Category Archives: Cookies & Brownies & Bars

Banana Cookies

Posted in Cookies & Brownies & Bars, Desserts/Baking, Leftover Ideas by

Baking is by far the best way to use overripe bananas, especially because they mash so well. I always use them to make my tried and true banana bread, but this time I wanted something different, and I thought of banana cookies. I’d never heard of them before, but I was sure that’s what I wanted to make. Then I found a great recipe here. The writer says the recipe came from her grandmother and is more than 70 years old. Here is her recipe, slightly tweaked based on my baking this morning.


1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup mashed bananas (about 2 1/2 bananas)
1 tsp. baking soda
2 cups all-purpose (plain) flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
3/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 cup pecans, finely chopped (walnuts and chocolate chips are fine alternatives), plus extra whole pecans for topping

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add the egg and continue to beat until the mixture is light and fluffy.

In a bowl, mix the mashed bananas and baking soda. Let sit for 2 minutes. The baking soda will react with the acid in the bananas which in turn will give the cookies their lift and rise.

Mix the banana mixture into the butter mixture. Mix together the flour, salt, and spices and sift into the butter and banana mixture and mix until just combined.

Fold into the batter the pecans or chocolate chips if using. Drop in dollops onto parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Try to make the dollops as evenly round as possible. Press a pecan piece into the top of each one.

Bake for 11 minutes or until nicely golden brown. Let cool on wire racks.

Makes about 30 cookies.

Crispy-Chewy Truffle Brownies

Posted in Cookies & Brownies & Bars, Desserts/Baking by

I tasted these delicious brownies last week when a colleague brought them in to work. They were so good that I made them a few days later for a New Year’s Eve party, and they seemed to be a hit. I’m embarrassed to say it includes a packaged mix, but these were pretty darn awesome.

Makes 2 dozen

6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 box devil’s food cake mix (15–18 oz.)
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup roughly chopped pecans or walnuts
2 cups semi-sweet chocolate morsels, divided
1 14-oz. can sweetened condensed milk

Preheat oven to 350F degrees. Line a 13×9-inch baking pan with foil and wrap it over the edges. Melt butter in microwave or on stovetop.

Combine in large bowl the butter, cake mix, egg, and vanilla. Blend with electric mixer 1–2 minutes or until crumbly. If you have it, use a flat beater, like this one:

Transfer 1 cup of mixture to medium bowl, stir in nuts and 1 cup morsels, set aside.

Press remaining crumb mixture firmly into baking dish. Bake 15 minutes.

Place in small saucepan the remaining 1 cup morsels and condensed milk. Cook and stir on low heat 2–3 minutes or until smooth; pour over crust.

Top with nut mixture; bake 20–25 minutes or until topping is firm to the touch. Let stand 30–40 minutes or until completely cooled. Remove foil from baking dish and cut into bars. Serve.

(This recipe is originally from Publix, with some minor changes.)

S’mores Bars

Posted in Cookies & Brownies & Bars, Desserts/Baking by

This recipe is from a great blog featured recently on the WordPress site, The Shortlists. One look and I couldn’t resist trying it out myself.

It’s incredibly easy — just a few ingredients, one big, messy mixing bowl, and no baking involved. The taste will evoke memories of those tasty s’mores you may have had around the campfire years ago. It would be a great recipe to make with kids (but as I found out, it’s also pretty great when you’re after a homemade sweet treat in a hurry).

1 box Golden Grahams cereal (9 cups)
3 cups miniature marshmallows (or regular marshmallows chopped up)
3/4 cup light corn syrup
3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 12-oz. package milk chocolate chips
1 tsp. vanilla extract

Grease a 9×13-inch pan. You may want to line the pan with baking paper and grease that for easier cleanup.

Place the Golden Grahams in a large bowl. Measure the marshmallows and keep to one side.

In a large pot, stirring constantly, bring corn syrup, butter, chocolate, and vanilla to a boil and immediately remove from heat. Pour the warm chocolate mixture over the cereal, scraping the pot with a spatula. Use the spatula to stir the cereal mixture, then mix in the marshmallows until everything is coated. Scoop the mixture into the prepared pan and press it down evenly with the spatula.

If you want to enjoy it right away, let it sit at room temperature until cool and then scoop out the gooey pieces. For best results, and bars you can slice and serve, place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.