Thursday, September 03, 2009

Banana Snickerdoodles and Chocolate Banana Brownies

I saw these cookies on Cathy's blog, Noble Pig and HAD to make them.  They combine one of my favorite things--banana with one of Kevin's favorite cookies, Snickerdoodles!  Kevin does not like a snickerdoodle that is crunchy or turns hard after one day.  These are the answer to that problem.  Add banana!  It's a subtle flavor, but they taste great.  I served them at a church potluck and they disappeared quickly.

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Banana Snickerdoodles, from Cathy at Noble Pig, adapted from Going Beserk

3 cups all purpose flour

1 tablespoon cream of tartar

1  1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup shortening (192 grams)

1  1/2 cups granulated sugar, plus more for rolling cookies

2 large eggs

1 ripe banana (I used 2 small--about 1/2 cup banana)

ground cinnamon

In a medium bowl, sift flour, cream of tartar, baking soda and salt.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar, about 2 minutes.  Add eggs and banana.  Mix together.  Add dry ingredients and mix just until combined.

Once the dough is mixed it will be very wet.  Use a tablespoon or tablespoon-sized cookie scoop to drop balls of dough into the cinnamon-sugar.  (about 1/2 cup sugar to 1 teaspoon cinnamon).  The dough becomes very easy to work with once it's dipped in the cinnamon-sugar mixture.  Roll into balls and bake on parchment lined baking sheets at 400 degrees for 9 minutes (9 was too much to me--7 was perfect!--Katrina)  Cool cookies on wire rack.  Store in an airtight container and they will stay soft for several days.  (Ours did not last that long to find out!)

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You can smell them now, can't you?

And normally I would post something I just BARELY saw on someone else's blog quite so soon, but these went well with the banana theme here today and they are fabulous brownies!  Check them out over at Cookie Madness.  She got the recipe from Gloria who won third place at the Minnesota State Fair for these brownies.  They are SO fudgy (not light and cakey as you would expect from banana!).  Again, the banana flavor is very subtle, but make these brownies have that "hmm, what's in there?" taste and quality.  If you love brownies, you NEED to try these.  One of the keys to a great, fudgy brownie is letting them cool completely AND chilling them in the refrigerator before cutting.  LOVED these!

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Hello, Fudgy, Yummy Brownies!  Ooh, ooh, ooh.   (That's supposed to sound like a monkey, get it--banana brownies, monkeys.....eh, sigh.  Okay, I'm a little weird, but you still should try these brownies!)

Gloria’s Minnesota State Fair Chocolate-Banana Brownies, adapted by Gloria from a recipe of Anna's at Cookie Madness

5 oz semi sweet chocolate (or a little less that 1 cup chips) (I used Hershey's semi-sweet chips)
1 oz bittersweet chocolate (or 3 tablespoons chips) (I used Ghirardelli 72% cacao chips)
6 tablespoons salted butter (I used unsalted and added some salt as Anna suggested)
1 cup packed light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 t vanilla (optional) – Gloria leaves it out, anna added ½ tsp
1/2 of a small banana-well mashed
3/4 cup sifted flour (3 ounces)
1 T unsweetened natural cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon salt (if using unsalted butter, add an extra pinch)
1/2 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup lightly toasted chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Spray cooking spray on bottom only of an 8 inch metal pan. Gloria noted that for the fair, she used non-stick foil to line the pan. (I used the non-stick foil for ease of removing the brownies from the pan.)

Mix flour, cocoa, and salt together and set aside.

Combine sugar, eggs, and banana in a separate bowl-stir until combined. I did this with a fork.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium low heat, then reduced heat to low and add 5 oz and 1 oz of chocolates. Cook and stir over low until smooth. Cool 5 minutes.

Add chocolate to sugar egg/banana mixture-stir until combined.

Stir in dry ingredients until just combined.

Fold in that last 1/2 cup chips and nuts. Bake 35-40 min, check at 35 (Anna’s note: I baked a full 45 min And I only baked mine for 35--so start checking with toothpick at 30 minutes!--Katrina)

Cool completely before cutting. Anna’s note: I like to chill before cutting.  (I second that motion!--Katrina)

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*whispers---You're gonna like these!

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And now, I will from time to time post random pictures from our trip to see my brother and his family in Indiana last month.  Monica sent me a CD with all the pictures she took from her camera and darn-there's some good ones and I have to say between my brother and I, we have some CUTE kids (mine are cuter, of course. hehe)

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This is so sad, Sam got to/had to go to Holiday World with us and we dragged him around to do all kinds of fun things all day.  I know, you're feeling really, really sad for him, especially after seeing this picture.  Let's all play the world's smallest violin for him. 

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Okay, really, Sam didn't get to have nearly as much fun as the bigger kids and he really was a trooper all day!

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He did have some fun in the water that day!

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I will feature a different kid on different posts. 

15 comments:

Baking Ribbons said...

Hi Katrina! This is Gloria, the "someday in the future" State Fair blue ribbon winner for brownies! You take excellent pictures of food and kids! I just want to mention my recipe came from tweaking one of Anna's on Cookie Madness-I can't take all the credit! Also my mom gave me the idea to use bananas. She secretly added them to a lot of things and I never knew until about 2 years ago...They are my favorite brownies now! Those snickerdoodles look delicious..
-Gloria

Eliana said...

even though I'm not a huge fan of banana, I'm super intrigued by this recipe and will have to give it a try some day soon.

Megan said...

I wish I could whip up a batch of those - they look so good! Well, anything with chocolate sounds good right now.

Love the pics of Sam - he's just too cute.

Anonymous said...

Both the cookies and the brownies sound delicious. Love banana.

Baking Ribbons said...

Do you think butter could substitute for shortening if you omit the salt in the banana snickerdoodles? Also, do you think the recipe would work as bars instead of cookies?

Katrina said...

Gloria, that is the one thing I didn't like about the recipe--shortening, although I know that many good snickerdoodle recipes use shortening. I've also seen some with half butter and half shortening. Might be worth it to try half a recipe using all butter and see how it comes out.
I always use unsalted butter, but if you use salted, I would omit the salt. I recently made a snickerdoodle bar that I'd seen floating around the blog world. While they looks fab on other's blogs, mine were kind of dry--I may have just overbaked them--and the banana would help with the dryness. Another good idea to try making bars. You may be on to something--go for it. ;)

♥peachkins♥ said...

Those chocolate banana brownie are to die for...

Unknown said...

OMG! I'm trying both of these out!! Thanks soo much!! They both look delicious!

noble pig said...

I know they stay so soft! I love them ...love them. Thanks for posting them!

Carla said...

Banana snickerdoodles? Really?? So next time I don't feel like making banana bread for the millionth time, I'll try these out. Or the brownies. Mmm brownies.

Clumbsy Cookie said...

Hello bananamadness! I'm loooooooooooving those fudgy brownies! Tell me Katrina, how come you haven't made a banana ice cream? Or have you and I missed it?

Jennifer said...

BANANA snickerdoodles?! and chocolate and banana brownies? Oh you have won over my heart! What a lovely creation! Yum!

Deborah said...

Banana snickerdoodles??? I have GOT to try these!

Emily said...

Wow. These brownies look incredible. They look like they slice really neatly.

I want to try them. I want to try the peanut butter streusel brownies also.

Stacey said...

Holy cow girl...you look great! How the heck do you all stay so skinny with all those delicious looking recipes? Are you still getting up at 4:30 am to go running?