Well, SHE HAS SPOKEN. She wanted it to be something that she herself likes. She wanted to be a little more "grown-up" then cookies. And she liked the granola idea, except that we gave her teachers artisanal maple syrup samplers with their holiday gift card, so she feels like it would be doing breakfast twice.

She wants to do a chocolate chip banana bread. There's a place where we buy it locally fresh out of the oven, so I've never made it. If anybody has a favorite recipe shoot away. Thanks for all the other ideas, I'm sure I'll find a way to use them.

ps the loaves will be on the smaller side ..... I just need to find pans.

Butter spritz? If you have a cooky gun they are dead easy...

Hmm, well, I am happy your daughter is happy ( which is what this is all about ) but that is totally gross to me.

A sophisticated cookie and a delicious one, is benne seed wafers, and no bigger than a quarter.

gee that strikes me as a really weird reply

I doubt anyone would think it was "totally gross" and plus it is a small gesture. I think they will understand it as it is intended, whether they happen to like it or not. Luckily we know them all well enough not to worry about that at all. I will make sure not to send and down SC way, though!

Ok, that was exaggerated and I apologize! I suppose it stems from a dislike of bananas. Whatever she makes is all about her excitement about the gift and if that is what she wants to make, that's what counts, I really mean that.

I guess I felt disappointed, that the final choice was something I dislike so much.

However, most people like bananas and chocolate and quick breads so in reality, it is most likely going to be enjoyed by many.

Yum! I think the best banana bread I've ever had is the recipe from the Moosewood cookbook.
Moosewood Banana Bread

Gracious of you to apologize, Bumble. Apology accepted.

Thanks, Oly!

Here's our favorite. It is from my favorite cookbook, Southern Sideboards. Just made it last week and sent some to DD for her bday. Never thought to add choc chips....yum! Not healthy at all...so don't make it very often.

1/2 c Wesson oil

1 1/2 c sugar

2 eggs

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/2 c sifted flour

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 c buttermilk

3 very ripe bananas, mashed

1 c chopped walnuts (optional)

Cream oil and sugar. Add eggs and salt and mix well. Add flour and soda combined with buttermilk alternately. Fold in bananas and nuts. Grease 2 regular size loaf pans, pour in mixture and bake approx 45 min at 350. When bread leaves sides of pan and toothpick comes out clean it is done. Recipe can be doubled.

This is the recipe I have used for years.. it's very moist for a whole wheat bread and very flavorful. I have added chocolate chips (by eye) for others-- but I prefer it with just walnuts.

I make the following changes: I use 1/3 cup plain yogurt in place of the oil and I only use 1/4 c honey

Whole Wheat Banana Bread

We love the Aunt Holly's Banana Bread recipe at Epicurious. There are a gazillion positive reviews. Enjoy your time together.

You can buy small paper loaf pans at Sur la Table or King Arthur Flour. They also have metal ones if you want to go that route.

I recently saw at BBB or JoAnns a large pan where you can bake maybe 10 mini loaves at once.

Bumblebeez - do you use the Paula Dean recipe for the benne seed wafers? I see that King ARthur flour also has a recipe but makes theirs larger.

Omg, stop the presses. I was looking for the little loaf pans or for paper pans, and I was looking at William Sonoma because they're close by. And I came across this which is just so darn cute! And my daughter loves lemon poppyseed… So maybe I can convince her to do that. If not I might buy these for myself anyway

http://www.williams-sonoma.com/shop/bakeware/bread-pans-loaf-pans/?cm_type=gnav

If you are in a hurry for the small paper loaf pans, the Michael's Craft store in our area has them in the cake making section.

Love lemon this time of year -- it brings a little reminder that spring is coming!! I would definitely nudge her to do lemon poppyseed or lemon yogurt!

Yes, graywings, the Paula recipe.

And tiny, quarter sized.

FWIW, I often make banana bread as muffins. I use a James Beard recipe from his breads book "Beard On Bread"; the one loaf recipe makes 16 muffins & bakes for 20-25 minutes.

& I always add a pinch of nutmeg - gives a more buttery flavour.

Mtn- love the lemon loaf pans - how perfect for lemon poppyseed or my favorite - lemon poundcake. I think I may have to order them. I only wish they were separate so that I could possibly stack them for storage. Oh well I'm sure I can find a spot for them. Thanks for the idea!!

That's my biggest complaint re: specialty pans and nordicware in particular... But I love them.

Which reminds me of a suggestion for the future: madeleines.

I thought of that, and I have four Madeleine pans. My issue w Madeleine's is they really need to be eaten the same day IMHO

As an aside, all this talk of lemons. Back in the day, I'd make whatever Mom wanted for dinner and dessert on her birthday, and she'd reciprocate. One year, and I'm talking about 45 years ago, she made me a lemon chiffon pie that was soooo delish. So as a treat...I mean I never make a pie for us just because...last night I made a lemon chiffon pie. Simply to die for. Especially after remembering it all this time. Here's to you Mom!

Mtn, I totally agree about madeleines.. same day and preferable warm.

Same as pain au chocolat which was my first thought when I read your post. I nixed the suggestion because they lose so much when not fresh out of the oven.

Maire, Funky,

Do you happen to have a tried and true recipe for lemon cake or lemon poppyseed?

TIA!

I was afraid you'd ask that. I have lost my favorite lemon cake recipe-- it was an epicurious recipe. I have tried a few others since I lost my link but they weren't the same.

I haven't tried it but if I was going to take a chance, I'd go with the recipe Cindymac recently shared. It was from smittenkitchen but originally an ina garten recipe. I find both extremely reliable as a recipe source.

Smitten Kitchen's Lemon Yogurt Everything Cake

Ina Garten's original

Boysenberry and Quince Jam, this is the BEST jam that exists!! (and that's not just my opinion!)

(do not add any pectin because quince already naturally contains high amounts of pectin)

Serve on fresh baked biscuits or homemade scones. I'd suggest you only use a small amount of sugar in the scones because you do not want them too sweet. The sweetness will come from the jam.

Oh I love lemon anything but especially cake. Have you tried the Starbucks lemon loaf cake ? Here's a copycat recipe. Pick up a piece at Starbucks!

Starbucks lemon cake

I'm going to try the Smitten Kitchen blueberry lemon cake this weekend. Love the addition of blueberries.

This lemon pound cake is also from Ina Garten.

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/lemon-cake-recipe.html

This one is made with buttermilk (Funky's recipe has yogurt).It's a nice, moist cake, not quite as dense as a traditional pound cake. DH isn't overly fond of too much lemon so sometimes I'll make a sour cream pound cake and top that with lemon glaze. When the kids are over I'll serve it with either a blueberry or raspberry sauce and a good vanilla ice cream - sometimes my DDIL will bring homemade ice cream!

As I'm enjoying my lemon chiffon pie, I'm thinking I could do the same with limes and make lime chiffon pie...but then I'm also thinking I should've melted chocolate chips first and painted a layer of the melted chocolate on the pie crust before filling it. One of my favorite combos is lime and chocolate. So I went looking for a recipe and realized how many chiffon pies are made with jello and cool whip! No, please, just no! The chiffon pie has real fruit juice and zest and real meringue folded in to give it lift...so it's like a lemon meringue pie with the meringue mixed in instead of on top.

The cafe at work used to bake the best lemon poppy seed muffins, but I have no recipe, unfortunately, but they were very tasty.

The beauty of smitten kitchen's post is that she throws in so many substitution options-- I'd go with a lemon poppyseed or lemon olive oil cake with pistachios... or oh my! maybe lemon ginger!

I would use a light glaze (lemon juice and powdered sugar) to highlight the sweet design on top of the cake.

I love the recipes that are solid but also flexible!

My kids LOVE this. I have thought about subbing in chips for the blueberries. reminds me I should make it again soon.

It is vegan, but i am sure you could use real butter or eggs instead of flax if you so desired. I dont put the nuts in.

blueberry banana bread

Raven, thanks to your link I'll try adding zest to the glaze next time I make either Ina's or SmittenKitchen's recipe. Dh loves both of them and I still have a supply of Meyer lemons from this year's harvest.

Mtnrdredux I don't know if she has already made the gifts, but I wanted to throw one last idea into the ring----pumpkin bread with semi sweet or dark chocolate chunks. Harry's deli in Atlanta makes pumpkin muffins with chocolate chunks and they are so delicious it is criminal. You wouldn't think the flavors go well together but they are perfect, especially because the muffins are so moist. Warmed up in the microwave, they are heaven on earth!

I don't have a pumpkin bread recipe as I am not a baker, but I have used WS pumpkin bread mix and added ghiardelli dark chocolate pieces for a very acceptable result. I think it is sweet of your daughter to make something for significant adults in her life and agree with her that the notecards are tres chic with an American writer in Paris vibe :-)

Thanks, KSWL. That sounds like a wonderful combo to me (love Pumpkin anything) but too autumnal maybe.

I bough the specialty pans today and it's in the over now with a test batch, combining a NYTimes recipe with an ingredient from Ina Garten's recipe (vanilla).

Are you baking a lemon poppyseed or pound cake? Smells wonderful! I'm available for a taste test.

I hope they release easily from the pan so that the design is nice and crisp. My DS and DDIL are coming over tomorrow for brunch so I'm running over to WS this afternoon to pick up the pans. Thanks again for finding them.

Maire

Marie,

I buttered the pans very thoroughly. I didn't use flour. I let it rest about five minutes. And then inverted it ... No problem.

I used the lemon poppyseed recipe from Molly oneill NY times. I halved it and filled two of the loafs in the pan. They were too high... Not sure if it could have made 3 perfect ones? Err on the side of just done .... You want them to look more golden brown on the outside

I like the idea of vanilla so I added half teaspoon of that. I didn't like the idea of using fake lemon extract and I don't have any. I would've added a little more lemon zest but I was really tired of zesting… It took me four lemons to get one and a half tablespoons. So I added 3 tablespoons of lemon juice... I know that's less lemony but I didn't want to overdo liquids. Frankly I don't think it's quite lemony enough but not everyone agrees here. Otherwise I liked the texture and flavor.

I used Ina gartens glaze. Ok not great ... Too thin.

ready for round 2

Boyajian lemon oil is exceptional, a 1/4 teaspoon is all that is needed. They are easily available and WS most likely carries them. I always have the orange in the refrigerator.

While probably not a good idea for a gift to educators from a student, I bet lemoncello in the glaze could be quite fun.

I personally love a white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookie. I've found that just plain old Nestle Toll House cookies are a big hit. I made up a batch at Christmas and the kids just tore them up. I also made balls of dough and froze them so the kids could bake up a few whenever they felt like having a homemade cookie. My DD texted me the other day and said that was 'the bombdotcom' just what she and her DH wanted to snack on while watching a movie.

4 lemons to get 1.5 Tbl? That's terrible! I guess were just expecting too much from those winter lemons. I am intrigued by the citrus oils. I've used Meyer lemon and blood orange olive oils but never the actual citrus oil.

Did round two go better? Find a glaze you liked better?

I know, and I was very thorough. Maybe some have thinner rind?

I didn't have any time for round 2 yet. Hoping to hear how Maire fared!

Ah - I have the pans! But nothing to show for it. DS and DDIL called Saturday night to ask if we could move brunch up two hours and then said they'd bring dessert. This was a rather intriguing proposition since DS is the cook in their house and DDIL has just discovered baking. She has made some wonderful apple pies but she mentioned that she had been watching the Great British Bake-Off and wanted to try a Mary Berry fresh fruit tart.

I debated whether I should make the pound cake anyway but I certainly didn't want to take a chance that they might think I doubted her abilities. I had already planned on serving warm scones with clotted cream and preserves so I thought they would suffice for dessert in a pinch.

They arrived with assorted cupcakes and bread pudding from a local bakery!

I still have several opportunities this month to bake - I have one luncheon and 4 birthdays in March.

Maire_cate,

A few tips based on my experience...

1. DD used the Molly O"Neill NY Times recipe w buttermilk and extract; the extract is from Wms Sonoma. I worried about using something "fake" but it is wonderful

2. It made about 5 mini loaves, at 350 for 25-30 minutes. Fill them only 2/3rds

3. Poppyseeds detract from the look, and icing hides the relief

4. I used a Better Crocker icing made with butter, 10x and lemon juice. It look the juice of a large lemon to get it thin enough to drizzle. The icing is a must for flavor IMHO.

5. The cakes of course have a hump, so when you turn them over to show the pretty relief, they won't lay flat. just slice it off with a serrated knife while in the pan. FYI even under-filling it more will not get rid of the hump

Enjoy!

Thank you so much Mtn. I'll pass your tips along to my DDIL who fell in love with my mini loaf pan and 'borrowed' it. She thought it was so clever that each loaf had a different design on top. She's on the board of a local animal rescue and volunteered to host the next meeting.

I think it might be prudent to purchase another pan for myself. lol

She is a very creative and enthusiastic individual and immediately said she was going to use 2 colors of icing, white for a base and then she would add a light yellow tint to highlight the lemons on top.

Interesting that your icing hid the relief. I went back to look at the post where you linked the W.S. pans and the lemons show fairly well. It appears they used a really thin icing on the lemons and then a thicker one around them and to drizzle over the side.

I wouldn't dream of making them without icing!

Ah clever Mtn! - you found white and yellow striped ribbon! Perfect

Hope DDIL has fun with it! Leave it to the food stylists to use two icings! For my first batch I used a glaze (it has no butter) but I wanted white opaque icing, it looks better. Even if it does hide the lemons a bit.

DD got the cutuest tags at Michael's to label them:

They look great! I really like a simple glaze but I can see how the opaque icing makes a difference in presentation. I might consider painting with frosting paints. My sister has used them with great results. Also love the tags!!

I bought the pumpkin pan a few years ago and it was the same. You had to cut it to even out the top surface of the pan. The sat one on top of another so definitely needed a good surface.

i have the pan sitting in my cart. I just need to decide if I NEED it :)

Funky, you can borrow mine. I mean really, how often would anyone make this, LOL!

Maire, I almost forgot ... as you can imagine you really need to butter those nooks and crannies so you can get the cake out. We didn't want to dust with flour as well, because it might spoil the relief.

We found what worked best was to leave butter out until its very soft, and then use a silicone pastry brush to paint the butter onto the pan and in every detail.

And when they come out, and you are all done, you need to really soak and use a tootbrush to get the darn pan clean!

Yeah.. that's how I feel about my pumpkin pan. I think I have used it twice. That said, I never used the madeleine pans all that often.. but I very much regret selling them in a yard sale. :(

I dream of the basket of tiny, warm madeleines that Cafe Boulud serves with your after dinner coffee.

Of course, I need madeleines as much as I need lemon cakes and snickerdoodle cookies and.. well, a bigger behind!