Tag Archives: banana

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns

❤ Happy Valentine’s Day! If you’re looking for holiday-appropriate treats, see here, here, here, and here. ❤

My only issue with today’s recipe is that I wish it were easier to photograph. I don’t hate these photos, but they just don’t do these Banana Pecan Sticky Buns any sort of justice.

But really, what prop or angle could? Banana Pecan Sticky Buns are everything that’s wonderful about banana bread rolled into cinnamon rolls, baked into a gooey pecan-studded butterscotch and, quite literally, flipped on their heads.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns I can wax on and on about the soft pastry (my favorite sweet roll dough!), the buttery cinnamon-sugar filling, the toasted pecans, and the slivers of overripe banana.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns I could really talk your ear off about the easiest butterscotch ever, flavored with dark brown sugar, honey, and vanilla, and topped with 1 1/2 cups of chopped toasted pecans.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns And I can show you all sorts of prep photos, from slicing the rolls…

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns to arranging them over the sticky butterscotch and pecans…

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns to an hour later, when they’re soft and puffy…

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns to when they’re golden and bubbly, fresh from the oven.

But none of that can do justice to the moment the pan is inverted to reveal a dozen warm Banana Pecan Sticky Buns dripping with butterscotch and clustered pecans.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns Or that moment when you take a bite and the combination of pastry, cinnamon, banana, pecan, and butterscotch is almost enough to make you cry. But not really.

(Although I’m not ruling out sticky bun-related spiritual experiences.)

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns I guess you’ll just have to make them for yourself. Then you’ll understand.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns
makes 12 rolls

Topping:
2 cups chopped pecans, divided
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into pieces
1 cup dark brown sugar, packed
2/3 cup whole milk
1/3 cup honey
pinch of Kosher or sea salt
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

Dough:
1 3/4-2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup bread flour
3 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 packet (2 1/4 teaspoons) instant yeast (I use Fleischmann’s Rapid Rise Yeast)
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
3/4 cup whole milk
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 large egg + 1 large egg yolk, beaten, room temperature

Filling:
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/2 cup toasted chopped pecans (reserved from the topping)
2 medium bananas, very ripe, thinly sliced

Preheat oven to 300F. Grease a 9×13 pan with butter. Set aside.

Make the topping. Place pecans on a dry baking sheet. Toast for 5-7 minutes, or until fragrant. Set aside 1/2 cup pecans for the filling.

Combine butter, dark brown sugar, whole milk, honey, and salt in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, stirring occasionally. Stir constantly while mixture boils for 3 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla. Pour mixture into prepared pan—it will seem thin. Tilt pan slightly to coat evenly. Scatter 1 1/2 cups chopped pecans evenly over the topping. Refrigerate full pan while you prepare the rolls.

Make the dough. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour, bread flour, sugar, instant yeast, and salt. Set aside. In a small saucepan, heat whole milk and butter until they reach 115F and are hot to the touch. Stir milk mixture into dry ingredients, followed by beaten egg and yolk. Stir in remaining flour in 2 tablespoon installments, just until a smooth, soft dough forms. Dough is ready when it pulls away from the sides of the bowl.

Knead dough on a floured surface for 5-6 minutes. Form into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let sit for 10 minutes at room temperature.

Make the filling. In a small bowl, mash together softened butter, dark brown sugar, and cinnamon.

On a floured surface, roll dough into an 8×14-inch rectangle. Leaving a 1/2-inch perimeter around the rectangle, spread cinnamon-sugar mixture over the dough. Scatter reserved 1/2 cup pecans and sliced bananas evenly over the top. Starting at the long edge furthest from you, roll the dough into a tight roll. Use a large, sharp chef’s knife to slice 12 even rolls.

Remove pan with topping from the refrigerator. Place rolls close together over the top of the pecans. Cover pan loosely with foil and allow rolls to rise for 60-90 minutes in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 375F. Uncover rolls and bake for 25-30 minutes, tenting with foil if anything begins to brown too quickly.

Let cooked rolls rest in the pan on a rack for 3 minutes. Run a small, thin knife around the edge of the pan. Place a large serving plate upside down on top of the pan. Wearing oven mitts, tightly grab the plate and the pan and flip them over, inverting the rolls onto the plate. Remove pan. Nudge any leftover topping onto the rolls and smooth to distribute evenly. Serve warm.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns are best the day they are made. Leftovers will keep covered in the refrigerator for a couple of days.

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns

Whole Grain Banana Muffins

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I planned to post this recipe a year ago. I can’t tell you why it didn’t happen–I had written the recipe and a whole post. All I had to do was take some photos and hit “publish,” but instead I just let the file get buried in the digital depths of my iPad, never to be seen again…

…until two weeks ago. I was searching for these Whole Grain Banana-Chocolate Chip Bars, but this recipe caught my eye instead. Long story short, I’ve made these Whole Grain Banana Muffins twice since rediscovering them, and let me tell you: they are freaking delicious. I mean, most banana baked goods are–mashed banana just has a way of making things wonderful–but these muffins have a little something extra.

It’s not some new product or anything. No, that’s not my style. There are no unusual ingredients in this recipe. Instead, its one little almost-no-effort step that makes these muffins truly spectacular:

Before you do anything else, spread the oats and walnuts out on a rimmed baking sheet and toast them in a 350F oven for 5-7 minutes.

Yep, that’s it. That one little step is the difference between good muffins and great ones.

Other than that, this recipe is exactly what you’d expect. Mix together some dry ingredients (whole wheat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and leaveners) and some wet ingredients (oil, eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk, and just 2/3 cup light brown sugar). Whisk it all together with exactly ten strokes of the bowl. Add the toasty oats and walnuts and use a silicone spatula (or wooden spoon) to fold everything together for another 10 strokes. Throw in some chocolate chips if you like, and fold for another five strokes.

Why do we need to count strokes of the batter? This keeps the gluten from over-developing and making the muffins tough. When the gluten in the flour meets the liquid ingredients, it’s activated, meaning it starts forming the bonds that give baked goods structure and texture. If we stir/fold too much, we’ll end up with tough, chewy muffins, and nobody wants that. For tender muffins, keep your mixing to a maximum of 25 strokes.

Divide the batter amongst about 16 prepared muffin cups and bake for 16-18 minutes. Then let them cool in the pans for about ten minutes before turning them out and digging in.

These Whole Grain Banana Muffins are much more than the sum of their parts, y’all. They’re soft, tender, not too sweet, and full of nutty whole grain goodness from the whole wheat flour and toasted oats. Oh, and of course there’s all sorts of good flavor from the mashed ripe bananas, toasted walnuts, and chocolate chips! That’s my kind of breakfast treat 💗

Whole Grain Banana Muffins
makes about 16 standard muffins

1 1/2 cup old-fashioned rolled oats
1 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
1 1/4 cup whole wheat flour (or white whole wheat flour)
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
2 large eggs, room temperature
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup neutral-flavored oil (I like canola)
3 large very ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 cup buttermilk*
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a standard muffin tin or line with cupcake liners. Set aside.

Toast the oats and walnuts. Place oats and walnuts (if using) on a rimmed baking sheet and spread to cover the surface. Toast in the oven for 5-7 minutes, or until fragrant. Do not burn. Place pan on a rack to cool a bit.

Make the muffin batter. In a small mixing bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk eggs until frothy (about 30-60 seconds). Whisk in light brown sugar, followed by oil, mashed bananas, and buttermilk. Add flour mixture and whisk 10 strokes. Add oats and nuts (which may still be warm) and use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to stir an additional 10 strokes. Add optional chocolate chips and fold an additional 5 strokes. Batter may have a few small lumps.

Place about 1/4 cup of batter in each muffin cup; they should be about 2/3 full. Place full pan in the oven and bake 16-18 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let muffins cool in the pan for ten minutes until removing to a rack to cool completely.

Bake any remaining batter, filling any unused muffin cups halfway with water to keep the pan from warping.

Muffins will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to five days.

Note:

If you do not have buttermilk, you may make your own. Place 1 teaspoon white or apple cider vinegar (or fresh lemon juice) in a liquid measuring cup. Pour milk up to the 1/2 cup mark. Let mixture sit for five minutes, until curdled. Proceed with recipe as written.

Whole Grain Banana-Chocolate Chip Bars

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One of these days, I’m going to get some sleep. I’ve been up before the sun for the last three days to do volunteer work, and in addition to my work schedule and attempt to have a social life, it’s made me into a little bit of a zombie (the good kind, who can’t put sentences together but has cookies).

They say that if you want something done, you should ask a busy person. In my experience, this is absolutely true. I do well when I have an extensive to-do list, but once I get on a roll, I have a hard time saying “no.” When you work 12-16 hours everyday, what’s the harm in adding an extra cake order or volunteering to do service at 6:30am, even though you haven’t gotten a full eight hours of sleep in a month? The days and weeks run together, and suddenly you can’t remember the last time you took a full day off.

I have reached this point, and with nothing that I have to do this weekend (yet), I am really hoping to spend Saturday and Sunday eating takeout and watching Netflix. Will this actually happen? Who knows. But it’s giving me something to dream about while I skitter around Brooklyn checking things off my to-do list.

When I am super busy, I have to find ways to keep my energy up without consuming too much caffeine. I stick to two large coffees per day–if I have more than that, it will be impossible for me to sleep at night. Instead, I try to eat a lot of nutrient-dense foods throughout the day. Lately, it’s been a lot of huge green smoothies and small, high-protein meals. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t been baking and eating treats–it’s my job, after all.

These Whole Grain Banana-Chocolate Chip Bars are my new favorite thing. They’re soft and chewy, like a combination between a blondie and a muffin, with a pronounced banana flavor and chocolate in every bite! And they’re just the slightest bit healthier than your average cookie. These bars are made with white whole wheat flour and old-fashioned oats, so they’re completely whole grain. I also cut the sugar in this recipe, but rest assured that they still taste like dessert!

Whole Grain Banana-Chocolate Chip Bars are a wonderful way to end the day (I highly recommend having one warm with vanilla ice cream), but they’re also great for tucking into school lunches or carrying with you for a snack while you’re on the go. Just because you’re super busy doesn’t mean you can’t take two minutes to treat yourself, right?!

Looking for more whole grain recipes? Check out these Whole Grain Cranberry-Orange Snack Bars and Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies!

Whole Grain Banana-Chocolate Chip Bars
makes one 9-inch pan, about 16 bars

1/2 cup white whole wheat flour (or regular whole wheat flour)
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup dark brown sugar, packed
1 very ripe medium banana, mashed
1 large egg yolk, room temperature
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup old-fashioned oats
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350F. Butter a 9-inch square pan, line it with parchment, and butter it again. Set aside.

In a small mixing bowl, whisk together white whole wheat flour, cinnamon, baking powder, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in dark brown sugar, followed by banana, egg yolk, and vanilla. Mix in flour mixture until completely combined. Beat in oats followed by chocolate chips.
Spread batter in prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out mostly clean. Place the full pan on a rack and let cool completely. Chill bars for 30-60 minutes before slicing.

Bars will keep covered at room temperature for up to five days.

Oat Crumble Banana Bread

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I almost didn’t share this recipe. Heck, I almost didn’t make this recipe.

Two weeks ago, I received an order for a hummingbird cake, so I went out and bought the necessary coconut, pecans, pineapple, and bananas. But things happen, and I had to cancel four days before the cake was scheduled for delivery; a friend of mine passed, and I was asked to cater the memorial. It was something to which I simply could not say “no.” So the bananas continued to brown, and the first half of the Fourth of July weekend was spent marathon-cooking with my friend, David, going to the service, and making sure all of the 100+ guests were fed.

I got home Saturday night and noticed the browning bananas on my way to bed, figuring I’d throw them in something the next day. Sunday, my friend Liz came over to make pie, and the bananas were neglected again. I went into work unexpectedly on the Fourth of July, so no baking happened that day.

When I went to pour my cold brew on Tuesday morning, I noticed the little bunch of bananas drooping off my baker’s rack, brown and visibly soft, seemingly minutes away from being inedible. And so I peeled and mashed all four and gently stirred them into banana bread batter. I poured it into a loaf pan with every intention of keeping it plain…but that’s not really my style. Classic banana bread is great, but I’m the kind of baker who loves to add cinnamon swirls, layers of cheesecake, or at the very least, a handful of chocolate chips anywhere I can. But it’s hard to add any of that stuff once the batter’s in the pan and the oven is making your kitchen a sauna. I was about to tap the pan on the counter and slide it into the oven, but then I paused, grabbed a half-stick of butter I had leftover in the fridge, a canister of oats, and some walnuts, and mixed up a quick crumble to sprinkle over the top before baking.

When I took the loaf out of the oven, I had no intention of posting the recipe. The oat crumble had huge, beautiful clusters, my whole apartment smelled of cinnamon and bananas, and I couldn’t wait to have a slice before heading to work, but who really needs another banana bread recipe? Once you have a good one, you make it over and over, forever-and-ever-amen. I already have a whole wheat version on here, and I wasn’t planning to add another anytime soon. Plus, I had a lemon cake on the docket. Again, I was not going to post this recipe.

But then, I ate a slice. And I followed it with a second one. All afternoon at work, I thought about the soft cinnamon-banana bread base and the crispy, crunchy combination of oats, toasted walnuts, and brown sugar in the crumble. It really is perfection in a mouthful. And so the lemon cake got pushed to next week, and here I am posting a second banana bread recipe.

And that, my friends, is the very long story of how this Oat Crumble Banana Bread recipe came to appear on this blog.

Oat Crumble Banana Bread
makes one 9×5″ loaf

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1/2 cup neutral-flavored oil (I like canola)
1 cup light brown sugar, packed
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/2 cup plain yogurt (nonfat is fine)
4 large ripe bananas, mashed

Oat Crumble:
1/2 cup old fashioned oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup light brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
2 tablespoons chopped walnuts (optional)
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, cold, cut into cubes

Preheat the oven to 350F. Grease a 9×5″ loaf pan and line it with parchment, leaving a little overhang on the long sides. Grease the parchment. Set aside.

In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. Set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together oil and brown sugar, followed by eggs, plain yogurt, and mashed bananas. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients. Use a silicone spatula or wooden spoon to stir the batter together in no more than 20 strokes. There may be some small bits of visible flour–this is fine.

Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan. Set aside while you prepare the oat crumble.

In a small mixing bowl, stir together oats, flour, cinnamon, light brown sugar, salt, and walnuts. Use a pastry blender (or two forks) to cut butter into dry ingredients until the largest pieces are the size of small peas. Use your fingers to scatter the crumble over the top of the banana bread batter. Tap the full pan on the counter five times before baking for 55-65 minutes, tenting with foil at the 30 minute mark. The banana bread is done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out with only a few moist crumbs.

Let the bread cool completely in the pan on a rack. Use the parchment overhang to lift the bread out of the pan onto a cutting board. Slice and serve.

Oat Crumble Banana Bread will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to ten days.

Banana Pudding Cookies

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Banana Pudding Cookies When I first started out as a New York nanny, I worked for a family that lived in East Harlem. I took care of their baby girl, whom I affectionately called “Zu” (a nickname which bears no likeness to her actual name), from the time she was nine months old to when she was two and a half. And, oh, we had so much fun together. We read a million books, danced to Mary Poppins on vinyl, and I introduced her to the Peanuts (because Snoopy rules). We blew bubbles in the backyard, gave fist-bumps and high-fives, wore silly hats, and made cakes.

Well, I made the cakes. She did a lot of stirring ☺️ The point is that it was the best job I’d ever had up to that point. From the time I arrived everyday to the time I left, we were two peas in a pod.

Banana Pudding Cookies But if you have children or have ever spent an extended period with anyone else’s children, you know that no matter how much fun you are having together, there comes a point where cabin fever sets in and you’d rather do anything than be in the house for two more minutes. When this happened, I’d put her in a baby carrier and we’d go find something to do. When it was nice, we’d go to the playground. When it was gross out, we’d go to Target and buy things I didn’t need. And sometimes, on very special occasions, we’d hop over to Evelyn’s Kitchen, a treasure of a bakery in East Harlem, for a treat to share.

Banana Pudding Cookies We always ordered the same thing, one Banana Pudding Pudgie. It’s a soft, chewy, white chocolate-studded cookie that tastes just like its namesake dessert. We’d go home and I’d cut it in quarters so she could grab them easily with her little fingers, and we’d enjoy it together before finding a new record to dance to. Those are some of my favorite memories ever. Just a simple little treat with my sweet, tiny friend.

When the time came for me to move on to a new family, I had no reason to frequent East Harlem or make trips to Evelyn’s Kitchen. This was a time when I was just getting into baking, and so I decided that I would figure out how to make Banana Pudding Pudgies at home. And it only took me fourteen months to get it right 😁😁😁 But I did, and for the last two years, whenever I get a hankering for a treat from Evelyn’s Kitchen, I save the subway fare I’d spend getting to and from East Harlem and make a batch of Banana Pudding Cookies instead.

Banana Pudding Cookies You guys, these cookies taste exactly like banana pudding. No, seriously. They literally taste exactly like the combination of vanilla pudding, bananas, vanilla wafers, and whipped cream that we grew up with. But they’re portable and much less messy 😊

There are a million pudding-based cookie recipes out there, but this one is different. It’s not made with instant pudding mix–I’ve found it makes these cookies dry and artificial-tasting. So, ditch the mix! Instead add the three main ingredients in instant mix (cornstarch, milk powder, and granulated sugar) individually, followed by a full tablespoon of vanilla extract to round everything out and give these cookies a classic pudding flavor. Combined with mashed ripe bananas and white chocolate chips, these cookies taste–and I can’t stress this enough–exactly like banana pudding.

My Banana Pudding Cookies are not as puffy as the cookies that inspired them, but they capture their flavor perfectly. Incredibly soft and chewy with strong banana and vanilla flavors, they’re the perfect cookies to make for cookouts or picnics, or anytime you are craving banana pudding. And if you have a sweet, tiny friend to share with, all the better.

Banana Pudding Cookies Looking for more banana pudding? Check out my No-Churn Banana Pudding Ice Cream!

Banana Pudding Cookies
makes about 4 dozen cookies

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/4 cup non-fat dry milk powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon Kosher or sea salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, room temperature
1 1/2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon pure vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups white chocolate chips

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, cornstarch, milk powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a separate large mixing bowl, use an electric mixer to beat butter until light and fluffy. Add light brown and granulated sugars and beat until combined. Mix in egg, followed by mashed banana and vanilla. Add dry ingredients in two installments, beating until combined. Mix in white chocolate chips.

Cover dough and chill in the refrigerator for at least two hours, or up to three days.

Preheat oven to 350F. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Scoop dough by the tablespoon and roll into balls. Place dough balls at least two inches apart on prepared pans. Bake 8-10 minutes, until the edges are starting to turn golden and the tops are no longer raw looking. Let cookies cool on the pans for ten minutes before removing to a rack to cool completely. Cool baking sheets to room temperature before baking any remaining dough.

Cookies will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.

Banana Pudding Cookies

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Tag Archives: banana

Banana Pecan Sticky Buns

Whole Grain Banana Muffins

Whole Grain Banana-Chocolate Chip Bars

Oat Crumble Banana Bread

Banana Pudding Cookies