Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Next Up---Uhh, Cookies! Peanut Butter Cookies With Oreos and a Good Banana Nut Bread Recipe

I know, you're thinking, "get over the Oreo kick already".  That's just how I work.  A few months back I did many variations of rice crispy treats, I get on different kicks, and right now, I'm using up the Oreos.  And, well, it's all good.

I whipped up one of Anna's (Cookie Madness) Late Summer Top 10 Cookies and with half the dough I added 10 broken up Peanut Butter Creme Oreos.  The other half, I baked as the good ol' One Bowl Criss-Cross Peanut Butter Cookies.  You can get the recipe on the link to Cookie Madness.  I made the recipe exactly as her recipe indicates.  These are a really good peanut butter cookie.  They were slightly crisp and still soft and a little chewy inside, even after one day.  I really liked that they weren't TOO sweet and the peanut butter was the star.  Too many recipes don't seem to have enough peanut butter.  These had twice as much peanut butter as butter.  I really liked them.  Oops, I guess I didn't make them exactly as the recipe says, it says to add 1/2 cup to 1 cup peanut butter chips, which I left out.  I thought they were great without, but it certainly couldn't hurt to put them in!  So here's a couple quick pictures of the criss-crosses and then the Oreos added cookies.  Which, by the way, I thought were pretty good.  I do have to say though, if you're going for peanut butter cookies, just make this great recipe plain and eat your Oreos with a glass of milk.  (I liked my previous post with the chocolate chip cookie dough and Oreos added better, in fact, it's really good!)

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Go getcha a glass of milk! ;)

I made those yesterday.  Today I had some really ripe bananas and instead of my usual mini muffins, I turned to an old favorite recipe for Banana Nut Bread that I got from a roommate long ago (Hi, Bonnie!).  Apparently I used to make this recipe a lot, as this is how the old card it's written on looks:

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I was all excited to make it just like I always did, until I realized it calls for shortening.  Shortening is just one of those things I'm trying not to use if I don't have to, so of course, I made a few changes to the recipe and it still turned out just as great and moist as ever.  So, here is the recipe as I made it today.

My Bonnie's Banana Nut Bread (She lives near the ocean!)

1 cup sugar (I probably could have cut some of this, but today I didn't)

1/3 cup Dannon Light & Fit Non Fat Vanilla Yogurt (any yogurt would work)

2 tablespoons canola oil

2 large eggs

2 tablespoons skim milk

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1 cup unbleached all purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

3 large bananas, mashed (Mine were only about medium size today)

2/3 cup walnuts, toasted and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream together the sugar, yogurt and oil.  Add eggs, milk and vanilla and mix well.  Add flours, baking soda, salt and baking powder all together and stir to combine.  Stir in mashed banana and nuts.  Pour into bread pan(s) sprayed with cooking spray.  (Today I made four small tin loaves and gave away three of them.)  The recipe could make one large loaf (9x5 pan).  The small loaves baked for 34 minutes.  One large loaf should bake for an hour.  Test after 50 minutes or so with a toothpick inserted in the center, it should come out clean with maybe a crumb or two.

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Love this banana bread!  Thanks, Bon!  Next time I'm going to go with Egg Beaters and maybe try using all whole wheat pastry flour.  Would it even be fine without any oil?  Probably, just increase the yogurt to 1/2 cup.

13 comments:

Jersey Girl Cooks said...

You are a baking machine! Love looking at all the goodies.

Clumbsy Cookie said...

I love those pb cookies! They are really good cookies! Next time I make them I'll have to try your oreo version. You know I love that kind of stuff! I don't mind your oreo kick! Why didn't you put oreos in the banana bread? Ahahaha! Oh, now that I think of it, that must be delicious! Lol!

Darius T. Williams said...

Um...healthier muffins totally means we can eat more!

-DTW
www.everydaycookin.blogspot.com

Anonymous said...

Hey, how do you think Oreos would work in banana bread?

Also, thanks for fixing your comment box section :)

Anonymous said...

Okay, now I see I asked the same question as Rita. Of course.

Lisa magicsprinkles said...

I love revisiting old recipes and remembering the special friends they represent. Thanks for sharing.

Sugar said...

I am cracking up that you love my recipe so much! I forgot I even shared it. Well, it was really my Mom's recipe so she should get the original credit. Who knows where she got it!
So yesterday I just made a batch of this bread and made tons of adjustments. I am actually NOT happy with my current results. I think the main problem was that for half of the flour I used whole wheat flour and I don't like the texture. When using whole wheat flour you should really add more liquid (since WW absorbs it) and I did not do that so my batch was not very moist. I'll have to try the WW pastry flour. Instead of the shortening I used applesauce and yogurt. I did use Eggbeaters and I don't notice a difference. I also used Silk instead of the milk and finally, I used Splenda instead of sugar. Woah!! Too many substitutions for me at one time. I am going to make another batch later this week and I'll let you know how it turns out. Hmmm, I'll have to share my new brownie fudge recipe with you. They are bittersweet and I'm a bit obsessed. Bonnie Wiseman (aka Meriweather or Sugar)

alexandra's kitchen said...

so much goodness! i need a good banana bread recipe. this looks nice and moist.

~~louise~~ said...

Hi Katrina,
Just dropped in to see what's cooking. Glad I did. My daughter has been looking for a banana bread recipe which includes yogurt. She's tried a few but just wasn't thrilled with the results. I'm going to pass on this recipe to her. My grandkids will thank you.

Thanks for sharing...

P.S. Ever tried a deep fried oreo?

test it comm said...

Peanut butter cookies are one of my favorites and I like the sound of adding oreos to them. The banana bread looks good!

Pamela said...

Everything looks good here. What about adding Nutter-Butters to the PB cookies? I've tried adding them to the plain dough in place of Oreos and they were pretty good. The Oreos still trumped them, though! The banana bread look really good.

alexandra's kitchen said...

i love your new slideshow featuring your family. it's new right? I haven't just been missing it all this time? it's precious

Tina said...

Ooooh... lots of yummy cookies! I have recipes that look like that too! I always say I am going to laminate my favorites, but I never do!