chocolate apricot almond bars

these chocolate apricot almond bars are my go to cookie this holiday season. originally found here, i love them with apricot preserves & sliced dried apricots. easy to make ahead & keep in the fridge until party time.

ingredients:

• 1 tube refrigerated sugar cookie dough
• 1 jar apricot preserves, about 8oz
• 1/4 cup dried apricots, sliced
• 1/2 slivered almonds
• 3/4 semisweet chocolate chips for drizzling

preparation:

preheat the oven to 350.  on parchment paper, roll out the sugar cookie dough to approximately 1/4" thick, ~9"x12".  place the parchment paper & dough on a cookie sheet and bake at 350 for ~21 mins until slightly more done than soft/chewy (the cookie will absorb the preserves and soften with time). when cooled, spread the preserves on the cookie and drizzle apricots, almonds and melted chocolate. (i melt my chocolate in 15 second intervals in a glass bowl in the microwave, stirring all the time.) let the chocolate harden and cool in the fridge before slicing. store in the fridge in an airtight container. hope you enjoy!  

pioneer woman's banana bread

image via the pioneer woman

this week i had a bunch of borderline-soft bananas. my 8 month old will eat them this way, but i prefer mine almost green, the smell of a very ripe banana kind of gets to me. gag. but i didn't want them to go to waste so i googled and found the pioneer women's recipe, and surprisingly she feels the same way about bananas. 

so when she endorsed this recipe i thought i'd give it a try. we liked it! moist with a mild banana flavor, and i love that it's baked in a bundt pan and makes a nice size cake. enjoy 1/2, freeze 1/2... here's her recipe:

ingredients

• 2 sticks butter
• 1-1/2 cup + 2 TBLS sugar
• 3 whole eggs
• 1-1/2 cup mashed ripe bananas
• 4 cups + 2 TBLS flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1-1/2 cup sour cream

preparation

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease and flour bundt pan. Cream butter and sugar together. Add eggs one at a time, beating for a few seconds after each addition. Add mashed bananas and beat. Combine dry ingredients in a separate bowl.

Add dry ingredients and sour cream alternately to the mixing bowl. Beat well until all combined. Pour into bundt pan and bake for 1 hour 10 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Invert on a cooling rack and allow cake to cool slightly before slicing and serving with softened butter.

 

*i added a big splash of vanilla, 3/4 cup walnuts and 1 cup chocolate chips, because that's all i had... might have enjoyed even more chocolate chips.  i baked at 350 for 55mins.