creative anchorage

I still had leftover failed macaroon coconut after making the scones, so I made some coconut banana bread with added walnuts.  This time I managed to not eat it until the next day!  Breads like this are really pointless to eat the same day, since they need time to flavor through.  Anyway, I love this banana bread recipe…the yogurt makes it nice and soft.

Banana Coconut Bread
2 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons butter, softened
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups bananas, mashed
1/4 cup plain yogurt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup flaked coconut  

Grease a 9x5” loaf pan and preheat oven to 350˚F.  
Combine flour, soda and salt.  In a mixer bowl, cream butter and sugar.  Beat in eggs individually.  Add bananas, yogurt and vanilla.  Mix in dry.  Fold in 1/2 coconut (and I added walnuts here).  Pour into pan and bake for 55-65 minutes.

I made some coconut macaroons that didn’t turn out at all.  The recipe either had way too much coconut in it or not enough egg whites to match, because they were just…ick.  They were dry and when I tried to swallow a bite I ended up with a mass of coconut stuck in my throat.  I decided to throw them in the food processor and reuse them in other things (I figured it would be fine, since the mixture looked like plain coconut).  
First I mixed some macaroons coconut into dark chocolate and added raisins and almonds, and also mixed coconut into white chocolate with cinnamon, raisins and almonds.
Later on I made scones with coconut, chocolate chips and almonds!  I had the recipe saved for a while and I’m so glad the failed macaroons finally made me try it.  They were so good!  Joy recommends eating them with cherry jam which I wasn’t sure about, but I tried a piece with some of Wegman’s mixed berry fruit spread (the one with raspberry as the main berry), and she was right, yum!  (Also, new plate from Target!)
Chocolate Coconut Almond Scones from Joy the Baker

Cookie butter smells like gingerbread and tastes like cookies!  I was trying it out here on a slice of cinnamon raisin bread, but my favorite was eating it with pretzels.  I’m not so sure about it though, because it’s thicker than peanut butter which makes it hard to eat.  I’ll stick with Nutella!  
Read about Biscoff Spread on Baking Bites

Look at this beautiful creature!  My first attractive-looking egg-in-the-hole, and I didn’t burn the bread!  I’ve discovered they taste excellent with a slice of provolone cheese on top (melted, of course).

Oh look I scanned some cinnamon raisin bread.

For me, one of the best things about Christmas (and…two months after Christmas) is eating the German cake/bread Stollen.  Fattening, buttery, raisiny slices covered with powdered sugar!  Yum yum yum.  I’ve never baked it myself, but the pictures in recipes I’ve seen have all looked too bread-like, and therefore the wrong texture.  The store-bought is delicious though, so that’s okay!

I’m always wary around scones to try and avoid the rock hard kind.  Turns out, Trader Joe’s blueberry scones are not only not hard, but are also more like a cookie due to their high butter content.  Yum!  But not in large amounts.  Then they start tasting gross.

Oh, and that lemon curd (that I was going to eat) is just a prop since it was expired…and not the “it’s still okay” expired.

From my Williams-Sonoma cookbook…Blueberry Banana bread!  The light banana flavor gave the bread a nice extra something, and it was super soft and delicious.  I’ll definitely make it again, and maybe next time with pecans (I ran out and used walnuts instead).
Recipe

Cinnamon buns!  I was craving some, but all of the previous recipes I’ve tried turned out too gooey (the filling was too liquidy and made the bread part mushy).  I came across a recipe which had very little butter in the filling (the previous culprit).  They also don’t have yeast in them which means it doesn’t take practically the whole day to make them!  They tasted fine without it (yeast gives bread flavor) except for the outer layer which wasn’t encased in cinnamon, and also were not as soft because of the lack of yeast.  But for super quick and not too gooey buns, they’re pretty good, and I’d definitely make them again.  Recipe

Delicious sandwich made of a crusty roll slathered with butter, double smoked pepper ham, and provolone cheese!

My mom made some delicious ciabatta with her bread machine!  It was super soft and the crust was actually edible instead of being rock hard (which I suppose is how it’s supposed to be, but I think the soft version is an improvement.)

A snippet of our bread conversation:
Her: I guess it’s close enough to Italian bread.
Me: No….it’s better.

And it was even better with butter and jam!

Krispy Kreme donuts!  I love me some crullers.
I only took a few pictures and this was the clearest one…oh well.