Cinnamon swirl banana bread

Ok, so I'm not liking this whole posting only once a week thing. It always seems like an eternity since I last blogged on here. And I seem to have found my cooking mojo again. So I may go back to occasionally sneak in a mid-week post as well, depending on how things go. And I have at least two new recipes I want to try this weekend, which if they turn out to be successful, I may want to share.

Other than cooking mojo this has been a crazy week. I have been blown away by the generosity of people. In my current job, one of the things I do is co-ordinate biomedical research studies, and one aspect of that is to invite volunteers to come to the Blood Donor Centre to give a blood sample for our studies (oh and there is another study where we actually take a skin sample, but that is another story). Anyhow, I just fired up a new study, and was all of a sudden told that I need to get in 30 people before the end of September. I said there is no way in you know where that is ever going to happen. But then I got this huge tidal wave of responses from the invited volunteers, and all but two of them so far have been "yes, I would be happy to participate". So it might be we will be able to pull off a miracle and actually get 30 of them in during September. I am blown away how far people are willing to travel to come to us to participate, and how they are happy to even take a whole day off work just to come and give a blood sample. Working with these amazing people keep restoring my failing faith in humanity.

What never fails is my fascination for cake. I know it's a bit unimaginative to publish two cake recipes in a row (I hope you didn't miss my courgette and lemon bread last week). Oh wait, it's not cake, it's bread. That's ok then isn't it? Two bread recipes in a row. This little baby is where bananas go right before they would go into the bin. When they look ugly and black, but have all that lovely sweetness that will make this loaf taste heavenly. 

I have used the recipe almost unchanged from the Lovin' From the Oven blog. The only change I made was to use 2 bananas instead of 3 in the original recipe. But my bananas were huge so I think they more or less were equivalent to three punier bananas. Make sure they are over ripe, that's where all the sweetness comes from. Plenty of those pesky black dots on the peel, that's how you know they are good to go. And I love that all the ingredients are basic stuff, most likely to be in your kitchen any time those bananas threaten to turn too black, to satisfy a sweet craving at any time over-ripe bananas are available. And all you need is one bowl, do a bit of a mix and it's all ready to go in the oven.

Banana bread (makes one loaf):
2 over-ripe bananas, mushed with a fork
75 g melted butter
3/4 cups sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla (I used vanilla paste)
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
1 1/2 cups flour

For the swirl:
1/3 cup sugar (I used muscovado)
2 tbsp cinnamon

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C (350 F). Butter a loaf tin (I used my silicon loaf tin as it saves the trouble of preparing it). Mix the smashed bananas with the melted butter, sugar, egg and vanilla. If you want to be fancy, you can mix the soda, salt and flour in another bowl, but to save me from doing dishes, I just tossed them right in and gave a gentile stir, making sure not to over mix. Combine the ingredients for the swirl separately. Add half of the batter into the loaf tin, sprinkle over half of the cinnamon sugar and add the rest of the batter. Sprinkle the rest of the sugar on top. Bake for 50-60 minutes until a cake tester comes out clean (mine took 60 minutes to bake).

The Verdict:
I've tried a few different recipes for banana loaf. And while none of them are bad, I never felt like I really understood why others were so into banana bread. After baking this, I can honesty say I finally understand what the hype is all about. It's deliciously moist, and the cinnamon swirl and cinnamon topping go perfectly with the banana. Some banana breads I have made are too "banana-y", this is just perfectly balanced. Sweet and a touch of banana, but not overwhelming. The comment from the Culinary Consultant "You can make this banana bread any time you like". While scoffing down his slice. I could imagine adding a handful of dark chocolate chips would be perfect in the batter, but it's also heavenly as is. Oh and as usual I apologise for the suboptimal photos, but I just took a quick snap as I was very busy getting to the actual eating part. You will understand what I mean when you make it, the scent of the bread is just unbelievable!

Banana breakfast muffins

I constantly keep doing this. I swear in the morning I won't have anything sweet that day. And it always starts innocently with a chocolate after lunch, or some biscuits with tea. Not that I would ever buy any dessert chocolates or tea biscuits, but today when we got off the bus coming to work in the morning we were offered chocolates because it was "travel to work in an environmentally friendly way" day, and in the afternoon we had an afternoon with people from all across our department giving talks with a tea and biscuit break in between. Then I snack on some nuts and dried fruits in the afternoon because I'm so bored at work. And I keep silencing that little voice in the back of my head saying I shouldn't be eating this. After all nuts and fruits are healthy, right? Then I come home, and for some strange reason a big handful of dates or sultanas just fly into my mouth. So I have no chance but to eat them. I mean, they just viciously attacked me. Sometimes I'm so desperate that I go to my baking ingredient stash and eat a few candy melts or some caramel chunks. And once again, the day which started healthily with an omelette for breakfast and a salad for lunch ends up with a thousand calories more in my food diary than was intended. Are there any self help books for developing some self control? Something along the lines of Self Control for Dummies?

Today was one more of those days. When I came home from the gym, I was attacked by a bag of dried dates. And then there was the problem of those two over-ripe bananas sitting on my kitchen counter. They would not last long, so something had to be done. And that something was of course hitting my Pinterest boards as I knew I had pinned several recipes for banana bread and muffins. After much pondering, I settled on a recipe for Vegan Banana Muffins from Minimalist Baker. And again, I fell deeper into the depths of self deception, convincing myself this recipe is almost health food. I mean it has no added fat and very little sugar. Healthy, right? And replacing the white flour with rye and whole wheat makes it almost acceptable to eat the whole batch in one sitting? Well, health food or not, those bananas had to be used in some way, and this seemed like a decent enough way to help them find the reason for their existence. I made a few changes to the recipe, replacing the flax egg with a regular egg, excluding the butter and replacing the white flour with half rye flour and half whole wheat. I also doubled the recipe to make 4 big muffins as I had two bananas that needed to be used up asap.

Banana muffins from Minimalist baker (makes 4 big muffins):
1/2 cup rye flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking soda (I didn't have any soda so I used baking powder)
pinch of salt
2 ripe bananas
3 tbsp dark muscovado sugar (the original recipe had 3 tbsp sugar for two muffins, but I reduced it a bit)
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla paste
4-5 big pieces of crystallised ginger
about 10 pecan nuts, coarsely chopped, for topping

The howto:
Preheat the oven to 175 degrees C. Use a fork to mash the banana, and mix in baking powder, salt and sugar. I used a fork to mix. Then mix in the eggs, ginger and vanilla paste, I gave them a good swirl with the fork. Last, work in the flour. The batter was still easy to mix with the fork even after adding all the flour. Pour into single serving ramekins or big muffin moulds, and top with the coarsely chopped nuts. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

The verdict:
I have never been a big fan of banana bread. At least not until I made this chocolate and banana bread, which I pretty much ate in one day. Every time I passed by the bread, sitting there all innocent on the kitchen counter, I couldn't help but to have a slice. And another. And another. It was just so moist and soft and decadent. And with some butter on top... oh that was good. That also encouraged me to try some other banana recipes, despite my prejudice.

This recipe does bring out the taste of banana. I was first thinking of adding some cinnamon, cardamom or dried ginger, but I'm glad I didn't. I did add some finely chopped crystallised ginger though, as I have a bit of an addiction to it right now. Chocolate chips would also be a great addition.

The only thing I will do differently next time I'm baking these muffins is I wouldn't bake them in my rose cake moulds, instead i would make them in ramekins as was done in the original recipe so that you would get that beautifully risen domed top of the muffins up on top. I really can't figure out what to bake in the rose moulds, it would have to be something that doesn't rise too much so that you would get a flat bottom to your rose cakes. I'll have to experiment, and I'll get back to you.

I'm really surprised how high the muffins rose in the oven. I probably measured my baking powder a bit on the generous side, but I think that was necessary because I was using rye and whole wheat flour, which don't naturally result in light or fluffy muffins. But I actually think the texture of these muffins was spot on, not too fluffy, but still light and moist. Of course with rye flour, you will always get a somewhat more dense texture compared to all white flour, but I like the almost nutty flavour it brings. And these muffins actually didn't taste healthy, they tasted really good. These muffins were perfect for breakfast, they are on the large side but at least you are not left hungry. And they are perfect to take along and enjoy while sifting through your morning emails at work.

 

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Banana chocolate bread

Well it's been one of those weeks. Work interfering with life way too much. In general, I tend to enjoy my job quite a bit, apart from a bit of a slump lately. But this week, I've been sitting around in meetings most of the week, essentially getting no work done. Admittedly meetings can be very important too, but three days in a row is a bit too much. And then there is the added horror of meeting food. I still can't believe I've survived three days on sandwiches, the most vile of foods. Empty calories with carbs, mayo and other disgusting things. My body is back in full sugar craving mode, and I decided that for one more day, I will allow myself something horribly unhealthy and from tomorrow it's back on track again. 


I have never been a big fan of banana bread. I didn't use to think banana went very well with cakes or bread, I preferred to have it on it's own. However, for some strange reason, I have been having a massive banana bread craving for quite a while. I was very worried that I'm low on potassium or B6, so of course I have to give my body what it is craving. And then I ran into the idea of chocolate banana bread on Pinterest. And the rest is history. I browsed through all chocolate banana bread recipes I could get my hands on. Most of them required milk or soured cream, and I wanted to make something right there and then without having to go to the grocery store, so I settled on this recipe from Evil Shenanigans (a blog with the motto "sometimes it's good to be bad" has to be amazing, right?). I liked it because it only required ingredients I have at home, as well as the fact that it was based on oil instead of butter. Not that I mind using butter (as you should have discovered by now), but after making my orange-olive oil cake, I have started to enjoy the moistness that oil brings to a cake. Not that this is cake, of course, this is bread. Doesn't that make it sound much healthier? Oh and by the way, did you know that people with latex allergies can have an allergic reaction to bananas? I didn't either before today. At least that's what it said on the Interwebs. And we all know everything on the webs is true.


I only had two bananas, so I ended up rescaling the original recipe a bit, as well as adding in cardamom, which wasn't part of the original recipe. I just love cardamom in everything, and I think it goes very well with banana. 

Banana chocolate bread (makes one loaf):
200 g brown sugar (I used 60g light brown muscovado, and 140g dark Muscovado)
75 ml oil (I used rapeseed oil)
2 eggs
2 over ripe bananas, mashed
170g white flour
1/3 cup (about 30 g) cocoa powder (I used my trusty Green & Black's organic)
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup strong coffee (I used about 1.5 tbsp instant coffee)

The howto:
Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Mix together oil and sugar. Add eggs and beat until slightly fluffy. Add bananas, and the rest of the ingredients and give a quick mix. Pour into a bread tin or smaller baking tins, or a cake tin, or any other container you like. For a loaf, bake 45-55 minutes. Depending on your preferences, if you like a bit of goo in the centre of the loaf, make sure not to overbake. Let cool in the tin for half an hour, and then transfer onto a wire rack.


Then for the bad news... 1/8 of the recipe (about 2 slices of a loaf) contains 300 kcal, 12 g fat, 48 g carbs and 5 g protein. It certainly is no health food, but the good thing is it doesn't taste like health food either. 

The verdict:
My craving for banana bread is most certainly satisfied. I've had way too many slices, and it was especially delish with a bit of butter on top. It could also work rather well with lemon icing on top, although that might be a bit too sweet maybe. The flavours blend together wonderfully, and for some reason, although you can't taste the coffee really, it does bring out the chocolate flavour very nicely. However, note how I didn't downscale the amount of cocoa from the original recipe. And yes, I know baking is an exact science, and you should always scale all ingredients of a recipe. Otherwise you will change the ratios of ingredients, and the result might not turn out as it should. Call me a rebel. I rescaled several things in the recipe. And it did turn out yummy nonetheless. The cake is incredibly soft and moist.


I especially love the flavour of the dark muscovado, that lovely rounded flavour of molasses. Next time I think I'll use only dark sugar. And another thing to try could be using a nut oil instead of rapeseed. Maybe macadamia oil. Or maye even throw in some chopped pecans or walnuts. And if you want to be really really bad, why not throw in some chocolate chips as well. Not that this cake (yes, there is no way of getting around it, it is a cake, not  bread) isn't sweet enough as it is, there is quite a lot of sugar in it. For me, that is perfect. For someone with a somewhat more normal carbotolerance, it could border on the line of being too sweet. 


One thing to notice is the baking time could have been a bit longer. This might be a result of rescaling some of the ingredients from the original recipe, but as I was making my way to the middle of the loaf (yes, I fully admit to now having eaten half a loaf of banana bread. I'm disgusting. But I did run 12 k this morning, so I kind of pre-burned off some of it) I realised it's a bit undercooked in the middle. Not that I minded, it's like mud pie but with banana. It's great! But you might want to cook your bread a tad longer than than the 40 minutes I did. Unless you enjoy chocolate-y goo. If you don't, what's wrong with you???

Healthy ice cream. Yes, seriously!!

This is this summer's best healthy dessert. Hands down, nothing compares. Usually all the healthy dessert recipes look really good when you see the pictures online, but when you make it yourself, it turns out to look like something that has been twice regurgitated, and tastes even worse. But this, it really works, and it is really great. I'm not just saying, I really love this. And I can't believe it contains no added sugar. 


I stumbled on this idea on Pinterest (my new addiction), and it linked to the recipe on Use Real Butter. Well, it's not actually a recipe, since it's pretty much just one single ingredient. All you need is a frozen banana or two, and a food processor. This is just so brilliant, finally a dessert that tastes amazing and can be eaten without any guilt whatsoever. Ok, well it is still high carb, but a banana every once in a while can't be bad. From now on, I will always keep banana discs in the freezer, just in case.


Running into ideas like this make me so happy I just would want to jump for joy, sing and smile like an idiot.

Banana ice cream (2 servings):
2 bananas
2 tbsp nut butter (I used macadamia butter)
2 tbsp cocoa (I always use Green&Black organic cocoa, it's *the best*)


The howto:
Slice the bananas and freeze until frozen solid (a few hours or over night). When frozen, blend in food processor until they get white and fluffy. According to the original recipe, the bananas first become "like gravel" and you need to scrape them off the sides of the food processor several times while processing. Mine went fluffy and creamy really quickly. Then add nut butter and cocoa, and give another quick blend. Enjoy immediately or freeze first for a more ice-cream than soft ice cream consistency.


One serving contains 251 kcal (13g fat, 34g carbs of which 17g sugar and 4g protein).

The verdict: 
If you didn't work it out from the introduction, I LOVE THIS!! It's one of the best healthy dessert ideas I have ever come across. And I will be making this a lot. With as many different variations I can imagine. Almond butter, berries, maybe caramel (although of course then it won't be healthy anymore), I'll try it with my chocolate, orange and cinnamon balsamic vinegar, maybe a variation with lemon curd and lemon zest. What else... Jam, mango puree, white chocolate cocoa, cardamom. Oh and raisins, rum raisins, that would be brilliant! 

A few mini fudge bites sprinkled on top

Long live The Queen!!

All of the UK is draped in Union Jacks this weekend (yes, to me it's still the weekend, and happily will be for another day). While the rest of the world is toiling away at the salt mines, the Brits (and all us immigrants) are enjoying a four day weekend to celebrate our beloved Queen and her 60-year reign. And nothing says celebration like muffins for breakfast. I'm sure Her Majesty would approve.

I have this pet peeve of people throwing away food which is still edible. I guess it all has it's roots with my grandma. She keeps collecting everything, bits of chord, pieces of cloth (that she used to make quilts), plastic food containers... everything gets washed and re-used. This is probably a result of living through a war and knowing what's it's like to have a chronic shortage of everyday items. Although it might seem a bit silly at first glance, it actually makes perfect sense. We produce such an enormous amount of waste, and everybody should look into their habits more carefully, and try to reduce the waste they are producing. At least for me, planning my meals ahead has helped me reduce the amount of food I throw away. I always make a shopping list and only buy what I know I will be using. And there is the added challenge of making up the most bizarre meals at the end of the week to use up those odd bits and pieces which are left over. What to make of two pieces of bacon, some aubergine, a lime, some celery and wilted leaves of basil... Well, the point of this rant was that a while ago I ended up having a few bananas sitting on my counter, which were clearly past their prime. I didn't want to throw them away, so I mashed them up and froze, to give me a perfect excuse to try bananan bread at a later point (I later read that a lot of people freeze their over-ripened bananas whole, so no need for the mashing part). I decided banana bread muffins would be the perfect Jubilee holiday breakfast treat. 

I'm actually not a big fan of baking with bananas. I like them as a snack, or in a smoothie, but usually cakes with banana just don't do it for me. However, I decided to give the banana a chance, and hit the internet looking for the perfect banana bread recipe. I stumbled upon this blog called Quest for Delish, and simply because the writer claimed this is the best banana bread recipe she has ever found, I had to try it out. Also, the fact that it was the first google hit for 'banana bread muffins' might have something to do with it... I halved the recipe, although I used a bit more banana than the original recipe, as my frozen batch contained 1.5 bananas. I'm pretty sure using just one will work fine. Also, I threw in a bit of chopped pecans, as I think banana bread should have a bit of nuts in it as well. 

Banana bread muffins (makes 12):

125g flour

0.5tsp baking soda

0.5tsp salt

55g butter

100g caster sugar

1 egg

1.5 bananas

125ml soured cream

1tsp vanilla paste

a handful of pecans

The howto:

Preheat oven to 175 degrees C. Mix flour with baking soda and salt. In another bowl, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy with an electric whisk. Add egg and keep whisking until fluffy. Mix in banana, vanilla paste, soured cream and pecans. Gently fold in the flour. Divide into 12 muffin moulds, and bake for about 20 minutes. The original recipe says these can also be made into a loaf, but I'm a bit skeptical, as they turned out very soft and crumbly, I think it might be really hard to cut the loaf. But I might be wrong. Maybe the texture is a bit less crumbly with 1 banana (as in the original recipe) compared to my 1.5. Also, the bananas seemed quite damp coming out of the freezer, maybe using fresh bananas will change the consistency of the batter somewhat.

Each muffin contains 150 kcal (7g fat, 20g carbs of which 11g sugars and 2g protein).

The verdict:

Is this the best banana bread recipe ever? I honestly don't know as I have never made banana bread before. However, I do know that they are really good. As in really, really good. I think it might be a combination of using seriously over-ripe bananas (and lots and lots of banana), with the excessive amount of sugar in the recipe (yes, they are very sweet) and a perfect baking time which left them moist but still perfectly cooked. I could have eaten the whole batch in one go. No, I'm not kidding you. The tops had a nice crunch to them and the insides were sweet and moist and crumbly and yummy. The only modification I will do next time I make them is add more pecans, as I love the crunchy chewy bits. I tried the muffins with strawberry jam and whipped cream as well as with butter. Despite my current deep infatuation with whipped cream (that's one of the thing the Brits have down perfectly, I think British cream is better than Finnish), I think the combo of butter and banana bread worked better. Now I'm off for a run in a desperate hope to keep all those muffins, butter and cream from setting on my already rather wobbly bits.