Go Bananas!

It's bananas :O Yes, it's delicious banana cream pie! I had bananas and cream this week so I thought what better way to highlight these ingredients than with this here pie =] The crust, custard and of course the whipped cream is all made from scratch and it sure does make a difference here. Enjoy!

Ingredients:
for the crust:

• 2 cups crushed vanilla wafers
• 1/2 cup of crushed walnuts
• 6 tbs. melted butter

for the rest:

• 4 large ripe bananas
• 2 cups milk
• 6 large egg yolks
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 3/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract (custard)
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 4 tbs. butter, room temp
• 2 cups whipping cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract (whipped cream)

Directions:

• Crush vanilla wafers and walnuts with food processor or in a large plastic zip lock bag by crushing with a heavy pan. Add melted butter until well combined and press into a buttered pie pan, make sure it is evenly distributed. Place in freezer until ready to fill.
• For the custard, add 1 peeled banana, milk, egg yolks, cornstarch, sugar, vanilla and salt into blender, blend until smooth. Pour into a small saucepan, bring to a simmer over medium heat and cook, stirring constantly until mixture bubbles and is thick, about 7 to 8 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in butter, a few pieces at a time, until melted. Pour custard into a small bowl and top with plastic wrap so a skin does not form and set aside in refrigerator until room temp.
• While waiting for custard to cool, whip whipping cream, sugar and vanilla until soft peaks form.
• When custard is cool take out pie crust and slice 3 remaining bananas. Pour custard into pie crust and top with the bananas and then, whipped cream, top with few more banana slices for prettiness =]
• Let pie cool in refrigerator for about three hours and then, enjoy! 

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cookies

Now these may look like your normal chocolate cookies but I can assure you, they're not. I packed a peanut butter surprise inside, and they are tasty! So since reese's peanut butter cups are my favorite candy, I had this idea of making it cookie style and I'm quite pleased with the results. I got the chocolate cookie recipe from www.lovefromtheoven.com I did change a few things and you can make another delicious cookie with this recipe too (I'll put a picture up) and I made up the peanut butter filling =]  So, I hope you enjoy! 


Ingredients:
-1 cup cold butter, cubed
-1 cup sugar
-1/4 cup packed brown sugar
-1 tsp. vanilla extract
-2 eggs 
-1/2 cup dark cocoa powder
-2 1/4 cups flour
-1/4 tsp. salt
-1 tsp. baking powder

For peanut butter filling:
-1 cup peanut butter
-1 cup sugar
-1 tsp. vanilla
-1/4 cup flour


Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. 
-In a large mixing bowl, cream together butter and sugar. Beat until light and fluffy, then add vanilla and add eggs one at a time. Mix in cocoa powder until well blended. 
-In another bowl, sift together flour, salt, and baking powder. On low speed, mix dry ingredients into wet until well incorporated. 
-For peanut butter, blend ingredients in a medium bowl until well incorporated. 

Now, this may look like your average cookie but...

-Okay, now it's time to fill, take a bit of the chocolate cookie dough and make into a 1 1/2 inch round, then add about a teaspoon or so of the peanut butter filling and cover with more chocolate dough and do that until you have your baking sheet filling (make sure to put the cookies about an inch apart) Place into oven and bake for about 12-14 minutes. Remove and let cool on wire wrack.

Peanut butter filling! Yum!

Now, I said there's another cookie you can make, and that's just an amazing double chocolate cookie, just add 2 1/2 cups of chocolate chips to the chocolate cookie dough, make into 4 oz. portions and bake at 350 for 14-16 minutes.

Don't forget to check out www.lovefromtheoven.com
And, check out my friends blog www.callmeexpert.blogspot.com it's about video games, he talks about Zelda <3, the secret of Luigis mansion and how to make your own video game! It's really good and fun to read!