Butterscotch Banana Bread (Vegan!)

I went home for Spring Break, and my siblings immediately wanted to bake. It was nice to get back into the baking groove! I can't wait to go home this summer so I can start regularly updating this blog again. 

We chose banana bread, because we had an ENORMOUS amount of bananas in the house just ripening. It's my family tradition to make my mom's banana bread, so she asked my siblings, my grandmother, and me to make it. However, that recipe has eggs and milk. So we created a new version that's vegan! AND we incorporated vegan butterscotch chips I had ordered online over the summer into the recipe. It was SO delicious, especially because the butterscotch chips just melt and soak into the bread.

Phone quality photos again, sorry!

Ingredients:

***Use these measurements to make about 20 servings of this dish***

• 1 cup (+ additional) of brown sugar
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of vegan butter
• 6 mashed bananas
• 4 cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 teaspoons of apple cider vinegar
• ½ cup of non-dairy milk 
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1 tablespoon of cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 cup of butterscotch chips

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a brownie pan with nonstick spray or vegan shortening.
3. Mash the bananas to a pulp.
4. Add the soy milk and apple cider vinegar to the banana mixture, and let sit until needed.
5. In a bowl, cream the butter, white sugar, brown sugar, and vanilla.
6. Add in the mashed bananas mixture.
7. In a separate large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon well.
8. Add the liquid mixture to the flour mixture, and combine well.
9. Fold in the butterscotch chips.
10. Once all parts of the mixture are thoroughly mixed, pour into pan and even out.
11. Sprinkle brown sugar and butterscotch on top of mixture, if desired.
12. Bake for 1 hour, or until fork inserted into the center of the dish comes out dry and clean.

The mashed bananas.

My brother did a great job at creaming the butter with the sugars!

The combined batter.

The just-finished bread!

A slice of the butterscotch banana bread! It all was gobbled up in a few hours.

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Did you try this recipe out?

Please let me know in the comments!

Raspberry Brownies (Vegan!)

As I said in my last post, I don't have a lot of time to cook at school (especially without my own kitchen,) but I will update here from time to time when I do!

I was involved in a movie-themed cook-off, and my cook-off partner wanted something with raspberries and chocolate. Thus, these brownies were born. I have to give credit to my friend Dan Wolfe for helping me out with the majority of this recipe and providing me with the kitchen!

You MUST be a fan of raspberries to enjoy these brownies! People who were raspberry fans really enjoyed these, but others couldn't really appreciate them. They are very raspberry-intense!

Also, I didn't have my camera on me, so sorry for the phone-quality photos.

Ingredients:

***Use these measurements to make about 20 servings of this dish***

• 1½ cups of whole wheat flour
• 1 cup of cocoa powder
• 1 tablespoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 3/4 cup of non-dairy milk (vanilla-flavored adds depth to the recipe!)
• 2 cups of fresh raspberries (mashed) OR 2 cups of raspberry preserves (we did 1 cup of each)
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 2 teaspoons of vanilla
• 1 cup of chocolate chips
• 1 cup of whole fresh raspberries
• a pinch of powdered sugar to your pleasing

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Grease a brownie pan with nonstick spray or vegan shortening.
3. In a large bowl, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.
4. In a different bowl, mix the mashed berries / raspberry preserves, milk, sugar, and vanilla.
5. Add the flour mixture to the berry mixture until just barely combined.
6. Fold in the chocolate chips and fresh berries.
7. Once all parts of the mixture are thoroughly mixed, pour into pan and even out.
8. Bake for 20 minutes, or until fork inserted into the center of the dish comes out dry and clean.
9. Sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve right away, or refrigerate. 

The dry mixture.

The mashed raspberries and raspberry preserves being combined.

The whole raspberries and chocolate-chips being folded into the combined mixture.

Our sample for the judges! It was a movie-themed cook-off, and we thought "The Shining" was a good fit to the aesthetic of our dish.

The finished brownie pan!

Questions? Comments? Suggestions? Did you try this recipe out?

Please let me know in the comments!