Showing posts sorted by date for query Banana Bread. Sort by relevance Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by date for query Banana Bread. Sort by relevance Show all posts
I had some over-ripe bananas that needed using up and so I decided to make a banana bread with them. I have baked many banana breads on here, all of them very good. Today I decided to go back to my tried, true and trusted recipe.
It is a recipe from my old Purity Cook Book. This is a cookbook I have had since the late 1970's. It has withstood the test of time and traveled with me all over the world.
How can you tell that a cookbook is a good one. Other than trying the recipes you can tell a cookbook is a really good one by looking at it. If it's all tattered and torn . . . if the pages are all splattered with time.
The pages well worn and almost falling apart . . . then you know that you have a winner of a cookbook on your hands. This book is a winner of a cookbook.
I have been baking this particular banana bread for about 40 years now. It has no bells and whistles. It is not overly sweet. Its quite plain.
It is moist and delicious however, filled with lots of banana flavor and plenty of chopped nuts. In short, a real winner of a banana bread.
Another one of my favorite banana breads is the Sour Cream Banana Loaf I always baked for the Mr. when I worked at the Manor.
He loved it sliced and toasted until golden brown and spread with oodles of sweet butter. Another good banana bread recipe I bake is this one which comes from a cookbook called Bread by Dean Brettschneider. It has oats scattered across the top.
I also have a few smaller recipes such as this Banana Nut Loaf for Two. It is perfectly sized for the smaller family.
This Marbled Banana Bread is also a real favorite. It is a Cooking Light Recipe and is marbled through with ribbons of chocolate batter. Yum!!
As I said up top, this banana bread has no bells and whistles. There is nothing spectacular about it. Its just a simple banana bread.
And you are going to love it. I can promise you. If you are a fan of simple things, then you will be a fan of this.
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE BANANA NUT BREAD
Ordinary simple kitchen ingredients. Nothing spectacular outside of the ripe bananas.
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped nuts
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (3 bananas) mashed bananas (very ripe)
The right kind of bananas you need for a banana bread are bananas that have gone past their best eating stage. You want a banana with a skin that is well peppered with brown discolorations. The browner the better.
The riper the banana the sweeter it is. Don't ever throw an over-ripe banana away! They are perfect for baking with! Cakes, loaves, cookies . . .
HOW TO MAKE BANANA NUT BREAD
Preheat the oven to 350*F/ 180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper with an overhang on two sides for ease of lifting out the baked loaf.
Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Stir in the nuts. (You can toast the nuts first if you wish.
To toast them, spread your nuts out on a baking sheet and pop them into a moderate oven. (350*F/180*C) 8 to 10 minutes will do it. Let cool before using.
Whisk together the mashed banana, milk, oil, and egg. Add to the dry ingredients and mix both together just to combine. Batter will be lumpy.
Turn into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and run a knife down the middle.
This is a really good, simple banana bread. I love to enjoy it cut into thick slices and spread with butter. Real butter. I am betting it would also be great spread with Nutella, if you like Nutella.
Toasted, spread with butter or creamed honey. Again, delicious.
Because the bread is not overly sweet any number of toppings go very well with it. It also goes great in a bread pudding if it happens to go stale. You can sprinkle chocolate chips amongst the bread for this lush dessert. Its fabulous served warm with some vanilla ice cream on top!
In any case the next time you have some ripe bananas that need using up I highly recommend this simple Banana Nut bread. You can't go wrong!
Banana Nut Bread
Yield: 1 (9 X 5 X 3) loaf
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 1 H & 10 MTotal time: 1 H & 20 M
Delicious old fashioned. No bells and whistles. Not too sweet. Just perfect.
Ingredients
- 2 cups (280g) all purpose plain flour
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup (60g) finely chopped nuts
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 3/4 cup (180ml) milk
- 1/4 cup (60ml) vegetable oil
- 1 1/2 cups (3 bananas) mashed bananas
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/ 180*C/ gas mark 4. Butter a 9 X 5 X 3 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper with an overhang on two sides for ease of lifting out the baked loaf.
- Whisk the flour, soda, baking powder, sugar and salt together in a bowl. Stir in the nuts.
- Whisk together the mashed banana, milk, oil, and egg. Add to the dry ingredients and mix both together just to combine. Batter will be lumpy.
- Turn into the prepared pan. Smooth the top and run a knife down the middle.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 65 to 70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
This is my quality control guy. I think he's pretty special, don't you? Hello Nutmeg!
I love my Tea Bag Holder. It was a Christmas gift from my friend Paula. She knows I love bees and I just adore this! So pretty! Thanks Paula! xo
All of the content you see here on this page, both photography and written, are the sole property of The English Kitchen, Marie Rayner. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at mariealicejoan at aol dot com.
I am truly mad about muffins. I adore muffins, especially muffins that are not like cake. When I eat a muffin I don't want a piece of cake, or muffins that are like eating cake. Overly sweet . . .
I want a muffin as it is supposed to be. Slightly raised with rounded pebbly tops. The insides filled with nice holes. Perfect for spreading with a tiny pat of butter.
Today I thought I would share what are ten of my favorite muffin recipes. Oh, there are many more muffin recipes than this here on the blog, but these are all real winning recipes that I thought you might enjoy!
Also do look out for all my handy tips for making the best muffins every time at the bottom of this post!
These are the PERFECT breakfast muffins. Quick and easy to make. Delicious. I highly recommend.
Simple and filled with fibre. You can use ordinary Special K cereal, or you can be a bit more extravagant and use one of the varieties which contain fruit. This recipe makes half a dozen fabulous muffins.
ULTIMATE BUTTERMILK BRAN MUFFINS
Buttermilk Bran Muffins. I think my favorite type of muffin of all the types of muffins you can get today are plain old fashioned Bran Muffins. There is nothing pretentious about them. They are simple and they are delicious.
This recipe I am sharing today for Buttermilk Bran Muffins is especially delicious, yielding a muffin that is super moist and delicious, with a well rounded bakery style top. You cannot go wrong with one of these!
These moist and delicious muffins are filled with not one, not two, but three different berries. Blueberries, raspberries and diced strawberries.
It is also a small batch recipe and makes just 9 delicious muffins.
I am a hug fan of gingerbread anything. I think gingerbread is probably one of my favourite things to bake and eat!
They are moist and delicious with a lovely crumb and beautiful ginger/cinnamon flavour. The recipe makes a full batch of 12 fabulous muffins!
This is a small batch of one of my favorite muffin recipes. These re moist and filled with the goodness of carrot, apple, coconut, pineapple, toasted nuts and whole and regular wheat flours.
The recipe makes 6 largish muffins.
There is nothing like having a great muffin batter in the refrigerator, mixed and ready to bake. This is an adaptation of a very old recipe and has been pleasing women and their families for many years.
This was the muffin recipe that I had to bake for my female employer every day that I worked at the Manor. She liked them baked in mini muffin tins and would eat three of them every single morning. They are delicious.
Prepare yourself to fall in love with this small batch muffin recipe with makes six gorgeously delicious muffins.
They embody all the flavours of your favourite cinnamon rolls, except they are muffins, not a yeast bread. I am of the school that cinnamon flavoured anything is good. It doesn't really matter too much what it is and these are OMG good!
If you are looking for instant gratification, Banana Muffins are the way to go. They mix together rather quickly and bake lickety split.
You can usually be enjoying one of them within a half an hour, start to finish, and this is my favourite recipe for them. Adding toasted nuts or chocolate chips are completely optional.
Buttery, moist and stogged full of orange from the outside in. These are winners all round!
I chose to studd mine with dried currants, but you may like raisins, or nuts, or blueberries, etc. You may even prefer the to be plain. One thing is for sure, you will enjoy these moist and delicious muffins.
Fresh orange flavors filled with an optional fruit and sweet glaze. You can't go wrong!
Somewhat healthy, aside from the sugar and golden syrup . . . with plenty of oats, sunflower seeds and chopped apple.
If you don't have light muscovado sugar, you can use soft light brown sugar, and in the place of golden syrup you can use light corn syrup, or even honey would work well. In one word, moreish.
Here are my hints and tips for making sure that your muffins turn out beautifully every time:
1. Mix wet and dry ingredients separately. To prevent the mix from being overworked, first mix the wet ingredients together in one bowl and mix the dry ingredients in another. Make a well in the dry ingredients, carefully pour in the wet ingredients, then stir the mix a couple of times to roughly combine.
2. Don't over mix your muffins. The most important rule of muffin making is to not over stir the mix. What you really want is to just moisten the ingredients. Do not stir or beat the batter until it is smooth and lump free. You want the final mix to be lumpy, and thick with a few floury streaks.
3. Add your flavors last. While spices should be added with all the other dry ingredients, additions like fruit and nuts should be added last. Give the batter one more light-handed stir once you've added them in just to combine.
4. Line the pans. You can choose to either grease the muffin tin or line it with paper liners. If you choose to forgo the liners, make sure you grease the base and sides of the cups with oil spray or a little melted butter. If you're not going to eat the muffins for a while, do use paper liners as these will keep the muffins fresher for longer.
5. Don't overfill your pans. Aim to fill the cups ¾ full to get muffins with nice round tops and to prevent them from spilling out over the top of the cups. Often if your tins are over filled the muffins will rise to the top and then collapse on themselves.
6. For extra interest, add a flavorful sprinkle on top. Once the muffin cups are all filled, you can choose to sprinkle the tops with more fruit, nuts or a crumble topping, even sanding sugar or cinnamon sugar, for even more taste and or crunch. As the muffins rise these toppings will cook into the tops of the muffin.
7. Protect your baking pan. If there isn't enough batter to fill all the cups, half fill the empty ones with water. This will help the muffins bake evenly and will help to protect your pan from buckling.
8. Cooling them down. Once you remove the muffins from the oven, let them sit in their pan for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack. This is especially important for muffins that aren't in a paper liner, as it will help them from falling apart. However, remove them after five minutes otherwise you risk them going soggy as they cool in the pan.
9. Freeze extras for later. Muffins freeze beautifully, so if you can't enjoy them all on the day they're baked, wrap them in plastic wrap tightly, and put them in the freezer for later. They will keep for about 3 months and reheat wonderfully in the microwave for about 30 seconds on high from frozen.
NOTE: If there is a particular muffin recipe that you are looking for that you don't see here, drop me a comment/query down in the comments section and I will dig it up for you!
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
Bonfire Night, or Guy Fawkes Night is celebrated in the UK every year on November 5th. This is a UK celebration which marks the failed attempt in the 17th century to blow up the houses of Parliament and assassinate King James 1st.
It is marked by the lighting of bonfires all over the country and great fireworks displays. Usually a stuffed figure, known as the Guy is thrown onto the Bonfire.
It commemorates a story of failure, as all over the UK people relive the night that Guy Fawkes, Robert Catesby, and their small band of followers failed to succeed in their plans.
In a way this is an annual celebration of Thanksgiving by the British people, which has been going on since just one year after the failed plot in 1605, so as you can see it is an old, old tradition.
When I first moved over to the UK, Halloween was hardly celebrated at all. In the weeks leading up to the 5th of November you would get children coming around door to door begging for "Pennies for the Guy." You had to make sure you had a supply of pennies in to meet the demand.
You were more likely to get a child knocking on your door on the 31st of October wanting pennies than you would a child wanting candy. This has changed a great deal over the last 20 years and Halloween is now a very big thing.
The pennies that the children gathered would be used to buy their fireworks. Also in the weeks leading up to the 5th of November people would be gathering things they wanted burned into a pile on the village green, or another open space on which they would build the bonfire.
It was a great way to get rid of unwanted cartons, tree limbs, wooden furniture, crates, etc. It was quite fascinating watching the pile of goods grow in the few weeks prior to the night.
As well as Bonfires and Fireworks the occasion is also marked by the eating of special foods and treats, usually intended to inject some warmth into cold bodies and hands as people stand around in the cold watching the fires and fireworks.
Things like hearty stews and soups. Jacket potatoes. Sausages in the buns and Parkin, which is a is a soft and moist cake/bread traditionally served up with hot cups of tea. This is a traditional Cake from the North East of the UK.
Another traditional Bonfire night treat is Honeycomb Toffee. Also known as Cinder Toffee, Angel Toffee, Hokey Pokey (favorite name for it) Honeycomb Toffee is a type of sponge toffee that is most addictive!
Its also very easy to make and uses only a few ingredients. This sponge toffee literally melts in the mouth!
WHAT YOU NEED TO MAKE HONEYCOMB TOFFEE
Nothing too outrageous that is what!
- finely granulated white sugar
- golden syrup
- butter for buttering the tin
You can find golden syrup in many groceries here in Canada. You can also find it on Amazon in the US, as well as Amazon in Canada. Although you can use regular golden corn syrup, if you can get the Lyles Golden Syrup, you really should.
It really does have a unique and delicious taste that is quite unbeatable.
You also don't have to worry about being able to use it all up. I have a lot of recipes here in The English Kitchen which use Golden Syrup.
Some of them include:
And these are only a few of the golden syrup delights on my page! As you can see it is a favourite ingredient in British Cookery.
This content (written and photography) is the sole property of The English Kitchen. Any reposting or misuse is not permitted. If you are reading this elsewhere, please know that it is stolen content and you may report it to me at: mariealicejoan at aol dot com
HOW TO MAKE HONEYCOMB TOFFEE
You might find the idea of making your own honeycomb toffee somewhat intimidating, but I can assure you it is really very easy.
First of all you want to make sure that you use a really deep saucepan as when you add the baking soda to the sugar mixture at the end, it almost doubles in volume. Also make sure you have your pan buttered and ready for you to pour the finished toffee into it.
You begin by measuring the sugar and corn syrup into the saucepan. You need to begin on a very low heat. You want to melt the sugar completely before you go any further. You can stir it slowly over medium-low heat until the sugar melts completely. This will probably take about 10 minutes. You can't rush this process.
Try not to let the mixture boil while you are melting the sugar. You will know your sugar is melted because the mixture will become slightly translucent and no longer feel gritty.
At this time you can increase the heat a bit and allow it to bubble and boil. You want it to bubble until it starts to turn amber in color. Don't walk away as this can happen quite quickly.
As soon as it turns amber take the pan off the heat. Now you can beat in the baking soda with a wooden spoon. Beat it through until it has completely dissolved into the molten sugar mixture.
This is quite magic really because the baking soda causes the mixture to expand and fill with little bubbles of air. It is the magic ingredient which makes this moreish toffee to light and melt-in-your-mouth delicious!
Immediately scrape it into your prepared pan, spreading it out as best as you can. Do be careful with this process as molten sugar can really burn the skin.
And that's it. You only need to leave it now to cool. This can take anywhere between an hour and an hour and a half.
Once it has completely cooled you can snap it into pieces and shards, ready to enjoy. Crisp and crunchy, meltingly delicious.
You can also top the finished toffee with melted chocolate, which is very good. Trust me on this.
You are probably wondering about my little Jack-O-Lantern. It is made with a rutabaga/swede/turnip. Long before the pumpkin became the Jack-O-Lantern of choice, people in Great Britain used to carve out turnips.
People across the British Isles carved out ghoulish faces and then placed the carved out turnips near their doorways and on gate tops to help to ward away evil spirits in the beginning of November when it was thought that the spirits of the dead were actually quite lively.
The practice originated from an Irish folk tale about a man named Jack who, after trying to trick the devil, was cursed to roam the earth with only a burning coal held inside a hollowed-out turnip.
Its really not that hard to do with a melon scoop. Plus you can cook the parts that you take out of the turnips/rutabaga/swede and have a tasty side dish or soup to enjoy.
So there you have it a delicious treat for Bonfire Night, or for any night! It is not hard to make, uses very simple ingredients and melts in the mouth.
I am sure it is bound to be a very popular treat with the family, or with friends on game nights, or whatever. It also makes an excellent garnish to crumble over iced cakes etc.
Honeycomb Toffee, a moreish treat that is more than a cut above the rest!!
Honeycomb Toffee
Yield: Makes an 8-inch square pan
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 15 MinTotal time: 20 Min
A British Bonfire night tradition! Sweet, crunchy, light as air and melts in the mouth!
Ingredients
- Butter for the tin
- 1 cup (200g) finely granulated sugar
- 5 TBS golden syrup
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
Instructions
- Butter an 8-inch square tin really well and set aside.
- Measure the sugar and golden syrup into a deep saucepan. Stir together and heat over a gentle heat until the sugar has melted. Don't allow the mixture to bubble until the sugar has completely dissolved.
- Increase the heat a bit and then simmer at a slow boil until the mixture turns an amber color. Keep an eye on it as this can happen in the blink of an eye.
- Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the baking soda. Beat it all in with a wooden spoon until it has completely been amalgamated into the hot mixture. (Be careful as it is very hot!)
- Scrap this mixture into the tin immediately and with care not to burn yourself.
- Leave to set for about an hour an hour and a half. The honeycomb will be hard and easy to crumble or snap into chunks.
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