Glee! Banana Nut Cheerio Cupcakes

I am so excited that Glee is returning tonight after the late winter break. Last episode left us hanging on the fate of Quinn after her car accident, so I wanted to make Quinn's cupcake for this week.

It would be an understatement to say Quinn has had a few ups and downs in her time at McKinley High. Her fall from high atop the Cheerios (and school popularity) pyramid due to her teen pregnancy sent her into a bizarre downward spiral in season 3. An attempt to sabotage the custody rights of her daughter's adoptive mother was definitely b-a-n-a-n-a-s. Inspired by A) Quinn's nutty behavior and B) the many flavors of Cheerios cereal, I created Quinn's cupcake.



I am definitely glad to see that she was able to come full circle in the last episode and regain the status she has longed for: to once again be a Cheerio.

Quinn's Banana Nut Cheerio cupcake combines cinnamon banana cake with a Cheerio covered peanut butter center, and is topped with caramel swiss meringue buttercream.

Banana Nut Cheerio Cupcakes

Source: Adapted from Apple a Day
Yield: Serves 24
Preparation time: 25 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Total time: 2 hours, 45 minutes (with cooling time)

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3 eggs, at room temperature
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 mashed overripe banana (1 large)
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 scant cup sugar

For the filling:

• 2/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 1/2 cups crushed peanut butter Cheerios cereal

For the buttercream:

• 8 ounces egg whites (from a carton is fine)
• 12 ounces sugar
• 1 1/4 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons caramel sauce

Instructions

For the filling:

1. In bowl, with mixer on medium speed, mix powdered sugar, peanut butter, butter, and vanilla until blended.
2. Shape mixture into 24 balls using heaping measuring teaspoons. (Balls will be sticky and don't need to be perfectly shaped.)
3. Roll in crushed Cheerios cereal. Place balls on waxed paper-lined cookie sheet; set aside.

For the cupcakes:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a muffin tin with 24 paper liners.
2. In a large mixing bowl, beat butter on medium speed for 30 seconds. Add sugar, 1/4 c. at a time, beating on medium speed until light and fluffy and scraping down sides of bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, scraping down sides of bowl after each addition.
3. In a medium bowl, stir together flour, baking powder, salt, baking soda, and cinnamon.
4. In a small bowl, combine banana, buttermilk, and vanilla.
5. Add in flour and banana mixtures, beginning and ending with the flour, and mix on low speed until just combined.
6. Fill muffin cups 2/3 full. Insert a Cheerio covered peanut butter ball into the center of the cupcake and push down to cover with batter. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool completely, then frost with buttercream.

For the buttercream:

1. Add egg whites and sugar to a heat-safe bowl. Place bowl over a pot of simmering water and whisk lightly until the mixture reaches 140 degrees F and the sugar is dissolved.
2. Pour hot whites into a room-temperature bowl and whip with a wire whip until double in volume on medium-high speed. When the mixer stops, the meringue should not move around in the bowl. Meanwhile cut up butter into 2-inch pieces. (The butter should be slightly moist on the outside but cold inside.)
3. On your mixer, remove the whip and attach the paddle. Add half the butter into the bowl immediately and pulsate the mixer several times until the meringue has covered the butter completely. To pulsate the mixer, turn it on and off in a jerky motion. This forces the butter on the top to the bottom of the bowl. Add the balance of the butter and pulsate mixer several times. Slowly increase the mixer's speed, starting with the lowest speed and increase the speed every 10 seconds until you reach a medium-high speed.
4. Continue beating until the mixture begins to look light and fluffy. Stop the mixer and scrape the bowl. Reduce speed to low. Add vanilla and caramel and continue to beat on low speed for 45 seconds. Then beat on medium-high speed for an additional 45 to 60 seconds.
5. Leftover buttercream can be placed in plastic containers with lids and kept in the freezer for up to 3 months. Defrost completely (several hours) and rewhip before using.

Pumpkin Banana Oat Muffins

It's officially October so I figured it was time to break out the pumpkin and let the fun begin! As fall approaches, thoughts of pumpkin bread, ice cream, muffins, spice cake, etc, start to swirl in my head. I love the stuff and thankfully, there has been no shortage of pumpkin puree in my area. Still, this year I am faced with a challenge of a different sort. Then new and improved clean eating me can't bear the thought of making pumpkin-you-name-it and not being able to enjoy it.

I set out to try and find a clean way to enjoy pumpkin, and found inspiration from Katie at Good Things Catered. She took a pumpkin banana oat muffin recipe from recipeZaar.com and made some substitutions to make it a little more nutritious. Still, her recipe packed plenty of sugar and white flour, and that wasn't going to work for me. I switched out the white flour, whole eggs and sugar with some cleaner ingredients and the results were fabulous! This was my first time working with sucanat as a sweetener, and although I was hesitant to try it - it's great! The molasses flavor is fantastic and really adds to the complexity of the flavors in the muffin. I omitted the nuts this time around because I wasn't sure where I would be with the calorie count, but might throw them in next time now that I know the base recipe is only 100 calories per muffin!


Pumpkin Banana Oat Muffins
Adapted from Good Things Catered
Makes 18 muffins

Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 cup rolled oats
1/4 cup oat bran
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1.5 large ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 of a 15 oz. can pumpkin puree
1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
4 egg whites
1 tbsp ground flaxseed
1/2 cup sucanat

Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Spray with cooking spray or line muffin tins with paper liners.
-Combine flours, bran, oats, baking powder, spices, baking soda and salt in a medium bowl.
-Using whisk or spoon, stir until well mixed.
-Combine remaining ingredients in a large mixing bowl; beat until smooth.
-Gradually beat in flour mixture until just combined
-Spoon into prepared pans or tins.
-Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until toothpick inserted in the middle of the muffin comes out clean.
-Remove muffins from pan and cool on wire rack as soon as they come out of the oven.

Nutritional Information per muffin:
Calories: 98
Fat: 0.7 g
Saturated fat: 0.1 g
Cholesterol: 0 mg
Sodium: 150 mg
Potassium: 83 mg
Carbohydrate: 20.7 g
Fiber: 2.9 g
Sugar: 6.5 g
Protein: 3.3 g

BB: Mango Banana Daiquiri

Finally! A recipe for Barefoot Bloggers that calls for booze! This is a delicious new option for our summer adult beverage repertoire.


Mango Banana Daiquiris
Source: Ina Garten, Back to Basics on page 47
Chosen by Veronica of Supermarket Serenade
Serves 4

2 cups chopped ripe mango (1 to 2 mangos, peeled and seeded)
1 ripe banana, chopped
1/2 cup fresh squeezed lime juice (4 limes)
1/4 cup sugar syrup* (I used 2-3 tablespoons of agave nectar)
1 1/4 cups dark rum, such as Mount Gay

Mango slices, for serving

Place the mango, banana, lime juice, sugar syrup, and rum in a blender and process until smooth. Add 2 cups of ice and process again until smooth and thick. Serve ice-cold in highball glasses with the mango slices.

*To make simple syrup, heat 1 cup sugar and 1 cup water in a small saucepan until the sugar dissolves. Chill.

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes

I have recently discovered Clean Eating magazine, and love it! (What is eating clean? Look here and here for some tips.) There are some interesting articles and great recipes. I wouldn't say that I've completely converted to clean eating (since my husband still looooves Velveeta), but I've certainly made more of an effort to eat more fruits and vegetables, and make things from scratch so I can control the ingredients. This allows me to make changes such as using whole wheat (often, pastry) flour in place of white flour, and avoid a lot of preservatives and other such junk.


The latest issue of Clean Eating has a ton of recipes that looked great to me, and I decided to dive in over the weekend with oatmeal banana pancakes. Breakfast around here is usually eggs, oatmeal, or a protein bar, but every once in a while, we treat ourselves to pancakes. I was especially intrigued by this recipe because of the substitution for maple syrup. A combination of pomegranate juice and honey sounded delicious! Of course, I forgot to get the juice at the store, so we had to settle for cranberry juice in it's place.

These turned out delicious! The pancakes have a nice little bite from the whole oats, and a light banana flavor that isn't overwhelming. The fruit syrup is SO GOOD and we are definitely making these again!

Oatmeal Banana Pancakes
Source: Clean Eating magazine
Makes 10 to 12 five inch pancakes, or 20 four inch pancakes

For the syrup:
1 cup Pomegranate Juice
2 tablespoons of honey

For the pancakes:
3 medium bananas (I used frozen), plus 1 sliced banana for garnish
1/2 cup low-fat milk
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1 cup rolled oats, ground to a course flour in food processor
1/4 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp baking powder
2 egg whites, whipped to soft peaks
Olive Oil cooking spray

Whisk juice and honey together in saucepot. Bring mixture to boil over medium high heat, then drop the heat to medium. Simmer mixture and reduce it to syrup, about 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let syrup cool before using. (Mine thickened as it cooled.)

To make pancakes, add bananas, milk and vanilla to blender and puree until smooth. In large mixing bowl, whisk together ground oats, rolled oats, flour, salt and baking powder. Fold banana puree into dry ingredients to a form a thick batter, taking care not to overwork it. Gently fold in the whipped egg whites into batter. Heat a large nonstick griddle coated with cooking spray over medium heat. Drop 1/4 cup batter for 5-inch pancakes onto griddle. Cook until lightly browned, about 1 1/2 per side. Serve with banana slices and a drizzle of pomegranate syrup.

BB: Banana Sour Cream Pancakes

Pancakes are always a hit in our house, so I was really excited to see them as this week's Barefoot Bloggers recipe! I made a few substitutions, that have recently become pretty standard for me. First, I used greek yogurt (2%) in place of sour cream. I also used whole wheat pastry flour instead of all-purpose flour. I also had some frozen bananas I wanted to use up, so I chopped them and mixed them in with the wet ingredients instead of sprinkling them on the batter as it cooked. These pancakes are amazing!! I ate way too many, but we still had half the batch leftover to freeze for another day - yay!


Banana Sour Cream Pancakes
Barefoot Contessa Family Style, page 177
Chosen by Karen of Something Sweet by Karen

• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 3/4 cup plus 1 tablespoon milk
• 2 extra-large eggs
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
• Unsalted butter
• 2 ripe bananas, diced, plus extra for serving
• Pure maple syrup

Directions

Sift together the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the sour cream, milk, eggs, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones, mixing only until combined.

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a large skillet over medium-low heat until it bubbles. Ladle the pancake batter into the pan to make 3 or 4 pancakes. Distribute a rounded tablespoon of bananas on each pancake. Cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until bubbles appear on top and the underside is nicely browned. Flip the pancakes and then cook for another minute until browned. Wipe out the pan with a paper towel, add more butter to the pan, and continue cooking pancakes until all the batter is used. Serve with sliced bananas, butter and maple syrup.

Tasty Tools: Peanut Butter and Banana Nutella Muffins

My husband loves bananas. But for the past few months, I've brought them home green (because he likes them way before the first appearance of a brown spot) and they have hung on our lovely banana holder until they are almost covered in brown spots. As a result, I have about 8 bananas in the freezer right now. This morning I had SEVEN dark brown bananas, and refused to put all of them in the freezer.

So I went off in search of a recipe that could use the most bananas at one time. My google reader had a number of offerings, but they only used 2 bananas, as most, and I wouldn't have enough of the other ingredients to double the recipe. I came across a recipe from Giada for Banana Muffins that used 4 bananas for 18 muffins, and decided to run with it. I knew I wanted to add a few things, switch a few things, and subtract a few things... so off I went. Then came a stroke of genius... as I went to the pantry to grab the peanut butter, I saw....


the jar of nutella! Screw the mini chocolate chips that I had in mind - these muffins were getting a heart of nutella! With this addition, I think these muffins really push that fine line between a muffin and a cupcake. Maybe they are mupcakes?

As I got going, I also realized these would be perfect for April's Tasty Tools Event, which highlights scoops of all kinds. I used a mini ice cream scoop (no idea what the technical term is) to deliver two heaping scoops of batter per muffin, surrounding a heart of nutella. These come together so easily, which is an added bonus!
These were sooooo delicious, but a teensy bit drier than I'd like. That probably has to do with the extra 1/2 cup of dry ingredients I added. Below I have tweaked the recipe to use less flour so it won't be quite as dry. But seriously - YUM - what a nice treat!

Peanut Butter and Banana Nutella Muffins
Yield: 23.5 muffins (had I not been lazy, I'd have picked a bit from the others to make it a whole 24)

~1.5 cups all-purpose flour
~1 cup whole wheat flour
~1 teaspoon baking soda
~1 teaspoon salt
~1/2 teaspoon baking powder
~1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
~1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
~1/4 cup wheat germ
~1/4 cup ground flax seed
~3/4 cup sugar
~1/2 cup sour cream
~1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce
~1/2 cup chunky peanut butter
~3 large eggs
~1 tablespoon vanilla extract
~4 ripe bananas, peeled and coarsely mashed
~Nutella, about 6 Tbsp, enough for 3/4 tsp per muffin

1. Line 18 muffin cups with paper liners, or spray with baking spray such as Baker's Joy. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

2. Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, wheat germ and ground flax seed in a medium bowl to blend. Beat the sugar, applesauce, sour cream, eggs, vanilla, and peanut butter in a large bowl to blend. Stir in the banana. Add the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

3. Fill the bottom of each muffin cup with one heaping scoop of batter and spread with the back of the scoop to cover the bottom. Drop about 3/4 tsp of nutella onto the center of each cup. Follow with another heaping scoop of batter, making sure to surround the heart of nutella with batter. Bake the muffins on the middle rack until the tops are golden brown and a tester inserted into the center comes out with no crumbs attached (but maybe a little streak of nutella!), about 20-25 minutes. Transfer the muffins to a rack and cool slightly. The muffins are great warm, but if they are saved for later, a few seconds in the microwave should bring back the the warm gooey heart.

Nutritional Information (...ready?): Calories - 176; Total Fat - 6.1 g; Sat. Fat - 1.7 g; Cholesterol - 30 mg; Sodium - 158 mg; Carbohydrates -27g; Fiber - 2g; Sugar - 10 g; Protein - 4.6 g.

First... a layer of batter

Second... a heart of nutella

Then... a second layer of batter

Fresh out of the oven, with nicely risen tops

mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!

Long over-due....

I'm back! I've been busy, wedding planning got in the way again.

My quest to find additional fun-things-to-bake-with-ripe-bananas lead me to a Sour Cream Banana Cake recipe from Recipezaar. I made this for work... and it was really yummy! Very moist and dense... delicious!

Sour Cream Banana Cake

CRUMB TOPPING
1/4 cup confectioners' sugar
2 tablespoons butter
1/4-1/3 cup crushed chocolate-covered english toffee bars
1/3 cup flour

CAKE
3 small very ripe mashed bananas
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 cup butter, salted
3 extra large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sour cream

Set oven to 350 degrees. Set oven rack to second-lowest position. Grease a
13 x 9-inch baking pan.

To make topping: in a small bowl, mix together the confectioners sugar and 1/3 cup flour. Rub the butter in the flour mix with your fingertips to make a crumb mixture. Stir in the caramel chips, set aside.

In a small bowl, mash (do not mix with a mixer) the bananas; set aside. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. In another bowl, with an electric mixer (if you have a heavy-duty stand mixer attach the paddle attachment) and cream the butter and sugar very well until soft (about 6 minutes). Add in the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition and the vanilla. Add in banana, sour cream, and all dry ingredients, mix on low speed for 3 minutes, scraping bowl occasionally. Transfer to prepared baking pan. Sprinkle the crumb topping evenly over the cake batter. Bake for about 45-50 minutes.

Pineapple Banana Bread

My fiance eats a lot of bananas, so I try to keep a constant rotating supply in the house. Some weeks, he just doesn't eat them all, and I take that as an excuse to bake. The last few times, I've scoured out some pretty yummy non-banana-bread recipes. This week, I decided to stick with traditional banana bread. Then that can of crushed pineapple in the pantry started calling my name....

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg. Add sugar, butter, applesauce, bananas, and pineapple, beat on medium until well-blended. Sift together flour, baking sode, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then slowly add to the banana mixture. Beat on low until well-blended, but be sure not to overbeat. Grease and flour (or use Pam for Baking spray, or parchement paper) a loaf pan and pour in mixture. The original recipe calls for baking 50-60 minutes. I divided this batter into 4 mini loaf pans, so I watched them and checked with toothpicks until done, which was about 40 minutes.

Pineapple Banana Bread

(Original Banana Bread recipe from http://thecookingfiend.blogspot.com/)

• 1 egg
• 1 cup sugar
• 3 small or 2 large bananas, very ripe, mashed
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
• 1/2 cup applesauce (I used unsweetened)
• 2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1 (8 oz) can crushed pineapple, drained
• 1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees. Beat egg. Add sugar, butter, applesauce, bananas, and pineapple, beat on medium until well-blended. Sift together flour, baking sode, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg, then slowly add to the banana mixture. Beat on low until well-blended, but be sure not to overbeat. Add nuts and mix until evenly distributed. Grease and flour (or use Pam for Baking spray, or parchement paper) a loaf pan and pour in mixture. The original recipe calls for baking 50-60 minutes. I divided this batter into 4 mini loaf pans, so I watched them and check with toothpicks until done, which was about 40 minutes.

They aren't terribly "pineapple-y", but very moist! The pineapple acts to balance out the banana flavor a bit, without imparting too much distinct pineapple flavor.

What to do with Bananas, Week 2

Ok, so AGAIN I ended up with nearly-over-ripe bananas. This week I had another recipe in the queue - Amber's Banana Roll with Blueberry Lemon Cream Cheese Filling. I didn't change anything except adding a little extra banana (I used two bananas). Oh, I also used half fat free and half 'regular' cream cheese. This was REALLY good. I shared this with friends - and got a recipe request!

What to do with Bananas, Week 1

So this weekend I had the inevitable nearly-over-ripe banana situation. I did a little perusing and decided to make Deborah's White Chocolate Banana Cake. The only modification I did was to use 1/2 Butterscotch morsels and 1/2 White Chocolate morsels. It was delicious! This one will certainly remain in the "ripe banana" recipe rotation.


I must have been on a Deborah 'kick' because I was also intrigued by her Toffee Coconut Cookies. There were a few changes to this, I used half 'light' butter and half regular butter, as I have been experimenting with lately. (So far so good). I had Heath bar to break up for the toffee part, so with the chocolate there I decided to substitute the chocolate chips with (again) butterscotch morsels.


These were also a hit! Both desserts were shared with friends and devoured in short order. Both will be made again!