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~

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.

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 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.