Monday, November 29, 2010

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip Cookies

I had some leftover pumpkin after I made pumpkin rolls for Thanksgiving, and my mind instantly went to this recipe. I went to my blog to find it and couldn't believe I didn't have it on here yet. Jadi made these for me a couple of years ago and I've been in love with them ever since. These cookies are moist, soft, and cake-like, and the combination of pumpkin, cinnamon, and chocolate is so good. I'm just glad there's more leftover pumpkin in the fridge.

1 cup canned pumpkin
1 cup white sugar
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I always use butter in my baking, so this would be 1 stick of butter)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp milk
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

Combine pumpkin, sugar, vegetable oil (or butter), vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, ground cinnamon, and salt. Dissolve the baking soda with the milk and stir in. Add flour mixture to the pumpkin mixture and mix well. Stir in chocolate chips.
Drop by spoonful on greased cookie sheet and bake at 350 for approximately 10 minutes or until golden brown and firm. (I only baked these for a little over 8 minutes.)

Seriously, these are fabulous. Thanks for yet another wonderful recipe, Jadi!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread


I don't make banana bread that often, but I always love it when I do. I found this recipe on Cooks.com and it looks like it was published submitted by the company Reynolds. The only thing I didn't like about it was that the bottom was overdone. I didn't line the pan with parchment paper like the recipe suggests, and maybe that would have made a difference. I guess I'll have to make more and find out!

Reynolds parchment paper
2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon each ground nutmeg and salt
2 medium (1 cup) ripe bananas, mashed
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil (I used melted butter)
1/4 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup chopped nuts (I omitted these)
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with Reynolds parchment paper, extending paper up sides of pan; set aside. (Again, I just greased the pan.)

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt on a sheet of parchment paper (I just used a bowl); set aside. In a large bowl combine bananas, eggs, oil, milk, and vanilla extract. Add dry ingredients to banana mixture; stir just until moistened. Stir in nuts and chocolate chips; pour into pan.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool 10 minutes in pan. Use edges or parchment to lift bread from pan onto a wire rack. Pull back edges of parchment. Cool completely (or eat warm like I do!).

I bet these would make yummy muffins, and maybe that would also solve the burnt bottom issue.
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Update:

These made delicious muffins, and they had no burnt bottoms. I baked them for somewhere between 10 and 20 minutes, and the recipe made about 16 or so muffins.