Blueberry Banana Snack Cakes

The line between snack cake and muffin is one that is so fine that I choose not to walk it. The main difference here is that often with muffins you use the well method and add the wet ingredients to the dry whereas with this snack cake you do the opposite. Either way, these make a tasty treat. I think you could make these in a mini-loaf pan and have them come out nicely as well. They might even make a good gift.

Blueberry Banana Snack Cakes

1 1/4 cups sugar
2/3 cup butter, melted
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups ripe bananas, mashed (about 3 medium bananas)
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/8 tsp. salt
1 cup fresh or frozen blueberries
powdered sugar

1- Preheat oven to 350. Line muffin pan with paper cup liners.
2- In large mixer bowl, combine sugar, butter, buttermilk, eggs and vanilla. Beat at medium speed until creamy. Add bananas and beat until well mixed. Add flour, baking soda and salt. Beat at low speed until moistened (do not overmix at this point or snack cakes will get tough). By hand, stir/fold in the blueberries.
3- Spoon batter into paper-lined cups to about 2/3 to 3/4 full. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from pan and let cool. Just before serving, sprinkle cakes with powdered sugar (this is optional if you want to keep them less messy).

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

If you've looked over old entries, then you may have become aware of my affection for shortbread and my various attempts at making it. This recipe came out rather nicely. The major downside is in appearance. If you bake these long enough to get a light brown color then they get a bit dry. Perhaps if the dough was rolled out and cut into shapes instead of done as drop cookies then you could fix this problem. Fortunately, the taste is undiminished by the outside color. You could also make these as plain shortbread by leaving out the chocolate chips.

Chocolate Chip Shortbread

2 cups flour
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup chocolate chips (I used mini chips.)
granulated sugar for topping

1- Preheat oven to 350.
2- Whisk together flour and salt. In another bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add vanilla. Stir in flour mixture until dough forms. Stir in chocolate chips. Form into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 1 hour.
3- Form dough into 1" balls and place on ungreased baking sheet. Dip the bottom of a glass in granulated sugar and lightly press each ball into a disc shape. Bake for 8-10 minutes. Cool on baking sheet for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Mint Chocolate Cookies

There really aren't many better combinations than mint and chocolate. There's little you can do when blending these flavors that won't come out at least edible if not delicious. These cookies fell into the delicious category. I thought they reminded me of Andes mints. My mom said she thought they tasted like Thin Mints. Either way, delicious. These are basically the cookie recipe on the back of the Nestle Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels bag, but hey, they've got a well-paid, well-trained staff coming up with recipes. Who am I not to steal them?

Mint Chocolate Cookies

2 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup baking cocoa (I'd avoid the super dark versions of baking cocoa out there right now for this recipe since the chips themselves are dark chocolate.)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
2 eggs
1 2/3 cups (10 oz. pkg) Dark Chocolate and Mint Morsels

1- Preheat oven to 325.
2- Combine flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt in a small bowl.
3- Beat butter, sugar, brown sugar and vanilla in a large bowl until creamy. Add eggs. Slowly add flour mixture. Stir in morsels.
4- Drop by well-rounded tablespoon onto ungreased baking sheet. Bake for 11 to 13 minutes or until cookies are puffed and centers are set. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes and then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Chewy Gingersnaps

I've been baking up a storm recently. So now I'm going to get as many of the recipes posted as I can over the next few days. Some of them have photos and some don't. Mostly this is due to my camera's batteries running out, but also, I've come to accept that I am just not a very good food photographer. I may not be a very good photographer in general, but I'll leave that question for another day.

I'm not big on gingersnaps, though I love the smell. I was making holiday gift bags for my mom to give out with gift certificates to a coffeehouse and gingersnaps seemed both thematically and seasonally appropriate. Unfortunately my cookbooks and most of my recipes are in transit from my move, so I had to go out and find a new gingersnap recipe. This one is different from my regular one in that the cookies end up much bigger, flatter and chewier than my normal gingersnaps. I suppose these should really be called ginger-chews, but that just sounds gross. Overall, these are a nice alternative to the typical gingersnap.

Chewy Gingersnaps

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cloves
2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses (come on, what's the point of mild molasses anyway?)
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar (you can use your favorite blend here... or eyeball it till it's the right color like I did)

1- Preheat oven to 350.
2- Sift together flour, ground ginger, ground cloves, baking soda, ground cinnamon and salt. Set aside.
3- Cream butter and sugar together. Beat in egg and molasses. Add 1/3 of flour mixture and stir until incorporated. Add remaining flour mixture and stir/mix until a soft dough forms (it will still be quite sticky).
4- Roll into 1" diameter balls and roll in cinnamon sugar (I used a cookie scoop to put the right amount of dough into the cinnamon sugar then once coated formed it into a ball. Less messy on your hands this way.).
5- Bake on ungreased cookie sheet until tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Let cool for a few minutes on the sheet then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.