when all else fails

I'm (temporarily) anti-banana bread making. I'm close to getting it down... buttttttttttttttt not quite. and I'm over it. for now.

I re-attempted the recipe from Orangette: Banana Bread w/ Cinnamon Crumble Topping

Turned temp down to 325, baked for 1.5 hrs. Bread DID bake through... chocolate chips were burned. Next attempt (far far down the line) will be just plain ol' regular banana bread. No fancy schmancy mini chocolate chips for the boy. No siree. I might have more luck. Maybe.

...and seriously, WHAT THE HELL CINNAMON CRUMBLE TOPPING?

Since I was prepared for a semi-fail, I also whipped up a couple batches of cookie dough. Now, baking cookies I love. ESPECIALLY chocolate chip cookies (and variations thereof). I mean, since childhood with the frozen cookie dough chunks from Costco to watch bake up in the oven, I'm pretty good at identifying this "or until golden brown" sign of doneness. Plus, if some cookies get stuck in the hotspot of the oven... oh wells. I actually like a semi-overdone cookie. It adds flavour.

I only baked off one cookie batch today. (I let the dough "rest" in the fridge for a night.)
Same dough and recipe as from the last post... used the same Halloween peanut butter M&Ms.

AND! I happened to stumble across Mint Crisp M&Ms! I am devastated at the loss of the crispy m&ms. Those were delish. But this is just as good. Very crispy crunchy minty goodness. Nice holiday colors too. (But could also be very school spirit. Go team go!)

My only issue is that these M&Ms are larger and rounder than just plain M&Ms, so they stick out like... I dunno... something gross, a huge pimple or something. Anyways, minor detail. Still good.

The other batch of cookies is simply chocolate chip. But as I've done before, and gotten good feedback on, I'll sprinkle salt on the cookies. Except for the ones for the boy, since he doesn't like that. Whatevs.