Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie

Yes, you may be noticing a trend. Banana bread (which I spread with peanut butter) and now this. Full disclosure, my go-to quick breakfast happens to be a slice of whole-wheat toast, smothered with cruncy peanut butter then topped with banana slices and acacia flower honey (THAT stuff is amazing, thanks sister). I’d almost go so far as to say that peanut butter and banana ranks up there with the combination of peanut butter and chocolate. I said almost.

Banana cream pie was never on my radar prior to a couple years ago. I signed up to be a recipe tester for Cook’s Country magazine (part of the Cook’s Illustrated portfolio) and their ultimate banana pudding was the first “assignment” I received. I’d never even made pudding before. The result was one of the most decadent, comforting desserts I’ve ever tasted. Fat free, to boot! (Where’s the sarcasm formatting button, again?)

Soon after making that, I figured it’d be an excellent starting point for banana cream pie. So, instead of layers of banana pudding and vanilla wafers topped with whipped cream, I made a pie with a vanilla wafer crust, thickened banana pudding filling and whipped cream on top. The problem in the couple times I made it was figuring out the best way to get the pudding to a consistency that it could actually come out of the pie plate as a slice, not a blob. This time, I nailed it--just the right amount of cornstarch.

Cook’s Country gets all the credit for the incredible deliciousness of the banana pudding filling, but I’m gonna go ahead and claim the bonus points for execution on the pie as a whole. Helloooooo, peanut butter whipped cream on top? Jackpot! For what it’s worth, one change I made to the original pudding recipe was switching up the milk product, adjusting from all half-and-half (10-18% butterfat) to part half-and-half, part whole milk (3.25% butterfat). Now wasn’t that kind of me?

Do yourself a favor and set aside a couple hours to make this pie. I promise you won’t regret it (and neither will the friends and family you share it with... you will share, right?).

Ultimate Banana Bread

I had the pleasure of joining a bunch of lovely ladies for my close friend Ashley's bachelorette party this weekend. We trekked up to Traverse City, Michigan to enjoy a day of wine tasting and fun. The weather was perfect, the wine was excellent and the company was impossible to beat. I did not make the banana bread for this occasion... no, instead, I created something juuuust a bit more risque--something I'm afraid will not make the blog at this time ;-)

Equal parts distraction from my other dessert endeavor and the need to use up a whole lot of overripe bananas,  I set to the kitchen to whip up America's Test Kitchen's Ultimate Banana Bread before leaving town for the weekend. Little to my surprise, I returned and it's almost gone. Because it's from the current season of America's Test Kitchen, this recipe is available for free on the ATK website for a limited time. The only change I made was to substitute some whole-wheat flour for a small amount of the all-purpose flour for a little added nutritional value. The banana liquid didn't reduce quite as dramatically as described for me, but the results were still great. This banana bread is moist, delightfully banana-y and damn good looking, if I do say so myself. Enjoy!

Ode to Chubby Hubby Cupcakes

When I saw that this week's America's Test Kitchen "Dish it Your Way" blogger challenge was cupcakes, the wheels in my head immediately began turning. I took to Facebook, proclaiming my plan of days and days of brainstorming. I jotted down ideas that incorporated lemon curd--a bright flavor perfect for the end of summer. But as it happens, fate intervened and my friend Brad came up with the best idea ever. All it took was the simple comment, "Make some that taste like Chubby Hubby, salty and sweet."

For those of you who've been here before, you know my affinity for all things salty and sweet. Ice cream is no exception. Even with a simple scoop of vanilla from the freezer, I'll jazz it up with toffee bits, crushed pretzels and chocolate syrup. But of course, no one does it better than my friends Ben and Jerry. I like to think that I've introduced countless friends to what becomes their favorite ice cream (or close to it): Chubby Hubby. Chubby Hubby ice cream is precisely this: fudge covered, peanut butter filled pretzels in vanilla malt ice cream with fudge and peanut butter swirls.

The idea of Chubby Hubby cupcakes was planted, and there would be no going back. My biggest worry was the vanilla malt cake base. I've made Baked's malted milk ball cake in cupcake form a number of times and the cake always turns out oddly sticky, though delicious. I asked @brooklynbaker himself (Matt Lewis, one of the masters at Baked) for his input on my issue, but we couldn't figured it out. So I made a couple adjustments to the recipe--slightly different cake flour/AP flour ratio and reducing the baking soda, malted milk powder and egg whites--and crossed my fingers. Well, IT WORKED! Maybe it was something as simple as over-whipping the egg whites previously, but this time the cake turned out just as I hoped.

So, without further ado, I give you Ode to Chubby Hubby Cupcakes.