Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Banana Pancakes

It's waaay too hot to bake. But not too hot to make pancakes for Jenn and Natalie.

I like anything that involves bananas because I always have a lot of them lying around. I put just one banana in this recipe and it gave it just a hint of flavor. I think next time either 2 bananas or add in some sliced banana with the chocolate chips.

This recipe made enough pancakes for 4 or 5 people. You can definitely half it for 2 people unless you want leftovers. Again I used egg yolks in here because I alway have them lying around too.

This recipe comes from Leanne Bakes.

Ingredients:

1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
dash of salt

1 1/2 cup buttermilk
1/2 cup soy milk
1 mashed banana
5 egg yolks or 2 whole eggs
1/4 cup canola oil

water to thin batter

a few handfuls of semi-sweet chocolate chips- added after the pancake has been poured in the pan but before you flip it.

Method:

Combine all dry ingredients in 1st paragraph in one bowl, set aside.
Combine all wet ingredients in 2nd paragraph in another bowl.
Add dry to wet and mix.
Thin batter with a little water until it is the consistency of thick soup.
Heat your pan and melt a little butter on it.
Pour out a tester pancake and when that starts to really cook begin cooking the rest.
Add chocolate chips after you pour the batter on the pan and then flip them over. You would do the same thing for any addition like berries etc. to ensure equal distribution.

Pancakes keep really well in the fridge and are good toasted in the toaster oven the next day or just eaten cold from the fridge.

Ice Cream Sandwich a la Elias Grim

This is what happens when Elias and Jenn come over for dinner and we have ice cream and these whole wheat chocolate chip walnut cookies on the table. Elias- dessert slut that he is- made this beautiful sandwich with softened vanilla ice cream and proclaimed it to be delicious. Good thing Nan and I softened the ice cream for him in the sun on the walk home from Pathmark.

Enjoy Li Li!!

Chocolate-Dipped Coconut Macaroons

My friend and neighbor Jenn asked my mom and I to teach her how to make macaroons. Little did she know that neither of us has ever made them before. So Marie set out to get eggs, chocolate, and coconut from Target and I started looking at recipes.

Macaroons turned out to be really simple-looking to make, but they can be very finicky to bake correctly- as we found out. There is a delicate balance between getting them brown on the outside yet cooked all the way through, and not sticking to the freaking parchment paper.

I settled on a recipe that didn't have sweetened condensed milk or flour. I also found that most people were baking their macaroons at 325, although my recipe called for 300, this didn't get them cooked enough so I went back to 325. We made ours bite-sized, these things hit you like a bag of sugar to the face, plus this way you can have more than one.

This recipe makes 8 bite-sized macaroons, it can easily be doubled or tripled etc.

Ingredients:

1 Egg White
1 Tbsp Sugar
1/4 Tsp Vanilla
3/4 C Sweetened Coconut
Pinch Salt

Method:

1. Mix all ingredients with spoon or your hands in a bowl until totally combined
2. Divide into 4 balls if you want larger or 8 balls if you want the bite-sized and squeeze with your fingers until they hold their ball-shape
3. Spray parchment paper with Pam or brush with oil or butter or they will stick!! and place them as close as you want- they don't spread at all
4. Bake for around 20 mins or until they are golden brown and crusty on the outside. If they are too mushy leave them in longer, but don't let them get too dark
5. Let them cool for a couple of minutes and then remove them with a spatula
6. Make your chocolate dip by melting 2/3 C chocolate chips of any kind you like (semi-sweet, dark, milk whatever) and 1 Tbsp of butter over a double boiler and when the macaroons are cool either dip them in chocolate or drizzle it with a spoon over their tops
7. Store in tupperware in the fridge so the chocolate hardens

Here's another one that I want to try later this week if I have time: Raspberry Coconut Macaroons from Smitten Kitchen. I'll let you know how they turn out. And I'm definitely going to dip these in chocolate.

Photo credit: Smitten Kitchen

Jenn's Didn't Have Any Eggs In the House Oatmeal Cookies

Question: what happens when you bake at Jenn's house and she doesn't have any eggs in the fridge? Answer: you google an eggless oatmeal raisin cookie recipe and pray for the best.

Ingredients:

1/3 C Butter
1/4 C Brown Sugar
1/8 C White Sugar
1/3 Tsp Vanilla
1/2 C AP Flour
1/4 Tsp Salt
1/3 Tsp B Soda
1/8 C Boiling Water (we used cold and it didn't matter)
2/3 C Oats (we used actual granola)
1/4 C Raisins
1/2 C Chocolate Chips

Method:

Preheat oven to 350.
We melted the butter in the microwave and then mixed it with the butter using Jen's wand mixer. Then we added the vanilla, salt, b soda, water, and last the flour and oats and choc chips. This recipe only makes about 6 nice big cookies because we were just baking a small batch for fun. Put them in the oven for 12 mins to start then add 2 mins until they're starting to get brown, but take them out of the oven while still a little soft because they are going to harden up and get crispy once you remove them from the oven.