Banana Spice Cookies

I needed a new recipe to use for my ripe bananas. I found this one on allrecipes.com. It said to use a frosting that was a buttercream frosting, but I thought it would be better with brown butter frosting. They called for walnuts, but I'm not a big fan and didn't have any anyways, so I omitted them. I also added some nutmeg as well. They aren't the real cookie texture, more like a pumpkin cookie. Quinn said they were squishy.

Banana Spice Cookies

1/2 cup butter
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
3 ripe bananas, mashed
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds. Add one cup of the flour, the sugar, eggs, baking powder, vanilla, cinnamon, soda, and cloves. Beat until thoroughly combined.

Stir in the remaining flour. Beat in bananas and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons 2 inches apart onto a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are lightly browned. Can also check if they are done by touching the middle of a cookie, and if it bounces back, it's done. Cool cookies on a rack, then frost.

Brown Butter Frosting

1/4 cup Butter
2 1/2 cups Powdered Sugar
1 tsp Vanilla
3 Tbls Milk

Melt butter and cook until a gold brown. Add powdered sugar, vanilla and enough milk to make a good consistency.

Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake

Mom made this cake a few years back for Melanie's birthday. I thought it was so wonderful, so I made sure she sent me the recipe. It's a Paula Dean recipe. Since she's never posted it, I told her I would do it for her.

I have been craving it for quite sometime, so when I had the chance to make it for the Relief Society birthday dinner, I jumped at it. If I had the whole cake in my house, I would be sure to eat the whole thing and then lick the plate as well, so I was happy to share and only have a few slices to myself.

Simply Delicious Strawberry Cake

Makes 1 (9-inch) cake

1 (18.25-ounce) box white cake mix
1 (3-ounce) box strawberry flavored instant gelatin
1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
4 large eggs
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup water

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting (recipe follows)

Garnish: sliced fresh strawberries

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease 2 round 9-inch cake pans. (For the cake to come out easier, line the bottom with parchment paper after you have greased it.)
In a large bowl, combine cake mix and gelatin. Add pureed strawberries, eggs, oil, and water; beat at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour into prepared pans, and bake for 20 minutes, or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Let cool in pans for 10 minutes. Remove from pans, and cool completely on wire racks. Spread Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting in between layers and on top and sides of cake. Garnish with sliced fresh strawberries, if desired.

Strawberry Cream Cheese Frosting
Makes about 4 cups

1/4 cup butter, softened
1 (8-ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 (10-ounce) package frozen strawberries in syrup, thawed and pureed
1/2 teaspoon strawberry extract
7 cups confectioners' sugar

In a large bowl, beat butter and cream cheese at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in 1/4 cup strawberry puree, reserving remaining for another use. Beat in extract. Gradually add confectioners' sugar, beating until smooth.
Note: For pinker frosting, add 2 to 3 drops of red food coloring to frosting.

Raspberry Honey Butter

One of my friend loves my rolls, aka Grammie's rolls. She's told several people about them (which embarrasses me) and asks me to bring them along to get together dinners. She wanted me to do a roll making demonstration, so she got some women together and I did the demo. (Makes me feel self conscious and silly, but I'm glad to pass Grammie's roll making onto others.) The lady's house we did it at had as this fabulous raspberry honey butter and gave us the recipe and each a little container of it. I think it's to die for and will want it with my rolls forever more!

Raspberry Honey Butter

1 cube Softened Butter
1/2 cup Honey
1 tsp Vanilla
1/2 cup Raspberry Preserves (without seeds)

Whip butter until fluffy. Add honey and vanilla. Beat in raspberry preserves last (or else you end up with it separating). Now eat with some yummy, warm, homemade rolls. (Although I've even put it on homemade french bread as well. It's good on anything.) :)

If You Like Granola....

then this recipe from a friend of mine is for you (the notes in the recipe are from her). This granola is worth the extra effort and much better than granola you buy in the store. It has great flavor and a nice texture. I left some of the sunflower seeds out the batch I'm making right now just to see if I like less. I plugged this into the Weight Watchers website and it's comparable to all other granola, about 5 pts a serving.

This is a big recipe and each time I've made it, I've cut it in half. Half of the recipe makes two cookie sheets of granola. It will fill a gallon size Ziploc bag to give you an idea on how much 1/2 of this recipe will make. Look at this goodness~


Granola

8 c. rolled oats
1 c. wheat flour
1/2 c. flax seeds
1 c. pumpkin seeds
1 c. sunflower seeds
1 1/2 c. coconut
1 c. chopped or sliced almonds
1 c. other nuts (I used cashews)
1 c. nonfat dry milk
(I also used a bit of milled flax...at first because I couldn't find the whole seed but then I found some so I used both--probably about 1/4 c. for a 1/2 batch...I never measured)

Mix all of the above dry ingredients in a large bowl and set aside.
Mix the following in a blender or food processor:

1 c. vegetable oil
1 c. brown sugar
1 c. honey
1/2 c. molasses
1 c. water
1 1/2 t. vanilla
1 T. salt
2 t. cinnamon

Pour mixture over dry ingredients and stir until everything is evenly distributed.
Spread evenly over 4 cookie sheets (I line mine w/parchment...much less messy) and bake at 225 degrees for 1 hr. 15 min., stirring every 20 min. or so. Cool completely. Store in airtight container.

**If you have a Winco near or another store with a bulk section, this is actually a cheap granola to make. Not sure how much more it would be if you couldn't get the items bulk.

**Marion and I made this last Friday and found that cooking it for an hour is perfect for 'chewier' granola. If you like it dry and crunchier, 1hr + 30/40 minutes is about the time you'd go for. I've made it both ways and I definitely prefer the chewier as a snack alone and the crunchier added to yogurt.