Banana Peanut Butter Cookies

Simple to make, chewy and delicious, these banana peanut butter cookies are perfect with a glass of cold milk or a cup of hot tea. They'd be great for breakfast too! 

I give the actual recipe I used for the cookies in my photos but I have made these many times. What I discovered is that no banana is exactly the same weight you need. 

Based on the original ingredients for one batch of 16, here are the instructions to personalize the recipe according to the weight of your bananas. You need a kitchen scale. 

Simply peel your very ripe bananas and weigh them in grams. Divide the number of grams by 75. Now times that result by 160. That is how many grams of peanut butter you need for your weight of bananas. Times that banana number by 31 to figure out how much flour you need. Easy! 

Banana Peanut Butter Cookies

I tried this recipe with natural peanut butter without sugar and even with a very ripe banana, the cookies just weren’t sweet enough. Use your favorite peanut butter that does have sugar added. I like Jif.

Ingredients for 16 cookies

1/3 cup or 75g very ripe banana

1/2 cup, rounded, or 160g smooth peanut butter (with sugar)

1/4 cup or 31g flour

Powdered sugar for pressing with fork

Sugar for sprinkling, if desired.

Method

Preheat your oven to 350° or 180°C and line a baking pan with a silicone liner or baking parchment. 

In a mixing bowl, whisk the ripe banana until smooth. 

Add in the peanut butter and flour and mix thoroughly. 

Use tablespoon to apportion into cookies. 

Roll into balls.

Dip the tines of your fork into powdered sugar and press down in a cross pattern. 

Sprinkle with more sugar for decoration, if desired.

Bake in your preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. 

Remove the cookies from the oven and leave to cool. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. 

Enjoy!

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are celebrating National Tea Day. Many thanks to our host, Camilla of Culinary Cam who encouraged us to share our favorite recipes that use tea as an ingredient or anything you would serve at a tea party. Check out the links below. 

• Banana Peanut Butter Cookies by Food Lust People Love
• Caramel Apple Tea Rub for Pork by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Chamomile Spring Veggie Chowder by Culinary Cam
• Veggie Mini Vol-au-Vents by Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Double Apricot Jam Muffins #MuffinMonday

These are called double apricot jam muffins because they have jam in the batter and a filling of jam as well. Full of flavor, with a tender crumb!

If you were reading this space last week, you know that I made a single jar of apricot jam from dried apricots. I was very pleased with how it turned out, using it as a glaze for my cheater pain aux raisin so I decided it would be a good idea to employ it in muffins as well. 

I brought some over to my neighbor and she was delighted, as were we. The muffins are sweet but not too sweet and the little spoon of jam in the middle is a nice surprise.

Double Apricot Jam Muffins

This recipe makes about 8 muffins when using silicone muffins cups. Your output may vary if your muffin cups are larger or smaller. No buttermilk? Add 1 1/2 teaspoons of lemon juice or white vinegar to your measuring cup then pour in the milk up to the 1/2 cup or 120ml line.  

Ingredients

1 1/4 cups or 156g flour

1/4 cup or 50g sugar

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup or 120ml buttermilk

1 egg

1/4 cup or 60ml canola or other light oil

1/2 cup or 140g apricot jam, divided

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare your muffin pan by greasing it with oil or butter or lining it with paper muffin cups. Or use silicone liners. Mine came from Crate & Barrel and were a gift from my daughter. I love them! 

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. 

In a smaller mixing bowl whisk the egg, buttermilk, oil and half of the apricot jam together. 

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredient bowl. Fold to combine. Do not over mix.

Put about 1 1/2 -2 tablespoons or a scoop of the batter in each muffin cup. 

Divide the reserved apricot jam between the muffins. 

Top with the remaining batter, divided between the muffins. 

Bake the muffins in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden and a wooden skewer comes out clean. 

Remove from the pan or silicone liners after they’ve cooled a few minutes and put them on a wire rack to cool completely before storing in an airtight container. 

Enjoy!

It's the last Monday in this short month of February so it's time for Muffin Monday! Check out the lovely muffins my blogger friends are sharing.

• Banana Blueberry Buttermilk Muffins from Jolene’s Recipe Journal
• Double Apricot Jam Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Ginger Lime Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Small Batch Sourdough Muffins studded with Chocolate Caramel from A Day in the Life on the Farm

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur

Only two ingredients and time are required for this deliciously spicy sweet Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur. It’s the perfect sipping drink for cinnamon lovers.

This week for Sunday FunDay, I am hosting and since everyone’s favorite holiday of the year is February 15th, Valentine’s Candy Discount Day, I proposed that we share recipes using leftover and/or discounted V Day candy.

I’m not a big candy eater so I did wait for 50 percent off to purchase these cinnamon heart imperials expressly to make this liqueur. I had in mind something in the schnapps family and that’s exactly how this turned out. 

It would be lovely après-ski for those of you so lucky as to do that but it would be equally as welcome snuggled up on a couch at home. No fireplace? Plenty of fire videos to watch on YouTube, complete with roar and crackle. We have a couple of favorites we put on our television during the Christmas holidays. Such fun! 

Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur

While you don’t have to use the most expensive vodka, I do recommend you choose one that is decent, not the cheapest rotgut on the shelf. 

Ingredients

1/2 cup or 115g cinnamon heart candies

1 1/2 cups or 360ml decent vodka

Method

Add the candy to a quart jar. Pour in the vodka and put the lid on. 

Give it a good shake then it let sit for a couple days.  

A couple of times of day pick up the jar and swish the mixture around helping it to dissolve. On day two, I had just a small clump left which I dislodged with a knife.

 

By the next day, it was gone. 

Once the candy is completely dissolved, the final step is to strain it to get rid of any sediment and the cloudy white stuff on the top. 

I pry a double-ply paper towel into its two parts and use a single-ply. If you have paper coffee filters, those would work too or several layers of cheesecloth. 

As you can see, there was some sediment so this is a worthwhile step! 

Store the liqueur in a clean jar. Serve neat or over ice. It’s also really good in hot chocolate!

Cheers! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and as I mentioned above, today we are sharing recipes made with leftover or discounted Valentine’s Day candy. Check out the links below. 

• A Sweet-Cuterie Platter + Cupid's Blend Cookies from Culinary Cam
• Cinnamon Heart Imperial Liqueur from Food Lust People Love
• Double Chocolate Caramel Stuffed Cookies from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Leftover Chocolate Cake Shake from Sneha's Recipe
• Peppermint Patty Brownie Bites from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• VORP from A Day in the Life on the Farm

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Honey Walnut Brittle

This microwave recipe for Honey Walnut Brittle is super easy and quick, yet delightfully buttery, nutty and delicious. I think Gram would approve.

There was really nothing my grandmother liked more than a good old-fashioned peanut brittle so occasionally I used to make or buy her some. She wasn’t really supposed to be eating candy because of her diabetes but, hey, the occasionally treat didn’t kill her. 

In fact, she lived to the impressive age of 99 1/2 years old. When she passed away in July of 2013, we already had a big shindig planned for December to celebrate her 100th birthday. Truly, we expected her to live even longer than that.

Though a child of the early 1900s who rode a horse and buggy to school every day, she eagerly embraced cooking breakthroughs like the microwave and canned "cream of" soup. Her favorite cooking appliance was a little toaster oven. She made all sorts in that thing, from biscuits to baked chicken thighs and mini pizzas. 

As I stirred this microwave brittle, I thought of Gram and how much she would have enjoyed both eating it and how easy it is to make.  

Honey Walnut Brittle

You need a large microwaveable bowl for this recipe! When it boils in the microwave and again when the baking soda is added at the end, the mixture foams up and will overflow a small bowl. This recipe is adapted from one on All Recipes.

Ingredients

1 cup or 200g sugar

½ cup or 120ml honey

1 cup or 100g chopped walnuts 

1 tablespoon unsalted butter, plus more for greasing the foil

½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

¾ teaspoon baking soda

Method

Line a large baking sheet with foil and grease it well with butter.

Mix the sugar and honey together in a large microwave-safe glass bowl. 

Place in the microwave and cook on high for 1 minute. 

Stir, and cook 1 minute more. 

Stir mixture again, and cook until mixture boils and the sugar is completely dissolved, an additional 30 seconds to 1 minute. I watched through the microwave door and mine started to bubble up at about 45 seconds. 

Fold the walnuts into the sugar/honey mixture. 

Heat in the microwave another 3 minutes, stirring between each minute. (I took photos all along the way but do you truly need to see them all? I'm guessing not.) The bowl will be hot so use mitts to protect your hands. 

Stir in the butter, salt and vanilla extract. 

Microwave until mixture is caramel in color, an additional 1 to 2 minutes.

Carefully remove the hot bowl from microwave, and quickly stir in baking soda until fully incorporated. This will foam up!

Immediately pour the mixture onto your buttered foil-lined pan. 

Allow to cool until the brittle is set, about 15 minutes in a cool kitchen. It could take longer in a warm place. In hot Texas, I popped mine in the refrigerator when I got impatient. Break into pieces and store in an airtight container.

Enjoy! 

Welcome to the 23th edition of the 2024 Alphabet Challenge, brought to you by the letter W. Many thanks to Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm for organizing and creating the challenge. Check out all the W recipes below:

• Jolene’s Recipe Journal: Whole Wheat Waffles 
• Culinary Cam: Roasted Watermelon Radish with Maple-Kissed Tahini Sauce 
• Karen’s Kitchen Stories: Homemade Wonton Soup 
• Blogghetti: Slow Cooker Ham and White Bean Soup 
• Food Lust People Love: Honey Walnut Brittle 
• A Messy Kitchen: Whiskey Sriracha Caramel Corn 
• Sneha’s Recipe: Cheesy Wafer Pav 
• A Day in the Life on the Farm: Salted Caramel Whiskey Espresso Cocktail 
• Mayuri’s Jikoni: Walnut Chocolate Tartlets
• Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice: Whiskey-Soaked Raisin Baked Stove Top Stuffing

Here are my posts for the alphabet challenge, thus far:
A: Anchovy Deviled Eggs
B: Spicy Braised Ginger Pork Belly
C: Cecilie's Favorite Coleslaw
D: Cajun Chicken Eggplant Dressing
E: Everything Pizza Tartin
F: Baked Chicken and Feta Meatballs
G: Grape Juice Jigglers
H: Crispy Bacon-wrapped Chicken Hearts
I: Raspberry Rhubarb Ice Cream
J: Java Dry Spice Mix Chops 

K. Korean Barbecue-style Meatballs 

L. Easy Lamb and Fresh Tomato Curry 

M. Fresh Mint Sauce 

N. Miso Butter Noodles 

O. Spicy Orange Braised Short Ribs 

P. Homemade Piri Piri Sauce 

Q, Cointreau Glazed Orange Quick Bread 

R. Leek and Lobster Mushroom Risotto 

S. Cheesy Sausage and Egg Casserole 

T. Stuffed Turkey Cutlets 

U. Spicy Urad Dal -

V. Spicy Vinegar Braised Chicken 

W. Honey Walnut Brittle - this post!

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Blueberry Cornbread Muffins #MuffinMonday

Bursting with fresh lemon flavor and juicy blueberries, these golden blueberry cornbread muffins are perfect for breakfast or snack time. 

I’ve undoubtedly mentioned this before but every day my husband gets an email from NYT Cooking with descriptions of dishes and links to the recipes online. And every day, he forwards those emails to me. Once in a blue moon, he actually mentions a recipe he thinks one of us should make. 

A couple of weeks ago, it was a version of these blueberry cornbread muffins. As Muffin Monday was coming up (end of the month sneaks up on me regularly) I was happy to oblige. I scoffed at the one commenter who said that just lemon zest was too much lemon and upped the ante by adding lemon juice as well. 

It was a good decision. In my opinion, lemons are life. You can never add too much lemon! 

Blueberry Cornbread Muffins

As mentioned above, this recipe is adapted from one on New York Times Cooking. Sadly, it's behind a firewall but I included the link so at least subscribers can access it. (Or people who have turned off Javascript for the site.)

Ingredients

Zest from 1 lemon

Juice from 1/2 lemon

< 1 cup or 240ml milk, poured into the measuring cup after the lemon juice up to the 1 cup mark (See method.)

1 cup or 155g grams fine-grain yellow cornmeal

1 cup or 125g all-purpose flour

½ cup, packed, or 100g brown sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt

1/2 cup or 113g butter, melted and slightly cooled, plus more for greasing pan

1 large egg, at room temperature

2 cups or 280g fresh blueberries, plus extra for garnish

Method

In a large bowl, whisk together cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

Zest the lemon into the dry ingredient bowl and stir. 

Use a reamer to juice the lemon into a measuring vessel. Remove any seeds and discard. Add milk up to the 1 cup or 240ml mark. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together melted butter, milk and egg until well combined. 

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and fold until just combined. 

Let the batter rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. This gives the cornmeal time to hydrate.

While the batter rests, preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C and prepare a 12-cup muffin pan by greasing it generously with butter.

Gently fold the blueberries into the batter.

Divide the batter evenly between the muffin cups. 

Top with a few more blueberries, if desired.

Bake until the muffins are golden and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 20-25 minutes. 

Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then remove to a wire rack to cool further. Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Enjoy! 

It’s the last Monday of the month aka Muffin Monday and the literal last day of the month. Those two days don’t often coincide! Can you believe it’s already October tomorrow? Check out the great muffin recipes my Muffin Monday friends are sharing below. 

• Banana Avocado Muffins from A Messy Kitchen
• Blueberry Cornbread Muffins from Food Lust People Love
• Caramel Apple Muffins from Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Molasses Bran Muffins with Cherries from Karen's Kitchen Stories

#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.

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