Buttermilk Banana & Strawberry Bread

I am currently obsessed with using buttermilk in baking. If a recipe ever called for buttermilk I would usually just substitute it by adding lemon juice to milk, but never again! This fantastic and extremely moist Cornmeal Buttermilk Cake with Chocolate Buttermilk Frosting (and just to inform you, this is seriously the BEST chocolate frosting I have ever tasted) from Evil Shenanigans definitely changed my mind.

Buttermilk just makes everything so moist and adds a unique and subtle flavor to whatever it is baked into. Since making that cake, I have made my family and I's favorite chocolate cake, (which I use as the base for any recipe that I make which involves chocolate cake) into like the best cake EVER (according to my family and I)! I just substituted buttermilk for regular milk and frosted it with the chocolate buttermilk frosting. I have also made these Blueberry Cornmeal Pancakes, which then leads me to this Buttermilk Banana Strawberry Bread. It is a fabulous quick bread recipe that is very moist, buttery, rich, and so delicious! It is perfect to eat plain, or you can smear it with butter, toast it and spread on jam, or eat it warm with some nutella or drizzled with honey.

Needless to say, I am in love with buttermilk and will be using buttermilk in my baking more and more!

Buttermilk Banana Strawberry Bread: (adapted from Two Peas and Their Pod)

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas (about 3 medium sized bananas)
• 4 tablespoons buttermilk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla paste or vanilla extract
• 1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/8 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 cup diced strawberries, plus 2 whole srawberries thinly sliced for the top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour 1 large loaf pan or 4 small loaf pans (I used 4 small loaf pans). You can also make banana muffins with this recipe, as well. Set pans aside.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla until the batter is well mixed.

Add in the flour, baking powder, salt and soda. Mix until well combined. Gently fold in diced strawberries. Divide batter into greased and floured pans and top with thinly sliced strawberries. Bake for 50-55 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.

Let bread cool on a wire rack for 15 minutes. Loosen the bread with a knife and carefully remove from pan. Cool completely on rack. Slice and serve once cooled.

Monkey Bread Muffins

Oh how I love monkey bread and oh how I love breakfast, I could eat it for any meal! So, monkey bread for breakfast equals perfection in my book! I decided to make them into cute little monkey muffins this time, perfect and adorable for individual servings. I first heard of monkey bread from Pillsbury, so I just adapted their recipe to suit my likings!

All you do is take a two cans of pillsbury buttermilk biscuits, cut them into quarters, roll them in melted butter, and then into a mixture of brown sugar and cinnamon, and then place into muffin tins, bake, and in no time you have a delicious treat to nibble on! While the muffins are baking all you need to do is whip up a powdered sugar glaze, which makes these soooo yummy!

These little monkey muffins are so fun and so tasty and are meant to be served warm so the biscuit pieces can be easily torn apart and eaten with your fingers! These little babies melt in your mouth and are deliciously sticky and gooey. While they are baking up, the butter and sugar melts together creating a caramelly glaze. They are sweet and cinnamony and the glaze is just a wonderful topping which melts into all the cracks of the muffins. Be sure to give these a try, they are very addicting and so easy to make!

Monkey Bread Muffins:

Muffins:

-2 cans Pillsbury Buttermilk Biscuits

-1 cup light brown sugar

-2 teaspoons cinnamon

-1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted

Glaze:

-1 cup powdered sugar

-2 tablespoons milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 muffin tins with non-stick cooking spray (this makes about 15 muffins).

2. Cut each biscuit into quarters.

3. In a bowl, mix together the brown sugar and cinnamon. Melt the butter in a seperate bowl.

4. Working with one at a time, roll each biscuit quarter into butter and then roll in the cinnamon and sugar mixture. Place 5-6 biscuit quarters in each muffin tin.

5. Bake 12-15 minutes.

6. Cool for 5 minutes in the muffin tin; remove and drizzle each muffin with the glaze.

7. For the glaze: While the muffins are cooling combine the powdered sugar and milk until smooth.

Cinnamon Rolls

Cinnamon Rolls......I don't have to much to say about these except that I was having a craving for warm cinnamon rolls fresh out of the oven, so I made these and they made me oh so happy!

 

They were everything I wanted for my perfect cinnamon roll craving. Warm and sweet, sticky and oh so ooey-gooey in the most perfect way, so so soft with a slight chew, a center filled with the perfect cinnamon-sugary goodness, perfect for pulling apart, and topped off with a delicious vanilla glaze that drips into the little cracks and mixes with the filling.

These were lick every single finger delicious and maybe even my plate too, or yours, so watch out!

See what I mean? Perfection!

 Cinnamon Rolls: (Recipe courtesy Paula Deen)

Ingredients

Dough:

-1/4-ounce package yeast

-1/2 cup warm water

-1/2 cup scalded milk

-1/4 cup sugar

-1/3 cup butter or shortening

-1 teaspoon salt

-1 egg

-3 1/2-4 cups all-purpose flour

Filling:

-1/2 cup melted butter

-3/4 cup sugar

-2 tablespoons ground cinnamon

-3/4 cup raisins, walnuts, or pecans, optional

Glaze:

-4 tablespoons butter

-2 cups powdered sugar

-1 teaspoon vanilla extract

-3 to 6 tablespoons milk or hot water

Directions:

Heat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a small bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water and set aside. In a large bowl mix milk, sugar, melted butter, salt, and egg. Add 2 cups of flour and mix until smooth. Add yeast mixture. Mix in remaining flour until dough is easy to handle. Knead dough on lightly floured surface for 5 to 10 minutes. Place in well-greased bowl, cover and let rise until doubled in size, usually 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

When doubled in size, punch down dough. Roll out on a floured surface into a 15 by 9-inch rectangle. Spread melted butter all over dough. Mix sugar and cinnamon and sprinkle over buttered dough. Sprinkle with raisins, walnuts, or pecans if desired. Beginning at the 15-inch side, roll up dough and pinch edge together to seal. Cut into 12 to 15 slices.

Coat the bottom of baking pan with butter or non-stick cooking spray and sprinkle with sugar if desired. Place cinnamon roll slices close together in the pan and let rise until dough is doubled, about 45 minutes. Bake for about 30 minutes or until nicely browned.

Meanwhile, mix butter, powdered sugar, and vanilla. Add milk or water 1 tablespoon at a time until the glaze reaches desired consistency. Spread over slightly cooled rolls.

Beer Bread

                         
        

All you need to whip up a tasty loaf of bread is about 5 minutes, a bowl and a spoon, and these 4 simple ingredients, self-rising flour, sugar, a can of your favorite beer, and some melted butter. The result is a yummy Beer Bread that has a nice subtle flavor of beer and aroma, you can tell the beer is in there, but it does not overpower or overwhelm the bread at all.  You get an ever so slightly sweet, hearty and dense, and oh so soft and moist bread. Even if you don't enjoy beer, you will most likely love this bread! It is the perfect pairing to a hot bowl of chili or your favorite soup, slathered with butter, drizzled with honey, toasted and topped with jam, dipped in your favorite cheesy dip, and I bet it would even make a great sandwhich. I also want to try  mixing in some sharp cheddar cheese, bacon or ham, jalapeno's or chiles, olives, or a combination of a few of those ingredients the next time. 

Beer Bread: (FoodNetwork.com)

-3 cups self-rising flour

-1/2 cup sugar

-12 ounces beer

-4 tablespoons melted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Butter or spray a loaf pan and set aside. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, and beer and mix well. The mixture should be sticky. Pour into the loaf pan and bake for 45-55 minutes. At the last 3 minutes of baking, remove from the oven, brush the top of the loaf with butter and return to oven.

Zucchini Nutella Swirled Bread

This recipe is a simple and tasty twist on Zucchini Bread. I just started out with a basic moist and flavorful Zucchini Bread recipe from Paula Deen and then swirled into the batter one of my favorites; creamy, smooth and chocolately Nutella. The combination of the Zucchini and Nutella was simply delicious and very delightful. If you like Chocolate Chip Zucchini Bread, then you will enjoy this!

Zucchini Nutella Swirled Bread:

Makes 3 Mini Loaves

-1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

-3/4 teaspoon salt

-1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

-1 1/2 cups sugar

-1/2 cup vgetable oil

-2 eggs, beaten

-1/3 cup water

-1 cup grated zucchini

-6 tablespoons Nutella

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 3 mini loaf pans with non-stick cooking spray and set aside. Mix dry ingredients in a large bowl. In a seperate bowl, mix wet ingredients; fold into dry. Divide batter evenly into prepared pans and top each loaf with 2 tablespoons of Nutella. Swirl the Nutella into the Zucchini batter with a knife. Bake for about 35-45minutes, or until done.

*Note: This could also be made into 1 regular-sized loaf pan.*

Banana Raspberry Crumble Bread

This banana bread turned out to be the best banana bread I have ever made and my most favorite one. This bread was sooooo delicious and it smelled so yummy while it was baking. It was so moist, flavorful, and sweet with the crunchy crumb topping and slighty tart from the beautiful sweet little red raspberries. This bread is perfect for breakfast which I enjoyed this morning with a glass of milk or it is great for a snack! This bread is to die for so I reccomend getting in the kitchen and baking this now!

Doesn't it look so pretty!?

Banana Raspberry Bread:

-1/2 cup butter, softened

-1 1/4 cups sugar

-2 large eggs

-2 ripe bananas, mashed

-1 1/2 cups flour

-1 tsp. baking powder

-3/4 tsp. baking soda

-1/3 cup buttermilk

-1 tsp. vanilla extract

-1 cup fresh raspberries

Crumb Topping:

-1/2 cup granulated sugar

-1/3 cup flour

-1/4 cup butter

In a small bowl, combine sugar and flour. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a 9x5-inch loaf pan well.

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar at medium speed until fluffy. Add eggs and bananas, beating well.

In a small bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and baking soda. Add to butter mixture alternately with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour mixture, stirring well after each addition. Stir in vanilla. Lightly fold in raspberries.

 Pour half of the batter into the loaf pan and top evenly with half of the crumb topping mixture. Pour remaining batter on top and bake for 25 minutes (reserving the rest of the crumb topping in the fridge). Sprinkle remaining crumb topping on the partially baked bread and bake for another 25-35 minutes. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes. Remove from pan, and cool completely on wire rack.

Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread

Mmmmmm.....this cinnamon swirl banana bread was really really delicious! I found this recipe here Kim's blog Lovin' From the Oven at http://www.lovintheoven.com/ and Kim said that it was the most amazing banana bread and she always has yummy recipes, so, I knew that I had to try it out and boy am I glad that I did. It was so flavorful and moist and the cinnamon and sugar swirl in the middle looked so pretty and was very tasty. The top was slightly crunchy which I loved since the inside was so soft and moist. It kind of took me back to when I was younger and my dad would make me cinnamon and sugar toast for breakfast basically everyday because it was my favorite! This is a very simple and quick recipe to put together and everyone really loved it. I definitely reccomend giving it a try!

For the bread:

-3 over-ripe bananas, smashed up

-1/3 cup melted butter

-3/4 cup sugar

-1 egg, beaten

-1 teaspoon vanilla

-1 teaspoon baking soda

-dash of salt

-1 1/2 cups flour

For the swirl:

-1/3 cup sugar

-1 tablespoon cinnamon

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter and flour a loaf pan. (I used a 9x5.)

2. Mix bananas, butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla together. Sprinkle baking soda and salt around on top of banana mixture. Gently stir in flour. Be careful not to over-mix.

3. In a small dish, mix together the swirl ingredients.

4. Add 1/2 of the batter to the loaf pan and then sprinkle half of the cinnamon-sugar mixture all over the batter in the pan. Add the rest of the batter, and then sprinkle the rest of the cinnamon-sugar on top.

5. Bake for 50-60 minutes.