Eat The Love

Walnut Banana Bread

This easy-to-make one bowl banana bread uses walnut oil and almond extract to make it the best walnut banana bread recipe!

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A slice of walnut banana bread on a ceramic plate. Next to the plate is the remaining banana bread loaf on a wooden board, with a serrated knife next to it. There is a cloth napkin next to the banana bread.

Banana bread often seems like a last resort recipe, the one that you make when you don’t want those freckled brown bananas to go to waste. But lately in our household, banana bread hasn’t been an afterthought. I’ve been doing batch after batch of banana bread, including my chocolate banana bread, sourdough banana bread, and my Kahlua mocha marble banana bread because they’re all so tasty. But when I found some walnuts in the back of my pantry, I knew I had to make some walnut banana bread, upgraded just slightly because that’s what I do!

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Chocolate and Strawberry Scones

These chocolate and strawberry scones are an easy-to-make, tender, and sweet addition to your breakfast, brunch or coffee/tea time break.

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Chocolate and strawberry scones on a wire cooling rack. The rack is sitting on a marble surface. There is a blue cloth napkin next to the cooling rack and scones.

One of total misconceptions of scones is their dry crumb and tough texture. But I’m a huge fan of homemade scones, especially this particular strawberry and chocolate scones, which are tender and flaky. The secret, much like making homemade southern-style biscuits, is to use a light hand, not overwork the ingredients, and let the dough chill in the fridge. The technique is similar to my fig and hazelnut scones, or my eggnog scones, but these cream scones are packed with fresh strawberries and dark chocolate chips, making them a delightful treat for a special occasion breakfast, a weekend brunch, or really anytime of the year.

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Miso Caramel Soy Sauce Brownies

These deep, dark, fudge brownies have two secret ingredients that give them more dimension and depth – soy sauce and a miso caramel layer!

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A small plate of miso caramel soy sauce brownies. The plate is sitting on a blue and white striped napkin.

Last year there was a recipe bouncing around the internet for soy sauce brownies by the lovely Hettie McKinnon that got a lot of folks excited. The idea of adding earthy umami packed salty soy sauce into brownies made sense to me. In truth, I’m a little jealous I hadn’t thought of it first! But then I realized that I could swap out in the salt and espresso powder in my favorite fudge brownie recipe with soy sauce AND also add in a layer of miso caramel into the brownies to pump up the funky salt factor, much like I did with my miso peanut butter chip cookies and my pistachio cranberry cookies.

The result is a super-rich, complex-flavored brownie that is absolutely next level. The minute I served it to friends, they couldn’t place the special secret ingredients in the brownie, but they wanted seconds and third helpings, and immediately asked for the recipe. So here it is finally, that double secret ingredient brownie recipe that everyone who loves brownies needs to try immediately!

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Swedish Tea Ring

This beautiful, yeasted coffee cake is similar to a cinnamon roll, but less sweet and perfect for breakfast or with coffee or tea.

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A slice of Swedish tea ring coffee cake on a white plate, with the remaining tea cake on a plate next to it. There is a cup of tea next to the cake.

Lately I’ve had this vague obsession with the Nordic culture and cuisine even though I’ve never visited any of the countries over in that region of the world. And yes, I have been planning (for some time) to road trip all over that area when my husband and I get back to international travel. But in the meantime, I’ve been doing culinary travel but making dishes from that area. This includes making semlas, Swedish blueberry tosca cake, and cardamom buns, as well as making my Swedish meatballs stroganoff for dinner. And though I shared a cranberry spiral bread that was inspired by the Swedish tea ring a few years ago, I thought I’d share a more traditional Swedish Tea Ring! It is something that is made during the holiday season, but I think it’s a lovely yeasted coffee cake that is wonderful all year round, or at the very least, all fall and winter long.

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Eggnog French Toast Casserole

This easy-to-make eggnog French toast casserole is the best holiday breakfast or brunch dish. It can even be made ahead of time if you want!

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A shallow blue bowl with a serving of eggnog French toast casserole in it. The rest of the casserole, in the blue ceramic casserole pan, is next to it, sitting on a blue striped napkin. There is a serving spoon in the casserole dish, and a spoon in the shallow plate with the serving in it.

My love of eggnog is pretty obvious if you start diving into my archives. I’ve made mini eggnog scones, eggnog cinnamon rolls, eggnog cheesecake, eggnog pancakes , and added eggnog biscuits on top of my apple and fig cobber. But every year, when the holidays roll around, I get excited and think to myself, what else can I do with that carton of eggnog (beside drink it)? This year’s solution is this eggnog French toast casserole, which has all the best flavors of French toast and eggnog, with minimal effort involved, making it a great Christmas or holiday breakfast for brunch.

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Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

These chewy ginger molasses cookies have a complex flavor, and a little bit of a spicy ginger kick, because of the fresh ginger in them!

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Chewy ginger molasses cookies on a ceramic plate, with a glass of milk behind it, and another plate of more ginger molasses cookies in the background.

Back when this blog was VERY young, I shared a recipe for ginger molasses spice cookies, which my sister made for her wedding. It’s a solid recipe but it’s also something I’ve been wanting to revisit and rework for a while. The classic ginger molasses flavor combination is one of my favorites, and I felt like I could make the cookie a little more complex in flavor. I adore the flavor combination of ginger molasses as evident by my gingerbread stout cake, gingerbread Christmas tree cookies, hermit cookies, triple layer holiday spice cake, Dutch Speculaas cookies, which have a similar profile to gingersnaps, and gingerbread toaster pastries with pear bourbon filling. I even have a gluten free gingersnap cookie recipe that is pretty close these cookies. So, it was high time I went back and visited those chewy ginger molasses cookies, reworking the recipe from the ground up.

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