My new favorite pastime

Is BAKING.  I love it.  Especially since we got all of our baking stuff back from Tropic. 

Micah especially loves this pastime of mine. 

Saturday morning I made french toast with an apple cinnamon topping and homemade whipped cream.  No pictures, but I thought it was pretty awesome. 

Last night I made these:

Delicious, right?

My favorite thing I made was this: 

It's banana chocolate chip bread with a chocolate glaze. I found the recipe in a food network magazine and I think it is my new favorite treat.

Here's the recipe for anyone who's interested:

1) Choose a flavor-- prepare one cup of any of the following

          Pear, shredded and squeezed dry

          Apple, shredded and squeezed dry

          Banana, mashed

          Carrot, shredded

          Zucchini, shredded and squeezed dry

2) Pick your mix-ins-- Choose up to 1 3/4 cups total of the following ingredients (no more than 3/4 cups nuts). Toast and chop any nuts; chop any large dried fruit.

        Walnuts, Pecans, Almonds, Hazelnuts, Pistachios

        Dried cherries, dried cranberries, dried currants, raisins, dried figs, dried apricots, dried dates

        Rolled oats

       Chocolate chips

       Sweetened shredded coconut

3) Prepare the pan-- Preheat oven to 350. Lightly butter one 9x5 inch loaf pan or three 6x3 inch mini pans.

4) Make the batter-- Mix 1 1/4 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon each baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a large bowl;  add your dry mix-ins (from step 2).  In a medium bowl, whisk 2 eggs, 1/2 cup cooled melted butter or vegetable oil, 1/2 cup plain yogurt or sour cream, 1 teaspoon vanilla, and 1 teaspoon citrus zest (optional).  Stir your fruit or vegetables (from step 1) into the egg mixture, then fold into the dry mixture until just combined.

5) Bake the loaf-- Spread the batter in the prepared pan(s). Bake until a toothpick inserted comes out clean, about 55 minutes for a standard loaf, 35-40 minutes for mini loaves. Cool 30 minutes in the pan(s) on a rack, then turn out onto the rack to cool completely.

6) Make a glaze-- Prepare a glaze, pour on cooled bread and let set 15-20 minutes.

       Chocolate - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 2 tablespoons cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons milk, 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, and a pinch of salt.

       Vanilla Bean - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, and the seeds from 1 vanilla bean.

      Brown Butter - Brown 3 tablespoons butter over low heat; cool slightly. Whisk with 1/2 cup confectioners' sugar and 1 tablespoon milk. Use immediately.

      Citrus - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon milk, 1 tablespoon citrus juice, and 1 teaspoon citrus zest.

     Cream Cheese - whisk 1 cup confectioners' sugar, 3 tablespoons softened cream cheese, 2 tablespoons milk and 1/4 teaspoon vanilla.

There you go folks.  You could make SO many different yummy breads.  If anyone attempts to make the pear bread, let me know how it turns out.  Micah is REALLY skeptical about it, but we have a bunch of pears I want to use up.