Cookie Madness

State Fair Winning Chocolate Banana Brownies

Last year I had the opportunity to go to Minnesota. What I didn’t know before booking my trip was that the Minnesota State Fair was going on, so when I got home I was kind of bummed to find I’d missed one of the biggest and longest running fairs in the country. Luckily, I got to experience it vicariously through a few readers who attend every year. One person was Gloria Rice, who also happens to enter the baked goods contests and almost always takes home a prize. Last year these brownies won third place. Gloria shared the recipe with me and I tried it since she was so nice to do so, but the truth was that I didn’t like the idea of bananas clogging up the chocolate flavor of my brownies. In the end, it was a good thing I tried the recipe. The banana flavor melded perfectly with the chocolate, it wasn’t subtle nor was it overwhelming, and I really liked the soft texture it added to the brownies. I made that recipe again and again and even did some variations, like adding Oreos.

chocolate banana brownie recipe

Get the Recipe! State Fair Winning Chocolate Banana Brownies

White Mountain Coconut Cupcakes

Yeas ago I clipped some cupcake recipes from Chocolatier Magazine. Yesterday I was going through stuff and found this one, which was fortunate since I’d been craving coconut cupcakes all week and hadn’t settled on a recipe. I’d had my eye on Ina Garten’s, but decided to go with Chocolatier’s since it called for cake flour, included a 7-Minute Frosting recipe, and yielded only 12.

Get the Recipe! White Mountain Coconut Cupcakes

Double Chocolate Dream Cookies

This week Nestle sent us samples of their new Toll House Mini Toppers – tiny chocolate and white chocolate morsels made especially for sprinkling. They would have been perfect on my Grasshopper Cupcakes, but they were long gone so I tried them out as a topping on these double chocolate cookies.

Get the Recipe! Double Chocolate Dream Cookies

Banana Cupcakes with Amaretto Cream Cheese Frosting

It must have something to do with “back-to-school”, but for some reason I’m obsessed with cupcakes. I’ll post an actual cookie recipe soon, but here’s a recipe for the banana cupcakes I made yesterday. I ate one and gave the rest to some friends down the street hoping that at least one person in the family would like them. Our new street has big families, which is a plus since there’s always someone willing to taste test.

The base is one of my favorite banana cakes to which I added a tiny bit of Amaretto, and for the frosting I used a recipe that originally went with an old Amaretto Italian Cream Cake recipe from the Austin Statesman. I’m still anxious to try that cream cake, but I figured cupcakes would be easier to share and they were.

Banana Cupcakes with Amaretto Cream Cheese Frosting

4 oz unsalted butter or 1/2 cup shortening
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup mashed bananas, about 2 large
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 tablespoons Amaretto
1/2 cup sour cream, room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour ( 9 oz)
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt

Amaretto Cream Cheese Frosting:
6 tablespoons butter, softened
6 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
3/4 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons Amaretto

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour 20 muffin cups or line with paper liners.

Beat butter and sugar with an electric mixer until creamy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat in bananas, vanilla and Amaretto. Stir in sour cream. Thoroughly mix together flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt, then add to creamed mixture and stir until it’s mixed in.

Spoon batter into cupcake pans and bake at 350 degrees for 22-25 minutes or until cakes tests done. Cool cakes in pan on a wire rack then frost with Amaretto cream cheese icing.

Frosting: Beat the butter, cream cheese and vanilla. Gradually add powdered sugar and amaretto and beat until frosting is light and creamy. Spoon over cupcakes.

Decorate cupcakes with almonds or pecans.

Makes 20

Grasshopper Pie Cupcakes

If you like the idea of a creamy mint pie but would rather eat a cupake, here’s a compromise. These chocolate ganache filled cupcakes are topped with an easy mint flavored mousse which you make in a matter of minutes with melted marshmallows.