White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pineapple Bread

I don't know exactly why I wanted to save this recipe when I saw it. It was just a peanut butter quick bread that happened to be filled with jelly. Maybe it was gut instinct that some other ideas would come together so I could create a version of my own.

On another note, there was the PeanutButter and Co. peanut butter. I'd heard about them and definitely knew I would like to try them, but no way was I going to pay that much...under normal circumstances. Then my mother saw it. I don't know if she was hungry or what, but she wanted to try it. And if she thinks its okay to spend money on something, chances are it is – even better when I can get it buy one, get one free.

So I bought a jar each of Dark Chocolate Dreams and White Chocolate Wonderful. Now I have flavored peanut butter, an amount of crushed pineapple right about equivalent to the amount of jelly...

I talked about serendipity when I made the hummingbird cake. But I'd say that this is equally serendipitous.

White Chocolate Peanut Butter Pineapple Bread

Adapted from Mr. Food

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup Peanut Butter & Co. White Chocolate Wonderful
• 1 egg, slightly beaten
• 1 cup milk
• 4oz crushed pineapple, drained
  

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Coat a 9- x 5-inch loaf pan with baker's spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in peanut butter with an electric beater on medium speed, until well combined.

Add egg and milk; stir until well blended. Spread half the batter into prepared loaf pan and spoon preserves down center of batter.
 

Top with remaining batter, covering preserves completely. Bake 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Invert onto a wire rack and let cool completely. Slice and serve.

I was a little nervous about some residual pineapple juice that had drained, but it baked off and came out...White Chocolate Wonderful-ly! Seriously, this was one of the most addictive and (unfortunately for the calorie counter) high calorie recipes I've made in a while.



But finally, I'm out of bananas, and I'm out of pineapple. So I can get back to baking and forgetting to write about it. Now I just need to get myself more of some Peanut Butter & Co. Peanut butter...

Sourdough Surprises: Pineapple Coconut Cinnamon Rolls

Ah, cinnamon rolls. Way back when I first started baking with sourdough, they were one of my first successes. So naturally, despite dealing with the July heat and humidity, I was excited that Sourdough Surprises picked them for this month's challenge.

I decided to stick with my old recipe (even though it's so old, the website it's from seems to have been taken down), but halved it. Then I had to deal with the leftover pineapple from the hummingbird cake. While totally not traditional, something about a pineapple cinnamon roll sounded really good. Besides, also having a bag of shredded coconut in the freezer, it would make a perfect summery tropical treat.

I did have the humidity related issues with the dough (I ended up using a whole 2 cups of flour)

The recipe:

Pineapple Coconut Cinnamon Rolls

Adapted from otherpeoplesrecipes.com

Dough:

3/4 cup sourdough starter
1/3 cup milk
1 tblsp sugar
3/4 tsp vanilla
1/2 tblsp melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
1-2 cup flour
1/4 tsp soda

Filling:

8oz crushed pineapple

2tblsp sugar

2 tblsp flour

1 tblsp cinnamon

Topping:

2 tblsp melted butter

1/2 cup sweetened shredded coconut

Mix together first 5 ingredients of the dough in a large bowl.  Stir in salt and enough flour to make a soft dough just stiff enough to handle. Turn onto a well-floured board and sprinkle with 1/4 cup flour which has been mixed with soda.  Work flour in and knead for 5 minutes or more, adding more flour as necessary.

Place in a buttered bowl and turn once to butter top.  Cover and let rise until double, about 3 hours.

Punch down, turn onto a floured board and roll into 9" square.  Mix filling ingredients and spread over dough.  Roll and cut into 1 inch slices.  Arrange with sides touching in a 9" cake pan.  Cover and let rise until doubled, 2-3 hours.

Toss topping ingredients and sprinkle over rolls.  Bake at 400 for about 20 minutes.

Overfilled, much? But it made them that much better. Although I can't say I'll be making these often – I hope I plan better and not buy a 20oz can of pineapple when the recipe calls for an 8oz again in the near future – they were definitely worth making. And worth eating.

The only trouble? I've still got 4oz of crushed pineapple left. But...that's been taken care of. Watch for my next post!

Check out our other awesome cinnamon rolls!

Shine Supper Club: Hummingbird Cake

Serendipity at it's finest!

I've already mentioned my stockpile of frozen bananas before. My mother suggested I make a hummingbird cake, so I already had planned on making one. Then the Shine Supper Club announced that this month would be summer desserts. Hummingbird cake is a lightly spiced cake with bananas and pineapple. What could be more summer than that?

My mother's recipe is from-scratch, but calls for a ridiculous amount of oil and sugar. I decided to find a lighter recipe, one that calls for yellow cake mix. I decided to get a little creative and use Betty Crocker Butter Pecan. That way I could also omit the nuts.

The recipe, as follows:

Hummingbird Cake

Adapted from CDKitchen

1 package Betty Crocker Butter Pecan Cake Mix
8 ounces crushed pineapple packed in juice, undrained
1 cup mashed bananas
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F. Spray a 9”x13” baking pan with flour spray

2. Place the cake mix, pineapple with it's juice, mashed bananas, water, oil, eggs, vanilla extract and cinnamon in a large bowl.

3. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat for 2 minutes more, scraping the sides down again if needed. The batter should look thick and the fruit well blended.

4. Pour batter into pan and bake for 30-35 minutes. Let cool completely before icing.

Being a traditional southern cake, the original recipe calls for cream cheese icing. Hummingbird cake is already sweet enough, in my opinion. So I opted for just a half cup of vanilla icing, thinned out with 2 tablespoons of milk and microwaved to form a glaze.

It was as sweet as my mother's recipe, while also not being nearly as dense. The butter pecan mix provided an excellent – though addictive – flavor.

Finally, my freezer is once again devoid of bananas. The thing is, I accidentally bought a 20oz can of pineapple...

Stay tuned later in the week for what I did with the rest of it!