Hungry Hungry Highness: October 2014

I've always loved anything banana flavored (even banana flavored Laffy Taffy... I know. It's everyone else's least favorite flavor). My husband is a huge chocolate fan, so I thought we'd find a recipe that includes both of our favorite flavors.

The best part of these muffins is they're made in one bowl. I whipped them up in less than 10 minutes before baking. One bowl recipes are the best because usually when I bake, I make a huge mess in the kitchen. This way, I only have to clean one bowl.

I modified this recipe from Fork Knife Swoon.

One Bowl Chocolate Banana Muffins

Yields 12 muffins

1 cup overly ripe bananas (about 2 medium-large bananas)
1 tsp vanilla
1 egg
1/2 cup veggie or canola oil
1/3 cup milk
2/3 cup sugar
1 tbsp brown sugar
2 tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 2/3 cups flour
1/3 cup mini chocolate chips (I didn't have mini, so I used regular)

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees fahrenheit. Line a muffin pan with 12 muffin liners.

2. In a large bowl, mash bananas (I used a potato masher). Add vanilla and egg. Stir well. Add oil and milk and stir well.

2. Add sugars and mix well, then add cocoa powder and stir well. The cocoa powder doesn't incorporate as easily, so you may have to do some extra stirring.

3. Add salt and baking soda. Mix well. Add flour and stir until just incorporated.

4. Add about half of the chocolate chips to the batter and reserve the rest. Scoop the muffin batter with a cookie scoop into the liners, about 3/4 full. Sprinkle the rest of the chocolate chips on top of the muffin batter.

5. Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until a cake tester or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

They're great warm or at room temperature!

Other recipes you may love:

Nutella Banana Bread

Happy baking!

I've made soft pretzels before. I've been wanting to bake something pumpkin-y that wasn't pumpkin bread, muffins, or cookies. I often feel like my most creative recipes are born at night right before I go to bed. See, this is when I have the most creative cravings-- right when I'm about to go to sleep and can't make them. Does this happen to anyone else?

Anyway, I usually ask Austin to write my recipes down in his phone so I won't forget about them. I thought of this one about two weeks ago. I had to do some recipe research, because I wanted to make sure these were good. Cinnamon can prevent yeast from rising, so I had to figure out exactly how much I could add so it would still rise, but have enough cinnamon flavor. Also, I don't like when soft pretzels are bagel-like. I don't want my soft pretzels to have rubbery texture!

These are dang good, y'all.

You can make the dough in a bread maker, using a stand mixer, or kneading by hand.

Cinnamon Sugar Pumpkin Soft Pretzels

Yields: 12 pretzels

Dough
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tbsp active dry yeast
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 cup pumpkin purée
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Soak
2 cups hot water
2 tsp baking soda

Topping
3 tbsp butter, melted
5 tbsp sugar
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Cream Cheese Dipping Sauce
3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tbsp milk
2 tsp vanilla

Directions:

Bread machine: Put all ingredients in the bread machine in the order prescribed by your instruction manual. Let it knead the dough and rise ONCE until doubled in size, then remove to shape.

Mixer or hand: Combine water, yeast, and brown sugar. Let the yeast active for about 5-10 minutes. Add the remaining dough ingredients and knead with a dough hook for 4 minutes or by hand for 6 minutes, or until it springs back when you gently press your thumb into the dough.

To shape: Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces and roll into a 18"-20" snake. Shape it as a pretzel. Watch this video for more information.

To soak: Combine the water and baking soda. Quickly dip each pretzel into the hot water and baking soda mixture for about 3 seconds, then place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or a silpat.

To bake: Preheat your oven to 450 degrees. Let your pretzels rise on top of the oven as it heats up, about 20 minutes. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes, or until the tops begin to turn golden.

To top: Brush the melted butter on the hot pretzels, then sprinkle with combined sugar/pumpkin pie spice mixture.

To make the dipping sauce: Beat all the ingredients together.