Stephanie Cookies

Before I begin- I realized that I never shared anything about my friends in the "About Me" section of this blog. I actually have two best friends, Paulina and Stephanie, who I have been friends with since I was 14 years old (or for the past 12 years). They are like sisters to me and I could not imagine my life without them. With that tangent, I have one more- Paulina recently got engaged (and I realized that I never shared the news)!

Stephanie recently visited my blog and asked that I make something with banana and chocolate becuase she really enjoys that combination (hence the name). One day on Pinterest I saw a recipe for banana and nutella cookies and thought I would try them out for Stephanie. I am not a huge fan of banana in food (though I do enjoy some banana bread). These cookies were similar to cicular pieces of banana bread than cookies. The hubster who liked banana really enjoyed them, and so I thought my reservations are probably due to the fact that they "banana-ey." But be forwarned- on the many things made by For the Love of Dessert- I am not sure this is topping the list.

Fun Fact: baking at room temperature. Some recipes will out right state that ingredients must be at room temperature but most recipes do not. So why room temperature. Well remember when I gave a tip about creaming butter and sugar? Well the creaming process, or sugar aerating the butter cannot occur if the butter is not a room tempertuare. This will allow the mixture to become porous so when adding baking soda/powder, it can fills these pours, helping the baked good to be light and fluffy. In addition, you want your wet ingredients (eggs/milk, etc) to be at room temperature because if they are not, the butter will form little "pellets" and when you bake your goods, they will end up having tons of tiny little holey pockets. Lesson for today- have all your ingredients at room temperature.

STEPHANIE COOKIES: BANANA NUTELLA COOKIES

Adapted from Chef in Training

INGREDIENTS

Preheat oven to 400F Degrees

1 c. shortening

1 c. sugar

1 egg

2 large mashed ripe bananas

1 1/2 c. flour

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. corn starch

1 3/4 c. oats

1/2 c. Nutella

DIRECTIONS

Cream together shortening and sugar (letting cream for about 6-8 minutes). Add egg- beat until well incorporated and then add mashed bananas. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt and corn starch. Combine with wet mixture, until just incorporated. Then add oats. Once mixed- "knife or cut" nutella into batter creating swirls of Nutella throughout. I wanted Nutlla throughout my cookies so I mixed it it completely, but for aesthetics- knifing the Nutella into the batter would be better. Scoop 1 inch round cookies (I use a cookie scoop) onto lined baking sheet and cooking for 8-10 minutes (*I found 8 minutes to be the best).

Cutting the Nutella into the batter would be easiest by cutting half of the nutella into the top layer, then scooping cookies and baking. Then cutting the Nutella into the second half of the batter and scooping out the cookie once more. I suggest this because cutting the nutella (and seeing swirls) will only be evident for the top layer of the batter and less pronounced for the bottom layer, so doing this twice- will ensure nice swirls throughout.

Enjoy,

Chika