skeptical, because the recipe seems like it makes so much food, but after a few tweaks, it turned out to make just enough. I'm pretty sure my husband and I devoured it in a day and a half.

 (before the icing...you can see all the pretty swirls!)

Cinnamon Rake
3 c. flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
1 1/2 c. milk
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c. butter (salted), melted

Mix-In:
1/2 c. butter
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 Tb. flour
1 Tb. cinnamon

Icing:
1 c. powdered sugar
2 Tb. milk
1/2 tsp. vanilla

Mix all cake ingredients, from the flour through the vanilla on the list. Slowly stir in the melted butter. Pour into a buttered and floured 9x13 pan. In a separate bowl, mix together the mix-in ingredients. Drop the mixture in small bunches, about a tablespoon amount each, all over the top of the unbaked cake. Take a butter knife and swirl the mix-in ingredients all around the cake batter.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes.

While the "rake" is baking, mix the icing ingredients together. Start with the amounts listed here, and then add more milk or powdered sugar to adjust to desired thickness. Everybody likes something different when it comes to icing!

When the cake is done baking, pull from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes. Poke a few holes on the top of the cake to make sure the icing sinks into the cake in a few places (not too many though!). Making sure the cake is still warm, slowly pour the icing all over the cake.

Try not to lick the bowl clean. :)

Sweet Cheese Biscuits

There is a restaurant in various locations in Alabama that has the BEST cheese biscuits!! Its called Jim n' Nicks and they have perfected these delicious treats, and I have so longed to learn how to make them! There is something secret in them, and I have yet to figure it out! In the meantime, I made these biscuits, as created by Stephanie over at Plain Chicken.

I have to say, while they don't taste exactly like J&N, but still, these biscuits are pretty tasty! The combo of cheese and sugar may sound weird, but they are pretty delicious! And they are super moist, so they will make a great addition to any meal!

Sweet Cheese Biscuits

1 1/2 c. Bisquick

3/4 c. buttermilk

3 Tb. sugar

1/4 tsp vanilla

1 c. shredded cheddar cheese

Preheat to 350 degrees.

Combine all ingredients. Spoon batter into muffin cups. For easier removal, spray muffin cups with cooking spray. For mini muffins, bake about 15-20 minutes. For larger sized muffins bake about 20-25 minutes. Cooking times will vary with how full muffin cups are, and due to high heat, check muffins periodically to ensure they don't burn.

*As you can see from the pictures, the batter provided me with 12 mini muffins and 3 larger ones.

* Don't mind the squished in tops of the larger muffins...I was in too big of a hurry to go find a toothpick so I crammed a fork down in the middle of them and crushed the tops. Whoops :)

Buttermilk Biscuits

I'm SO excited to share this recipe with you all! I made these this morning, and they were absolutely AMAZING!

I've always wanted to make really delicious biscuits. I've never really known the tricks, and I've always been jealous of women who could bake really well. For some reason, I felt like if I could master biscuits, I would be finally be a "true" Southern woman. After lots of questions and yucky trials and a very serious pow-wow with Mrs. Sue, an amazing cook and one of the local judges' judicial assistant, I've discovered this recipe:

Buttermilk Biscuits
recipe from the White Lily package and my brain
2 cups All-Purpose Flour (I used White Lily, a flour available in most Southern stores)
1Tb. baking powder
1 tsp salt
1 stick butter (salted) (VERY cold)
3/4-ish cup buttermilk (use enough until the dough is just barely wet enough)

Cut butter into small pats and lay out on a cookie sheet lined in wax paper. Stick in the freezer for at least 10 minutes. Prepare cast iron skillet with a tiny amount of bacon grease, if available. Easiest thing: fry one piece of bacon, wipe out the pan, and you're good to go!

Combine all the dry ingredients together and then cut in the butter. Cut in until the butter is about pea sized, relatively well mixed in. Add buttermilk. Add slowly until you have just enough where the dough separates from the sides of the bowl. Stir until just combined and roll it out onto a well-floured surface.

Before kneading, cover with some flour. Knead a couple of times and flatten out to about 1" thickness. (Honestly, the thicker the better, because they rise so beautifully!) Using a biscuit cutter, or just a glass cup, cut out biscuits. Press straight down, don't twist the cup/cutter.

Place biscuits in a cast-iron skillet and be sure biscuits are touching.

This recipe doesn't make a ton of dough. Especially if you end up using a large biscuit cutter. See the butter?

This is how thick I usually keep my dough. It rises the best if you can keep little chunks of butter in it! Please ignore the very messy kitchen area.

The finished product!

Bake at 500 degrees for about 8-10 minutes. At about the 6 minute mark, take the skillet out of the oven and brush the biscuits with melted salted butter. You pretty much have to brush the tops with butter. This is an integral part of the baking process. And be liberal with it, brush on the sides of the biscuits if they are showing.

There are some really important notes that go along with this I need to share:
*White Lily flour is important. Apparently its made with a certain kind of wheat that makes it have a lower protein count than most generic flours. It makes the biscuits lighter and fluffier. Even if you don't have that kind, try to get one that is made with a soft winter wheat.
*Make sure the butter is salted and SUPER cold.
*Cooking the biscuits in the cast iron skillet is the best part! Use one for best results, and try to put some sort of grease on the bottom. You don't want a lot in the pan. If you do fry up something in the pan, be sure to let the grease cool, pur it all out, scrape the pan, and use a paper towel to soak up the rest. All you are looking for is a faint sheen on the bottom!
*You can use whatever size biscuit cutter you want. I've made big "cat-head" biscuits (as my North Carolinian husband called them) and small ones. However you adjust the size, just be sure to watch them carefully while in the oven and keep the dough THICK, regardless of the size of cutter you use.

Go give this recipe a try, they taste amazing!

Update: this was my very first submission to Tasty Kitchen! Go check it out!