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Maple Pecan Blondies

Here’s a blondie recipe that I have made many times!  Mine are never as gooey as Gemma’s and that’s probably because I over-bake them. I should keep a better eye on them next time. I like to brown the butter first but it’s not necessary. Enjoy!  Maple Pecan Blondies Makes 9-12 servings Original recipe from Bigger Bolder Baking Ingredients ¾ cup butter, melted or browned 1¼ cups dark brown sugar ½ cup maple syrup 1 large egg  2 teaspoons vanilla 1/2 teaspoon salt 2 cups all-purpose flour ¼ teaspoon baking soda I ¼ cups pecans, toasted and chopped  Directions   Preheat the oven to 350°F. Grease and line a 9x13” baking pan with parchment. Gemma used 8x8 but I like my bars thinner. Whisk together the butter, brown sugar, maple syrup, egg, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the flour and baking soda just until combined.  Stir in the pecans. Pour mixture into prepared pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. They middle should be slightly jiggly but they still taste yummy if you over-bake them. Allow to co
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Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache

Brown bananas - story of my life.

 My kids like bananas but they never seem to eat them all no matter how many I buy. I usually only buy about 6 at a time. I like mine when they’ve just passed the green stage, but I don’t like to eat them once they’ve gone completely yellow, or even worse, when they start to get spotty.

 The ganache in this recipe was extremely rich. It almost reminded me of a mousse, and I definitely felt guilty eating it. I brought this cake to work and put a caution label on the container that the ganache may cause diabetes. A joke of course, but it really was very sweet. The good thing is that I decided to cut ½ cup of sugar out of the cake batter beforehand. You really don’t need to add as much sugar when you’re using ripe bananas, because they’re already sweet. That worked out well in the end.

 Ganache is also very easy to make though, and I will definitely make it again, only next time I’ll be using milk chocolate chips instead of semi sweet, because milk chocolate is my favourite. But it’s up to you. If you like dark chocolate I’m sure you could use that, too. White chocolate chips couldalso be nice in this recipe.


Chocolate Banana Cake with Chocolate Ganache
Adapted from Joy of Baking
Makes 24 servings

Ingredients
For the Cake
  • 1 1/2 cups white sugar
  • 1 3/4 cups cake (or all purpose) flour
  • 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup mashed bananas (I used 3 medium – very ripe)
  • 1 cup cold water
  • 1/2 cup 2% milk
  • 1/2 cup avocado (or other unflavoured) oil
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
For the Ganache
  • 8 ounces semisweet chocolate (or any chocolate you like)
  • 3/4 cup heavy whipping cream
  • 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Directions
  1. Preheat your oven to 350F and grease/flour a 9x13 baking dish. I didn’t use parchment and my cake popped out of the pan perfectly.
  2. In a large bowl, combine the sugar, flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt with a whisk (or sift it together).
  3. In another bowl, beat together the eggs, bananas, water, milk, oil and vanilla just for a minute. Stir the wet mixture into the dry mixture with a wooden spoon just until combined, and then pour into the prepared pan. It’ll seem a little runny but it’s okay.
  4. Bake for about 30 minutes or until a tester comes out clean. Cool completely before removing from the pan.
  5. While the cake is cooling, make your ganache. Place the chocolate in a medium bowl and set aside.
  6. Heat the cream and butter in the microwave for about 1 ½ minutes or until it just starts to bubble. You can do this in pot too. Mix it up and pour over the chocolate. Stir the chocolate with a whisk until it’s melted into the hot cream. Now set this aside to cool completely. Once cool, beat the mixture for several minutes until it gets thick and creamy. I beat mine by hand with a whisk and it took about 5 minutes or so. I was too lazy to pull out the mixer, but I bet it would be faster!
  7. Now, if you want to leave your cake whole then just remove it from the pan and spread the ganache over it. If you want to get a bit fancier like I did, cut the cake into squares (I also cut off the edges) and pipe the ganache on. I liked the look of the coloured sugar, but I used sprinkles on some pieces as well.
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