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
We are huge muffin lovers in this house. I usually try to bake a batch every weekend so that we have them to enjoy for a few days. Some weeks I small batch, not wanting to waste any. This weekend finding ourselves in possession of quite a few over-ripe bananas I decided to bake a full batch of Banana muffins, knowing that I can simply free what we will not eat within a couple of days to enjoy somewhere down the road.
Normally this wouldn't happen. But Todd went for a walk the other day and bought some bananas at a shop, not realising of course that I had bananas on my grocery order for delivery. Not a problem really as I always use them up.
Sometimes I will bake Banana Bread and I have some really great recipes for a variety of Banana Breads on here. My absolute favourite one is this Sour Cream Banana Loaf. This is the one I always bake for the Mr when I cooked at Brenchley Manor.
I had to make sure that there was always one of those in the larder. He loved it toasted in the toaster oven and spread with cold butter for breakfast. I do love Banana Bread, but in all truth I don't always want to wait the hour or so that it takes to bake.
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.
It is my favourite recipe for a number of reasons. One with the ease at which I can throw them together and two because they always bake up moist and delicious, never dry and always beautifully flavoured.
If you are a purist, you can of course leave out the chocolate chips and walnuts, but we love them just as they are! You can of course use pecans if you would rather. We like the walnuts.
I always toast my nuts before using them when baking. It doesn't take much effort. Just a few minutes on a baking tray in a hot oven does the trick. Toasting your nuts just helps them to taste nuttier!
It enhances the nuttiness as it were . . . and chocolate chips. Chocolate and banana are a beautiful conbination. Think chocolate dipped frozen bananas here. The two flavours are quite symbiotic.
I was thinking as well, if you love peanut butter and banana sandwiches, you might like to use peanut butter chips in these instead of chocolate? What say you eh?
In any case I think these are pretty perfect just as they are. Soft, buttery, lightly spiced and moist.
Quick to make, quick to bake, incredibly moreish when it comes to enjoying them. I could easily eat two of these in one sitting, but I restrain myself.
If you are looking for the perfect Banana Muffin, you can't go too far wrong by using this recipe. I think quite possibly, its the absolute best.
Banana Muffins
Yield: 12 muffins
These are the perfect banana muffins. Moist, lightly spiced and filled with toasted nuts and chocolate chips (or not if that's what you prefer.)
Ingredients:
- 210 grams plain flour (1 1/2 cups)
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 3 large over-ripe bananas (about 1 1/2 cups)
- 86g melted butter (6 TBS)
- 145g soft light brown sugar (2/3 cup)
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 TBS whole milk
- 60g chopped toasted walnut meats (1/2 cup)
- 90g semi sweet chocolate chips (1/2 cup)
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 220*C/425*F/ gas mark 7. Line a 12 cup muffin tin with paper liners.
- Whisk together the flour, soda, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts.
- Using an electric whisk beat the bananas in a bowl until mashed thoroughly. Whisk in the sugar, egg, vanilla, melted butter and milk, combining well together. Add the dry ingredients all at once and stir together just to combine. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tin just to below the top of the paper liner.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 5 minutes then immediately lower the oven temperature to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4 without opening the oven door. Bake for a further 15 minutes until well risen, golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.
- Allow to cool for five minutes, prior to carefully lifting out to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Store any leftovers in an airtight container for up to two days. These will also freeze well, properly wrapped, for up to three months. Thaw overnight prior to eating.
So what is it that makes a muffin the perfect muffin for you? What flavours do you enjoy? Next to Banana I love Bran. I need to find a way to combine the two don't you think?
Fresh Fruit Bruschetta makes for a beautiful breakfast or brunch dish at the weekend, especially when it is drizzled with a lush Orange-Honey Cream!
One of the things I love most about the summer months is the availability of beautiful fresh and local fruit! One of the best ways to showcase and take advantage of it is to serve it every chance you can and this beautiful bruschetta is not only a great way to do that, but its quick, easy and delicious as well!
Perfect for when you are entertaining, (not that many of us are doing that at the moment) or even for when it is just you and the family!
Like any bruschetta you begin with slices of baguette, which get brushed with melted butter, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar and then toasted in a hot oven until they are beautifully crisp and golden around the edges.
Once cooled you top them with your favourite fruits. Today I have used kiwi, mango and strawberries from the garden. If you are not fond of any of those, substitute them with fruits you do like!
Any mix of ripe berries would work beautifully! Can you imagine how tasty strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries would be?
Just so long as your fruit is bite sized and the favours go together I think the sky is your limit!
These tasty Fresh Fruit Bruschetta are topped with a drizzle of Orange-Honey Cream!
If I was using blueberries I would be tempted to use lime instead of orange! Mint also goes well with most berries!
I always keep bake at home French baguettes in my freezer, ready to whip out and bake up for delicious options such as these tasty bruschetta!
If you think the Honey-Orange Cream is a bit messy for the top, keep it on the thick side and spoon it onto each brushetta before topping with the fruit.
On top or beneath, this lush cream is the perfect pairing with everything here.
It would be really fun to serve these for a special brunch with some Breakfast Taquitos and Virgin Margheritas (or real ones if you are a drinker!) Maybe throw in something lush for dessert. (Mmmm . . . cheesecake bites would be wonderful!)
Not too big, not too small . . .
These are a perfect two-bite indulgence, each bite bringing you a bit of crisp, creamy, tart, sugary and fruity deliciousness!
Fresh Fruit Bruschetta
Yield: 16 slices
prep time: 10 Mcook time: 12 Mtotal time: 22 M
Light and fresh, these delicious bruschetta are fabulous for a breakfast or brunch. Don't like the fruits suggestted? Substitute with your favourites!
Ingredients:
- 1 fresh French Baguette
- 4 TBS butter, melted
- 2 TBS castor sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 60g dairy sour cream (1/2 cup)
- 3 TBS honey
- 1 tsp freshly grated orange zest
- 10 medium strawberries diced
- 1 medium ripe mango, peeled and finely diced
- 3 kiwi fruits, peeled and finely diced
Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Line a baking sheet with some aluminium foil.
- Slice your baguette into 1/2 inch thick slices. Place on the baking sheet. Brush the top of each with some of the melted butter.
- Mix together the sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle this evenly over top of the baguette slices. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes until golden brown around the edges. Allow to cool completely.
- While the bread is toasting, whisk together the honey, sour cream and orange zest.
- Prepare your fruits and gently combine together.
- Place your cooled baguette slices on a serving tray. Spoon some of the fruit over top of each slice. Drizzle some of the orange honey cream over top of each and serve immediately. (If the cream is too thick, you can thin it slightly with a bit of orange juice.)
What combinations of fruit would you use for these if you could? I think strawberry/blackberry/kiwi would be nice, as would raspberry and peachs or nectarines . . . . banana, pineapple, kiwi and coconut! You really can let your taste imagination go wild here!
Do you have family favourites in your recipe repertoire? I have plenty in mine. These recipes are my tried and trues.
Recipes that have been gleaned and collected through the years, handed down from family and friends. Shared recipes. Recipes that turn out every time and that never disappoint. Recipes with a history.
Don't get me wrong. I love trying out new recipes. I have lots saved on Pinterest to try at some point. There are some wonderful gems in the new ones that I try as well.
After a time, however, I do tend to gravitate back to what I have known, loved, cooked and baked for many a year.
Using one of these old recipes is like visiting with a long lost friend. A companion that has kept you company for many, many years.
Recipes like this are usually attached to fond memories, be they of family members or of friends.
This recipe I am sharing today is so old that I can no longer remember where it came from. It is one that I have been baking since before I finished high school.
I strongly suspect it is a recipe that was handed down from my grandmother to my mother, to me. Its hand written into my Big Blue Binder . . .
along with a bazillion other treasured recipes. I wish that I had been a bit better at writing down the sources of these things through the years.
I guess when I was writing them down I never dreamed that one day I would be sharing them with the world! Isn't that a magical thought?
To think that my Grandmother's banana bread recipe might could possibly one day be shared with the world. I wonder what she would think of that??
The whole idea would actually be quite mind boggling to her, as would the idea of her granddaughter living in the UK one day!
Most of my Grandmother's recipes were written on the backs of envelopes or on scraps of paper. There were no instructions included, just a title and list of ingredients and measures, and sometimes very vague measurements at that . . .
Things like butter the size of an egg . . . or five cents worth of flour. Recipes she might have shared with friends along with cups of tea and conversations . . . or maybe even recipes which had been handed down from her own mother . . .
I actually remember my Great Grandmother. She was this tiny little white haired lady, as tiny as a bird, slightly stooped over, with dark wire glasses. This was way back when a grandmother looked like a grandmother.
She had been a farmer's wife and the community mid-wife in her day. Oh what I would give to be able to sit down and talk about cooking and recipes with her.
She passed away on Christmas Eve in 1959. I remember the time very well. My mother, sister and I were staying with my maternal grandparents, who my great grandmother had also lived with in her old age.
She was in a bed in the back bedroom of the house, where everyone was gathered. They kept shooing me out of the room. I expect I was being a bit of a nuisance.
My mother wasn't allowed in the room because she was pregnant with my younger brother, and there was some wierd idea that my mother's pregnancy would be affected in some negative way by being in the presence of someone who was in the process of passing over. They were a superstitious lot.
That was back in the day when generations of people lived in and shared the same house. In that modest home there was my Great Grandmother, my Grandparents, my Aunt Freda, her husband Harold and their wee boy Danny, along with my mother, sister and myself.
As I recall it only had four bedrooms and an outdoor loo.
I can remember getting washed at the kitchen sink, whilst standing on a stool . . . while wood snapped and crackled in the kitchen wood stove. . . . the smell of the old linoleum floor and the noise it made when you walked across it. It was lovely and warm in that kitchen.
There was a huge trap door in the floor below the lineoleum which led down into the root cellar beneath the house. The lineoleum would be rolled up to get to it. My grandfather kept his home smoked hams and bacon and barrels of homemade Kraut down there, along with my grandmother's preserves and pickles. There was probably plenty of root vegetables as well.
There was plenty of love in that house and lots of simple, but very good food. It was 60 years ago this next Tuesday, on the 3rd of March, my brother made his entry into the world while we were living in that house.
I remember dancing around in the kitchen holding onto my 3 year old sister's hands, and singing out with joy, "We have a baby brother!" It was such an exciting time! We are a pair of old ladies and and an old man now.
And none of that has anything to do with Banana Bread, other than the fact that as much as we like to try new things, there is still a great great value to be found in the old. Things like this old family favourite Banana Bread.
Yield: 2 loaves (8 X 4 inch)
Family Favourite Banana Nut Bread
I like to try new things, but I keep going back to the classics. Simply because they're the best. One to eat now,and one to gift or freeze.
ingredients:
- 280g plain flour (2 cups)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
- pinch salt
- 120ml vegetable oil (1/2 cup)
- 195g granulated sugar (1 cup)
- 2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 4 medium, very ripe, bananas, peeled and mashed
- 120g chopped toasted walnuts (1 cup)
instructions:
How to cook Family Favourite Banana Nut Bread
- Preheat the oven to 180*C/350*F/ gas mark 4. Butter two 8 X 4 inch non-stick loaf tins. Set aside.
- Sift the flour, soda and salt together in a bowl.
- Whisk together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Stir in the mashed banana combining well together. Add the flour mixture and stir together to blend completely. Stir in the walnuts.
- Divide the mixture between both of the baking tins. Smooth the tops. Place on a baking sheet and bake in the preheated oven for 35 to 45 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the centre of each comes out clean. Allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack to finish cooling completely.
- Slice to serve, with or without butter.
NOTES:
Use the ripest bananas you can. If they look like they need to be thrown out, then they are perfect for banana bread. Bread can be stored, wrapped tightly, for up to 5 days. Alternately you can freeze it wrapped in plastic cling film, and then in aluminium foil for up to 3 months.
I like to toast my nuts before I use them in baking. Simply pop them onto a baking sheet and into a hot oven for 8 to 10 minutes. They are usually done when you can smell them all toasty and nutty! have a great Sunday everyone!
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