"Muffin top" Banana Cookies two ways

After reading the comments on the Simply Recipes website about these cookies, I was intrigued. They were described by one commenter on the site as Banana Muffin Top "Cookies", which explains them perfectly. Baked until lightly browned, they are slightly crispy on the outside and soft and cake-like in the centre. The banana allows the cookies to be lovely and moist. The reaction that takes place between the banana and baking soda gives the cookies their rise as they bake.


I baked half of them plain and iced them with cream cheese icing. The rest I filled with snickers. Mr X tasted both and said while both were good, he preferred the plain iced ones. That surprised me - I actually had made that flavour combination with my Dad in mind and the 
snickers ones for Mr X to take to work. Ooops!

The original recipe called for more spices and pecans but I chose not to add them. If you want to add the nuts, add them at the end to the whole batter where I added the snickers (1 cup). I also added vanilla bean paste. 


Ingredients:
Cookies
1/2 cup of unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup of sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla bean paste
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup of mashed bananas (3 large bananas)
1 teaspoon of baking soda
2 cups of flour
Pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
Pinch of nutmeg
3/4 cup snickers, chopped

Cream cheese icing
75g cream cheese, softened
30g butter, softened
Heaped cup icing sugar, sifted

Method:
Cookies
Preheat the oven to 176 degrees C. Add the butter and sugar to a bowl and beat the butter and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg and beat until the mixture is pale and fluffy.

In a bowl, mash the banana and mix in the baking soda, letting it sit for 2 minutes. This is an important step as I mentioned above, so don't skip it.

Add the banana to the butter mixture. Mix flour, salt, and spices together then sift this into the butter and banana mixture. Stir until just incorporated.

Remove half the batter and set aside. With remaining batter, mix in the chopped snickers. Drop heaped tablespoons of batter onto prepared baking tray for big cookies which I did - this makes 20 to 25 cookies. I think next time I would try making them a bit smaller. They do spread a little so space them far enough apart.

Bake for approx 12-18 minutes or until the tops are lovely golden brown (cooking time obviously depends on the size of your cookies - mine took 15 minutes). Turn onto wire racks and allow to cool.

Makes 20 to 25 cookies.

The cookies will keep for a couple of days if you don't want to eat them right way. To help maintain their firm exterior, the advise on the Simply Recipe website was to pop them in a container with the lid not quite on (i.e. not air-tight).

Cookies 2 ways - Snickers filled and M&M

Mr X was at the footy yesterday, so when I had done the boring stuff like supermarket shopping, I went into the kitchen to bake. I had been looking forward to it all week. Being back at work after our holiday, I needed to do something to de-stress!


I started off with the Nestle Toll House cookies I made a while back. While the dough was chilling in the fridge I cut up four mini snickers and opened a bag of M&M's.


I then divided the dough in half, and popped one half back in the fridge so it would keep firming up.


M&M cookies
Ingredients:
1/2 quantity of Nestle Toll House cookie dough
Approximately 80 M&M's (four for each cookie)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 195 degrees C. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Roll heaped tablespoons into balls and place onto prepared cookie sheet approx 6 cms apart.

After they have been in the oven for four minutes (to allow them to spread), quickly pull them out of the oven and pop some M&M's on top of each cooke (I used 4 per cookie, but you can always use more), rotate the tray and put them back in the oven for the remainder of the baking time. 

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes (mine took 8 minutes) or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 16 - 20 cookies depending on size.

Snickers centred cookies

Ingredients:

1/2 quantity of Nestle Toll House cookie dough

4 mini snickers, thinly chopped (2 pieces per cookie - one to insert into centre, one for top of the cookie)*

Roll a heaped tablespoon of dough into a ball and make a well in the centre. Insert snickers piece and carefully cover it up with cookie dough. Place on baking tray and top with another piece of snickers. Repeat with remaining dough.

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes (mine took 8 minutes) or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets for 2 minutes; transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes 16 - 20 cookies depending on size.

* While pleased with the outcome of the cookies, I think next time I would insert a larger chunk into the centre and top with at least two snickers pieces for a more intense snickers taste!

Snickers centered Blondie

Blondies have been on my "to make" list for a while now, as I love brown sugar. One of Mr X's favourite chocolate bars is a snickers, so I decided to create a two layer blondie with a caramel snickers filling.

This recipe is easy and comes together pretty quickly. I was originally going to just use one batch of the blondie recipe, spread half out in the baking pan, add a layer of caramel snickers sauce, then top it with the remaining mixture. I realised pretty quickly that it wouldn't work though - the recipe did not make as much mixture as I had anticipated! So (panicking), I popped the first blondie in the oven and while that was baking I whipped up a second one.

The caramel when cooking smelt amazing... It was very tempting to just eat spoonfuls of it straight out of the saucepan...
Ingredients:
Caramel snickers sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/8 cup milk
3/4 tsp vanilla extract
6 fun sized snickers, chopped

Blondie (Recipe from Simply Recipes - I doubled original recipe. Single blondie ingredients below)
1/2 cup of butter, melted
1 cup of tightly packed dark brown sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon of vanilla
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon of baking soda
1 cup of all-purpose flour
1/3 cup of chocolate chips

Method:
Caramel snickers sauce

Over medium heat, melt butter in a small sauce pan. Allow to simmer, then add in the brown sugar, stirring, and bring to boil. Then lower heat and stir until sugar is dissolved (should take about a minute). Stir in milk, bring to boil, then remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. 

Leave to cool for 5-10 minutes, then mix in half the snickers and stir well (they will melt a little). Leave to cool down while you make the first blondie, then add the remaining snickers and mix).

Blondie
Preheat the oven to 176°C. Brush 20cm square pan with melted butter and a sprinkling of flour. 

Beat melted butter and brown sugar in a bowl until fluffy.
Add a lightly whisked egg and vanilla extract and beat to combine.
Add in flour, baking soda, baking powder and mix until just combined. Add the chocolate and mix.
Pour into pan and spread evenly.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until set in middle but still soft (it will firm up on cooling). 

Leave to cool for 10 minutes, then tip onto a plate. While still warm, spread caramel snickers sauce over top.

Bake the second blondie. Once cooled, carefully remove from pan and place carefully on top of first blondie. This is where I went wrong. Mr X had organised for us to go to the pub for drinks and I was fast running out of time. So, in my haste, this happened....