Lovin' From the Oven

Banana Bars with Cream Cheese Frosting & a Giveaway

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Festive plate, don’t you think? I was actually busily snapping away when my mom came up to me, very excitedly may I add, going on about plates. Huh? I had no idea what she was talking about. She went to cupboard and pulled out these rooster plates. Apparently, she bought them just for me for the sole reason of taking blog pictures. Hahaha– My mom’s the best! And apparently a rooster lover? Who knew?

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Thank you so much for your kind comments and support about my previous post! It’s overwhelming— in a “I can’t believe it, I love you guys!” kind of way. Not only that, but we’ve also just hit 1,000 fans on the Lovin’ From the Oven Facebook page! wahooo!

One of my wonderful followers, Ashley, suggested on the FB page that we celebrate by giving everyone free baked goods by yours truly. As much as I would LOVE to do that if I could, there’s just no way I could do that physically or financially.
Then I got to thinking… well, although I can’t bake for everyone, why not three lucky winners, instead? Perfect!
So here it is, another giveaway to celebrate all the goodness that’s been going on. Just leave a comment on this post with your favorite baby name (boy or girl) and an email for me to reach you by 11:59 PM Pacific Time, Friday, October 15th, 2010. This giveaway is only for US residents since mailing cookies overseas isn’t the greatest idea. The winners will be picked via random.org.
You might be wondering why a baby name? Well, my DB’s sister just had her first boy earlier this week (after having two girls), so I’m in a baby mood! They’re just the sweetest little things.
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These bars are unbelievably moist and a hit at work. To me, they were a bit on the sweet side so I’d adjust the sugar next time I make them. The bars would have tasted fine without the frosting, but cream cheese frosting is my weakness. These bars are adapted from Betty Crocker.

  • 4 mashed very ripe bananas
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1/3 cup vegetable oil
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon cinnamon
  • pinch of salt
  1. Preheat oven to 350 and lightly grease a 9″ x 13″ pan.
  2. Mash the bananas and then mix in the sugar, oil, and eggs.
  3. Stir in the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
  4. Pour into the pan and bake, uncovered, about 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
  5. While the bars are cooling, make the frosting.
  • 5 oz cream cheese, at room temp
  • 1/4 cup butter, softened
  • 1/2 tsp of vanilla
  • 2 3/4 cups powdered sugar
  1. Cream the cream cheese and butter together.
  2. Mix in the vanilla and powdered sugar (slowly).
  3. Spread on cooled bars.

Nutella Cream Cheese Swirl Brownies

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Brace yourself for these lovelies..

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The one on the left is from the center of the pan and the one on the right is from the edge. Now let’s get to the batter:
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Dropping the cheesecake batter on top of the brownie mixture..
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…and giving it a little swirl.
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Freshly cut right from the oven!
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My parents are out of town this weekend and I feel like I’m playing “mom.” Picking up dinner (since I can’t cook), doing dishes 24:7, worrying about my siblings when they’re driving far distances or not home by ten, and making them constantly tell me where they are. It’s a tiresome job! A job that I didn’t even necessarily need to pick up, but I did anyway for the weekend.

I know what you’re thinking.. open house?! Party! Yeah, no. My party consisted of baking 24 pumpkin muffins with a pecan streusel and a swirl of cream cheese (which are pure bliss & coming to you soon!) and watching Prisonbreak. Sometimes I wonder if I’m living my 80 year old life now, since I’m definitely a boring 23 year old. Too bad I wouldn’t have it any other way. Maybe I’ll be partying it up when I’m 80 instead.. it only makes sense.
I’m still working on using that giant jar of nutella that I have from Costco. I’ve made cookies and cupcakes— it’s only logical to make brownies next!
When my mom ate these, the first thing she said was, “Why don’t you make things from scratch more often?”
Me: “Huh? Ummm… I always bake things from scratch, mom.”
Mom: “Oh.. that explains why these are so good then!”
Yup, that didn’t make any sense whatsoever, but that’s why I love conversations with my mom.
This recipe comes with little adaptation from Flour on My Face. It’s a wonderful base for a brownie recipe if you choose to omit the cheesecake/nutella part, too! I like my brownies fudgy, so the middle of the pan was my favorite. 🙂
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Cream Cheese Topping

  • 5 oz Philly Cream Cheese
  • 2 tbs softened butter
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1 tbs flour
  • 1/4 cup Nutella

Brownie Batter

  • 3/4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1/3 cup Herseys Special Dark Cocoa
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 stick of softened butter
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 large eggs
  1. Pre-heat oven to 350′
  2. Grease and line a 8 x 8 baking pan with cooking spray.
Cream cheese frosting
  1. Cream together butter, sugar and flour. Add cream cheese and mix/blend until smooth. Scrape bowl and add the egg and beat until the topping is nice and creamy. Scrap bowl and add Nutella, beat about one minute or until the nutella is mixed into the cream cheese mixture completely.
  2. Set topping aside and mix brownie batter.

Brownie batter

  1. Sift flour, cocoa, salt and baking powder into a medium sized bowl.
  2. In a small bowl cream sugar and 1/2 stick of butter, add eggs one at a time, beat well then add vanilla.
  3. Fold egg, sugar, butter and vanilla mixture into the bowl of dry ingredients.
  4. Spread 3/4 of the brownie batter into the bottom of an 8 x 8 baking dish.
  5. Randomly dollop the cream cheese topping over the brownie batter.
  6. Randomly dollop the rest of the brownie batter on top of the cream cheese batter. Swirl with the tip of a knife.
  7. Bake at 350 for 40 to 50 minutes.

White Chocolate Macadamia Nut Blondies

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I was curious as to if the same dough would be able to make cookies, too. Sure, enough…

They make pretty cookies!

But definitely not as tasty.


The wonderful people at Oh Nuts! offered to send me some items to try out in my baking endeavors. Their customer service is amazing. Really. They kept in touch and updated me instantly on my order and shipment. I received the items in less than a week after they contacted me! They allowed me to choose a couple items to try, and one of my picks was a bag of macadamia nuts. Here’s a picture of all the goodies that I tweeted a while ago:


From left to right: macadamia nuts, dried cantaloupe, dried guava slices, dried mango.

Little did I know how big the bag I was going to receive really was. I always hated buying macadamia nuts from the grocery store because it’s SO expensive, but Oh Nuts! solved this problem my selling in bulk! What a great deal for a baking necessity. Not only that, but it comes in a resealable ziploc heavy duty bag.. perfect for using and reusing! No need to worry about storage. They also use good quality ingredients that result in wonderful items.

This recipe comes from Erin’s Food Files. They made very thick bars and I would even bake it in an even larger pan to get better results. These are definitely for the white chocolate macadamia nut lovers! I tried to bake them as a cookie just to see how it would turn out, and although they turned out, they weren’t very tasty. They didn’t spread and stayed as balls. This recipe wasn’t meant for cookies! I thoroughly enjoyed the bars, but I’d prefer a regular white chocolate macadamia nut cookie any day.

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 pound, plus 1 teaspoon butter, at room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups light brown sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tablespoons vanilla extract
  • 3 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 cups white chocolate chips
  • 1 cup macadamia nuts, toasted and rough chopped

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. Place 1/2 pound of the butter and the brown sugar in a bowl and cream together on medium speed until a smooth batter is formed. While the machine is running, add the eggs and vanilla extract, until incorporated into the batter.
  3. Sift together 3 cups flour and baking powder. Slowly add the flour mixture to the batter and mix on low speed until a dough is formed. Very gently, by turning the mixer on and then off, fold the chips and nuts into the dough.
  4. Once the dough is all blended, grease a 9 x 13 pan with the remaining butter and dust with the 1 tablespoon of flour. Pour the batter into the pan and place in the preheated oven. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until set yet still moist.

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