Raise your hand if you’ve made banana bread in the last few weeks! I feel like that was a formal inauguration to fully committing to staying home to help fight COVID-19. I’ve always been a big baker since high school, but the obsession has definitely gotten more severe since my quarantine. And honestly, baking this much makes me miss my brothers because they are usually here to help me eat all of it. Only I don’t think they would be totally crazy with all the things I’m baking now, because I have been trying to throw a healthy edge into everything. If you’re in need of some new ideas to bake to help pass the time while at home, consider one of these five recipes.
1.Banana Bread
I totally gave into the banana bread trend during quarantine. Honestly, who hasn’t? And before we get too far into this blog post, you should know that with most recipes I follow, I do not measure correctly. And I’ll throw random extra things into the recipe, just for kicks. Here’s the recipe I followed for this banana bread, but I also added coconut sugar, coconut flour, oats, crushed walnuts and almond butter (because I’m extra like that).
2. Oreo Truffles
These are a classic treat for Halloween and so simple to make. You really only need 3 ingredients: Oreos, cream cheese and white chocolate to melt. These bite size treats are so delicious and also a nice variation in the other sweets I’ve been making since quarantine started, because I put them in the freezer so they’re chilly. Here’s the recipe I follow and take it from me, remember to not make them too big because they are super filling.
3. Carrot Cake Muffins
My dad loves carrot cake and I got a ton of carrots in my latest Hungry Harvest box. I followed this recipe because I already had just about everything in my house (minus the tapioca flour, so I used banana flour). There’s a lot going on in these muffins/cupcake things and there is a matching recipe for cream cheese icing, but I don’t think they need it. I’ve been eating these for breakfast on days when I’m really busy with work.
4. Monster Cookies:
I fell like when they teach you how to bake in school (whether thats in middle school or high school or even college) people always mention how easy it is to make peanut butter cookies. These cookies are so easy to make and I just found this recipe to make them a little healthier. Here’s the basic recipe, but normally I’ll use coconut sugar instead of brown and granulated sugar, I’ll use almond flour instead of all-purpose flour, and I’ll ditch the butter. I also added coconut flakes to mine because, again, I’m extra like that.
5. Joanna Gaines’ Chocolate Chip Cookies
At the beginning of quarantine, Joanna made this adorable video of her and her kids baking cookies together. I would love to get her cookbook one day just based on these cookies alone. I feel like it is a pretty basic recipe, but I added a little coconut flour to my batch (and M&Ms when I made these for Easter) which made them even better.
For the experts out there: I really want to make the MilkBar Cookie Dough Birthday Cake but I am so intimidated by this recipe! But of course, depending on how long we all stay in our houses, I may have no choice but to give it a shot. My birthday is in September, so I have until then to master this insane cake.
What is your favorite thing you’ve baked since the stay at home orders started? Comment below!
Thanks for reading! xx