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I am a Honey Bee

All about my adventures with cooking, crafts, and travel

Banana

Banana Cake with Vanilla Bean Cream Cheese Frosting

 

Let’s all say “awwwww” now

3, 2, 1…. “awwwww!”

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Peanut Butter and Banana Frozen Dog Treats

I know that everyone is like “OMG!!! Bring on Fall!!! Pumpkin Spice All The Things!!!!” but it’s still hotter than the surface of the sun here in Florida. In fact, we have just 2 seasons: Hot and Hotter.

Here, these frozen treats will be a welcome reprieve to the heat for most of the year. And even it it’s cold out, I bet your dog will enjoy them.

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Nutty Chocolate Chip Banana Monkey Bread

Damn, toddlers are difficult.

Under statement of the year, right?

Besides stating all the obvious things like them freaking the eff out over dumb stuff like what shoes they want to wear (I swear we can NEVER find the pair she wants to wear right that very minute!) or the Minnie/Dora/Disney Princess of the cup she wants, we have entered a whole new realm of ‘fun’.

We have now entered the fun bed time fights that involve me moving things because they scare her. Last night I had to move a stack of framed pictures and canvases sitting on her dresser to get hung up since they “look like an alligator” Say what?!?

Then a little while later I had to move a bag in the hallway since it, again, looked like animals trying to eat her. 

Can’t wait to see what tonight brings!

Also, I was asking her what I should put into the monkey bread. We settled on adding in chocolate chips (duh!) to the bananas and nuts. She was too into watching Shimmer and Shine on my phone (our cable isn’t hooked up yet… ugh!) to help me make it so understand what I was doing because…

as soon as it was ready and we offered her some “monkey Bread” she refused “EWWWWWW NO MONKEY’S BREAD.” Well then…

 

It’s like a

I almost called this Chunky Monkey Monkey Bread but I was afraid the double ‘monkey’ in the name would be confusing. Maybe?

And that’s all my silly stories for today!

Nutty Chocolate Chip Banana Monkey Bread

Makes 10-12 servings

Ingredients

  • 3 packages of refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
  • 1 Cup brown sugar
  • 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon cinnamon
  • 2 bananas, thinly sliced (about 1/4″ thick)
  • 2/3 Cup finely chopped nuts, such as walnuts or pecans
  • 1 Cup chocolate chips
  • 1 Cup butter, melted

Process

  • Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Spray a fluted tube pan with non stick cooking spray
  • Cut each roll into 4 pieces.
  • Place half the banana slices, chopped nuts, and chocolate chips in the bottom of the pan.
  • Roll each piece into the blend of sugars and cinnamon. Then put into the tube pan.
  • Once half the pieces are in the tub pan, add the remaining slices of banana, nuts, and chocolate chips.
  • Finish putting the coated biscuit pieces into the tube pan then evenly pour the butter over all of the pieces.
  • Bake for 43-48 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before inverting on a platter for serving.

Banana’s Foster Waffles

Banana's Foster Waffles

Okay, summer, can you please get hot?!?!?

 

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I’ve been anxiously waiting for it to get hot here in Boston. Sure, it’s been in the 80’s but it has not yet hit 90 yet. Every day they show a chart on the local news that shows the number of days above 90 for the past few years and this year has a big fat ‘0’ next to it. It breaks my heart.

I live for the hot sticky days. It just feels so great to step outside to hot humid weather. Like when I travel to Florida and the doors open up at the airport and it feels like a big slap to my face. It just makes me feel alive when my skin gets prickly from the heat.

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So while it’s not as hot as I’d like, I’m still enjoying the summer. We have been grilling a lot, playing around in the kiddie pool, and just sitting out enjoying the nice days and nights. My neighbors do as well. It’s so nice to see families enjoy it together with kids running around before and after their BBQ dinners. In fact, our neighbors were recently enjoying the cool summer nighttime breezes with some friends when I brought them over a big platter of these Banana’s Foster Waffles. That’s just how I roll!

Banana’s Foster was originally invented at Brennan’s Vieux Carré Restaurant located on Bourbon Street, across from The Old Absinthe House in the 1950’s. (Side note- Price and I believe that the best Bloody Mary is from The Old Absinthe House in NOLA. GET ONE!!!) It was a solution to excess bananas that they had in stock. Brilliant.

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It’s a great combination of ripe bananas, butter, sugar, cinnamon, and booze. It’s sickly sweet. It’s sticky sweet. It’s perfection.

And I, of course, dumped all that syrupy banana goodness on of a big old scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, which was happily melting on a warm waffle.

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I kept it simple stupid when I approached the waffle as I just used a mix and added some cinnamon to it amp up that flavor that’s in the Banana’s Foster syrupy goodness. Don’t get me wrong, Bisquick is great but the Belgiuan Waffle Mix from Krusteaz is AWESOME. It is airy and has a great sweet flavor to it. Their Buttermilk Pancake Mix is also great, but I wanted to use something on the sweeter side as it’s for dessert.

When you make Banana’s Foster the rum should flame up… FLAMBE! But as I don’t have a gas range mine didn’t. I tried to get it to catch with a flame, but by the time I lit it the booze was already cooking off. Hey, I tried! So no worries if your flambe is a dud, it will still be great!

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I don’t tattle if you make this awesome dessert for breakfast. You know what they say, well, what do they say?

Banana's Foster Waffles-4

Banana’s Foster Waffles

Makes 6 – 7″ wide round waffles

Ingredients

For the waffles

  • 3 Cups Belgiun Waffle Mix, I used Krustez
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/3 Cup water
  • 1/3 Cup vegetable oil
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For the bananas

  • 4 Tablespoons butter
  • 1 Cup light brown sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 2 Ounces banana liqueur
  • 1 1⁄2 Ounces aged rum
  • 3 bananas

For serving

  • Vanilla Ice Cream
  • Whipped cream

Process

  1. Preheat your waffle iron.
  2. In a large bowl, mix together all of the ingredients for the waffle batter. Begin to make the waffles. As they finish, place on a cooling rack.
  3. Cut the peeled bananas in half, then cut each half in half again, then repeat to cut each portion in half to create 8 long pieces.
  4. To prepare the banana’s foster sauce, combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a flambé pan over medium heat. As the butter begins to melt, add the banana liquor and stir to combine.
  5. Add the banana to the sauce, cook until they begin to soften (about 1-2 minutes).
  6. If using a gas range, tilt back the pan to slightly heat the far edge of the pan. Once hot carefully add the rum, and tilt the pan toward the flame, to ignite the rum. If using an electric cook top, use a lighter to ignite the rum.
  7. Gently stir the sauce and continue to cook for 1-2 minutes to ensure that all of the alcohol cooks out.
  8. Plate a waffle, add a scoop of ice cream, and then top with 4 slices of banana and sauce.

Banana’s Foster recipe adapted from Brennan’s New Orleans Restaurant

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While I received product from Krusteaz for recipe development, all opinions are my own 

Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

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Muffins make me super happy.

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They are really so good. Just delightful. A great way to start your day. Or have as an afternoon snack. Taking the time to bake them up on the weekend just signifies taking the time to treat yourself. Plus, they make your house smell so good. That smell should be a candle. Well, it probably already is.

Double Chocolate Banana Muffins

We haven’t been eating muffins as much as before as we have been following a more Paleo- friendly diet, but that hasn’t stopped me from making them. We bring them to work or Autumn’s daycare. Sharing is caring.

But the thing I love most about muffins now is that Autumn and I get to make them together. She really wants to be involved when I am in the kitchen. I’ve found that baking works pretty well as there are no sharp knives. Yeah, knives don’t really work with tiny toddler hands. But she likes when I count out the Tablespoons or Cups of ingredients. and he LOVES cracking eggs. Seriously loves to crack eggs. She loves when I make crustless quiche as she can crack a dozen eggs.

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So when it came to picking the recipe for month’s Secret Recipe Club post I knew I would have to check out all the baking related recipes from Karen’s Kitchen Stories so I could keep Autumn envovled. And Karen has so so many awesome recipes. I enjoyed browsing through all of Karen’s bread recipes as her recipe annex is quite extensive and they all looked so good. I have bookmarked so many recipes like her Chocolate Walnut Babka, Overnight White Bread, and Transitional Whole Wheat Sandwich Bread.

While bread would have been delicious to make I wanted to make something that Autumn could really help with. So I turned back to her well organized recipe index to find another recipe. I saw these Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins and knew they would be a great muffin and something manageable to involve a toddler.

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These muffins are a real breakfast treat as they have 2 kinds of chocolate in the batter. But some days you just need a treat. But the banana makes them healthy, right? ha! The recipe calls for the addition of sour cream to the batter, but I didn’t have that on hand and knew I wouldn’t use the rest of the container, so I used Greek yogurt. I thought the taste and texture of the muffins so I think the ingredient swap worked just fine.

I also added chocolate chips to the tops of the muffins as you can’t have too many chocolate chips. That’s a fact.

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I really suggest that you whip up a batch of these Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins for, or even with, the ones you love. Thanks for such a good recipe Karen!! So yummy!

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Print

Double Chocolate Chip Banana Muffins

Course Breakfast
Cuisine American
Keyword banana, chocolate, muffins
Servings 12 Muffins

Ingredients

  • 1 1/4 C all purpose flour
  • 1/3 Dutch process unsweetened cocoa
  • 1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • 3/4 Cup mashed banana about 2 medium previously frozen bananas
  • 1/3 Cup sour cream or Greek Yogurt
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 Cup granulated sugar
  • 1/4 Cup canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Generous 1/2 C dark or semi-sweet chocolate chips and 60 more chips for the top of the muffins

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
  2. Whisk the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a medium bowl.
  3. In a large bowl, whisk the banana and sour cream/yogurt until smooth.
  4. Add the egg, sugar, oil, and vanilla extract until smooth.
  5. Fold in the flour mixture and chocolate chips until just combined.
  6. Portion evenly into the muffin wrappers. Add 5 chocolate chips to the top of each muffin.
  7. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan for about 2 minutes, and then on a wire rack.

Recipe Notes

Slightly Adapted from Karen's Kitchen Stories

 

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