banana bread balls

Cake balls.
I like them, they're ok. I prefer cake balls made with real chocolate not dipping melts.
Something about that flavor of dipping melts is just not right--chemically? metallic?
The one thing that I hated about making cake balls is the batter is a little too delicate, sure I'm not a professional and really haven't made them a lot, so I could get better with practice.
With these banana bread balls, the dough/batter is so much easier to dip. Heartier, less chances of it falling apart when you dip them in chocolate.
Who doesn't love easier?

(sorry for the moisture droplets on the chocolate; it's been a hot & humid summer on cape cod)

So yes, these banana bread balls were a HUGE success; I was truly happy with the first run.
I'm certain you will be too.
Great idea to make with the kids. Just have your dipping station set up and it's so easy.
I highly recommend using the nuts--you really want that texture. You could also stick them on a stick.
So easy to make really. If you want to find a 'hard part'? It would dipping the balls in chocolate.


Take a perfectly cooked loaf of banana bread, smash it up and mix with cream cheese.


Roll into 1-2 inch size balls. And keep in fridge till ready to dip. Make sure the balls are always kept cold before dipping.


Get your dipping station ready.


For dipping, I used a plastic fork. Chopsticks also work well too.

Make sure to sprinkle tops with chopped walnuts!

Let set up until chocolate hardens.

I used milk chocolate for dipping. But dark might work too.


I think these lasted a day in the house? They are really good. A real treat.

I'll be taking a small blogging break for a few days.
Have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

banana bread balls
print recipe

I used one of my favorite banana breads: Mama Dips’ Banana Bread.
Feel free to use whatever banan bread recipe you prefer.

1/2 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium; the browner, the better!)
3 TB sour cream
1 TB lemon juice
2 cups flour
1 1/2 ts baking powder
1/2 ts salt
1/2 ts baking soda

8 ounces of cream cheese, room temp
2 cups +/- of milk chocolate chips (for dipping)
1 cup of crushed walnuts or pecans, optional

Preheat oven to 350 degrees
In bowl of stand mixer, cream shortening and sugar.
Beat in eggs one at a time; then bananas, sour cream, and lemon juice.
Sift together flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda.
Slowly add dry ingredients to mixture.

Pour into greased and floured 9x5x3 loaf pan.
Bake for 60 minutes.

Once bread is cooled. Crumble it up in a large bowl until you have crumbs—no large chunks should be remaining.
Add in the softened cream cheese. Mix well. I used my hands to mix this really well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let set up, harden.
Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Scoop out 1 or 2 inch balls, roll into fairly uniform balls. If using a medium size ice cream scoop makes it easier then go ahead. Remember you don’t want balls any larger than 2 inches.
Once all balls are done, place in fridge to chill.
Temper milk or dark chocolate. I used about 2+ cups of milk chocolate chips.
You might need a bit more.
Once chocolate is tempered, using a plastic fork or chopsticks, dip balls into chocolate and place on parchment lined cookie sheet.
Sprinkle the balls with the chopped nuts while chocolate is still soft.
It takes a while for the chocolate to harden or you can place them in the fridge to speed up the process.

They keep covered in air tight container in the fridge for about 3 days.
Should make about 25 balls; dependent on the size you roll them.

bacon jam stuffed corncakes

Bacon Jam.
Aren't those two of the best words--ever?
I've had bacon jam on my "baking bucket list" for a long time.
I finally got around to making it. Was inspired from one of my favorite foodie blogs Homesick Texan.
She made a spicy version and I made a spicy & sweet version.
But I learned the basic (and good) bacon jam base from her.



You should know the other fabulous find of this post.....

I wanted to make corncakes from scratch, but alas I had no cornmeal in the house.
But I did have a box of cornbread mix from Trader Joe's.
I do hate to waste food, so why not see if it will pancake?



Guess what? It did! And it was quite good to.
Now before you all start hating on me for using a box mix, it was all I had AND
these actually fried up a lot lighter and crisper than a normal corn cake would.
Plus I had to see if "it would pancake"? Just like the term "will it waffle"?
The only downside? A bit tricky to flip.
But one can remedy that with making the corn cakes small; pouring a little batter at a time.

I bet you have a couple boxes of cornbread mix just sitting in your cupboard right now.
Ask yourself--will it pancake? I bet it will.


Go ahead and mix up the batter like you normally would.
Fry them in some melted butter.
Stuff with bacon jam!







Making the bacon jam is quite easy. I've included the recipe in this post as well.
If y ou do make it, and decide to freeze some, let me know if it freezes well.
I know a lot of you will ask me that question, and to be honest the jam did not last long enough to "save for later".
It got used up fairly fast in a bunch of other recipes, which I will post.





sweet & spicy bacon jam
print recipe

1 & ½ pounds of bacon (uncooked)
half of a medium red onion, finely diced
2-3 TB fresh chopped garlic
2-3 chipotles en adobo (with the sauce too), minced (this gives a mild heat; if you want more heat add more minced chipotles en adobo)
2 TB ketchup
¼ cup + 1 TB light brown sugar
½ ts allspice
½ TB double dutch cocoa powder
1 cup of brewed espresso
¼ cup Coke
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
a couple dashes of black pepper

Slice up the bacon into 1-inch pieces. Cook in batches until cooked, all fat is rendered. Do not cook bacon till crisp. Drain cooked bacon on paper towels, remove all bacon fat from pan except for a couple tablespoons. Then over
medium heat, cook the onion and garlic until they are just cooked thru and lightly brown.
Add back in the cooked bacon, all spices, all the liquids and all the rest of the ingredients. Turn heat to low, and let simmer for a couple hours until mixture has reduced and almost all liquid is gone. You should get a nice thick-like chili consistency. Place in bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let set up in fridge for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Then place bacon jam into a food processor, and puree for a few pulses. Don’t puree too much, we want to have chunks.

Makes about 1 & ½ cups of jam.
Keeps well in the fridge (tightly covered) for about 5-6 days.
Not sure how it freezes.

__________________________________________________________________________

bacon jam stuffed corncakes
print recipe

If you're willing to use a cornbread mix to make the pancakes then go ahead.
The pancakes are a lot more delicate to flip over, so make them small.
As shown in the photo above, all you need to do to stuff them is put a couple of dollops of bacon jam
on the cornbread batter, let it brown on one side, then gently flip over.
I got about 12-15 small pancakes using the Trader Joe's cornbread mix.
Follow the instructions on the box as you would normally.
Fry up the pancakes in butter.
Serve with chopped veggies like tomatoes, cukes, onions, etc...
And serve with sour cream.
Remember these are savory pancakes, so maple syrup might not taste so great.
If you don't want to use a corn bread mix then use your favorite corn cake recipe.
I do highly recommend serving some hot sauce with these too.

friday links

Happy Friday!
I'm really happy its friday, what a long week.

Starting off this friday links is one very important link.
All about Body Wisdom. Such a great read, so insightful.
I think you'll go back to it again and again like I do.


And if you need ways to boost your self esteem.


I'm beginning to really love Mark Sisson of Mark's Daily Apple.
Here is greatist routine from the people at Greatist.com.

Behold the mighty power of the avocado.

Can you imagine we put this in our personal ads?
Found on Pinterest.

6 very scary things hiding in your food.

10 life changing tips from Deepak.

Good food on a tight budget. LOVE this site.
Make sure to bookmark this one.

Lyme disease prevention & tips.

Gender differences in fat metabolism.

Have an abundance of zucchini?
Zucchini cookies!


Chocolate covered cake on a stick!
Photo from Cakespy.com

Peanut butter and jelly cookie sandwiches.
Wait till you see the photo. Incredible.

Homemade salt water taffy that you can do. Easy.
I will be trying this.


Enamelware pie set.
Just love this website: terrain.com


And these tumblers.

9 ways fingernails can reflect your health.
I don't know about this, seems kind crazy to base it all on the health of a fingernail?

The secret pool in the Woolworth Building.

Taste test: Serious Eats does a taste test of the top 9 green juices.

Lose your cooking/baking mojo?
Tips to get it back.


DIY (and far healthier) blueberry cereal bars.
From molly sheridan.


I've been eating ice cream every other day for a few weeks now (mint oreo).
I do love summer.

Milk tea sherbet (from seriouseats.com)

Books I want to read (click on image for info):






And lastly, a HILARIOUS spoof on the new iphone 5.
The iphone for foodies.
Siri can now recognize the food you eat!

Have a great weekend!

key lime meltaways

I remember years ago (dare I say decades?) when I had my first taste of a rum meltaway cookie.
What a great texture, great flavor--and it bothered me to no end what made it so smooth.
Since I was still fairly new at the in's and out's of baking and cooking, I would have never guessed it was cornstarch.
Funny because back then I always thought it was something unique, wild, a rare faraway spice or herb. HA!
Here it was just cornstarch.
Recently, I had another "ah ha baking moment" find when I discovered how to get the perfect popover: cold oven.
And boy does it work. (I learned this from chef john over at Food Wishes).
The best part of learning and creating new recipes, all the new tips and tricks you find along the way; makes you eager to continue on learning all you can in cooking and baking. And for me, helps build confidence in the kitchen.

What are your baking "ah ha" moments?


Aren't these so pretty?
Make sure to decorate the chocolate dipped edges with lime zest.
I completely forgot. But trust me when I say the lime zest green color looks stunning against the white chocolate.


Every great recipe starts with lots of butter doesn't it?






See my tips on tempering the ever difficult white chocolate in the recipe.
Low heat and constant stirring for melting chocolates perfectly.
Remember: you can easily fixed undermelted, but cannot fix overmelted, so go slow.


Decorate the edges with lime zest to make them even more stunning!
(I completely forgot this part)



key lime melt-aways with white chocolate
print recipe

13 TB unsalted butter, room temperature
1/3 cup powdered sugar
Grated zest of 2 regular limes (I used about 2 TB zest, use whatever your lime zest taste level is at)
2 TB of fresh key lime juice (regular will work too)
½ TB pure vanilla extract
1 3/4 cups + 2 TB all-purpose flour
2 TB cornstarch
1/4 ts salt

white chocolate dipping:
1 and ¾ cups good quality white chocolate chips
a couple dashes of heavy cream

extra lime zest for sprinkling (I forgot this part)

Cook Notes:
I used key limes for the juice part and regular limes for the zest. The key lime juice is much sweeter and tastier, and the skin of the key lime isn’t that great so that’s why I used regular limes for zest.
Keep in mind the thinner you cut/slice the cookies the more fragile they become, so I stuck with ½ inch thick. If you’re not dipping them in white chocolate then go ahead make them thinner if desired.
The tops of the cookies do not brown, but the bottoms will—you should not bake cookies past the 15 minute mark.

In a medium bowl, sift the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Set aside.
In a large bowl beat butter and sugar on medium high speed until light and fluffy. Add the lime juice, zest and vanilla and beat the mixture until fluffy. Reduce speed to low and add the flour mixer to the butter. Mix until just combined—once you add the flour do not overmix.
Ready a two 8"x12" pieces of waxed paper or parchment. Divide the dough into two equal portions and roll into two 1.25" diameter logs. Wrap the dough tightly in the waxed paper or parchment. Chill for at least an hour before baking.

Heat the oven to 350°F and line a baking sheet with parchment. Slice the cookies ½ -inch thick and place on the baking sheet.
Bake for 15 minutes, rotating halfway through baking, until the bottoms take on some color. The tops of the cookies will not brown, but the bottoms will.
Let cookies cool completely before dipping.
Temper the white chocolate chips with the heavy cream over a double boiler or whatever method you prefer and works. I do not recommend melting white chocolate in the microwave.
What I do is heat up (barely warm means heat up in this case), over very low heat, the heavy cream, in a small heavy duty sauce pan; add in the white chocolate chips and keep stirring with a spatula. As I’m stirring I take the pan on and off the heat and look for almost all the chips to be dissolved then I take it off heat. Keep stirring till I get a nice glossy, almost thin, taffy like texture. Best thing to do if you’re not sure about tempering white chocolate? Keep stirring and take off heat frequently. You can easily fixed undermelted, but cannot fix overmelted.
Dip one end of the cooled cookies in the white chocolate, place on wire cooling rack to let chocolate harden and excess drip off. Sprinkle them with lime zest for decorations if desired.

Should make 25-35 cookies depending on how thick/thin you slice them.

friday links

Happy Friday!

Time to share some good finds.

Surprising uses for bananas.

Shopping for gluten free foods? There's an app for that.

West Nile Virus. What you need to know (I didn't know all this and had to share it with you).

Most people who go gluten free, don't have celiac disease

Need some exercise inspiration?
Meet "walking wally" from my neck of the woods. He's just amazing. Click here to find out why. Go Wally! (from myfoxboston.com )

Trader Joe food recalls.

Time saving freezer tips.

As much as I love IKEA for their cheap furniture, some of the bookcases are ugly.
Here are some wonderful ideas to spruce that up.

I love this!
DIY (very easy) alternative to a childrens sand box.
DIY rice box. Genius.

Casting call with Interior Therapy with Jeff Lewis.


DIY Magnetic Wall. (from apartmenttherapy.com)


Gorgeous summer prints from society6.com

Steps to overcome the fear of judgement.

Best foods for a healthy weight (from Dr. Weil).

Reasons why we have bad dreams.

Does coffee decrease insulin sensitivity?


Whimsical fingernail landscapes. (Image from Alice Bartlett)

Sisters recreate their childhood photographs.

The Cake Man himself Duff Goldman is opening up DIY cake shops.
Where they bake you create!!
Excellent idea--brilliant.

Easy, super easy DIY baklava.

For all those fresh from the garden tomatoes?
You need to use this Maple-Balsamic Vinaigrette.


Bacon Potato Skins!

Homemade mallow cookies!

I needed to incorporate more leafy greens into my diet.
Tried this double-green smoothie recipe from Whole Foods.
It's really quite good.

Tomato tarte tatin (from 101cookbooks.com)


If you ever get the stomach bug, cold, flu, etc. You need to give this a go.
One of the strongest probiotics I've ever seen and had. It works, trust me.
Found at Whole Foods.
Dahlicious Lassi.


This was so good. I need to recreate this at home.

Have a wonderful weekend!