Pinterest fails

The other morning was epic in Pinterest fails. It was almost time for Coffee Girls and I had found a recipe for mini peach cobblers made in muffin tins. It sounded delicious and perfect.

It failed badly. And I mean really, really badly. The first time I followed the instructions perfectly. It overflowed the pan and dripped poured onto the oven below. The second time I changed up the recipe and it didn't overflow. But once it came out of the oven and had cooled I went to pull it out of the muffin tins and the top came out, but not the peaches and bottom. So I gave up, scooped everything into a bowl and presented it at Coffee Girls as peach cobbler. It tasted pretty good.

That evening I had a pottery party. Sadly I didn't get any pictures, but I do have another Pinterest fail. I had some fruit and thought I'd make a dip for it. Pulled up a recipe and whipped it up in the food processor. It was so runny with tons of tiny lumps. So I turned the processor on and went to put some things in the oven. Pretty soon I had a house filled with smoke and dip that hadn't changed a bit. I turned on the fans and gave up on the dip for a few minutes. 

When I returned it was to find a gelatinous mess that was not only gross looking, but pretty gross tasting as well. Another epic Pinterest fail.

On a good note - the party went great.

Banana Bread

I have been wanting make banana bread for a couple of weeks. Just something I was craving, I guess.

But in Thailand we tasted Laura's banana bread muffins and I knew I couldn't use my regular recipe again. So I hit Pinterest to find some recipes I'd pinned.

Meet our supper a couple of nights ago -

Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread

(found here)

and 

Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

(found here)
I expected everyone, including myself to like the Reese's best. But we were all surprised to find that absolute favorite was the cream cheese. It was soft and not as dry and tasted like heaven. They are both do-overs so we look forward to tweaking the recipes and enjoyed a lot more of them. You are welcome to go to Pinterst, but I'll include the recipes here in case you don't.

Reese's Peanut Butter Banana Bread

• 3 very ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/2 cup peanut butter
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 8 oz bag of Reese’s Mini cups

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 350
2. Grease your loaf pan (I used an 8 x 4 pan) with butter or shortening.
3. In a medium bowl whisk together your flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, set aside.
4. In a large bowl stir together your bananas, peanut butter, oil, egg and sugars.
5. Pour your dry ingredients into your wet ingredients and stir until just combined. 
6. Batter will be lumpy.
7. Fold in your Reese’s Mini cups and spread batter into prepared pan.
8. Bake for approx 1 hour or until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
9. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then loosen the edges of the pan with a knife and remove from loaf pan, transferring bread to a cooling rack.

 Cream Cheese Banana Nut Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon salt 3/4 cup butter, softened 8 ounces cream cheese, softened 2 cups granulated sugar 2 large eggs 1 & 1/2 cups mashed bananas (about 4 medium bananas) 1 cup chopped pecans, toasted 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract Preheat oven to 350°. Grease and flour two 8″x 4″ loaf pans. Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside. Using an electric mixer, beat together butter and cream cheese until creamy. Gradually add sugar, mixing until light and fluffy. Add eggs, 1 at a time, mixing just until blended. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating at low speed until blended. Stir in bananas, pecans, and vanilla extract. Divide batter evenly and spoon into prepared loaf pans. Topping 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 1/2 cup chopped pecans, toasted 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour 1 tablespoon melted butter  1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon Combine all ingredients in a small bowl. Sprinkle evenly over batter in both loaf pans. Bake for 1 hour, or until a wooden pick inserted in the center comes out clean. If necessary, cover pans loosely with aluminum foil for the last 15 minutes to prevent excess browning. Cool bread in pans on wire racks for 10 minutes. Remove from pans to wire racks to cool completely.

Pinterest

Proceed with caution! There are addicting things in this blog post.

I am a Pinterest addict. Just ask anyone. I'll admit that it's a black hole that sucks in my time and makes large quantities disappear. But some good has come out of it.

I've found great photograph ideas, used it to pin bible study ideas and race info and many other things.

The other night I had company coming over and had completely forgotten about dessert. So I ran to my food board and found this recipe for cookie dough dip.

At book club I had tried one that was gluten free using cream cheese. Recipe here. It was a lot like eating raw cheese cake. Definitely a good thing, but not cookie dough. So I tried these two recipes and fell in love. I used the graham crackers to scoop it out of the bowl. In the picture you will notice I've already tasted it. =)

But after the company left I grabbed a spoon and by the next day it was gone. Great dessert - check. Gained an extra 5 pounds - check. Pinterest is a success!

Here are the recipes, in case you don't want to get sucked into Pinterest.

Stolen from this website.

Chocolate Cookie Dough Dip

1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (I didn't add the salt. It tasted fine without it.)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract (This seems like a lot, but I added the whole amount and it was really good.)
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
water (I didn't end up adding any water, but it was super thick dough)

Directions:
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Stir in the flour, salt, vanilla and chocolate chips. Add water one tablespoon at a time (stirring between each) until the dough reaches cookie dough consistency. 

Sugar Cookie Dough Dip

1 1/3 cups and 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1/2 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup white sugar
1-2 tablespoons water
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions:
In a medium bowl, cream together butter and sugar for 2-3 minutes until light, fluffy, and pale yellow. Mix in flour and vanilla. Add water one tablespoon at a time, mixing after each, until you reach cookie dough consistency.

I did one cup of flour and 1 tablespoon of water. Super thick, but tasted wonderful.

Do not blame me if you find yourself with eyes glued to Pinterest eating large quantities of cookie dough. I DID warn you at the beginning of this post. =)