Banana Bread Muffins [Gluten-Free]

For last week's hallway dinner, we had a theme of American food. I had originally planned to try making a sweet potato pie, but as my cousin L had opted for sweet potato fries, I left the few sweet potatoes we had for her to use.

I was a tad short on time, so I fell back onto a much-baked classic: banana bread. I found to my happiness that it fit the theme perfectly. So I made one of my usual loaves of banana-topped banana breads (baked many times before). Then I settled down to make a few samples of a gluten-free version for a neighbor that can't have gluten.

Since it was only for one person, I made 1/4 of the recipe, which yielded 4 muffins. I used a precision scale (that goes to 0.01 g) to make the measurements.

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RECIPE (yields 16 cupcakes)

  Ingredients

• 3-4 ripe bananas
• 158.96 g gluten-free flour of choice (I used buckwheat flour)
• 28.4 g glutinous/sticky rice flour
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 cup (100 g) sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2/3 cup (146 g) oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• cinnamon, to taste
• nuts or dried fruits (optional)
• I typically use walnuts and dried figs. In this case only dried figs as I ran out of nuts.

  Procedure

1. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas.
2. Add sugar, oil, and vanilla. Mix well
3. Fold in the dry ingredients, sifted.
4. Fold in dried fruits and nuts if using.
5. Bake at 180˚C for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean.
6. Cool and enjoy~

Eggless Lemon Bars

A few weeks ago, my cousin L and I had a friend over for dinner. I also had a single overripe banana sitting around waiting to be either used or dumped. Since I am no fan of dumping food, I looked for a way to use it up.

Banana bread requires at least 3 bananas, and so did my banana brownies. I then recalled a recipe I had stumbled upon for an eggless version of lemon bars, from Heart of a Baker. Not that I had ever tasted any classic lemon bars, I opted to give it a try.

First, I lined a small pan with my usual pâte brisée (shortcrust pastry), which I baked for about 10 minutes. Then I filled it with the lemon filling, and baked it some more. The result was a zingy, fresh bar that smelled like banana but tasted 100% lemon.

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LEMON BAR RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 1/4 recipe pâte brisée (shortcrust pastry)
• 1 ripe banana
• zest and juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup sugar
• vanilla
• 1 tbs cornstarch
• 1 tbs flour
• icing sugar, for dusting

  Procedure

1. Prepare the crust in an 8 in. x 8 in. pan as per the shortcrust pastry recipe. Precook 10 mins.
2. In a bowl, mash the banana.
3. Add in the rest of the ingredients.
4. Pour into the crust.
5. Bake for 30 mins at 180˚C or until set.
6. Cool then refrigerate min. 1 hour.
7. Cut into squares or bars.
8. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Banana Bread Muffins

More baking for friends! Decided to turn my usual banana bread into muffins this time! I poured each muffin tin about 3/4 full, then pushed a slice of banana on top, and sprinkled some brown sugar on top to caramelize. After baking them, I let them cool before they got eaten up.

Vegan Banana Waffles

I have been so busy of late with academics that I barely had any time to bake. These waffles date from a February weekend brunch with my cousin L, when I had ripe bananas to deal with (yet again).

First up was the batter. I adapted a recipe from Minimalist Baker, which resulted in my first time using ground flax seeds as an egg replacer. I had conveniently just gotten a jar of flax seeds from a friend, so I measured out 1 tablespoon of flax seeds and ground them with a mortar and pestle. Mixed it with some water and set it aside to do its thing. After adding the rest of the ingredients, I got a thick yet runny batter.

After heating the waffle iron, I poured the batter in and let it cook. I had some mishaps with a couple of almost burnt waffles, but otherwise, they were pretty good! The only adjustment I made from the recipe, if my memory works properly, was that I did not add any chocolate chips.

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RECIPE (adapted from Minimalist Baker)

  Ingredients 

• 1 cup flour
• 1/4 cup oats
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 cup milk (I used soymilk)
• 1 flax egg
• 1 tbs ground flax seeds
• 2 1/2 tbs water
• 2 ripe bananas
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder

  Procedure

1. Prepare the flax egg by combining the ground flax seeds and water in a bowl, stirring, and setting aside.
2. In a mixing bowl, mash the bananas with the baking powder using a fork.
3. Add milk, flax egg, and mix.
4. Mix in salt and oats.
5. Add flour until just combined.
6. Let batter rest while preheating the waffle iron.
7. Spray the iron with cooking spray or brush with oil.
8. Pour in batter and cook according to waffle iron instructions.
9. Remove and enjoy~

Marbled Banana Brownie Wannabe

The original title for this post was going to be "marbled peanut butter and chocolate banana brownie wannabe," but since that is very long-winded, let's settle for the short version.

A week or two ago, my cousin L bought a bunch of bananas. As usual, they sat in the fruit basket getting riper and riper, until there was nothing left to do with them but to bake them. I am still not in the mood for banana bread (don't ask me why), so I thought I'd make another banana brownie. Then L saw the Facebook post from someone in the building saying they had leftover peanut butter brownie, and so she asked me if I could make it peanut butter this time.

To make things more difficult for myself, I thought I'd tackle a marbled peanut butter chocolate one. I simply made half of a batch of chocolate brownie batter (using half of the recipe in the link above), and half of a batch of an experimental peanut butter variant, which simply used 100 g of creamy peanut butter instead of the chocolate. Then I dolloped it progressively, alternating batters, into my loaf pan, and swirled it all with a knife.

Although the texture was amazingly soft and great to eat, it made it very difficult to cut the loaf and get decent slices that didn't collapse and break every which way. I'm still debating whether it's worth trying to fix that and possibly sacrifice the texture. To be determined in the future, I guess.

Vegan Banana Crêpes

After making the banana brownie, I still had 2 bananas left. I still wasn't up for banana bread, so I thought I would try making vegan crêpes with them. I found a recipe online, and thought I would give it a try. The weekend arriving was a perfect opportunity.

For a Saturday brunch, I whipped up this recipe of banana crêpes, and we enjoyed it with some leftover dulce de leche one of my cousins had given me. Then for more a more savory version, my cousin L shaved some cheese off a block we have, and rolled it in.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients (makes about 12)

• 250 g flour
• 2 bananas
• 500 mL non-dairy milk (I used hazelnut milk)
• pinch of salt
• pinch of baking powder
• small spoon of sugar (optional)

  Procedure

1. In a blender, blend sliced bananas and 100 mL milk.
2. Mix to the rest of the milk.
3. In a mixing bowl, combine dry ingredients.
4. Slowly mix in the milk/banana mix, taking care to avoid making lumps.
5. If too thick (which it was in my case), add more milk until it reaches desired consistency
6. Cook a ladle-full or two at a time in an oiled pan on medium-high heat, flipping to cook both sides.
7. Enjoy with topping of choice.

Banana Brownie

For a hallway dinner, I figured I should try and do something with the bananas I had left in the fruit basket. I wasn't really in the mood for banana bread, though, so I thought I would try and tweak my brownie recipe into one that would incorporate bananas.

I used mashed bananas instead of the applesauce, and added whatever chocolate I had left in my baking ingredients storage (which turned out to be mostly dark chocolate, with a small bit of white chocolate chips).

Dipping the bottom of the 12 banana slices in some flour kept them from sinking during the baking process. I also sprinkled some granulated cane sugar on top of the slices so that they would caramelize a bit, as well as to keep them from drying out.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients (for a loaf pan)

• 3/4 cup (94 g) flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• less than 1/4 cup (~30 g) cane sugar
• 1 1/2 (~70 g) mashed banana
• 1 packet vanilla sugar
• 3 tbs hot water
• pinch of instant decaf/coffee
• 200 g chocolate
• 3 tbs (28 g) butter
• 1/2 banana, for topping

  Procedure

1. Preheat oven 180°C. 
2. Oil and flour a loaf pan.
3. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a bowl, and set aside.
4. In a microwaveable bowl, put chopped chocolate and butter. Melt 30 seconds at a time in a microwave until the chocolate appears partly melted. Stir until smooth.
5. In a large mixing bowl, whisk mashed banana, vanilla sugar, and sugar until melted.
6. Add hot water and instant decaf/coffee.
7. Add in the melted chocolate and mix well.
8. Fold in the dry ingredients.
9. Pour into pan. Slice the half banana, and dip one side in some flour before putting on top of the batter. Sprinkle some sugar on top of each slice.
10. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes out dry.
11. Cool and enjoy with some ice cream or whipped cream (or both)~

Banana Bread Prize

Last week, my university's Cooking Society had a "golden egg" hunt event, where students could win prizes for finding one of three eggs on campus. The chair of the society, and a friend of mine, asked me if I would like to contribute to the prices, either by providing a cake, or giving a baking workshop. As I cannot teach to save my life (last time I tried, it was horrible), I opted for providing a cake.

My original plan was to make a carrot cake. Grating carrots, however, was not going to be feasible with the amount of time I had to bake this cake. Then I thought I would make a 2-layered banana bread, with cream cheese frosting in between, and maybe some caramel sauce drizzled on top. Me procrastinating on schoolwork did not allow for such fancifying of the cake, so I ended up with more or less plain banana bread.

For a better visual, I put some banana slices on top of the cake before baking. The underside was dipped in flour to keep them from sinking, then the whole top was glazed in watered-down orange and ginger jam that my cousin had bought and left in the kitchen.

I wrapped the loaf cake (1.5 times the recipe, so that it would be a little taller) in aluminum foil for transport, and added a piece of paper with the list of ingredients and possible allergens. I guess I kind of adopted the blue sakura (cherry blossom) paper punch-out as my symbol for gifts... I've been using it more and more.

Recipe for banana bread here!

Triple Tier: Cake Pops, Banana Bread, and Apple Tarts

The last Thursday of the semester was Ascension Day, which is a holiday around where I am. Due to still having a class to attend the next day, I could not go home yet, but since the class itself didn't require any work, I decided to spend the day in one of my favorite activities: baking.

I had invited many of my friends to come pick up some sweets -- knowing that many of them still had papers and/or exams to deal with -- or to just come and chat with some tea and desserts. I spent most of Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning baking.

The first of the three desserts were these cake pops. I made them with a double batch of my trusty vegan cake recipe, to which I added a bunch of cinnamon and a dash of nutmeg. After crumbling the cake into crumbs, I moistened it all with a homemade pumpkin puree. I made that by roasting half a pumpkin until soft, then blending the flesh. The mix was then rolled into balls, and a chocolate-covered toothpick was inserted in each of them, then left to set and cool in the fridge overnight. On the day of the event, I dipped them in melted dark chocolate (this time melted in 30-seconds lapses in the microwave, due to my inability to deal with a double boiler technique while handling two other recipes). They were then topped with crushed, salted pistachios and chocolate sprinkles.

Next was a single batch of banana bread, made the usual way in a loaf pan. I cut the banana bread in half lengthwise, then sliced each half to get regular-sized parts.

Finally came these mini apple tart bites, made with circles of pâte brisée, some homemade applesauce, and microwaved apple slices shaped into flowers. I then baked the whole assembly for an additional 10 minutes, then glazed them with the drained water from the applesauce, to which I added some citrus pectin due to a shortage of time. If I have more time, I usually reduce the juice into a glaze. The procedure is a more messy, rushed version of this one.

Banana Ice Cream Cookie Sandwich

With just 2 bananas and 1 cup of oats, I made these delicious, but somewhat messy to eat banana ice cream sandwiches! I found the recipe on Cheap Clean Eats, a cooking portion of the blogilates YouTube channel.

With only 2 ingredients, it is very easy to make! All you need are some oats, bananas, an oven, and a blender! Next time, to make it a bit easier to eat, I would probably make them a lot smaller, so that they are only a bite or so.

View the recipe's video here!

Banana Bread

Yay for banana bread! My cousin tends to buy bananas and just leave them in the fruit basket... Since we had to finish a max of food before the Spring Break, it was high time to use them!

Instead of using a large, rectangular pan, I used a loaf pan this time. Makes for a much more bread-like cake! I personally prefer it like this, so I think I will keep making banana bread in loaf pans from now on.

Here it is, fresh out of the oven. It flattened a bit after cooling.

As usual, the filling includes chopped walnuts from my uncle's garden, and some diced dried figs. The nuttiness and texture added just go so well with the cake itself.

Having slices of the banana bread is also much more presentable than the rectangles I have had in the past.

And here's a last picture, one of my favorite ones!

Recipe over this way~

Banana Bread with Walnuts

December 5th

My mom had given me a large bag of walnuts, which I had yet to use due to a lack of a nutcracker. After finally purchasing one, I saw that the bananas in the fruit basket at my college dorm were starting to look like they were in a sad state. Time for banana bread!

Just like last time, I filled it with chopped dried figs and chopped walnuts -- a lot of walnuts! I also tried my best to find whole halves of walnuts to top it up with. This made it convenient for serving: "Do you want a 1-walnut or a 2-walnut piece?"

Banana Bread

What to do when you have bananas ripening in your fruit basket, and you can't eat them all? Make banana bread of course!

This recipe (from Veg Recipes of India) is very very easy to make. On top of that, it is absolutely delicious. I made it on Sunday (Oct. 12th) for the first time, then quickly made another one for the next day's Hallway dinner. It's that easy to make!

The first time I made it, I topped it with walnuts. The second time, with cashews. Instead of having it plain, I mixed in chopped dried figs into the batter for extra texture and flavor.

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RECIPE

  Ingredients

• 3-4 ripe bananas
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• nuts and/or dried fruits, chopped (optional)
• cinnamon (optional)

  Procedure

1. Mash bananas (a fork works well enough).
2. Add oil, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well.
3. Sift in flour, baking powder, baking soda.
4. Fold in well, then fold in nuts/dried fruits is using.
5. Pour into prepared pan and sprinkle with nuts if using.
6. Bake at 180°C for 40-45 min.