Right now I’m in New Jersey visiting my family. Despite the fact that my sister-in-law Cora had a baby just six weeks ago, she has still been caught cooking us delicious food. Yesterday she made four loaves of banana bread, which (unsurprisingly) are already gone! Cora has been kind enough to share her sour cream banana bread recipe with us today. Everyone say thank you, Cora! {Thank you, Cora!}

Cora’s recipe is wonderful and tastes like butter. The day it is baked, the top is wonderfully crispy, while the bread itself is soft and moist. And as happy as I am to now have Cora’s great recipe, I’m even more happy about the fact that Cora and my brother Christian shared the greatest tip ever for eating banana bread.

You know how when you make banana bread or brownies or whatever that has a crispy top and it goes soft over night? WELL…Cora and Christian always toast their slices of banana bread and then slather the slices with butter. The top gets crispy again, the edges are awesome, and the bread stays soft and delicious. And then, of course, melted butter. It’s basically the greatest and I may never eat banana bread any other way again. These toasty slices of heaven might be even better than fresh-from-the-oven banana bread. Crazy talk, I know, but true.

Enjoy! BonANA Appétit!

Cora's Sour Cream Banana Bread Recipe

 

Print

Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

45 mins

Total time

1 hour 5 mins

 

From my wonderful sister-in-law Cora, who is an excellent cook!

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Baking

Serves: 2 loaves

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup butter
• 1⅓ cup sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla or coconut extract (either are delicious!)
• 1½ cup mashed bananas
• 2¾ cup flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ½ c sour cream

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350º F.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy.
3. Add vanilla or coconut extract then add eggs, beating well after each egg.
4. Add mashed bananas and mix well.
5. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a separate bowl.
6. Beating on low, add ⅓ of the dry ingredients until just combined. Add ¼ cup of the sour cream, beat on low until just combined. Repeat with ⅓ of the dry ingredients, then the rest of the sour cream, then finishing with the last ⅓ of the dry ingredients, making sure to mix until just combined with each addition.
7. Pour into 2 greased loaf pans and bake for 40-45 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.

3.4.3177

You know how last week I told you to buy a baker’s blade? Well, I have something else you need to go buy. Luckily it’s another inexpensive item so it shouldn’t be too painful!

When I was making Anna’s birthday cake last month, I bought a set of nesting round cookie cutters so I could make the marzipan pepperoni and onions. I can’t tell you how much I love this little set of cutters! Since I made Anna’s cake just a month ago I’ve used these cutters several times, for a few cookie recipes as well as a Christmas tree ornament craft we made for Cate’s birthday party. I’m thinking they’ll come in handy for biscuits as well.

I love this cooke cutter set because there are 6 different sized circles and the cutters are double sided, with a smooth and a scalloped edge.

I bought mine at Michaels, but you can buy the set on Amazon as well. And you should, Right now! (That’s Bossy Jane talking. Sorry.)

If you bake at all (cookies, bread, whatever), then today’s post is for you.

Last month I bought my very first baker’s blade. I’m not entirely sure why I didn’t owen one until now. I think I just never thought about it until I was smack dab in the middle of making a recipe and couldn’t just pop off to the store to go shopping. Anyway, I went to Michaels (my least favorite store in the history of the world) about 3,148 times this past December. About the only good that came out of that torture was that I happened to grab a Wilton baker’s blade on one of those trips.

I love my new baker’s blade! Seriously, it’s awesome. It comes in super handy when making bread and cookies and other stuff, too. For example, it even came in handy when I was forming marzipan veggies for Anna’s birthday cake. The baker’s blade is perfect for scraping your floured surface clean, cutting dough up, moving stuff around, whatever. The baking world is your oyster if you’ve got a baker’s blade at the ready.

So, if you’re like me and haven’t ever happened to buy one, hop to it! Amazon sells the one I bought and love, which means you can buy it NOW and don’t have to torture yourself with a visit to Michaels. You’re welcome.

The giveaway in this post is now closed, but keep reading to find out about some really cute Christmas dishes and to get the shortbread recipe!

This post is sponsored by Q Squared NYC. As always, all opinions are 100% my own, including the opinion that these cookies are awesome.

I am so happy it’s the holiday season! Well, I mean, now I am, after my annual early-December freak out last night over the stress that this month brings (my busiest work month, two birthdays and Christmas all wrapped up into one not-so-calm package). But now, with the freak out officially behind me, I am ready to dive into present wrapping and cookie baking!

I started the whole holiday baking shebang with these chocolate-dipped peppermint shortbread cookies. I’m a sucker for shortbread. No, really, I kind of can’t control myself around the stuff. I decided to give my favorite shortbread recipe a holiday twist by incorporating chocolate and peppermint. The twist worked beautifully. And now there are about 30 ridiculously-adorable and delicious cookies taunting me in my kitchen.

These cookies are peppermint perfection. Even though there is peppermint in every element of the cookie, the peppermint flavor is not overpowering. The shortbread, which has just a hint of peppermint, is then dipped in high-quality dark chocolate, also sporting that peppermint hint. Top it all off with crunchy peppermint pieces and you’ve got yourself a COOKIE, filled with flavors and textures that work together oh so nicely. And they look crazy cute!

In addition to these lovely cookies, I have some lovely dishes to share with you today, too! You all know how much I love Q Squared. Well, I love them even more now that their holiday dishes are out! When I put in my order for the Winter’s Eve collection, I knew the dishes would be cute but I was not prepared for how much I would love them once I saw the dishes in person. Serious love, people.

Today we are giving away a complete set of the Winter’s Eve collection from Q Squared! One randomly-selected winner will receive 1 large platter, 1 serving bowl, 6 dinner plates, 6 tapas plates and 1 coaster set. To enter, please do the following by midnight PT on Tuesday December 9, 2014 (prize must be shipped to a US address):

• Leave a comment on this post! Easy Peasy!
• Bonus entry: Like me on Instagram! (You need to leave a separate comment telling us you liked! If you previously liked, it still counts but be sure to leave the extra comment!)
• Bonus entry: Like Q Squared on Instagram! (You need to leave a separate comment telling us you liked! If you previously liked, it still counts but be sure to leave the extra comment!)
• Bonus entry: Like This Week for Dinner on Facebook! (You need to leave a separate comment telling us you liked! If you previously liked, it still counts but be sure to leave the extra comment!)
• Bonus entry: Like Q Squared on Facebook! (You need to leave a separate comment telling us you liked! If you previously liked, it still counts but be sure to leave the extra comment!)

Good luck with the giveaway – I wish you could all win!

And now for the recipe!

Chocolate-Dipped Peppermint Shortbread

 

Print

Delicious chocolate-dipped shortbread with just the right amount of peppermint.

Author: Jane Maynard

Recipe type: Dessert

Serves: 25-30

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 2¼ cup all-purpose flour
• Pinch kosher salt
• ¾ teaspoon peppermint extract, divided into ½ and ¼ teaspoons
• 1 cup high-quality semi-sweet or dark chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil
• ¼ cup broken peppermint pieces

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
2. Cream butter, brown sugar and ½ teaspoon peppermint extract together on medium-high speed in a stand mixer for about 3 minutes with the paddle attachment. Scrape down bowl.
3. Add 1½ cups of the flour and a pinch of salt. Beat with paddle attachment on medium speed until fully incorporated.
4. Set aside the paddle attachment and switch to the dough hook.
5. Add the rest of the flour (3/4 cup) and mix on medium-low speed with the dough hook, kneading the dough in the mixer for about 5 minutes, scraping down bowl as needed.
6. Roll dough out on a floured surface to about ½-inch thick. Using a ~2-inch sized cookie cutter, cut cookies and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Prick the tops of the cookies with a fork.
7. Form leftover dough into a ball and roll back out to ½-inch thick and repeat process until you've cut all the dough into cookies.
8. Bake for 15-25 minutes, until bottoms of cookies are light golden brown. (The time will vary depending on how thick you actually rolled out the dough. The thinner the cookie, the less cook time.)
9. When cookies have cooled completely, in a small microwave-safe bowl cook chocolate chips and coconut oil on high for 1 minute. Remove from microwave and stir well until all chocolate has melted.
10. Add ¼ teaspoon peppermint extract and stir well.
11. Dip each cookie partially into the chocolate then set on a cooling rack to let chocolate harden. Sprinkle with peppermint pieces immediately after dipping cookie.
12. Place cookies in fridge to harden the chocolate, around 30-60 minutes. When the cookies return to room temperature, the chocolate will soften a smidge. The chocolate will be hard enough so that the cookies will be pretty and stackable (for packaging and giving!) but just soft enough that it's easy to bite through when eating the cookie. Store extras in the fridge.
13. You will have extra melted chocolate. I like to have extra so it's easier for dipping. Just pour it over a bowl of ice cream or spread it on a silicone baking mat, sprinkle with peppermint pieces and put in the fridge for a quick peppermint bark. You need to put that chocolate to use!

3.2.2807

I have never used flour and sugar storage bins. I know, crazy confession from a food blogger! I have always kept my brown sugar in a tupperware so that I can store it with a piece of bread to keep the sugar soft, but I haven’t ever put regular sugar and flour into storage containers. I’m basically too lazy and just keep the flour and sugar in whatever paper bags they happen to come in!

Well, now that I’m cooking with the kids more regularly, I find it’s really hard for them to measure out flour and sugar when it’s in the bags. We were at the Crate and Barrel outlet last weekend (we found a $1600 dresser in perfect condition for $500 – score of the century!). I happened to spot these adorable bins and decided to take the plunge into organized flour and sugar storage.

I’m glad I did! My baking drawer looks a lot tidier now and I like that the container closes all the way, you know, to keep out the bugs. (I found weevil in the flour when I was a kid and may never get over that experience. TRAUMA.) So far so good and it’s definitely easier to measure from these containers. Also, the containers I bought are so cute, I’m tempted to keep them on the countertop. I probably won’t, but I’m thinking about it.

So, do you store your flour and sugar in special containers? Or do you just keep them in the original packaging? I’m curious about what you all do and if more of you are like the Old Jane or the New Jane. If you do use storage containers, please share your favorites!

Remember my pretty blueberries from last week’s menu post? I’m finally sharing the recipe for what I used them in! It’s a family recipe, complete with a newspaper clipping from the 80s. Total awesomeness.

The recipe is for whole wheat blueberry muffins. They are soooo good and completely addictive, which isn’t too terrible since the muffins use all whole wheat flour and are filled with healthy blueberries. (Sugar? What sugar?)

It may be a family recipe, but it’s not actually from my family. A few years ago my friend Anna had made some delicious blueberry muffins, of which I ate an embarrassing amount. I started gushing about the muffins and she told me how her mom had a won a contest with the recipe when Anna was a kid. Their family even ended up getting their photo in the local newspaper with a short article about her mom and the recipe. Anna is awesome and of course had a scan of the article and happily shared it with me, knowing full well I would publish her adorable 7-year-old face on my blog. I am such a sucker for recipes from old newspapers or handwritten on recipe cards. They just make me happy, especially when they are as delicious as this one.

So, we all owe Anna’s mom Pamela Worthen a great big thank you for this recipe. Thank you, Pamela!

(>> Find out more…)

Hi, my name is Jane and I am addicted to bread. Of all kinds. Especially buttery bread with garlic.

Sunday night I made a simple dinner of pasta with sausage and crudite. I decided I needed to make a little something special to add to our boring simple fare. So, here’s the deal, if a restaurant has garlic knots on the menu, I am ALL IN. Surprisingly, I have never tried to make them at home. I know. SHOCKING. Until now, that is. Sunday was the day!

I used a breadstick recipe from the Food Network as my starting point and the garlic knots came out AWESOME. Against all odds. No, seriously. There were a lot of odds. First, I decided to half the recipe, but didn’t halve the amount of water, so ended up having to add in ingredients after it had already been kneading for a little while and I wasn’t entirely sure how much flour was already in there. Then I let the garlic knots rise for WAY TOO LONG. Just more poor planning on my part. Lastly, I pulled a ridiculously rookie baking mistake…I put both pans in the oven at the same time. The top rack of garlic knots were browning on top but doughy on the bottom, and the bottom rack of garlic knots were totally white on top. I snagged the pan on the top rack, threw it in my toaster oven and hoped for the best. Amazingly, BOTH trays of garlic knots cooked perfectly.

It’s like the garlic knot gods were intervening for me. Thank you, garlic knot gods. I owe ya one.

Garlic Knots

 

Print

Based on a breadstick recipe from The Food Network

Author: Jane Maynard

Ingredients

• 1 package active dry yeast + ¼ cup warm water
• 4¼ cups flour
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon fine salt
• 1¼ cup + 2 tablespoons warm water
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1-2 garlic cloves, pushed through a garlic press
• pinch of dried oregano

Instructions

1. Place ¼ cup warm water in the bowl of a mixer. Sprinkle in the yeast and let sit for about five minutes, until foamy. Add the flour, 2 tablespoons softened butter, sugar, fine salt and warm water. Mix with paddle attachment until a slightly sticky dough forms, 5 minutes.
2. Food Network instructions: Knead by hand on a floured surface until very smooth and soft, 3 minutes. Jane instruction: Put your dough hook on the mixer and knead for 3-5 minutes, adding a bit of flour to the bowl. (I like to let the mixer do the work for me!)
3. Dump dough out onto floured surface and form a round ball. Cut ball into four pieces. Make each piece a nice round ball and then cut each of those into four pieces, leaving you with 16 uniformly-sized balls of dough. Roll each piece out like a snake, about 9-12 inches long. Tie into a knot and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat, about 2 inches apart. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise until almost doubled, 45 minutes.
4. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix melted butter, salt, garlic and oregano together. Brush over the top of the rolls, making sure you get a lot of the good stuff right in the middle of the knot. Bake until golden, about 15 minutes. When you take them out of the oven, brush with 1 more tablespoon of melted butter just for extra butteriness.
5. Makes 16 garlic knots.
6. We reheated the leftovers the next day in our toaster oven at 325 degrees for about 8 minutes, wrapped in foil. I uncovered the knots with about 3 minutes left and they were perfect!

3.3.3070

Hey everybody. I’ve been a little MIA this week. Cate has Spring Break so we’ve been partying! The state of my house can attest to this. Anyway, life took priority over cooking and blogging, which is the way it’s supposed to be, right?

In my never-ending quest to find perfect chocolate chip cookie recipes, I discovered a serious gem of a recipe this week. My blogging friend Alice was claiming to have the best chocolate chip cookie recipe EVER. Of course I had to test out the claim. She might be right. For reals. These cookies are unbelievably good and are the exact texture I love in a cookie. You can find Alice’s original recipe here. When I make the recipe I do make a few tweaks, which I included below. Make these cookies this weekend. (Yes, I’m getting bossy again. Sometime I have to.)

Alice's Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies

 

Print

This is the only chocolate chip cookie recipe you need.

Author: Alice Currah with a few notes and tweaks from me

Ingredients

• 1 cup salted butter, softened to room temperature
• ½ cup sugar
• 1½ cups packed brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon smallish-mediumish coarse sea salt (Jane notes: I reduced the salt amount a bit, Alice’s amount was really tasty, but I think a little less offers a bit more subtlety, but you still get the salty punch from the larger crystals; Also, when I am out of sea salt I use kosher salt with good results, but the sea salt texture does make them more special)
• - 1 teaspoon baking soda
• - 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• - 2¾ cup all-purpose flour
• - 2¾ cups semi-sweet chocolate chips (Jane note: I increased the amount of chocolate chips)

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. (Jane note: I decreased the temperature a bit from Alice’s suggestion based on my oven and how the cookies were cooking.)
2. Cream butter and both sugars for 3-5 minutes at medium to medium-high speed, until very light in color. Scrape down the bowl and add eggs and vanilla. Beat for 2-3 more minutes. Add all dry ingredients (except chocolate) and mix until just mixed. Pour in chocolate chips and mix until evenly distributed.
3. Form cookie balls about 2 tablespoons in size (I used my medium scoop) and place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or a Silpat. Bake for about 15 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and tops are starting to brown a bit.
4. Remove from oven. Jane note: when you take the pan out of the oven, drop it straight down, flat onto the counter to force the cookies to suddenly settle. This makes for good texture and a handsome-looking cookie. Let cool on the cookie sheet for a few minutes, then slide the parchment paper/Silpat to a non-pourous surface to complete cooling.
5. Recipe makes about 3 dozen cookies.

3.4.3177

Happy Valentine’s Day! You know I couldn’t let this day go buy without a little chocolate, right?

Before we get to the chocolate, though, I have a question. Why has no one ever told me how great cake pans with super square edges are? My sister Anne’s 8×8-inch baking pan has those super right-angled edges. Cate’s giraffe birthday cake this year was cut from an 8-inch square cake. I borrowed Anne’s cake pan knowing the squared-off edges would work better for cutting the pieces for the cake. Well, the pan worked fabulously for the cake…and then, last week, I used it for brownies and loved it! I had to return the pan, but you can bet your bottom dollar I will be buying one of my own, in the 8″x8″ and 9″x13″ sizes!

On to the chocolate. I tried Ruth Reichl’s “A Better Brownie” recipe last week. Awesome recipe, people. Nate, who does not have a sweet tooth, said to me that night, “Jane, these brownies are dangerous.” If you’ve got Nate jonesing for a dessert item, you know it’s good. They are super chocolatey and moist but still light in weight and texture. Such a great combination of qualities that you rarely find in a brownie. (PS…Ruth has lots of “How To Make a Better XXX” recipes on the Gilt Taste website. Definitely a good read!)

I’m putting the recipe here because in the past when I’ve simply linked to recipes, I’ve run the risk of the links disappearing for various reasons and forever losing recipes I love. Not that Ruth Reichl is going anywhere anytime soon…but who knows what those pesky links will do! I didn’t change anything about the recipe and I have absolutely nothing to add. Except that the recipe works beautifully as written.

Ruth Reichl's "A Better Brownie"

 

Print

Author: From Ruth Reichl on Gilt Taste (link is no longer live, glad I kept the recipe!)

Ingredients

• ⅔ cup (5 ounces) unsalted high-fat butter (like European or European-style butters)
• 5 ounces unsweetened excellent chocolate
• 2 cups sugar
• 2 teaspoons best-quality vanilla extract
• 4 farm fresh organic eggs (Jane note: my eggs were not farm fresh, everything was fine!)
• ½ teaspoon sea salt
• 1 cup all-purpose white flour, sifted (Jane note: I just now realized I forgot to sift the flour - whoops!)

Instructions

1. Butter a 9x9 square pan and line the bottom with parchment paper. Butter the bottom again and lightly dust the pan with cocoa powder.
2. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
3. Melt the chocolate and the butter in a small saucepan over low heat, stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth and glossy. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
4. Beat the eggs and salt in a stand mixer. Add the sugar and beat on high for about 10 minutes, until the mixture has turned quite white. Add the chocolate mixture to the eggs, beating on low until just mixed.
5. Gently stir in the flour until it just disappears.
6. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, place in the middle of the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 350 degrees. Bake for 40 minutes; the brownies will be quite fudgy and a toothpick should come out not quite clean. Cool on a rack.
7. Invert the pan, remove the parchment paper and invert again onto a cutting surface. Cut into squares.

3.2.2310

So, the baby shower I told you about this week? When I said that I ate myself silly at that party, I wasn’t kidding. And we’re not going to talk about it. But I will at least admit to eating more than one of the crescent rolls.

Okay, so I make darn good crescent rolls. Our family can eat several dozen in a matter of, well, day…that is not a typo, I literally mean one day. Anyway, the rolls are amazing, but they aren’t that great when they’re cold. I always have to heat them up a bit before eating the leftovers.

Well, my friend Emily made crescent rolls for the baby shower that were cold and still amazingly delicious! When I called to ask her for the recipe, she said the same thing…this recipe is great because the rolls are actually still tasty when they’re NOT hot out of the oven! I made them today…and they were delish as expected!

The other fun bonus to this recipe is you can freeze the rolls prior to baking. I am so excited to have two dozen homemade rolls waiting in the freezer for another day!

Quick note: The batch that Emily made were a little denser and better…I think I might have let my rolls rise a little too long, so I would suggest maybe not letting them rise too long, so not quite double in size.

Mom's White Roll Recipe, aka Crescent Rolls That Are Still Yummy Cold

 

Print

Emily Deans is my friend and this is her mother-in-law's recipe.

Author: Emily Deans' mother-in-law

Ingredients

• 2 tablespoons active dry yeast
• ⅓ cup very warm water
• 9 cups flour
• 2 cups warm milk
• 1 cup butter, melted in the milk
• 1 cup sugar
• 6 large eggs
• 2 teaspoons salt
• softened butter for middle and tops

Instructions

1. Dissolve yeast in very warm water.
2. Add warmed milk mixed with melted butter to a large bowl (I made the dough in my KitchenAid stand mixer, so the large bowl was my KitchenAid bowl). Add 4 cups of the flour to the milk-butter.
3. Whisk together eggs, sugar and salt. Add to the flour-milk mixture along with the yeast and mix well. Add the last 5 cups of flour. Mix, adding additional flour if needed until dough pulls away from side of bowl, but dough is still sticky. Attach the dough hook and knead in the mixer until dough is elastic.
4. Place dough into a greased bowl and let rise until doubled, about 1½ hours.
5. Divide dough into four parts. Roll each piece out into a 12-in circle and spread with butter. Using a pizza cutter or knife, cut the circle into 12 triangles (or 16 if you want smaller rolls). Roll pieces into crescents.
6. Choose your own adventure time...
7. If you want your rolls now, place on an ungreased cookie sheet and let rise until not double (remember my note from before? I let them double in size and it was too long, so don't let them rise that long, but long enough...I know, helpful). Bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes, then brush the tops with melted butter.
8. If you want to freeze the rolls for later, place the rolled up triangles close together on a greased cookie sheet then freeze. Place frozen rolls in a Ziploc bag. When you are ready to cook the rolls, take out of the freezer, place the rolls on an ungreased cookie sheet and let sit 3-4 hours, then bake at 375 for 12-15 minutes, then brush the tops with melted butter.

3.2.2310