Iced Banana Cookies

Yummy note: I came across this recipe for Iced Banana Cookies this last month from one of my bloggers in the Secret Recipe Club. Oh boy, was it a hit, these banana cookies were almost classified as breakfast-on-the-go for my youngest kid. They were fantastic and will most definitely be making them again soon. This recipe came from Julie over at the Texan New Yorker blog. Her iced banana cookies were very moist, cake-like and flavorful, and such a nice way to use up those brown bananas! They tasted almost like banana muffin tops, perhaps more than a cookie, either way they were super delicious and the kids couldn't stop eating them. 

Iced Banana Cookies 

Original recipe here

Ingredients: 
1/2 cup butter or non-dairy spread, softened
2 1/2 cups flour, divided
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 tsp cloves
1 tsp vanilla extract
4 ripe bananas, mashed
*optional handful of chocolate chips

Glaze: 
2 1/4 cups powdered sugar, divided
up to 3 tbsp water
1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions: 
Beat the butter or non-dairy alternative for about 30 seconds, until it begins to cream. Add in 1 cup of the flour, sugar, eggs, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and vanilla to the mixing bowl. Mix well and then add in the remaining 1 1/2 cups of flour. Finally, add in the mashed bananas to the mixture and mix well. Using a cookie dough scooper, drop dough on a prepared baking sheet with either a silpat or parchment paper. Bake in a preheated oven at 375 degrees for about 9 minutes. Next, mix up the glaze, by adding the powdered sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl and begin to mix in a few teaspoons of water at a time. Begin to mix together until a thick glaze forms. If you accidentally add to much water, just add in a little bit of powdered sugar to thicken it back up. When the cookies are done, let them cool for a few minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack. Frost banana cookies with glaze and enjoy!

Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Yummy note: I looked into my freezer the other night and gasped... omg, I ran out of my frozen cookie dough balls! How can that be, it looked so bare, cold and empty, oh so sad. :(  They are like my secret little addiction, I will take out a frozen cookie ball and eat it like that or pop it into the microwave for a few seconds and par-bake it before devouring it before anyone notices. lol. Shh...mommy needs a treat at night too. So, I needed to change that empty cookie dough container immediately.  Luckily for me, I had just been doing some reading up for my Secret Recipe Club assignment and Julie from The Texan New Yorker had plenty of good stuff to choose from that might just fit. Cookies were on my brain that's for sure, so I had noted a few... I do love my sweet potatoes... never made those before- Sweet Potato Chocolate Chip Cookies, or wait a minute, Duck Fat Cookies - woah, looks awesome to try, but not sure where I'd find the duck fat, but it would be a refrigerator style of cookie that would hold up to the freezer. Then I saw these, Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies; it had been awhile since I've made cookies with butter. Yes, butter is a like an evil word around here, since my youngest is allergic to dairy, it is a treat when I use it. So why not, I'll just keep these tucked away in the freezer for myself to enjoy ;-)  

Brown Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies 

http://www.texannewyorker.com/2013/08/07/brown-butter-chocolate-chunk-cookies/

Ingredients:

1 cup (2 sticks) plus 1 tbsp unsalted butter (make sure you have atleast 1 stick at room temperature)

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp molasses

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 large egg yolk

2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks/chips

Directions: 

Julie notes a great tutorial here to view if you've never browned butter before. That is the first step of making these cookies. Place 9 tablespoons of butter in a stainless steel pan or skillet and heat over medium heat. Melt butter. Once the butter completely melts, it will froth, bubble and begin to crackle. It starts to begin to smell delicious, too, haha. At this point, keep a close watch and make sure it doesn't start to burn or blacken. This is basically the water being cooked out of the butter, as then it begins to brown. This happens very quick, it can go from golden to brown in minutes, so be careful. 

Once the butter has browned, remove from the heat and pour into a different container to cool. Make sure to scrape all of the brown butter bits at the bottom of the pan out too. Next, cream the remaining 8 tablespoons of room temperature butter with the granulated sugar. Cream for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Add in the vanilla extract and molasses. Next add in the cooled brown butter and brown sugar. Cream until well mixed and add in the egg and the egg yolk. In a separate bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking soda. Once eggs have been mixed in, then add in your flour mixture to the batter and mix until just incorporated. Stir in the chocolate chips or chunks by hand. Cover the bowl and chill for about 30 minutes. 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Once dough has chilled, scoop cookie dough using a tablespoon scoop and bake on a silpat or parchment-lines baking sheet. Bake cookies for about 12 minutes or until lightly browned on the outside. The inside will still be slightly soft in the center when the timer goes off, so make sure to let cookies rest on the pan for 5 minutes before removing them to cool.  

Brown the butter first, then mix up the rest of the cookie dough. 

At first, I wasn't sure if these cookies were going to make it out of the oven. The dough itself was nibbled on quite a bit. I loved the caramel-almost nutty flavor tones in these cookies. 

The cookies were slightly crispy on the outside, and yummy gooey inside. 

Golden brown butter chocolate chip cookies, looking pretty perfect. 

All ready for the freezer to keep my cookie dough stash nicely stocked!

Oh, and I felt a little guilty for enjoying these delicious Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies all by myself, so I had to make some other cookies to share with the kids. I made some of Julie's Iced Banana Cookies as well. They were so moist, cake-like and flavorful, and such a nice way to use up those brown bananas! They tasted almost like banana muffin tops, more than a cookie, and they were super delicious and the kids couldn't stop eating them. I will post that recipe later this week as well, as I don't want to loose that recipe! :) Thanks again to the Texan New Yorker for these scrumptious recipes I got to try this month for the Secret Recipe Club!

An InLinkz Link-up

Margherita Bagel Pizzas

Yummy note:  I've really appreciated tomatoes more this summer than ever before probably. Our garden produced some larger varieties this year and they were much tastier for eating than some of my smaller Roma tomato varieties in the past. I do enjoy my Roma tomato variety for the sauces I make, or the cherry ones for salads, but the big boy variety is more fun to eat in big ole slices. Mm, slightly warmed cheese covered tomatoes is a small lunch perfect enough for me. My kids, they like their bread, just like me, haha, and we really love to make quick bagel pizzas. I make a wide variety of bagel pizzas -- a dairy-free variety for my youngest, then typically my daughter likes a meat-free cheese only pizza, and then my husband and I usually like more meat and toppings on ours. Then came along this simple margherita pizza, one night when I ran out of tomato/pizza sauce and they really wanted bagel pizzas. It is just the right amount of flavor to enjoy a simple, yet delicious pizza! 

Margherita Bagel Pizzas 

Ingredients:
4 bagels, halved (can use regular sized or mini bagels)
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, sliced or shredded mozzarella 
2 large ripe tomatoes, sliced
4 basil leaves, sliced 
Few tablespoons olive oil for drizzling 

Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Place the bagel halves on the baking sheet. Drizzle with some olive oil and place a slice of tomato on each bagel slice. Top with fresh basil and mozzarella.  Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until the cheese is melted and golden brown. Serve immediately and enjoy! 

Enjoying my wonderful tomato crop this summer by making fresh bagel pizzas!  

Layer up the tomato, basil and mozarella! 

After about 2 weeks of enjoying these little guys, I realized one of my pint canning jar lid rings was the same size about as a bagel. It made for a fantastic cheese ring funnel thing, lol. Not sure the name I'm looking for, but it was handy to contain the cheese when sprinkling it on my bagels. 

Golden brown cheese covers this nice warm tomato. 

Yumyum.