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Banana Brownies (Banana Crack)

This weekend we decided to mix it up a bit and bring some special banana brownies that we made earlier in the week. This is based on a recipe that my wife found on Facebook but, as always she made a lot of modifications. This is just too rich, it puts the best donuts ever to shame.

Full Sheet of Banana Brownies
Full Sheet of Banana Brownies

The upgrade to the basic recipe adds Praline Pecans, Carmel Bailey’s, Banana Greek Yogurt and a few other additions in the recipe. This thing is so rich that everyone is calling these “Banana Crack” because you eat one, you get a sugar rush and you want to eat more. One of the guys actually ate 5 pieces of this in the locker room, before they pried the tray away from him.

Serving size – a sheet about 15 x 10 x 1 inch that makes between 16 and 30 pieces depending on how you cut it.

Ingredients

Banana Brownie

  • 1 cup Brown Sugar
  • 1/2 cup Organic Pure Cane Sugar
  • 1 stick Butter at room temperature – 1/2 cup
  • 2 eggs
  • 4 mashed Bananas
  • 2 tsp Vanilla
  • 1/2 cup Toffee pieces
  • 2 cup All Purpose Flour
  • 1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
  • 1 tsp Sea Salt
  • 1/2 cup Banana Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup Light Sour Cream

Frosting

  • 1/2 cup Butter
  • 4 cup Confectioners Sugar
  • 2 tsp. Pure Vanilla Extract
  • 1/2 tsp. Vanilla Bean (pod)
  • 1/3 cup Marscapone
  • 2 Tbsp Carmel Bailey’s
  • 1 Tbsp Milk
  • 1/2 cup chopped Praline Pecans (optional, but I say required)

Preparation

Banana Brownie

Preheat the oven to 375 F. Mix all the wet ingredients together in a large mixing bowl and then use a hand mixer till fully blended, about 1 minute. Then add in the dry ingredients, except for the toffee, and continue blending for an additional minute. Then pour this mixture into a 15 x 10 inch jelly roll pan. Top with toffee pieces and place in the oven to cook for 25 – 30 minutes. When done remove from the oven and allow to cool to room temperature to apply the frosting.

Frosting

While the brownies are baking, melt the butter over medium heat until it turns a delicate brown. Be careful not to over brown it because it will change the flavor of the frosting. Remove the butter from heat and add in the confectioners sugar, vanilla, vanilla bean, milk and the marscapone into the browned butter and mix until creamy. When the brownies are cool enough apply an even layer of the frosting on top of the brownies. Then sprinkle on the chopped praline pecans. It’s now ready to serve.

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Prosciutto Meat Cups

Here we go again with another version of a meat cup, filled with fluffy egg goodness.

Prosciutto Meat Cups
Prosciutto Meat Cups

A while back we made some meat cups using Canadian Bacon for the meat cup shell filled with NM Green Chile and eggs. This time we tried something a little less filling, and quite possibly healthier. As with the previous meat cups, the disappeared so quickly it was unbelievable.

Makes 18 meat cups

Ingredients

  • 3 medium sized aluminum cupcake trays (6 cupcake slots each)
  • 18 slices of Prosciutto
  • 6 cherry Tomatoes – halved and quartered
  • 2 Jalapeño Peppers – seeded and chopped
  • 1 1/2 cup Swiss Cheese – shredded
  • 1/2 pt Half and Half or Heavy Cream
  • 1/2 pt Plain Greek yogurt
  • 10 Eggs
  • 1/2 tspn Salt
  • 1 tspn Ground Pepper – divided

Preparation

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. You can optionally spay a light coat of olive oil in the cupcake slots.  It is not really necessary, but it will make for a little browner and crisper outer shell. Take each slice of Prosciutto and line each cupcake slot by pinching and folding one side of the slice to help it form a cup. When completed put each tray in the refrigerator while you prepare the rest. Chop up the tomatoes by first quartering them lengthwise and then halving each of those pieces. Then chop the Jalapeño by cutting the stem end off and pulling out the seeds and the supporting tissues. Discard this part, or include it if you feel like lighting these on fire. Then fine chop the peppers into small pieces less than 1/4 inch square.

Place in each of the cupcake slots equal portions of the tomatoes and peppers, about 2 or 3 chunks of tomatoes and 3 to 5 pieces of the peppers. Then using half of the shredded Swiss Cheese, put equal parts of cheese into each slot and mix it around with the tomatoes and peppers.

In a large mixing bowl, crack open 10 eggs and add in the yogurt and Half and Half.  Give this a good whisk for about 4 minutes. Whisk in the Salt and half of the Ground Pepper, for another minute. Pour this mixture equally into each cupcake slot until just below the top level.  Then top each slot with the remaining Swiss Cheese.  Sprinkle the remaining Ground Pepper across the top and its ready for the oven.

Cook in the oven for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top of each is just turning a little brown.  These will puff up while they are in the oven so don’t be alarmed. When taken out, they will fall.  But they are ready to serve or pack them up to take to the rink.

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Scotch Eggs

Scotch Eggs almost ready to head to the rink

While looking for a non-quiche breakfast idea that would meet the teams needs, we came across these Scotch Eggs quite by accident.  And the bonus was that only 2 of the guys had every heard of these before.

I tried to make these a bit healthier as most of the recipes for this are deep fried.  This is simply backed.  The risk with these is that sometimes the sausage coating opens up a bit on one side and exposes the egg.  This also goes well with either a straight English mustard for a dipping sauce, of course you could try the chutney mustard sauce included below.

I’ll present the portions for making 12 of these things.  If you want more, just make proportional adjustments.

Ingredients

  • 14 medium eggs
  • 1 package of Jimmy Dean Sage* Sausage
  • 3 cups Panko or Italian Herb Spiced Bread Crumbs
  • 3 tblspn – Fennel Seeds
  • 3 tblspn – Coriander
  • 3 tblspn – Thyme
  • 1 tblspn – Pepper
  • 1/2 tblspn – Salt
  • * 4 tblspn – Sage (Add this if your using regular sausage)
  • 1 tblspn – Cayenne (optional)

Chutney Mustard Sauce

  • 4 tblspn – Chutney
  • 8 tblspn – English Mustard of Beer Mustard

Preparation

In a large mixing bowl, combine the 2 cups of Panko and dry spices and thoroughly mix.  Then add the sausage and egg and continue mixing until you’ve got this fully mixed.  Divide this mixture into 12 equal sized balls.  Then place this in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.  You’re going to want to work all of this with the meat cold so it doesn’t fall apart on you.

In a large pot, pour in enough water to fully cover 12 eggs.  To help with shelling the eggs, add 2 tablespoons of baking soda to the water.  This will help with pealing the eggs quickly.  Bring this to a boil and add the dozen eggs and boil for 8 minutes.  If you go too long the eggs yokes will be too dry when you’ve finished all the steps so this is kind of critical.  They need to be just starting to become hard boiled.  If they are soft boiled you will have trouble getting the sausage mixture around them without breaking them open.  When ready, remove from the hot water and put them in another bowl or pot filled with cold water to stop them from cooking further.  Allow them to set for at least 10 minutes.  Then peal the shells from the eggs and set them in the refrigerator until the coating is ready.

Prepare an egg wash by opening the extra 2 raw eggs into a bowl and beating with a fork to make frothy.  In another bowl put the remaining cup of Panko.  Take the each sausage ball out of the refrigerator and prepare one at a time.  Work one sausage ball into a either a cup shape or flatten into a round sheet.  I’ve tried this both ways and they take about the same amount of time and work and there is really no difference in the result.  Then wrap the sausage around the one of the chilled eggs and form the sausage with your hands to evenly coat the egg all the way around.  When wrapped, drop it into the egg wash and roll until fully coated.  Using a spoon remove the coated egg and put it into the bowl with the remaining Panko.  Roll that around using the spoon until fully coated.  Place this egg into the refrigerator until your ready to bake them all.

Chutney Mustard Sauce

In a small bowl over medium high heat, mix together the chutney and mustard until thoroughly mixed.  Cook covered for an additional 3 – 4 minutes and reduce heat to low and allow to simmer for about 5 – 6 minutes.  Remove from bowl and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Final Cooking

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Get the Scottish eggs that you’ve prepared out of the refrigerator when the oven is ready and place them on a cooking grill, placed in a foil lined baking tray.  Give them a little coating of olive oil if you’d like them to be a little more golden brown.  When the oven is ready put them in.  Cook them like for for 30 minutes, turning them over halfway through.  If the outside isn’t a little crispy at the end of the cooking time, crank the oven up to broil at 500 deg for no more than 5 minutes.  Pay close attention so you don’t burn them.  They are ready to serve at this point.  Warm up the sauce of you choice and dig in.

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NM Green Chile Ham Cups

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New Mexico Green Chile Ham Cup
New Mexico Green Chile Ham Cup

While trying to come up with a good inspiration for a cupcake to make, I came across a few recipes that used sliced meat instead of paper for the cup.  So this was born.  Taking the well known quality of NM style Green Chile and putting it in an edible cup, stopped with some bacon and eggs.  I made 24 of these things and they disappeared so fast, I almost didn’t get a picture of them.

I’m working on more varieties of this so keep your eyes open.  They’ll be coming soon.

Serves 24

Ingredients

  • 24 slices Thin Sliced Breakfast Ham
  • 12 slices good quality Bacon
  • 24 Eggs
  • 1 Tbsp Olive Oil
  • 1 Medium White Onion finely chopped
  • 2 cups Chicken or Pork Stock
  • 8 NM Big Jim or Anaheim Chile Peppers, roasted and cleaned
  • 4 Garlic Cloves, roasted and minced
  • 1/2 tsp Oregano
  • 1/2 tsp Cumin
  • 1 tsp Ground Pepper
  • 1/2 tsp Salt
  • 4 Tbsp Flour (or Whole Wheat Flour)

Preparation

First off your going to need 2 cupcake trays that have 12 tins for cupcakes.  You don’t need it right now, but make sure you’ve got them.

First we have to make our NM Green Chile.  Follow this recipe or in a pinch, you can substitute a jar of either El Pinto Roasted Green Chile Sauce or Colorado Green Chile Sauce in place of the peppers, garlic and spices.  Just follow the recipe as noted below.

On either a grill or in your oven at 400 degrees, roast your Chile and Garlic until the skin is blackened.  This should take about 20 minutes, turning them over once while cooking.  Remove and allow to cool until you can easily handle them.  Remove the skin from the Chile and chop into small pieces, less then 1/2 inch.  Fine chop or mince the Garlic.  Transfer to a medium sauce pan and heat to medium-high heat.  Add in the Oregano, Cumin, Pepper and Salt and stir until for about 3 minutes, then reduce heat to medium.

If your taking the short cut, simply put the jar of sauce into the medium sauce pan and bring to a boil.  Stirring occasionally, when boiling reduce to medium heat.

If you’ve taken the short cut, from here on the  where you start.

In a large sauce pan, over medium-high heat, add the oil and when hot enough, add the chopped Onions and saute until tender and starting to turn translucent (about 3 minutes).  Add in the sauce you have in the medium sauce pan and continue to stir until everything comes to a boil again.  Slowly add in the flour to thicken up the mixture.  Then add in the Stock and simmer on medium heat until it thickens up.  Add more flour if you need too.  This should be the consistency of a good thick gravy.

This should make about 3 cups of Green Chile Sauce.  I highly recommend letting this cool and refrigerating, covered for at least 12 hours until final assembly.  It brings the heat up a little while bringing out the flavors as well.

Prepare the Bacon by either baking in the oven at 375 degrees for 15 minutes per side or in a skillet until done.  The remove and drain on some paper towel.  After it’s drained, chopping each slice into 4 pieces.  Store until final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Spray the cupcake tray with a light coating of Olive Oil.  In center of each cupcake hole, place one slice of Ham and push down on the center.  The Ham should go into the hole and form a cup.  Pinch one side of the slice to get the cup started.  Then scoop about a 1 inch ball of the Green Chile Sauce and place in each of the Ham cups, pressing to make sure it goes to the bottom and fills the cup.  Then put a couple of pieces of Bacon in each cup, on end so one end of the Bacon sticks up a bit.  Crack open and place one whole egg into the top of each Ham cup.  This should just fill the cups to the top.  Put into the oven and bake for 20 – 40 minutes, checking to see that you don’t burn the egg.  The time you take them out determines how done the eggs are.  30 minutes will usually yield an over medium yoke.  Remove from the oven when the yolks are done to your liking and serve.  I took these to the rink in the trays, double wrapped in foil to keep them warm.

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Deer Dangle Balls

Deer Dangle Balls
Deer Dangle Balls

Due to a planned late start, we tried for a more of a mid day snack.  But these turned out to be big enough to be a small meal.  If you don’t have some venison sausage you can use a good pork sausage.  But then they’d be pig dangle balls.  The other difference here is that I used shell shaped pasta instead of the standard elbow pasta.  Also this recipe is for baking them, but you could deep fry them too.

Serves 16 – 22

Ingredients

  • 1 lb Venison Sausage
  • 6 slices Bacon, fine chopped
  • 3/4 cup Panko
  • 2 Eggs, beaten
  • 2 – 4 Roasted Green Chile Peppers, cleaned and chopped
  • 2 cloves Roasted Garlic, chopped
  • 2 cups Conchiglie or small Shell Pasta
  • 1 cup Gruyere Cheese, shredded
  • 1 cup Parmesan Cheese, shredded
  • 4 Tbsp Butter
  • 1/4 cup All-purpose Flour
  • 4 tsp Black Pepper
  • 2 tsp Kosher Salt

Preparation

Roast the chile peppers and garlic on a hot grill until the skin turns black.  Remove from heat and cool enough to clean and skin the chile and chop the garlic.  Put them both into a food processor or blender and pulse until chopped up into a salsa.  Set these aside until later.

Mix 1 egg, 1/4 cup of Panko and 1/2 of the pepper and salt in with the sausage and mix thoroughly.  When done, put this mixture in the refrigerator so firm up.  In a large pot, cook the pasta shells as directed until al dente, drain and return to the large pot.

While the pasta is cooking, in a skillet cook the bacon until done.  Remove and allow to drain on a paper towel.  Also prepare the cheese sauce in a medium pot over medium high heat, melt the butter and then mix in the flour slowly.  When the mixture starts to brown, reduce the heat to a low to medium and gradually add in all the cheeses and the rest of the salt and pepper.  Then add in the salsa and bacon and stir until fully mixed.

Then start working in the pasta and continue mixing over heat until the cheese fully coats all the pasta.  Then remove from heat and allow to cool.  You might even want to cool this in the refrigerator to make it easier to work with.

Prepare the remaining egg in a small bowl for an egg wash, along with the 1/2 cup of Panko that remains.  Take the meat mixture out of the refrigerator and make small 3/4 – 1 inch balls.  Smash these flat with about 1/8 inch thickness.  Using a small scoop, make a 1/2 diameter ball of the Mac N Cheese.  Place these balls in the center of each of the sausage circles.  Then roll up the sides so that the meat fully coats the Mac N Cheese balls.  Dip each ball in the egg wash and then thoroughly coat with Panko.  Place on a sheet and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes or until ready for final assembly.

Final Assembly and Cooking

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.  Since you’ve already done all the hard work, all that’s left to do is lay out for cooking.  Foil line a baking pan and put the grill in it.  Them evenly spread the balls on the grill.  Cook them in the oven for about 30 minutes, until they are the breading turns golden brown.  For an even better toasting spray or brush on a little olive oil before cooking.