End of the World Baking

I really wish the coronavirus had hit during better weather. If it had, I would be taking my kiddos hiking every day and spending lots of time outside playing, having fun, and swearing at mosquitos (nobody's perfect). Unfortunately, we've had rain consistently for about the last week, and are expecting a combination of rain and snow and an absence of sunshine for about the next two weeks. This is not weather I want to be hiking in, especially with two small boys. But it's also not a viral climate I want to be taking my munchkins to the movies or mall or trampoline park in (basically the only places that haven't announced yet that they're closing). Which means we're stuck at home roughly 24/7 with just each other and the dog for company. Which means lots of baking. And crafts. And television. And more baking.

So far, we've made end of the world brownies.

Spicy cookies (aka gingerbread, if you're not 3).

Pumpkin muffins.

And we made a Target run to pick up new games, craft stuff, and more baking supplies.

Not to mention all the extra effort we've been putting in to dinners...

Bonnie's Best Banana Bread

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We've all been there: you see a perfect bunch of bananas at the store, take them home, and overnight they get brown and gross. 

Luckily for all of us, brown bananas make the best banana bread! Over many years and many overripe bananas, I've perfected my recipe so that it's light, hearty, not too sweet, and requires minimal effort and cleanup. Whenever I have a perfect recipe like this, I prefer having an actual recipe card over trying to scroll through my Pinterest account looking for what I want. I've found my perfect recipe box that comes with customizable dividers, recipe cards, and a holder so the cards don't get gross sitting on the kitchen counter while you're baking.

I use 1/2 white flour and 1/2 whole wheat flour and add pecans when I have them (or chocolate chips, depending on my mood). And this is my favorite bread pan--it's Pyrex, so you know it's durable, it's the perfect size for so many things (especially when cooking/baking for one or two people), and it has handles for easy oven removal and a snap-on lid for keeping leftovers fresh.

Hold the phone! Want to know how to make this delicious recipe even better? Use creamy peanut butter instead of vegetable oil. The peanut butter not only increases the healthfulness of the bread by adding some protein and lowering the amount of fat, but it also improves the consistency and eliminates some of the crumbles you always get when slicing homemade bread. And it doesn't make it taste like peanut banana bread, for any banana bread purists.

I love having a nice warm slice of banana bread for breakfast with a cup of coffee and my homemade creamer--it's the perfect way to start a crisp fall day!

Apple Crumble

This post may contain affiliate links, which means I make a little money if you make a purchase using these links.

What do you have for dinner when you're home alone, pregnant, and the fridge is almost empty? Apple crumble sounded good, so that's what I made. It was quick and easy and made me feel a little bit better about watching this evening's debate. 

Who wouldn't want a nice big bowl of this for dinner? Or dessert, if you want to go all traditional. 

I started with a recipe from Tastes Better From Scratch and tweaked it and it was delicious. Here's how:

First, make the crumble. You can mix together the butter, flour, oats, cinnamon, sugar, and baking powder with a fork or a pastry cutter. Or you can do what I did and use your fingers, which is either way more fun or a way to justify not having a super cool pastry cutter like this one that I kind of totally want. 

Then, slice the apples and put them in a greased loaf pan. This would also be a good time to start preheating the oven. 

Next, mix up the sauce for the apples. I used the same coffee mug for melting the butter and making the sauce. Because I hate doing extra dishes. 

Pour sauce over apples, stir to combine. Then pour the crumble over the top of that and toss it in the oven for 25 minutes, or longer if you like soggier apples. And you get this beauty:

It's crisp, crumbly, and makes about 2 dinner-sized portions. Or more if you're going for dessert-sized portions. 

Ingredients

Crumble:

1/4 cup flour

1/4 cup oats

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 tbsp butter, softened

Apple goodness:

3 medium apples (I used granny smith)

1 tbsp butter, melted

2 tbsp brown sugar

1 tbsp flour

1 1/2 tbsp water

1/2 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Directions

Mix together all crumble ingredients. Set aside.

Thinly slice apples into loaf pan. 

Mix together all other ingredients for apple goodness. Pour over apples and stir.

Pour crumble over apples and bake at 375◦ for 25 minutes.

Enjoy with vanilla ice cream, if available.

Pretzel cravings

The cravings gods are smiling on me today. Mama wants pretzels, which means mama has to make pretzels (or drive an hour to the nearest mall for a warm, chewy soft pretzel). I found a recipe that called for a cup of milk and, lo and behold, we had almost exactly a cup of milk left. Woohoo! Pretzels, here we come!

First, I warmed my milk in the microwave to 110 degrees, give or take. I poured it into the bowl of my stand mixer with the sugar and yeast and left it alone until the yeast activated. Somehow I resisted the urge to stand over it Harry Potter style and repeat "activate!" over and over until the yeasties complied... 

Once the yeasties were ready, I added the flour and salt and plugged in my stand mixer. Thanks to the kick-ass mixer my mommy got me for Christmas last year (after I called her in a panic on Thanksgiving when my old mixer crapped out after 8 years), the dough was mixed and kneaded and pulling away from the sides like a good little dough in no time. 

I oiled up the dough ball, put it back in the bowl with a warm towel to keep the yeasties happy and multiplying, and watched an episode of Property Brothers while the yeasties did their thing. After one full Property Brothers (an hour), I checked on my dough ball, and it was fluffy and ready to go. 

I boiled some water and baking soda to dip my dough in (did you know that's how pretzels become pretzel-y?) and started rolling my dough into cute little pretzel shapes. 

After a few rolls falling apart on me, I said "screw it; mama wants pretzels!" and decided I didn't give a rat's ass how they looked as long as they tasted nice and pretzel-y. So I switched to plopping balls of dough in my baking soda water and tossing them on my baking sheet. They came out tasting exactly how I wanted them, even if they weren't necessarily food blog pretty. 

The moral of the story here is that if you have the patience, make your pretzels whatever shape makes you happy. If you want a quick pretzel fix, do as I do and know that they will taste just as good. 

Pregnant brownies

I think I might be pregnant. I have brownies in the oven right now. Not for an after-dinner treat, but for the main course. You can thank my cravings and my hubby. I told him to talk me out of making brownies for dinner, but they have peanut butter in them. He loves peanut butter. Besides, the brownies are made with eggs and peanut butter, which have protein, and you're supposed to eat protein when you're pregnant, right?

Right. 

The hardest part about baking while pregnant is that you often have to break one of the cardinal rules of baking: taste it before you bake it. Luckily, my hubby was on hand to be my official taste tester and give his chocolatey thumb's up (and will be on hand to make sure I don't eat an entire pan of brownies by myself. He's such a giver). The only part I was able to taste was the peanut butter filling (which is why I'm calling these "pregnant" brownies: they're carrying around peanut butter goodness in their middle). I may or may not have cleaned that bowl with my finger. 

Shortly, my pregnant brownies will be cooked to perfection and I'll finally be able to taste them! Recipe to follow (after dinner).