Light & Healthier Banana Bread

  For years, I searched high and low for banana bread recipes but couldn't find the one that tasted just right for my personal preference. Some people may like their banana bread very sweet, dense and heavy but I like mine less sweet and lighter in texture. I tried several recipes but all of them resulted in a very dense texture and tasted way to sweet for my liking until I experimented something different. Ever since I started eating more fruits in the past 3 yeas, I notice that I do not crave sugary stuff as much as I used to. Banana itself has natural sweetness and I feel it is sweet as is. Hence no need to add a cup of sugar on top of that.   So perhaps banana muffins would produce the texture that I wanted. Voila, my prayer had been answered! I got mine banana bread exactly how I wanted. I must really like this banana bread so much because I have made this 3 times in one month. I significantly altered from the original recipe to suit my preference. If you like a dense, heavy and very sweet banana bread, this recipe may not be right for you.   Ingredients:   Dry 1 cup Spelt Flour 1/2 cup All Purpose Flour 1/4 tsp Baking Soda 1/4 tsp Baking Powder 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder   Wet 3 tbsp Unsalted Butter (melted) 1/2 cup Yogurt (Plain Greek Yogurt will work too) 1 Egg 1/8 cup Brown Sugar (if you want it to taste sweeter, add more) 3 Banana (Mashed) A few drops of Vanilla Extract (optional)   Topping 1/2 - 1 tbsp Brown Sugar A handful of raw walnuts A handful of raw sliced almonds with skin 1/2 tsp Cinnamon Powder     Heat an oven to 375F. Mix dry ingredients together   Whisk egg and brown sugar together, add butter and yogurt. Mix well.   Mash banana then add the mashed banana to the wet ingredient. Mix well.   Add dry ingredients to the wet and gently fold. Do not over mix. Pour into a prepared baking pan.   Prepare the topping.   I felt like adding chocolate this time so I sprinkled some Cocoa Nibs.   Sprinkle the topping on top. Bake for 30 mins. After 20 minutes or so, the aroma filled my entire house.   Voila! Here is the final result. Moist, light, fluffy and delicious!

Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie

It must be the magic of fall/winter and holiday season that get me in the mood to shop and bake up the strom lately. Don't get me start on the shopping part - I obviously have been on my shopping roll, more on that later. I find myself spending more time in the kitchen and being so inspired to experiment many new recipes.   My oven is extra busy than ususal around this time of the year after sitting (barely) untouched in the past 9 months. Magic is in the air. The sweet aroma of Thanksgiving and Christmas - that is. A few weeks ago, I came across a photo of this decadent Bourbon Chocolate Pecan Pie.     Bourbon + Chocolate + Pecan = PURE LOVE   (Find full recipe {here} - sorry I gotta go watch the Walking Dead - it is more important!! wahaha)     My little helper - she helped for one minute and left     My in-between indulgence: Pumpkin Praline cupcake (bought from a bakery - so freaking good)     Final result       Although I am not a liquer drinker, it just sounds delish. I just couldn't stop thinking about it!! Diet - what is diet!?!?! Screw it!! Gosh I am going to gain 10 lbs by the end of December, or what!! This tastes nothing like a traditional pecan pie. It is a pecan pie with a twist of full Bourbon and Chocolate flavor. It is pretty good and a keeper!