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

A whole website of illustrated recipes?!  I’m quite liking They Draw & Cook.  You can search by illustration style, recipe type, or by ingredient!  

Fig Marmalade by Lucile Prache
Oatmeal with Honeyed Figs by Jessica Pollak
Focaccia by Anita Lozar

Hey, Chocolate Muffin.  What’s with the disguise?  You are too sweet and too cake-like to be a muffin.  You’re a cupcake, silly. 
Yumm.  I excluded the walnuts and the almond topping, and instead topped some with leftover frosting (it keeps well in the freezer).
I had this recipe written down from a few years ago, but it seems to have come from allrecipes.  Chocolate Chocolate-Chip Nut Muffins

When I made the chocolate chip pecan cookies I first mixed pecans into the dough, and then reserved some to put white chocolate and dried cranberries in.  They had more taste than the chocolate chip (chunk) ones.

Chocolate Chip Pecan Cookies (without the whole wheat flour)
Not the best chipsters I’ve made…maybe they needed salt.  I should have just added pecans to another chocolate chip cookie recipe!  

I was craving a graham cracker crust and had to find something to put in it, so I made a pudding pie!  I’ve made it before but I don’t think I’ve taken a photo.  It was super rich from a chocolate block I used, which is now gone…I definitely need another one!

Chocolate Pudding Pie from Williams-Sonoma (I didn’t make the topping and used a graham cracker crust instead of a chocolate crust)

Cake!  I tried out the chocolate version of the Martha Stewart Living cake, and it was also delicious and similarly, the only good chocolate cake I’ve made, ever (not counting the flourless chocolate cake).  
I cut the recipe in half again so that I had one layer of cake, but I wanted to try the vanilla again with different frosting, so I had one vanilla as well.  The chocolate had chocolate sour cream frosting, and the vanilla had caramel frosting in the middle, and caramel-peanut butter on the top and sides!

Cake recipes and frosting & filling recipes
(from this post)

Many moons ago I was craving s’mores but did not have graham crackers.  I tried out these homemade ones, but with a different texture than store-bought grahams, they didn’t quite work.  On their own, however, they are really great.  Chewy and full of flavor, regular grahams are tasteless to me now.  I made them for the second time last month, and they disappeared pretty fast!  

Homemade Graham Crackers from Smitten Kitchen.
Note to self: next time, take crackers out of the oven while they’re still soft.  They will be nice and firm once cooled. 

Because cake is obviously a perfect choice for breakfast, I present to you…Breakfast Cake, or the Cake Formerly Known as Coffee Cake.  I’ve been eating this cake since I was a mere speck in the womb (maybe?) and later my mom started calling it breakfast cake to avoid disgust from my sister and I after saying “cake” right after the word “coffee”.

The only thing you really need to know about this cake is that it’s quick, easy, and you’re going to eat a whole lot of it in one sitting.  Bake away, friends:

Breakfast Cake
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup butter
1  1/4 cup sugar
1/3 cup applesauce
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla

Topping
1  1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)
3/4 cup sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Combine dry ingredients in bowl, set aside.  Prepare topping in separate bowl, set aside.  Grease a 9 x 13” pan and preheat oven to 350˚F.

2. Cream butter & sugar, add applesauce.  Beat in eggs, sour cream & vanilla.  Add dry.

3. Pour half of the batter into the pan and sprinkle with half of the topping.  Pour on the rest of the batter, spread out, and sprinkle with the remaining topping.

4. Bake until toothpick comes out clean, about 30-35 minutes.  (Original recipe says 35-40, but that’s too long in my oven.)

I prefer it without the walnuts in the topping, but as you can see, I sprinkled on some pecans after it was baked.  I still like it better without any nuts.

creativeanchorage:

Ranger cookies, only the best cookies EVER.
They’re loaded with rice krispies, toasted coconut, and jumbo raisins! 
Recipe

Made these again, twice!