Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream Pizzelle Sandwiches

This is the perfect summer treat. Peanut butter banana ice cream served in pizzelle tacos or cups. Although this treat is a little equipment heavy, it is so worth it.

Pizzelles are a light Italian cookie. I’ve tried a vegan and a non vegan recipe. My recommendation is to first try the Stonewall Kitchen mix. I’m not a big fan of mixes, but this will help ease you into Pizzelle making. The next batch try this non vegan recipe. If you’re feeling a little brave, move on to the vegan recipe. Traditional pizzelle batter is thicker, but this vegan recipe is thin, so the cookies will not be as sturdy.

To bake pizzelles, preheat iron for about 10 minutes. Place one spoonful of pizzelle batter in center of iron. Close iron all the way down, until steam comes up and release. Allow to bake for 30 seconds.

Carefully transfer baked pizzelle with fork. To shape, either place around cannoli roller or place in small bowl. Allow to set until hardened.

The ice cream portion requires a Yonanas, but I read someone had success using a blender. The first time I made Yonanas the cream was a little bitter, but this time I perfected the technique. Make sure you freeze really ripe bananas, like black ripe. Just continue to add peeled bananas in your freezer, until you have enough to make a batch.

Once you are ready to make the ice cream, set bananas out for 10 minutes. Then pulse them through the machine. Once all bananas are transformed into ice cream, stir in peanut butter. Place ice cream in pizzelle tacos/cups and garnish with chocolate chips and strawberries. These are super light, but they remind me of Ben & Jerry's decadent Banana Peanut Butter Greek Frozen Yogurt.

Peanut Butter Banana Ice Cream

Ingredients

• 5 very ripe peeled frozen bananas
• 2 tbsp creamy peanut butter, or to taste

• Chocolate Chips
• Sliced Strawberries

Instructions

Place bananas in Yonanas. Once all bananas are churned, mix in peanut butter.

Spoon in pizzelle tacos/cups and garnish with chocolate chips/strawberries.

Sugar Coated Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread

I'm longing for road trips. Trips to DC, the North Carolina mountains, the coast, somewhere. With the bright sun on the dashboard and either the quiet companionship of a good book or some cheerful tunes.

Perhaps my favorite things about road trips though are lunch breaks, with a good peanut butter sandwich, apple slices and water.

Some of my fondest memories of trips involve pit stops either at awkward middle of nowhere fast food places or rest stops. I can't forget the time my family inadvertently tried to get on Quantico Marine Corps base three different times - we were just looking for a gas station! There's also the time we met a cat coming home from the Outer Banks. We astutely named her Plymouth after the town the rest stop was in.

So back to the peanut butter sandwiches. What could be better than to have them on cinnamon raisin bread? If you're going on vacay, and don't want to have to eat out every day or go to a grocery store, baking a loaf of the bread the day before will at least help for the lunches.

This loaf is gorgeous with its cinnamon swirl, specks of raisins and sugar coated topping. 

Sugar Coated Cinnamon Raisin Swirl Bread Adapted from Peter Reinhart (Check out all his fabulous books here)

Ingredients

• 1   3/4 cups bread flour (recommended KAF)
• 2 tsp sugar
• 5/8 tsp salt
• 1 tsp instant yeast
• 5/8 tsp cinnamon

• 1/4 cup applesauce
• 1 tbsp Earth Balance shortening
• 1/4 cup almond milk
• 3/8 cup water 

• 3/4 cup raisins

Cinnamon Swirl/Topping

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp cinnamon  

For greasing loaf

• 1 tbsp Earth Balance buttery stick

Instructions

In a large bowl, combine ingredients from first column - flour, sugar, salt, yeast and cinnamon. 

Once combined, add applesauce, shortening, almond milk and water

Knead dough for 10 minutes. In the last 2 minutes, incorporate raisins.

Transfer dough to oiled bowl and let rise for 2 hours.

Prepare cinnamon swirl topping by mixing sugar and cinnamon in small bowl.

Roll dough into a rectangle, about 10 x 12 inches. Sprinkle with half of cinnamon sugar mixture. Roll up tightly, pinch ends and transfer to greased 9 x 5 loaf pan, seam side down.

Let rise an additional 2 hours. (Loaf will not rise above pan)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Bake loaf for 20 minutes. Rotate pan 180 degrees and bake an additional 20 minutes or until the center of the loaf reaches 190 degrees.

Immediately brush loaf with butter and sprinkle remaining cinnamon sugar over loaf. (Tip: Do this over a pan to catch extra butter/cinnamon sugar.)

Muffin Madness: Jumbo Sweet Potato Swirl Muffins

The NCAA Tournament is fast approaching and that can mean only one thing, muffins! While filling out your bracket, munch on one of these sweet potato swirl muffins.

When I was a senior in high school my math class filled out brackets. Somehow or another my bracket was #1. It hasn't happened since, so I can only assume I had a muffin when picking out my bracket.

Now a word on the inspiration for the muffins. Minimalist Baker had a great post on Sweet Potato Almond Butter Muffins. She talked about trying peanut butter on a sweet potato. Now sweet potatoes are my favorite food and I've tried them lots of different ways, but never with peanut butter. That night I tried it and I was amazed. So, I had to come up with my own Sweet Potato muffin recipe.

The result was a coconut milk batter, thanks to Hell Yeah It's Vegan!, and a chocolate swirl, thanks to Isa Chandra Moskowitz. See the below video for how to swirl the sweet potato and chocolate peanut butter batters.

Hope you enjoy them as much as I do and good luck filling out your brackets!

Jumbo Sweet Potato Swirl Muffins Adapted from Hell Yeah It's Vegan!, Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Minimalist Baker

Makes 8 jumbo muffins

Ingredients

• 1   1/2 cups mashed roasted sweet potato
• 3/4 cup coconut milk
• 2/3 cup brown sugar (Make your own with Slow Club Cookery's recipe)
• 1/3 cup water
• 1/4 cup canola oil
• 2 tbsp maple syrup
• Juice of 1 lemon

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ginger
• 1/8 tsp nutmeg

• 3 tbsp boiling water
• 1   1/2 tbsp cocoa powder
• 1   1/2 tbsp peanut butter

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Mix liquid ingredients from first column in large bowl.

Mix dry ingredients from second column in measuring cup. 

Pour dry ingredients into wet and combine.

Measure out one cup of batter and transfer to medium bowl. 

In a small bowl, combine boiling water, cocoa powder and peanut butter to make a paste.

Pour paste into medium bowl with reserved sweet potato batter. Combine.

Grease a jumbo muffin tin. Alternate sweet potato and chocolate peanut butter batters. Once muffin tin is full, use a toothpick to gently swirl the two batters together.

Bake for 26 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Nutrition Facts

Calories                                    330 calories

Total Fat                                     9 g

Saturated Fat                            1 g

Cholesterol                                  0 mg

Sodium                                      464 mg

Potassium                                 363 mg

Total Carbohydrate                64 g

Fiber                                            3 g

Sugars                                         32 g

Protein                                         5g