Chocolate Banana Bread

I looked for recipe to make with the ingredients I had.  One banana that had gone too soft.  No butter.  Few eggs. Some cocoa.  A few walnuts. And I found the basic recipe here that had a chocolate drizzle.  I thought I could avoid that. As well as the pastry flour bit, since I had run out of cornflour.  Put the cocoa in and threw in the nuts. I was also dying to try out an electric hand held beater which worked very well. And the banana bread turned out quite nice.  Good enough to feature here and make again.

Ingredients:  Made half the recipe that could serve 5

All purpose flour - 1 3/4  *
Sugar - 1/2 cup
Baking soda - 1 tsp
Cocoa powder - 2-3 tbsp
Baking powder - 1/2 tsp
Salt - 1/4 tsp
Refined oil - 1/4 cup and a little more for greasing the tin
Curd / yogurt - 1/4 cup
Eggs 1 + 1 egg white ( I used just the whole egg)
Vanilla - 1/2 tsp
Banana - 3 nos - mashed about 1 1/2 cup
Walnuts - 1/4 cups


Grease a tin.  Line it with parchment paper.
Preheat the oven to 180 C

In a bowl whisk the dry ingredients - flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, sugar and cocoa.
In another bowl whisk the eggs, curd, oil, vanilla.
Mash the banana and add it to the liquid ingredients and whisk well.

Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients, add walnuts and blend well.
Pour in the batter into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake till done.

I made half the quantity and it took me 30-35 minutes till the skewer came out clean.
Recipe calls for 50 mins.  So do check.

The loaf can be given a nice chocolate drizzle, or dust some icing sugar on top.
The cake has just the right amount of sweetness, however if you want it sweeter and you are not having a dusting of icing sugar or drizzle, add a wee bit more.
*And it also called for pastry flour - that is with a bit of cornflour- I ran out of it and did not add. Not sure what the difference would be.
All in all an enjoyable cake.

Banana Bread Scones

S made this. The little one has a bit of banana each day and S was left with a pile of over-ripe bananas.  And then browsing through The Kitchn  she found this recipe.  We were chatting with her (on Skype) as she made it and I can swear that the aroma wafted through.

This recipe is a variation of the Banana Bread. The scones are not too sweet.  It can be had with butter and jam, had plain or even with golden syrup.

Ingredients:

Bananas - very ripe - 2 nos ( or 1 cup mashed )
Milk - 2-4 tbsp
Yogurt - 1/2 cup
All purpose flour - 2 1/2 cup
Granulated sugar - 4 tbsp
Baking powder - 2 tsp
Salt - 1/2 tsp
Cinnamon - 1 tsp
Butter unsalted - 4 tbsp
Walnuts chopped - 1/2 cup - optional - S used almonds

Mash bananas.  Add milk and then the yoghurt.
Keep aside
In a large bowl whisk the flour, salt, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar together
Cut the butter into pieces.
Either with your finger tips or a fork, work the butter into the flour till there are no large pieces at all.

Now add the banana-milk-yogurt mixture into the flour.
Stir just enough to get it altogether
Fold in the nuts.
This is a wet dough.

Line a plate with wax paper.
Turn the dough on to the paper. Pat it into a 1" disk.  Cover with another wax paper
Freeze the scone dough for half an hour

Preheat oven to 200C
Line a baking tray with parchment paper
Turn the frozen dough onto the tray after peeling off the top wax paper
Now remove the second wax paper too
Slice into eight wedges.  Place apart as they expand during the baking

Bake for 25-30 minutes till firm to touch and the edges start turning golden brown.
Cool completely. Cut apart any scone that might have come together with a sharp knife

Note:
S said if you like the scones sweeter to increase the sugar slightly.  Or have them with golden syrup as she did !

If you would like to glaze them with brown sugar - hop over to  The Kitchn link given at the top. Very simple - made in a couple of minutes in a microwave.

Banana Pancakes

Bananas are not my favourite fruit, but they were sitting in the fruit bowl for some time.  These are plain  pancakes with some bananas sautéed in a butter-sugar caramelised mixture and topped with golden syrup.  I guess it could be any fruit of your choice.  But these here are with bananas.

The pancakes here contain egg.  But I have made those without egg, so it can be done away with for an eggless variety.

Ingredients: (for about 4 medium pancakes)
(for the pancake)
Egg - 1
Plain Flour (Maida)- 45 gms
Baking powder - 1/4 tsp
Milk - 40 ml ( use to get the required consistency)
Salt - a pinch

(for the caramalised bananas)
Banana - 1
Butter - 1 tbsp
Sugar - 1 tbsp

(topping)
Golden syrup - generous drizzle
Cream - desirable - but not used here - generous dollop

Separate the egg
In a bowl, combine the flour, egg yolk, milk and baking powder to get a thick batter

Beat the egg white well to a frothy mixture with the pinch of salt.
Add it to the flour mixture.

Heat a pan (non stick preferably) on medium heat
Pour the batter to slightly thick pancakes.
Keep till golden brown and flip over to get the same browning on the other side too.

Melt butter in another pan, add sugar on a low flame till a caramalised mixture is formed
Cut banana lengthwise and add to the pan and cook gently till it gets browned

To serve
Place 2-3-or even 4 pancakes
Put the caramalised bananas over them
Drizzle ( pour is more appropriate and tastier! ) golden syrup
Serve with a dollop of cream

(Recipe source - Jamie Oliver )

Raw Banana Curry

Raw banana gets bought each week. And these days you get huge ones!  It is as I mentioned some time ago, not one of the vegetables that I am fond of.  So I am always on the lookout for something different.  I found this recipe at Sharmis Passions   And I must admit, though I do not have the best pictures, this curry had a lot of flavour.  It was really different and I think the masala would be great with many other veggies too.

Ingredients

Raw Banana - 1 

Onion - 1 - sliced

Turmeric - 1/2 tsp - give the dish some colour.

Salt - to taste

The masala:

Coconut - fresh - 2 tbsp

Coriander - dhania seeds - 1 1/2 tbsp 

Pepper - 1 tsp 

Cumin seeds - jeera - 1 tsp

Red chilies - 2 nos

Garlic - 2 large pods

Grind all the ingredients for the masala to a coarse paste (all raw) with a little water.  Keep ready.

Seasoning

Oil - 1 tbsp

Mustard - 1/2 tsp

Urad dal - 1/2 tsp

Curry leaves - few ( missing from the picture on top)

Peel the banana.  Chop into 3/4" sized pieces.  Keep in water to avoid browning

Heat oil in a pan.  Add the mustard, when it splutters the dal and curry leaves.

And the sliced onions.  Sauté till brown

And now the paste.  Sauté.  

Put in the banana pieces and the turmeric and some water.

Cover and simmer till the veggie is cooked

Uncover. Add salt 

Simmer further till the curry dries up

If you wish to keep some gravy, you can do that. It still tastes as good.

Banoffee Pie

This is a recipe sent to me by La - she said her friend A makes it and you could not go wrong with it.  I had a couple of friends coming over and I thought I would experiment on them.  I also had a pack of ice cream in the freezer as standby.  Not only was the dish a great hit, the balance of the pie was packed and taken away!

The picture is rather plain... I did not want to grate chocolate on what I thought was already a rich dessert  and I also could not get thick cream and that gave it a rather flat surface.  I will replace the picture in the future when I turn out a better dish.  The recipe here is as it was passed onto me.. with suggestions in italics

Ingredients
Oatmeal biscuits- 2 packets (preferably Hobnobs) - I used Good Day 
Chocolate Chip Cookies – 2 Packets (for instance, Good Day)
Butter- melted (approx. Enough for the biscuits) This is over 100 gms
Condensed milk - 400 gms
Bananas – at least 3 (large)
Cream – 300 ml - Get thick cream.. 
Dark Chocolate- 1 Bar (optional) but it does add the finishing touch.  Even a chocolate sauce would do. 

 1. Put all the biscuits in a polythene cover and crush them with a belan till powdery. 
(Or put in a blender like I did)

2.  Place them in a container (which is the final container in which the Banoffee pie will ultimately be set. 
(If you have a cake tin with a removable base it would be ideal. You could also put in greased paper I think- then you can set the dessert on a plate while serving)

3.  Melt the butter and cover the biscuits such that each portion of the biscuit layer has some butter. Put the container in the freexer for 20 minutes (at least)
(It might be a better idea to mix the butter with the biscuit crumbs well, and then place in the container)

4. Once out of the freezer, cut the bananas into small, thin slices and put them on the biscuit layer. Put it back in the freezer.

5. Empty the condensed milk tin in a pan and keep on heat stirring all the time until brown-ish (avoid burning)à [this is the faster method] or but condensed milk tin in a double boiler for approx. 2 hours till it carmelises in the tin itself.
(Caution - if the cans are not covered in water, it may explode and Nigella in her recipe version says you may have to spend hours cleaning up the ceiling!)

6. If you use the first technique mentioned in point 5 above, then use a hand blender and whisk till it becomes slightly liquidy. I had to add some milk to make it thin. 

7. Pour the caramel ( Dulce de Leche) later on top of the banana layer.

8. If you are using fresh cream, add sugar to the cream (2-3 tb sp), and whip it till slightly thick. 

9. Put the cream on top of the toffee layer. Put this in the freezer till the cream solidifies.

10.   Grate the dark chocolate bar and put the chocolate on top of the cream.

Take out of freezer and keep out for a while before serving.  It becomes easier to slice through the pie   this way.  


I had no picture of the sliced banoffee pie. I did not want to take out the camera in presence of my guests and I had no slice remaining to photograph either!!

But you could make it look like this .

Moist Banana Cake

The microwave method. Simple and easy method of making using mushy, soft bananas not fit for eating.

I used half of the ingredients listed below-

Ingredients:
Banana – 2( well ripened, soft, mushy)
Egg – 1( use only half of one egg for this quantity)
Vanilla essence– 1/2 tsp
Unsalted Butter – 7-8 tbsp
Brown sugar – 8 tbsp

(Ordinary sugar can be used, I used brown sugar since I was making it in the microwave and it would add to the colour)
All purpose flour / refined flour ( Maida) – 280 - 300 gms ( 1 cup)
Cooking soda – 1/2 tsp
Salt – pinch
Nuts – cashew, almonds, raisins – about 5-10 gms each.

Mash banana well.
Put in a blender.
Add the butter and sugar – blend on low speed
Pour in the egg mixture – and just blend for a few secs.
Add the soda and the pinch of salt and the vanilla essence.
Pour in a bowl.
Fold in flour gradually.
Add the nuts.
Grease a glass bowl.
Pour in the mixture
And microwave on low heat about 4-5 minutes or till a knife comes out cleanly.

Loosen the sides
Turn on to a plate.
Slice and eat.

Banana Blueberry Muffins

Guest Post from Mpls I -
Courtesy my brother and sister-in-law

Ingredients:
Shortening (we use vegetable shortening)1/2 cup
Sugar 1 cup
Eggs 2
Sour milk (add two teaspoons lemon juice to milk to make sour)- ¼ cup
Baking soda 1 tsp
Vanilla 1 tsp
Salt pinch
Ripe bananas -2 large mashed ( the bananas should be over ripe and soft, ideal way to use those fruits that you cannot eat!! Do not use firm bananas)
Flour -2 cups
1 cup blueberries or 1/2 cup walnuts (fold in later)

Mix in order given -
Beat ingredients until all are completely mixed.










Fold the blueberries or walnuts in (drop gently into batter and slowly using a spatula mix it into the batter


Grease a muffin container with butter or spray mix.




Turn the oven on to 350 degrees and then bake

(for approximately 18 minutes if blueberries are frozen - if fresh or using walnuts, check muffins after 15 minutes by poking a toothpick in and seeing if it comes out clean)
If done, remove immediately from muffin tin. Leaving them sit in there even outside the oven will make them dry.

If using a bread pan, bake for at least 25-30 minutes at a minimum. With frozen blueberries, it may even need baking up to 40 minutes.

Delicious banana-blueberry muffins are ready!