Nutty

When one of my students recently requested a chocolate-peanut butter pie as his birthday dessert, I took on the challenge, despite not having a recipe. This isn't the first time my kids have helped expand my dessert repertoire!

This will make a great summertime dessert, as once the pie is made, it's frozen, resulting in an ice cream-like consistency. I think my peanut butter fiend of a brother is going to love this.

I used low-fat cream cheese (Neufchatel), 1% milk, and low-fat whipped topping, with excellent results.

Peanut Butter Pie

Yield: 2 9-inch pies. Halve recipe for one pie.

Crusts:

4 1/2 cups of Oreo cookie crumbs, finely ground (or other sandwich cookies - Nutter Butters?)
5 ounces of melted butter

OR two prepared 9" no-bake crusts - Oreo or graham cracker

Filling:

8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar
1 1/4 cups peanut butter
1 cup milk
16 ounces frozen whipped topping, thawed, or the equivalent amount of whipped cream

Optional garnish: chopped peanut butter cups or chocolate curls

To make crusts: in a bowl, mix together Oreo crumbs and melted butter. Pour into pie plates, and press into the bottom and up the sides evenly. Refrigerate at least one hour.

Beat together cream cheese and confectioners' sugar until smooth. Mix in peanut butter and gradually mix in milk. Beat until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.
Spoon into prepared pie shells. Garnish, if desired, and freeze until firm. Cover after pies are frozen solid.

Going bananas

I had a bit of a disaster with my banana bread recently.

We had a snow day last week, so I decided it was a baking day. The bananas on my counter were just begging to be made into banana bread. You know the type. They were darkly speckled, verging on just plain brown, a whole bunch of them.

I mashed and measured and mixed, and baked the banana bread batter.

It didn't smell right.

I peeked at it, and it didn't look right, either. Hmmm.

When it was done, I took it out and let it cool. The top wasn't a lovely glossy brown, the way it usually is. It was rather dull-looking. Once it cooled, I cut a test slice, and confirmed my suspicions: I forgot the sugar.

Given that the bananas were already so sweet, the bread wasn't a complete loss; in fact, my husband rather liked it, especially toasted, with a little butter. It'd also be great for banana bread French toast. However, I still had enough bananas for a second loaf, so I mixed up a second bowlful of batter - and I didn't forget the sugar in this one!

Here's my recipe, based closely on the Baking Illustrated one.

Banana Bread

1 cup unbleached, all-purpose flour (plus extra for dusting the pan)
1 cup white whole-wheat flour (another cup of all-purpose flour may be substituted)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 very ripe, soft, darkly speckled large bananas, mashed well (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/4 cup vanilla yogurt (I used Stonyfield low-fat)
2 large eggs, beaten lightly
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Adjust an oven rack to the lower-middle position and heat the oven to 350F. (If you use a stoneware pan, as I do, adjust the rack to the middle position.)

Grease the bottom and sides of a 9x5” loaf pan; dust with flour, tapping out the excess.

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt together in a large bowl; set aside.

Mix the mashed bananas, yogurt, eggs, butter, and vanilla with a wooden spoon in a medium bowl. Lightly fold the banana mixture into the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until just combined and the batter looks thick and chunky. Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan.

Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 minutes. Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.