June Sourdough Surprises - Galette

Hello!

Anyone out there?

It's been a long time, I know!

Things have been absolutely crazy. School year ending, lots of activities, and a double bout of bronchitis and pneumonia (all me... yup...), but all that is settling down and I'm so excited to share some deliciousness!

This month, Sourdough Surprises had us revisiting pies, but in a more rustic ways, encouraging us to try our hands at galettes or crostadas.

As luck would have it, I happened to have a ton of apples in the fruit bowl (and next to the fruit bowl...), so I got right to work!

It all starts with the dough, which comes together just like a "regular" pie crust dough, only using sourdough starter as the liquid portion.  I try not to overwork my pie dough to keep the end result nice and crispy, so it looks a bit crumbly to start.

Trust me, that's a good thing.

The dough is then rolled out into an approximate oval. Remember - we're going for rustic this month.

See all that butter in the crust? Not overworked.

And then we add the filling. I winged that part. Sliced up some apples, cooked them down in coconut oil, brown sugar, cinnamon, a bit of ginger and a dash of nutmeg. Once all of that cooled, I poured it right into the center of my (rustic) oval.

Then just... fold up the edges as best as possible.

I just kept reminding myself... rustic. Rustic.

And then it all bakes up to golden deliciousness.

Now, I am not sure if you remember, but my kids are not always fans of sourdough.

But this?

Little miss LOVED this.

Asked for it for dessert. And breakfast. And snack time.

She wound up eating almost the whole thing.

Can't say I blame her. This was delicious.  Perfect come-back treat!

So what did you bake for us this month?? Link up and share!

An InLinkz Link-up

Sourdough Pate Brisee (for pie or galette - enough for single crust pie or one galette)

1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cold, cut into 1/2" cubes
about 1/2 cup liquid sourdough starter (mine was at room temperature, but chilled starter would probably be even better), more or less as needed

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, salt and sugar.
Add the butter and work with your fingertips or a pastry blender until the mixture resembles coarse meal with some larger, pea-sized chunks remaining.
Gradually add the starter, carefully mixing with a rubber spatula or your hands, pressing it against the sides of the bowl, until the dough barely holds together when squeezed. You may not need all the starter, or you may need to add more, so add slowly from the start and work the dough only until it's ready.
Gather the dough into a ball, put it in a plastic bag, and squash it into a 6" disc. Chill at least 1 hour, or up to a couple days, or freeze for up to two months.

When you are ready to prepare your pie or galette, rolle the dough into a round approximately 12" around.  Fill with your prepared (cooled!) filling, and bake in a 400 degree oven until the crust is golden and the filling is bubbly.

Enjoy!

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Pan-Fried Cinnamon Sugar Bananas

Seems like all I ever post these days are challenges, doesn't it?

I suppose that's because that's... umm... most of what I've been posting.

And for that, I do apologize. Things have been super crazy - still settling into the new house, getting used to the new kitchen. little miss still settling into her new school, and even little man has started school now! I'm also doing a little bit of part-time work, volunteer coaching at little miss's school... basically keeping super busy!

But, whether I'm posting or not, we're still eating, of course, and it's still fun to experiment with new recipes!

So I was recently looking around for something new and fun to try and came across something that looked too easy and delicious not to try - pan fried bananas.

And it's really just as easy as it sounds.

Start with some ripe bananas and slice them up.

You don't want to go too thin on your slices, because they'll disintegrate as they cook, and yo don't to make them so thick that they won't cook through...

Then pop them on a sautee pan, sprayed with cooking spray, over medium  heat.

Once they start smelling good, sprinkle the tops with some cinnamon sugar. I didn't measure, just did a light sprinkle - probably about a teaspoon or so.

Continue cooking for another couple minutes, then carefully flip them over and sprinkle the other side with more cinnamon sugar while you're at it.

Still with me?

Now here comes the hard part. Take them off the pan and try not to eat them all at once.

I know they don't look all that impressive, and, yeah, I know I overcooked a few of them (silly me looked away from the pan to pour some orange juice for the kids...), but oh. my. gosh.

Caramalized, cinnamon-y banana-y deliciousness. In just a few minutes.

And, seriously, you can do anything with these. Add them to yogurt. Or cereal. Serve them on ice cream. Or, ahem, just dig in and gobble them all right up.

I bet you have some bananas sitting in your fruit bowl or on your counter right now. I dare you to try these. And I can't wait to hear what you think!


Pan-Fried Cinnamon Sugar Bananas
(based on Dizzy, Busy & Hungry!)

2 slightly overripe bananas (I used 3)
Cinnamon sugar to taste (anywhere from 2 teaspoons to 2 tablespoons)
non-stick cooking spray

Slice the bananas into rounds, approximately 1/3 inch thick.
Spray a large skillet with non-stick cooking spray. Warm over medium heat.
Add the banana rounds and cook for about 2-3 minutes.
During the last minute of cooking on the first side, sprinkle about half of the cinnamon sugar over the banana rounds.
Flip the rounds, sprinkle with the remaining cinnamon mixture, and cook about 2-3 more minutes, until the bananas are soft and warmed through.

Enjoy!

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June Daring Bakers' Challenge - Cinnamon Rolls

This month the Daring Bakers kept our creativity rolling with cinnamon bun inspired treats. Shelley from C Mom Cook dared us to create our own dough and fill it with any filling we wanted to craft tasty rolled treats, cinnamon not required!

Hey - no need to click that link this time - you're already here!

This month I took a turn hosting the Daring Bakers, and dared the group to make a treat that, if you've been around for a while, you know I love - cinnamon rolls. And, as you probably already know, I love getting creative with my cinnamon rolls, sometimes skipping the cinnamon altogether and going for all kinds of creative fillings.

As examples for the group, I provided links and recipes to many of the varieties I've made over the years, including Peter Reinhart's traditional cinnamon buns, roasted banana cinnamon rolls, pumpkin brown butter apple cinnamon rolls, sourdough cinnamon rolls (of course! I borrowed Jenni's here because hers came out so much better than mine!), and, for anyone nervous around yeast, I even included my unyeasted sweet cinnamon biscuits.

But those were just examples! I then asked this creative group of bakers to be... well... creative! To make whatever dough they wanted, fill it with whatever sounded good. roll it up and bake it!

Now, the more creative submissions that rolled in on the forums, the more I craved rolled goodness. So I had to make a few too.

I started with these mixed berry rolls:

(I used Peter Reinhart's dough recipe and whipped up a mixed berry compote for the filling).

A week later, at the urging of little man, I made traditional cinnamon rolls, but immediately gave half the batch to a friend.

After that, I decided to test my own creativity and made a dinner version:

Pizza! I used pizza dough (I'll share that recipe later - it's worth its own post!) and rolled it with sauce and cheese.  Messy. But super fun!

I wanted to make more. In fact, I really, really wanted to make another batch yesterday.  But I held off. For now. Trust me - another batch is coming soon.

So, if you feel like it, check out the full challenge as the group saw it (here).

And thank you to everyone who baked along with me - your creativity and excitement were contagious and it was truly an honor to see all of the deliciousness that you created this month!

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Banana Bread Milkshake (smoothie) - an SRC bonus

I know, I know, I just posted my Secret Recipe Club post last week.  But when I learned that a member of this week's reveal group had a family emergency and needed help with her assignment, I couldn't resist volunteering.

And I was sosososo lucky that I did, too! The blog that needed help was none other than Mangia, written by the awesome Chelsy.  Sound familiar? It should! Because I actually baked from her blog before, when I made this pumpkin cake.

Now... if you look back to that post, you'll see that I wanted to make... umm... everything on her blog. And even attempted multiple recipes at the time.

So I had the same problem this time. 

I almost tried to make coconut butter again, but, once again, I didn't have unsweetened coconut.

But then I saw this. A recipe for a milkshake made out of a banana muffin. It was so intriguing that I knew I had to try it.

Now, Chelsy made her milkshake out of these muffins. They're grain free, vegan and super interesting. I was really tempted to try that recipe. But I didn't have all of the ingredients (like... umm.. .the coconut butter...). I was also a bit worried about whether little man could eat them, because coconut flour works very differently from traditional (wheat) flour and requires more eggs when used in baked goods. Little man is allergic to eggs. And while he can eat them in the correct proportion when baked into a recipe, this version used way more eggs in proportion to the rest of the ingredients, so I didn't think they'd work for him.  So I made these instead. 

With the intention of making them into milkshakes.

Which completely amused the kids.

Yup - just pop a muffin right into the blender.

Then add the rest of the ingredients. I kept this dairy free (coconut milk) and nut free (Sunbutter instead of the almond butter called for in the recipe) so that little man could enjoy.

And then just blend!

Seriously - that easy. And seriously - I'd never have thought to make a milkshake (okay, more like smoothie - I didn't freeze the banana first...) out of a muffin.

But trust me. I will definitely do it again some day.

Because...

YUM! These were quick, easy, fun and absolutely delicious. And you can customize it however you want - change the muffin, change the sweetener, use any kind of nut or seed butter... yeah - what an awesome idea. 

Chelsy, I am so glad to have had another opportunity to play with your blog. And I promise to make the coconut butter one day. For real :)

Banana Bread Milkshake (Smoothie)

(from Mangia)

1 banana muffin (I used my crumb topped banana muffins)

½ frozen banana (for a milkshake consistency. A non-frozen banana works, but it's more of a smoothie)

1 cup unsweetened coconut milk (from a carton, not a can)

1 tablespoon pure honey

1 tablespoon all-natural almond butter (I used sunbutter to make it nut-free)

1/2 banana muffin, for topping

Place the muffin, banana, coconut milk, honey and nut/seed butter (whichever you are using) into a blender and blend on high until creamy.

Pour the milkshake into a small bowl or glass.

Crumble the last 1/2 banana muffin over the top of the milkshake and serve.

Enjoy!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Banana Crumb Muffins

The weather has been absolutely crazy this year.  I mean, aside from the fact that we had the coldest weather that I've ever seen (I'm in the Northeast US and we had temperatures and storms comparable to those seen in the Midwest - we are NOT used to that here!). As you can imagine, we were very excited for Spring to come.

But this Spring has  been so bizarre. We've had crazy drenching storms, record high temperatures, record low temperatures, and huge swings in between. Including one 80 degree day that ended up in a hailstorm. Seriously bizarre.

So this week has been super rainy. So we've been inside a lot more than I'd like to be in June.  As a result, I've been in the mood to bake. A lot. 

Today I was in the mood for muffins, and I had a few bananas in perfect baking condition in the fruit bowl.  Perfect!

Little man was super helpful, too.  First he helped me measure dry ingredients.

Then he helped me mash the bananas.

Then he helped me mix up the wet ingredients.

While he was doing all of that, I mixed up a crumb topping for the muffins. I mean, I had to do something while he was doing all the work, right??

I also scooped the muffins into the muffin tin. I probably should have let him do it. I will next time.

And then they baked! And the house smelled so good that I forgot to be upset about not being outside.

And let me tell you - they were delicious. Super moist, super flavorful, super delicious. They made a great after school snack for little miss. And her friend. And I even sent some home with her friend so he could share with his mom.

Now I need the sun to come back out. At least for a few days to give me time to finish up all the baked goods that have been keeping me busy!

Banana Crumb Muffins

(from Deliciously Sprinkled)

For the Muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 bananas, mashed

1 teaspoon vanilla

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

3/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 egg, lightly beaten

1/3 cup canola oil

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup chopped pecans (I omitted these)

For the Brown Sugar Crumb:

1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter, room temperature

1/4 cup pecans for topping, optional (I actually used 1/4 cup rolled oats instead and it was great!)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly grease 10 muffin cups, or line with muffin liners. I actually got 12 muffins out of this recipe, so be prepared for that!

In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. 

In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugars,vanilla, egg and canola oil. 

Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture, mixing just until moistened. 

Fold in pecans (if using).

Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.

In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. 

Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse crumble. 

Sprinkle topping over muffins.

Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean. 

Sprinkle remaining pecans on the top of each muffin, if you chose to use them.

Store muffins at room temperature in an airtight container for up to 5 days.

Enjoy!

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Banana Zucchini Crumble Bread

This month's Secret Recipe Club assignment was a fun one. If you've never visited Ashley over at Cheese Curd in Paradise, do yourself a favor and check it out. She has tons of awesome recipes, participates in lots of different challenges, and is truly awesome.

When choosing what to make this month, I was particularly inspired by... bananas.

Odd. I know.

But we had lots of them. Lots and lots and lots.  So in addition to eating them plain, spreading them with peanut butter (sunbutter for allergy boy), and slicing them on our cereal, we also wanted to bake with them.

Luckily, Ashely has some great banana recipes.

I first made her banana blueberry muffins. Well... without the blueberries. We were out. But even as just banana muffins, they were absolutely delicious. I even brought some in to the lovely ladies in the front office of little miss's school.

But the next recipe I made was even better. Banana zucchini crumble bread. Oh my gosh, this bread is so delicious. And it's packed with wholesome goodness, you don't even feel guilty having an extra piece (or two...).

And the best part? It comes together super duper easily.

I made only a couple of modifications to the recipe to make it dairy free, replacing the butter with coconut oil.

And my camera battery died after those photos, so I can't show you just how easy it was.

But trust me. In no time, it went from mashed banana and shredded zucchini to this:

Crumb topped deliciousness.

This bread was moist and flavorful and so easy to eat. The crisp topping added the perfect amount of sweetness and crunch, making this extra fun.

I will definitely be making this again. And again.

Thank you, Ashley!

An InLinkz Link-up

Banana Zucchini Crumble Bread
(from Cheese Curd In Paradise)

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 bananas, mashed
1 cup grated zucchini
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup butter, melted (I used coconut oil, melted)
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon butter (I used coconut oil)

Pre heat oven to 350 degrees and grease a 9x5 loaf pan.
In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, zucchini, sugar, egg and melted butter (coconut oil). Stir the wet ingredients into the dry mixture just until moistened. Spoon the batter into the prepared loaf pan.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and cinnamon. Cut in 1 tablespoon butter (coconut oil) until mixture resembles a coarse crumble. I found it easier to do this with my finger tips. It's a bit sticky, but gets the job done. Sprinkle topping over bread.
Bake in preheated oven for 50-60 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle come out clean. Allow bread to cool before removing from the baking dish.

Enjoy!

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Caramel Apple Bread

The other day, I was looking for inspiration for something to bake to bring to a friend's house. The kids were going to play, the moms were going to chat, and, well, who doesn't love an afternoon snack? I decided to make a chocolate cinnamon pullapart bread and it was quite a hit.

The next day, while perusing facebook, I came across a post from a friend and fellow food blogger for something she called apple fritter bread.

Oh. My. Gosh. It looked so good. Similar to the pullapart bread I'd just made, but with a fresh apple caramel filling.

So, despite the fact that I didn't have a real reason, I decided I was going to make it. Like... right away.

I modified the recipe a bit to make it dairy free, and it actually came together pretty easily.

It starts with the filling. In a skillet, combine brown sugar, cinnamon, vanilla, cornstarch and coconut oil (or butter if you want).

Then add in lots of diced fresh apples.

Then cook that all down until it's bubbly and delicious.

While the filling cools, prepare the dough. It comes together very easily, similar to other sweet, enriched doughs I have made before. The difference? Despite the fact that it's a yeasted dough, the recipe doesn't call for the dough to rest.  So as soon as the dough is kneaded and ready, you can go ahead and roll it out!

The recipe calls for the filling to then be poured over the dough. My caramel was still a bit looser than I'd expected, so I used a slotted spoon and fished out the apples (taking only some of the caramel with me) and spread them over the dough. I then used a pizza cutter to cut the dough into squares.

The squares were then piled into a loaf pan, and then I poured the remaining caramel over the top.

I was actually concerned when I saw quite how much caramel there was... worried that it might not all absorb into the dough and that it would be a goopy mess at the end, but I put it in the oven and figured I'd see what happened.

Tip if you try this - put a piece of foil  under your pan. As the dough bakes and grows in the oven, some of that caramel sauce spills out. You don't want that on your heating element or baked to the bottom of your oven. Or, in my case, baking onto your pizza stone that you keep on the bottom shelf of the oven. Oops. I put the foil there after the first couple of drips.

But let me tell you something.

It was worth it.

This thing looked and smelled so amazingly delicious, I didn't even mind scraping off the pizza stone.

I pulled it from the oven, removed it from the pan, then immediately left to pick up little miss from school.

And we returned home to a super awesome after-school snack.

Little miss and the friend she was rainbow-looming with absolutely loved it.  Little man, well, not as much. But that's okay. Because little miss and I are certainly happy to enjoy his share of it.

Now, I definitely felt that the bread was more caramel-apple-y than apple-fritter-y, so I'm calling it Caramel Apple Bread. I hope that's okay.

But whatever you call it, you should definitely try it. Because yum.


Caramel Apple Bread
(based on Debbie Does Dinner... Healthy & Low Calorie)

For the dough:
3 cups flour
1 package (1 tablespoon) active dry yeast
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup water
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup milk (I used coconut milk)
1/4 cup butter (I used coconut oil)

For the filling:
5 - 6 small apples, peeled & diced
1 tablespoon lemon juice (I didn't have any lemons, so I omitted this)
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoon butter (I used coconut oil)
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a 9 x 5 inch loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
First prepare the filling.
In a skillet, cook apples, lemon juice, brown sugar, vanilla, butter (coconut oil), cinnamon and cornstarch until mixture is thickened.  Set aside to cool.

While the filling cools, prepare the dough.
Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it bubbles; remove from heat. Add the butter (coconut oil) and stir until melted; set aside to cool until just warm.
Put flour, yeast, brown sugar and salt in a bowl (I used the bowl of my stand mixer), mix well.
Add the water, egg and milk/butter (coconut oil) mixture.
Mix until dough forms into a ball; knead for an additional five minutes. I used the dough hook attachment of the stand mixer to knead the dough.
At this point, I let the dough rest for about 15 minutes, though the original recipe does not call for a rest. The choice is yours.

On a well floured surface, roll dough into a rectangle.
Evenly spread apple mixture over dough.
Cut dough into even squares, I got about 20 with my dough.
Using a spatula, place piles of dough into prepared pan. Tip it on it's side a bit and put the piles upright. It will be a bit messy, but it's okay.
Bake the bread for 45-50 minutes; until golden brown. I recommend placing a sheet of foil under the pan to catch any of the syrup that drips out during baking. I also checked the bread about 30 minutes into the baking process and tented it with more foil to keep the top from getting too dark.  Once the bread is done, immediately remove from pan.
Allow to cool a bit before serving.

Enjoy!

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February Sourdough Surprises - Monkey Bread

As I'm sure you have figured out by now, I am a huge fan of sweet breads. Cinnamon buns, pull-apart breads... absolute yumminess.

And they're so versitile! You can make them any flavor you want!

So making monkey bread for this month's Sourdough Surprises was super fun. Because the only way to make a sweet bread more fun is to drown it in extra sweetness, right?

The first thing to get started on was the dough. I chose to use this recipe from Sour Salty Bitter Sweet as my inspiration because it looked straightforward and like it didn't require many more steps than yeasted monkey bread.

The dough came together pretty easily...

...but did require a little bit of extra liquid than the recipe called for. I added room-temperature water a tablespoon at a time until the dough came together.

It was a little stiff, still, but I figured a nice long rise would help that out. So I let it sit at room temperature for many, many hours. Like... all day.

Around dinner time, I decided it was time to figure out what flavor I was going to make my monkey bread. Sure, I could go "classic" and just coat the dough balls in cinnamon sugar and pour a regular caramel sauce over the whole thing, but I wanted a little something extra.

I looked around the kitchen and saw... four very ripe bananas!

Perfect!

Vegan roasted banana caramel. Yup. Huge scoop of coconut oil, huge scoop of brown sugar, sliced those bananas, then set 'em in the oven for almost an hour.

And this is what you get.

Pure heaven in a pan.

Which has to cool for a while, making the whole family drool.

After the kids went to bed, I got to work putting everything together.  The dough rose beautifully over the course of the day.

Next comes the long part (if you don't count letting the dough sit on the counter all day... or letting the bananas roast for an hour... okay, the longest hands-on part, okay??) - breaking off little balls of that dough, rolling them, and coating them in cinnamon sugar.

I tossed the cinnamon sugar dough into my Bundt pan and, every few balls, scooped out a few of those pieces of roasted banana from the caramel and tossed them in, too.

When I'd used up all the dough, I just poured the caramel sauce over the whole thing and it was all set!

Well, it still needed another rest. This one, overnight in the fridge.

The next morning was (yet another...) snow day, which actually worked out great. I took the pan out of the oven to let it come up to temperature and then baked this up for a delicious mid-morning snack.

Oooey gooey deliciousness, I tell you.

This dough definitely had a very present sourdough tang, but I thought thar went really well with the sweet banana caramel.  My favorite way to eat this was warm with a scoop of vanilla ice cream, but it was also super easy to just reach into the pan and grab a little ball of deliciousness as I was walking by the kitchen.

So what kind of monnkey bread did you make? Link up and share!

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Roasted Banana Caramel Sourdough Monkey Bread
(dough only sightly modified from Sour Salty Bitter Sweet)

For the dough:
2 cups refreshed sourdough starter (100% hydration)
1 egg
3-4 cups all-purpose flour (start with 3 and use more if you need. I did not need more.)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
4 tablespoons butter, melted (I used melted coconut oil)
1/4 cup sugar

Combine all the dough ingredients (starting with 3 cups of the flour) and mix until combined. I used my KitchenAid mixer with the dough hook attachment. Add more flour as necessary to form a dough that will clean the sides of the bowl and sticks to itself more than it sticks to you. I actually found the dough to be too dry and had to add water, a tablespoon at a time, to reach the right consistency. Be patient and adjust as needed. Continue mixing/kneading in the bowl for a few minutes, just until it’s evenly combined. You can turn it onto a floured surface and knead longer if you like, but it’s not necessary.
Allow the dough to rise for 8-12, or until doubled in size. You can let it rest overnight if you'd like (or in the fridge for a bit longer).


For the roasted banana caramel:
3/4 to 1 cup coconut oil
3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar
4 good sized ripe bananas

Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line a small baking dish with foil.
Place the coconut oil in the pan, then sprinkle the brown sugar over it. Slice the bananas into 1/2 to 1 inch slices over the coconut oil and brown sugar. Try to spread everything out across the pan so that you don't just have a heap of everything in the middle, but don't stress too much about it - as the coconut oil melts, things will spread out.
Place the pan in the oven and roast for 45 - 60 minutes, until the coconut oil and sugar have carmalized nicely and the bananas are nicely roasted.
Allow to cool.


To assemble the monkey bread:
Prepared dough
Prepared roasted banana caramel
approximately 1/2 cup cinnamon sugar

Once the dough has doubled in size and the banana caramel has cooled, gently deflate the dough and spray a Bundt or tube pan with non-stick cooking spray. Take small portions of the dough (about quarter size, definitely no bigger than golf balls), roll them into balls, then roll each ball in the cinnamon sugar. Drop each coated dough ball into the prepared pan. Don't forget to add pieces of the roasted banana as you go, so that they are interspersed throughout the dough balls. Once you have rolled all the dough and added it to the pan, pour the caramel over the whole thing.
Allow this to rise for at least two hours, or overnight in the refrigerator.
When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. If you rested your dough in the refrigerator, be sure to allow the pan to get close to room temperature before baking.
Bake the monkey bread for about 45 minutes until golden brown.
Allow the monkey bread to cook for at least a few minutes before inverting the pan. If you invert it too soon, it won't have a chance to set and it won't stick together or hold its shape. Which isn't really a problem, as it will still taste delicious...

Enjoy!

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Baked Oatmeal Muffins

I am always looking for different, new, quick, sometimes-even-healthy breakfast ideas.  So when a facebook friend recently posted a link to something called breakfast cupcakes, I was intrigued. Looking at the recipes, it's actually more of a baked oatmeal, baked to be single-serving-sized in cupcake tins, but hey - nothing wrong with that!

The recipe makes over two dozen muffins, so I decided to make a half batch. It comes together super easily.

The dry ingredients, for the most part, are oatmeal and spices. I added a couple tablespoons of chia seeds and a quarter cup of wheat germ to the mix to add an extra boost to the muffins.

The wet ingredients are mostly comprised of mashed bananas, but also include water, maple syrup (or agave nectar or honey, if you choose) and vanilla. If you remember to add it. Which I didn't. Oops.

Then simply mix until all of the dry ingredients are moistened and scoop it into a muffin tin!

I packed the muffin cups as full as I could. I didn't think it would all fit into my 12 muffin cups, but it did! Since there's not leavening agent in there, you don't have to worry about overfilling them and having them puff out into a big, giant mess, so just pack it in there as tightly as you can!

Then bake! And I took the recipes suggestion of switching the oven to broil for two minutes after they are done to give the tops a nice, golden touch.

And then it was time for breakfast!

I'll be honest - I'm the only one who liked these. Little miss said no after one bite, little man took his time and then decided against them after about three bits. And daddy's still on his carb-free diet, so he'll have to try them some other time. But I liked them - both the taste and the easy portability of these. And, even better, you can pop these into the freezer and then just microwave them as needed.

These also make a great snack after exercising.  Maybe it's psycho-somatic, but these tasted even better after four miles on the treadmill.

I definitely think I'll be keeping these around in the freezer as breakfasts, recovery-snacks and on-the-go treats in a pinch. And I think I'm going to try adding chocolate chips or fruit next time, too.  Yum!

Baked Oatmeal Muffins

(adapted from Chocolate Covered Katie)

2 1/2 cups rolled oats

1/4 cup wheat germ

2 tablespoons chia seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 - 1 1/2 cups over-ripe mashed banana (I used three medium sized bananas)

3 tablespoons maple syrup

1 1/4 cups water

3 tablespoons vegetable oil

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

optional add-ins: shredded coconut, chopped walnuts, ground flax, raisins or other dried fruit, chocolate chips, diced fruit... or anything else you think will go!

Preheat oven to 380, and line 12 cupcake tins. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir together. 

In a separate bowl, mash the bananas and then mix in the remaining wet ingredients. 

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry, stirring to incorporate, then pour into the cupcake liners. Don't be afraid to fill the muffin tins completely.

Bake muffins for 20 - 22 minutes. When the muffins are baked, switch the oven broil and cook for a further 1-2 minutes to give the tops a nice, golden hint (if you'd like).

These oatmeal cakes can be eaten right away, or they can be frozen and reheated for an instant breakfast on a busy day.

(Note: If you let them cool completely, they're a lot easier to peel out of the cupcake liners.) 

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