Peabody's Fluffernutter Banana Bread

Here is the link for this delicious take on banana bread.  We gave this a perfect 10, and I think it is my favorite version of banana bread ever.

I didn't use very much powdered sugar for the icing, if you would like more of a set frosting, add more powdered sugar.  I used only about 1/4 c, maybe a little more.  Anyway, each piece was 400 calories, but it was so delicious that I don't even mind :).  Try this and you will love it!

Peabody's Eggnog Cream Cheese Muffins

While these are posted a little late for the holidays, these were awesome muffins.  I grew up in Michigan, Ohio, spent some time in Germany, England, UT, Mexico, and now Arizona.  Of all those places, only UT and Flagstaff, where I live now, are anywhere near high elevation.  I was in college in UT and didn't cook very much, so it never affected me.  Now, in Flagstaff, I cook all the time, and I have been noticing a very bad trend in my baking.  My baked goods are tanking :(.  I thought it was my oven, and that may be part of it, but after a massive failure in Pioneer Woman's carrot cake, which everyone said worked really well, I researched and found out what my problem was.  I have to change recipes for high altitude.  This should not have come as a shock to me, but it did.  Anyway, I made a couple of changes to this recipe, very slight ones, and these were not hockey pucks, and they tasted great, and they didn't spread all over, all of which have happened to me since moving to Flagstaff ;).  Culinary Concoctions By Peabody's Eggnog Cream Cheese Muffins are moist, flavorful, and turned out really well.  Aaron, Noah and I gave them a 9, and Owen gave them an 8.  These were super delicious, and moist.  Because of the high altitude problem, I made the recipe into 24 muffins, rather than the 12 the recipe suggests.  The calories per muffin were 241.  As you can see from the picture, they still didn't rise correctly, but they did alright.  I need to mess with the leavening agents and liquid/dry ingredients some more to find the right proportion.  Here's what I did:

 

For Filling:

8 oz cream cheese, softened

1 t cinnamon

1/2 c sugar

1/4 c eggnog

2 T flour

For Muffins:

2 sticks butter, softened

1 c sugar

2 t vanilla

1/4 c eggnog

2 eggs

3/4 t baking powder

3/4 t baking soda

3/4 t cream of tartar

3/4 t cinnamon

2 1/4 c flour

1 c sour cream (I used mostly plain yogurt because I ran out of sour cream)

 

1/3 c sugar

1 T cinnamon

 

Line muffin tins with paper liners.  Mix together the cream cheese, cinnamon, sugar, eggnog, and flour.  Shape into a log and refrigerate.

Mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cream of tarter and cinnamon, and set aside.  Cream together the butter and sugar, then add the vanilla and eggnog and then the eggs one at a time, beating until incorporated.  Alternate adding in the flour and sour cream, beginning and ending with flour.  Place covered in the refrigerator for 30 minutes to chill. 

Preheat oven to 375.

Mix together the sugar and cinnamon, then roll the chilled muffin batter into balls and roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture.  After you have used up all the batter, cut little rounds of the cream cheese mixture and press into the muffins, then bake in the oven for 20-22 minutes.

 

I have changed the cooking temperature, and made the muffins smaller, both in an attempt to fix the high altitude problem.  I also used all cinnamon rather than nutmeg because I really don't like nutmeg very much :).  Try these, they are awesome!!! 



Braciole, Frozen Hot Chocolate, Snickerdoodle Truffles and Creme Brulee

We had lots of fun new food today, and we'll start with dinner. We had braciole from Anne Burrell, and this was a delicious meal.  I cut the recipe in half, except for the sauce, and we served it with pasta.  I cooked it in the crockpot, and so I'm not sure if that's why there wasn't quite enough flavor, or if it was the recipe, but I felt like the filling didn't have enough flavor.  We all gave this an 8, and the calories for one roll with lots of sauce are 451.  The sauce in this picture looks yellow/green and oily, but it was really yummy and not greasy.  Oh well.

Next we had the frozen hot chocolate we've planned on having a few days. This was a disappointment. It was too icy and not chocolatey enough. I gave it a 3, Aaron gave it a 5, Noah gave it an 8, and Owen gave it a 6.  I think we'll just have some cold chocolate milk next time and save the dirty dishes and work.  The calories were 167 for 1/4 of the recipe using skim milk.  Noah enjoyed it the most, as you can see from this cute picture :).

For dessert we had snickerdoodle creme brulee and it was divine.  Aaron only gave it a 6 because he said it was too rich, but man the rest of us really liked it.  Noah and I gave it a 9, and Owen gave it an 8.  The first picture is of the snickerdoodle cookie dough truffles, which you need for the creme brulee.  Owen and I gave them a 9, and Noah gave them a perfect 10.  The calories for 1 truffle, I made 28 of them, were 134/truffle.  The calories for the creme brulee, I made 8 of them with 1 truffle in the bottom of each dish, were 344/brulee.  Yum! 

Hope everyone has a great weekend, we're having a bread pudding tomorrow.

Butterscotch Brownie Banana Muffins

Happy 4th of July!!!  Hope you are all having a great day.  We're with family having fun and celebrating.  Here is where you can find today's recipe, Butterscotch Brownie Banana Muffins.  These are easy and delicious, and a great way to use left over brownies and bananas!  I love Peabody's site, she's funny and real and has great recipes every time. 

We gave these a 9, they are so moist and who doesn't love butterscotch and brownies for breakfast?  They are 187 calories/muffin because I changed the oil to sour cream, and I used chocolate yogurt instead of vanilla because that is what I had.  Tomorrow we're trying Crispy Coconut Chicken Fingers and Stuffed Zucchini.  Have a wonderful holiday!