Barefoot Contessa's Old-fashioned Banana Cake

I used up three ripe bananas to make this cake which I altered a bit according to the ingredients I had on hand. Namely, I only used 1/2 cup white sugar, yogurt instead of sour cream, cake flour instead of all-purpose, olive oil instead of vegetable, and then I added about 1/2 cup chopped chocolate and 1/2 cup sliced almonds, and did not frost the cake. 

Since it's not frosted, the chocolate and almonds add a welcome crunch and extra flavor. It's a nice alternative to the banana bread I usually make (posted about back in December). It's tasty and moist as-is but frosting would make it pretty decadent. 

Pecan, Oat and Dark Chocolate Chunk Cookies

In Martha Stewart Living's May issue, there are some recipes for non-sweet "healthy" desserts, including these pecan, oat, and chocolate chunk cookies that I made over the weekend. There is no sugar, no flour, no butter and no eggs in these cookies; instead, the recipe calls for pecan flour (made by pulsing pecans in the food processor), maple syrup and olive oil. For flavoring, I used almond extract instead of vanilla. The batter of these cookies worried me - it seemed way too crumby to form a cookie at all. I think I may have needed to pulse the pecans finer than I did. I ended up pulsing about 1/2 cup of oats to make oat flour, and adding that to the batter in hopes of making it all stick together better. I couldn't really tell if it helped though.

Amazingly, the cookies did "stick" together during the cooking process, but they were very, very crumbly out of the oven. They pretty much fall apart when I pick one up. If I had the foresight to save all of the cookie crumbs, they would make an amazing topping for ice cream or yogurt. But I didn't do that :)

The flavor is just about everything I love in a snack: the perfect combination of being barely sweet, slightly salty, and pleasantly nutty. I think the almond extract enhanced the nuttiness to the perfect degree. Snacking on these cookies feels virtuous, not indulgent, but since they are so delicate I have to pack them in a tupperware to bring them to work

dark photo, but a delicious crumbly cookie

Roasted Strawberry Ice Cream

It was waayyyy too hot to bake something this weekend. So I made ice cream instead, using this Strawberry Buttermilk recipe (minus the buttermilk) from Jeni Britton Bauer's book. I'd made this ice cream previously with the buttermilk, but since I didn't have any this time around, I just upped the pureed strawberry content to 3/4 cup. It worked out great.

I got my ice cream maker at my wedding shower. It wasn't on my registry; I didn't even think I'd use it that much. But it has become one of my favorite, most indispensable kitchen gadgets. I have made all different kinds of ice creams, frozen yogurts and sorbets. It's fun to experiment with different flavors, and really comes in handy in the hotter months when I want to make a dessert but don't want to turn on the oven.

I have plastic pint containers (also by Jeni's) that I purchased at a Jeni's shop in Columbus, Ohio one summer when we were driving through on our way to Indianapolis. They are reusable, which is great, but I fear I am down to my last two pints (!) so I might have to restock next time we're in Columbus. This ice cream recipe fills two pint containers.

creamy and delicious

Blackberry custard cake

Before I even got a copy of her cookbook, the thing that really got me interested in Dorie Greenspan was watching this video of her making a delicious looking apple cake in October, aka apple season. Several months later, while searching for some snacks to add to my "to cook" list, I came upon a similar recipe of hers for custardy apple squares. It hit all the right notes: semi-healthy (fruit!) not too sugary or buttery, and sounded pretty quick to make. However, I was not in the mood for apples. The blurb before the recipe even describes them as "autumnal." I figured swapping the apples for berries would work, and would make for a more seasonally appropriate treat. I considered strawberries, blueberries and raspberries - even thought about mixing a bunch of different berries together - but the blackberries looked the tastiest. I bought a 12oz package, and ended up putting the whole lot in, since I figured three medium applies - which is what the recipe calls for - might equal about 12oz. It was fine, but if there was a slightly smaller package would have been even better to get to taste more of the cake.

I tried this cake right out of the oven, and it didn't really wow me. But by the next morning, it was incredible. The berries were almost sandwiched in between layers of custardy cake, and the vanilla flavor mixed really nicely with the berries. I think any type of berry, or a mix of berries, would work well here. I think you could even use coconut flour, coconut oil, coconut milk and shredded coconut to make a more tropical version.

I usually make a snack on the weekend to be able to bring to work at least for part of the week. This cake was gone within 24 hours of making it - it was that good! And Eric, who usually does not have a sweet tooth, said it was delicious. I will have to make this one again.

About 30 minutes out of the oven...halfway gone