Hey guys – I hope you are all keeping as well as you can during this surreal time! It’s Kaelin here back with a new guest post. One way I’ve been keeping busy and distracting myself through all of this had been by baking. I’ve always enjoyed baking but as you can imagine, the usual busy NYC lifestyle never left much time for me to do so. I think a lot of us are on the same page actually because I’ve noticed many other people I follow online have been using the new extra time to do the same. An influx of banana bread pics have been gracing Instagram to see the least haha! So with the weekend approaching again I thought it might be fun and helpful to share 4 recipes to try. Some of these recipes I’ve tried and tested and the others I plan to attempt myself this weekend so maybe you can try them too. Happy baking :)
CHOCOLATE CHIP & WALNUT BANANA BREAD
I’ve been making banana bread at least once a week since this all started so be warned it’s very addictive. I base my recipe on this one by Donal Skehan and just made a few adjustments for my personal preference. Here it is below:
What You’ll Need
- 4 ripe bananas, mashed
- 50g butter
- 40g brown sugar
- 40g honey
- 2 eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 185g whole wheat pastry flour, or all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 40g chocolate chips
- 40g Walnuts
How To Make
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 9×5 inch bread pan.
- In a large mixing bowl, stir together the mashed bananas, honey, eggs, and vanilla until combined.
- Add the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt, mix until just combined. Fold in the chocolate chips and walnuts.
- Pour the batter into the prepared bread pan. Bake for 60 minutes, or until center is just set. Remove and let cool for at least 30 minutes before cutting…or just eat it warm with a smear of butter and a drizzle of honey (you should do this!). Enjoy!
CHOCOLATE CHIP (& HAZELNUT) COOKIES
This is a recipe I’ve tried twice and am still yet to get perfect but I’m determined haha! It’s a recipe from The Anna Edit which loads of you recommended to try on Instagram. Here it is exactly from her post:
What You’ll Need
- 225g unsalted butter
- 200g light brown muscovado sugar
- 100g golden caster sugar
- 2 medium eggs
- 180g cake flour (if you don’t have this, plain flour will do!)
- 180g self-raising flour
- 1 tsp cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 350g milk chocolate (chopped)
- 100g roasted hazelnuts (chopped)
How To Make
- 1 Preheat the oven to 200℃
- 2 Mix the butter and sugar until fully combined, either in a stand-mixer, or with a hand mixer.
- 3 Mix in one egg at a time into the mixture.
- 4 Add in the flour, cornstarch, salt and bicarbonate of soda and mix until just combined – try not to over mix here.
- 5 Then add in the milk chocolate and the hazelnuts and again mix until just combined.
- 6 Spoon the mixture out onto a plate into 10 mounds (don’t compact them down!) and put in the freezer for 30 minutes.
- 7 Remove and cook on a baking tray for 10 minutes (they might need more, they might need less), until the tops are light golden. If you prefer your cookies to be firmer and crispier then put your oven down to 180℃ and cook for 14 minutes (again keep an eye on them and adjust the cooking time to your personal taste).
- 8 Allow to cool and firm up on the baking tray for at least 20 minutes, if not longer. 9 ENJOY!
CHOCOLATE BROWNIES
I am dying to make these. I found the recipe on The Natural Born Feeder by Rozanna Purcell and it looks so good. Here is it:
What You’ll Need
- 200g peanut butter smooth
- 4 tbsp.(60ml) maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp. baking powder
- 4 tbsp. cacao powder
- 1.1/2 ripe bananas
- pinch sea salt
- 1 tsp. vanilla essence
- 2 tbsp. coconut cream (1 full can coconut milk refrigerated – it will separate into hard white cream and water/milk- use 2 tbsp. of the hard white cream)
- 35g dark chocolate- vegan/dark -your preference
- 2 tbsp. peanut butter smooth
- 1 tbsp. coconut oil room temp. (so slightly softened)
- 50g chopped roasted peanuts
How To Make
- In a medium sized mixing bowl, add the peanut butter, maple, baking powder, cacao powder, salt and essence. Stir to combine into a smooth batter.
- In a separated bowl, mash the bananas using a fork into a thick puree (don’t blend or whisk them).
- Add the bananas into the bowl and combine well.
- Pour into a lined brownie tin (I used 4″x6″).
- Bake in the oven for 25 minutes.
- Remove and let cool before drizzling over the ganache.
- To make the chocolate ganache, start by melting the chocolate. Then, stir in the coconut cream until it becomes a thick sauce and place to one side.
- For the peanut ganache, combine the peanut butter and the coconut oil into a smooth thick sauce with no separation.
- Once the brownies have cooled dollop over the peanut and chocolate ganache in sections. Using a skewer, swirl the two into each other (don’t overdo it) and sprinkle over the peanuts.
- Place into the fridge for the ganache to set.
- Enjoy! Keep stored in the fridge for up to 4 days.
OREO CHEESECAKE
And last but not least oreo cheesecake. I’m actually hoping to make this tonight and I’m so excited. I absolutely love cheesecake but I’ve never made one so I’m not sure how it will go but fingers crossed. I just googled a recipe and have decided to use this one – all details below:
What You’ll Need
- 1 1/2 cups Oreo cookie crumbs (about 23 Oreos, finely chopped)
- 2 tablespoons butter melted, plus more for the pan
- 24 ounces cream cheese 3 (8 ounce) packages
- 1 cup sugar
- 5 large eggs, at room temperature
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 (8-ounce) container sour cream, at room temperature
- 6 Oreo cookies for the batter
- 9 Oreo cookies for the top of the cheesecake
- 1 cup of butter
Oreo Crust Instructions
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Crust Mix melted butter with Oreo crumbs and press in a 9-inch spring pan cover the bottom and 1 1/2″ up the sides with crumbs, set aside. Note, you do not remove the filling of the cookies when you make crumbs out of them. Leave the filling in the cookies when you crush them.
Oreo Cheesecake Instructions
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All Ingredients need to be at room temperature before beginning. Beat cream cheese until light and fluffy (You can add the 1 cup of butter as listed as an optional ingredient). Keep mixer on a low setting during the mixing and beating process.
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Add sugar gradually and continue beating cream cheese until mixed through. Add eggs one at a time and continue to beat until blended. Measure the vanilla, salt, and flour, pour into the cream cheese and egg mixture and beat until smooth.
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Add the sour cream and beat well. Turn off the mixer and stir in the six coarsely chopped Oreo cookies with a spoon. Pour cream cheese into the spring form pan and place the 8 coarsely chopped Oreo Cookies on top of the cream mixture.
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Place pan on the top rack and in the middle of a preheated oven at 325 degrees and bake for one hour. The Cheesecake will be done when it jiggles slightly in the middle when the pan is gently shaken. If the cheesecake is very jiggly, then cook for an additional 15 minutes.
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Turn the oven off.
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When time is up prop the oven door open and let the cheesecake stay in the oven for one hour. The oven should be turned off at this point.
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Remove from oven and let cool enough to place in the refrigerator for 24 hours. It is worth the anticipation. A cheesecake should season. The flavor ripens and becomes enriched. Yield: 16 servings
And thats all I have for you guys – 4 delicious recipes to try. I’ve been sure to link the pages to all these recipes so definitely check them out too for more details – some even have videos too which are so helpful. If you do make any of these I would LOVE to see how they turn out so please DM me and keep an eye on my IG stories to see how I get on too :)
Stay home & stay safe and have a great weekend,
Kaelin x
Sara
2 April
That banana bread does sound fab!! Or rather all the recipes. Might just see if I can talk my sister into making it :)
Stay safe and take care!
Elizabeth Walker
3 April
This article makes my mouth watering a lot!
Gata Collins
3 April
They are definitely must-try recipes!
white faucet
6 April
Omg this is is ymmie!