Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (eggless)

Our new pooch

Oh man, it's been awhile since my last post. I haven't really been cooking that much new stuff recently... been focused a little bit more on other big life changes. We adopted a dog! With that big change - I'm sure you will see some homemade doggie treats in an upcoming blog post or two - if you have a good recipe, feel free to send it my way! Would love to test it out.

With that said, I had bought some bananas that I didn't end up eating and decided it was time to tackle the banana bread again... dun dun DUN! As always, I never have any eggs in my house - no one eats them so why buy them! It also means that I'm always cooking without eggs or making some neat substitues. This recipe is delicious. No jokes. It is good. It is fantastic. It turned a non-banana bread eater into a banana bread lover.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread (eggless with oatmeal)
1 loaf

Ingredients:

• 3 ripe bananas - medium size
• 1/4 cup of melted butter
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 1/3 cup of white AP flour
• 1/4 cup of whole wheat flour
• 1/3 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt
• 1 tablespoon sour cream
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• Chocolate chips - as many as you want, I used around 1/4 of a 12oz bag

Steps:

1. Preheat your oven to 400degreesF
2. Plop your bananas into a bowl and mash them up really well. 
3. Add in the remaining ingredients and mixed it all together.
4. Grease your loaf pan with a little cooking spray - I also usually line the pan with tin foil and spray that too, it makes it easier to get the loaf out of the pan. 
5. Turn down the heat on the oven to 350degreesF
6. Pour in the mix and bake for 50 minutes. The mix will NOT fill up the pan, BUT the bread will rise a little so don't worry! 
7. After around 45 to 50 min, do the toothpick test - if it comes out clean take out the loaf and let it rest for 20 minutes before removing from the pan. 
8. Enjoy!

Eggless Apple Oatmeal Muffins and Eggless Chocolate Chip Muffins

Happy New Year Folks! I know I haven't blogged that much over the past few weeks but honestly, I didn't really do that much cooking (or least cook anything noteworthy or new.) Now that we're back in the swing of a normal schedule, I got the baking itch last night and attempted a few recipes for muffins. I'm on the hunt for a tasty and not-too-bad-for-you morning muffin. These two are a good start - Eggless Apple Oatmeal Muffins and Eggless Chocolate Chip Muffins.

The Apple muffins aren't the prettiest muffins in the world but they do do the trick and fill you up! Like my "Batter Finger" scraper in the background! Hee hee.

These recipes are eggless since I was bringing them to work and someone in my office doesn't eat eggs, BUT you can sub in eggs! I'll note in the ingredients where you can swap in an egg if you prefer.

Sweet muffin cups eh? Pirate Flags!

EGGLESS APPLE OATMEAL MUFFINS
Adapted from Kathy Can Cook's Chai-Spiced Muffins
Makes 20 - 24 muffins (you can half the recipe as well - I was bringing them to work so I made double)

Ingredients:
3 medium sized apples (I usually bake with Cortlands but I used Fuji in this and they tasted fine), skinned and chopped into 1/4 inch sized bites
2 cups flour - whole wheat is preferable
1 cup rolled oats (not the quick cooking kind)
2/3 cup oil - canola or vegetable
1 tsp corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup water (or 1 egg)
1 tablespoon sour cream
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla
1 tablespoon honey (add more if you like it sweeter)
1/4 sugar and a little on the side to sprinkle on the top
2 tsp baking soda
1/3 cup milk (add a little more if it's too dry)

Steps:
Preheat your oven to 350degrees
Prep your muffin tin with muffin cups - I used a medium sized tin which makes the allotted amount
Chop your apples!
In a bowl, mix together the wet ingredients (oil, milk, honey, vanilla, cornstarch mixture) and mix in the spices, baking soda, sugar, oats and flour. The consistency should be more thick than you normally make muffins with - these babies don't rise much.
Add in the apples. As the original recipe states - the dough should be mostly apples! - I had to use my hands to get an even mixture.
Plop the dough into the muffin cups - about 2/3rds of the way up in the cup. Sprinkle a little sugar on the top of each muffin for a little sweetness in the first bite :-)
Bake for around 20 minutes - check to see if they are done by using a toothpick down the middle of one of the muffins and if it comes out clean they are done!
Let them cool for about 5 minutes before serving. They are also very tasty cool - and in the morning.

Chocolate Chip Muffins

EGGLESS CHOCOLATE CHIP MUFFINS
Recipe adapted from Mark Bittman Muffins, Infinite Ways Recipe
Makes 12 medium sized muffins

Ingredients:
6 tablespoons butter - softened
2 cups flour - whole wheat
3/4 cup sugar
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 tsp cornstarch mixed with 1/2 cup water (or 2 eggs)
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
Cooking spray for the muffin tin
1/3 of a 12oz bag of chocolate chips (I wouldn't over do it otherwise it will mess with the consistency of the muffin)

Steps:
Preheat oven to 400degrees
Prep your muffin tin - but putting in the muffin cups and I also sprayed them to ensure the muffin comes out of the cup. Nobody likes a sticky muffin :-)
Cream the sugar and butter together
Add in the vanilla and mix again
Add in the baking powder and salt
In a separate bowl, mix together the milk and cornstarch/water together. (If you're using eggs, feel free to add them directly into the bowl with the butter and sugar.) Mix into butter and sugar bowl. DO NOT OVER MIX! Once you add the cornstarch mixture, there will be a little foaming, mix this a bit but the foaming (I think) added to the fluffyness of the muffin so you don't want to loose that.
Add in the flour and mix maybe 12 times so it's incorporated but do not over mix.
Add in the chocolate chips so they are incorporated as well - maybe 4 mixes.
Fill the cups evenly and top with a little sprinkle of sugar to give a little extra sweetness!
Baked for 20-25 minutes - check around 20 minutes with a toothpick down the middle of one of the muffins, if it comes out clean they are done!
Let them cool for around 5 minutes before indulging.

YAY! Happy Eating!

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

I'm not vegan, but I am lazy. We didn't have any eggs so I resorted to google and found out that 1 egg equals 1 tsp of corn starch mixed with 1/4 cup water. SCORE! So... eggless chocolate chip cookies! I also know that chocolate chip cookies are very tasty if you add in a little bit of creamy dairy - sour cream or plain yogurt, neither of which I had in the house because I hate sour cream and plain yogart is not so pleasant either. I do know that plain goat cheese has the same effect so... there ya go! I ALWAYS have goat cheese in the house.

I am going to make a claim that this is the best tasting chocolate chip cookie dough I have ever made. Ever.

Eggless Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 1½ sticks butter (salted), at room temperature
• 2 tsp corn starch mixed with 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 tsp Pumpkin pie spice (nutmeg and cinnamon)
• 2 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 oz of plain goat cheese (Trader Joes makes single serving medallions - I used two of those)
• 2½ cups whole wheat flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 bag of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 350degrees F
2. Mix the sugars, butter, corn starch mixture, pumpkin pie spice, vanilla and goat cheese together so it's nice and creamy.
3. Mix in the dry ingredients
4. Taste to ensure you don't need to add any more salt or sugar to balance the sweetness.
5. Scoop on to parchment paper lined cookie sheets and bake for 12-15 minutes. (Revision - I made larger scoops of dough - about 1.5 inches in diameter)
6. Let them sit and cool a bit before serving.