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
It's that time of year again! Pumpkin season. The time of year that we all enjoy baking with pumpkin. Nothing says Autumn more than a pumpkin bake, and this simple recipe makes for the best pumpkin bread you could ever want to eat!
It's an adaptation of a recipe I received from my Canadian Mother-in-Law back in the 1970's. It started off pretty plain and basic, but through the years I have gradually fiddled with it to create something of my own.
It was moist and pretty delicious back then, but I have to say it is even more delicious now! And I don't mean to sound like I am bragging when I say that, but it's true.
When I first moved over to the UK tinned pumpkin was a very difficult thing to find in the shops. I remember the first year I was there I had invited some Missionaries over for Thanksgiving dinner and I wanted to make them a traditional pumpkin pie for dessert.
I could not find pumpkin anywhere at all. I ended up roasting sweet potatoes and pureeing them to use for the pie. It worked out well, but it was not really pumpkin pie.
Then when I worked at the Manor, I used to use pumpkin which I bought from an American food supply company. It came at a premium price but was worth every penny to me at the time.
Gradually pumpkin became more and more available and by the time I left there you could pretty much buy tinned pumpkin most of the time and in many of the shops.
You can of course make your own pumpkin puree from scratch, but it is very labor intensive to get it to the right consistency. You need to first roast your pumpkin.
Then you need to puree it. Once pureed you then need to strain it and squeeze as much liquid out of it as you can. This is where all of the labor comes in. Tinned pumpkin is very dry and if you don't get your homemade pumpkin puree just as dry, the integrity of your bakes will be ruined.
It is just so much less work to use the ready tinned pumpkin. Trust me on this. Tinned pumpkin comes in handy for many things. Pies, cakes, cookies, breads, etc.
My boss at the manor used to ask me to make pumpkin soup with it every American Thanksgiving.
This pumpkin bread recipe makes the best pumpkin bread ever and that is all down to my mother-in-law's secret ingredient, which is frozen orange juice concentrate. Yes, frozen orange juice concentrate. This was not something I could get in the UK either, but it was an ingredient that I learned to adapt.
You can do this either one of two ways. One, you can take fresh orange juice and boil it down to make a very concentrated form (again, labor intensive) or two, you can take a fresh orange (peeled and segmented) and puree it in a blender until smooth.
I will choose to puree the fresh fruit over boiling down juice every time. It is just so much easier and quicker. In any case, don't skip it because it is what makes this an incredibly tasty and moist loaf!
There is also plenty of spice in the loaf, but not obnoxiously so. My mother-in-law used to just add cinnamon to hers. I added some nutmeg and ground cardamom, which we always loved. I also added some vanilla.
On a side note, now that the kittens are jumping up onto things they are a bit of a nuisance when it comes to taking my food photos. haha. Not quite the same as Mitzie. She liked to hold onto the edge of the table and watch.
She couldn't actually jump up onto the table. I think I must have had to take this little monkey down a bazillion times while I was taking these photos. I think it's time to buy a squirt bottle.
My mother-in-law used to add raisins to her pumpkin bread. I switched them out for dried cranberries a number of years back. Cranberries are a very autumnal thing, and the dried ones work very well in this delicious pumpkin bread!
You can also use dried cherries (chopped) or even toasted walnuts, pecans or yes, even chocolate chips. Also raisins if you want. I love this with the cranberries.
I know that everyone thinks their pumpkin bread is the best, but I think mine is the very best and that is for a number of reasons. One it always turns out. I have never had this fail.
Two, it is incredibly moist and dense, without being soggy. This means that it cuts into perfect slices every single time.
Three it is very family friendly, not too spicy and not too sweet. I know that young mums want to make sure their children are not eating too much of the sweet stuff. This loaf has a perfect balance.
Another reason that I really love this loaf is because it is totally freezable. You can make it ahead, or make several loaves of it when you have the pumpkin and freeze them.
I like to cut mine into slices and place the loaf, pieced back together with a piece of wax paper in between the slices and the whole thing popped into an airtight freezer container. That way I can take out a slice as and when I want to indulge myself.
It will keep for several months this way. I can tell you it is really awfully nice to have this in the freezer ready to take out when a friend stops by unexpectedly. 10 seconds or so in the microwave and you have something incredibly tasty to enjoy with a hot drink.
Or course like any true Nova Scotia gal I enjoy mine sliced and spread with softened butter. That's how I like all of my quick breads like this one.
Banana bread, date and nut loaf, even lemon loaf. I know it is a bit hedonistic, but you only live once.
I really hope that you will bake this loaf and that you will enjoy it as much as I do. To me, it's quite simply, the Best Pumpkin Bread ever invented.
It's even better on the second day. In fact I usually bake it on one day and leave it to ripen overnight before cutting into it. It always cuts into beautiful slices and the flavor is even better on the second day. Trust me however, first day, second day, even third day, you are going to love this delicious pumpkin bread!
Pumpkin, Orange & Cranberry Bread
Yield: 8
Prep time: 5 MinCook time: 60 MinTotal time: 1 H & 4 M
This easy and delicious loaf is an annual autumn favorite. I got the recipe from my mother in law many years ago. It’s the best pumpkin bread recipe!
Ingredients
- 1 cup (250g) pumpkin puree (from the tin, not pie filling)
- 2 large free range eggs, lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup (120ml) canola oil
- 1/2 cup (100g) granulated sugar
- 3/4 cup (150g) soft light brown sugar, packed
- 3 TBS frozen orange juice concentrate, undiluted (see note)
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1 3/4 cup (245g) plain all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/2 tsp sea salt
- 1/2 cup (75g) dried cranberries
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350*F/180*C/gas mark 4. Butter an 8 1/2 by 4 1/2 inch loaf tin and line with baking paper, leaving an overhang to lift the finished loaf out with when done.
- Whisk the eggs, sugars, oil, orange juice concentrate, pumpkin puree and vanilla together in a bowl until thoroughly combined.
- Sift together the flour, soda, baking powder, spices and salt until combined. Add all at once to the wet ingredients. Stir everything together just to combine and no dry streaks remain. Stir in the cranberries.
- Spoon the batter into the prepared baking tin, smoothing over the top.
- Bake for 50 to 60 minutes, until risen and a toothpick inserted in the center of the loaf comes out clean.
- Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes before lifting out to a wire rack to cool completely. Cut into slices to serve.
Notes:
If you cannot get orange juice concentrate. Peel and segment a large orange. Puree the orange in a food processor until smooth and measure out three TBS.
Well, its the weekend and I always like to share a new baking recipe with you at the weekend. This week I am sharing an easy shortcake recipe, which has a very autumnal feel to it.
Apple & Blackberry Shortcake. Apple and Blackberry season is upon us now and this is a really delicious way to use some of those lovely fruits.
I have always felt that there is a very good reason that certain fruits, vegetables, proteins, etc. come into season at the same time. That is because they are a perfect fit for each other.
Or maybe we have made them into a perfect fit for each other because they come into season at the same time. Whatever it is, apples and blackberries go together like peas and carrots.
Although apples do stay with us throughout the winter, blackberries are with us for only a short time. I try to use them as often as I can when they are in season.
I was very spoilt in the UK as they grew wild and free for the picking in all of the hedgerows! This time of year you will often see people standing by the hedges with buckets picking berries to their hearts content.
They are called Brambles over there and there are only two rules to follow when picking them. One wear a long sleeved shirt and gloves if you have them. This protects you from the prickles. Two soak them in water when you get them home. This helps to remove any worms or insects. They float to the top.
We are all familiar with strawberry shortcake. Every year we treat ourselves to that old favorite and enjoy it immensely.
This year I thought why not an apple and blackberry shortcake? Why not indeed!!
It puffs up golden brown on top of that biscuit dough and provides a beautiful backdrop for the apples and berries as you can see.
Some other recipes you can use it in include:
In fact you could serve this with any fruit topping. I cannot think of any fruit or berry it would not go with. Use your imagination!
Peaches and raspberries would be lovely! Roasted plums! Pears and cranberries. Mango, pineapple and banana . . . just pick any type of fruit you enjoy!
You do need a six inch round cake or pie tin to bake it in, however. That is the only drawback, unless you double the recipe and bake it in a 9-inch pan. Its up to you.
The recipe cuts into four nice slices, which is enough for two with leftovers for another night. Or for a small family of four on the night.
The biscuit base is very easy to make and uses a boxed biscuit/baking mix, or you can make your own baking mix as I usually do.
I have included the recipe for that. I often have a container of it in my freezer ready to use when I need it. It comes in really hand for all sorts.
One way that this recipe for the shortcake base differs from others is that it boasts a sweet meringue topping. It bakes on top of the biscuit base.
It puffs up nice and brown and goes really well with whatever fruit you are using.
It puffs up nice and high in the oven, but don't worry, it does sink as it cools.
It just give a lovely crisp yet marshmallow-like base in addition to the biscuit. Something a tiny bit different.
The fruit topping is also very easy to make. Its as simple as sautéing some apple slices in some butter in a skillet, along with some brown sugar and warm baking spices.
Once they have softened slightly and begun to caramelize you throw in some blackberries and take it off the heat. The blackberries cook only the slightest in the heat of the pan, maintaining the integrity of their shape, etc.
I have kept the fruit topping a bit on the tart side because of the sweetness of the base with the meringue and all.
There is such a thing as too much sweet.
This was beautiful served with some vanilla ice cream on the side. Whipped cream or clotted cream would also go very nicely.
Oh my, I miss the luxury of clotted cream. I am going to have to try to make my own sometime, but I do have my doubts about that. Somehow I don't think it will ever taste the same.
Anyways, if you are looking for a nice, quick and easy dessert to serve this labor day weekend, you cannot go wrong with this one!
Blackberry & Apple Shortcake
Yield: Serves 2 with leftovers
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 20 MinTotal time: 30 Min
This autumn shortcake is a beautiful dessert, with a quick and easy biscuit base topped with a meringue topping prior to baking. Served with lush blackberries and apples spooned over top, a scoop of ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream goes very nicely with this dessert!
Ingredients
For the shortcake:
- 1 1/4 cups (160g) baking mix (see my recipe or use a brand like Bisquick)
- 1 1/2 TBS granulated sugar
- 1 1/2 TBS melted butter
- 1/4 cup (60ml) milk
- 1 large free range egg white
- 2 TBS granulated sugar
- 2 TBS icing sugar
For the fruit topping:
- 2 sweet eating apples, peeled, cored and sliced
- 1 TBS butter
- 1 TBS soft light brown sugar, packed
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch each of ground cardamom and grated nutmeg
- pinch of salt
- 1 cup (145g) blackberries
Instructions
- First make the shortcake base. You will need a six inch round cake tin. Butter it well and line with two strips of parchment paper, in a cross shape. (Leave an overhang to lift the cake out with when done.)
- Preheat the oven to 375*F.
- Stir the baking mix, 1 1/2 TBS of sugar, melted butter and milk together until a dough forms. Press the dough into the bottom of the cake tin.
- Whisk the egg white together until foamy. Keep whisking adding both the granulated and icing sugar, a bit at a time, until stiff peaks form and the mixture is glossy.
- Spoon this mixture over top of the biscuit base, swirling it decoratively.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes, until golden brown and puffed.
- Remove from the oven and let sit in the pan for 10 minutes before loosening the edges and lifting out onto a cooling rack or a plate.
- To make the fruit topping, place the apples, butter, brown sugar, spices and salt into a small skillet. Cook, stirring occasionally over medium high heat until the apples are somewhat softened and beginning to caramelize, but are still holding their shape. Remove from the heat and stir in the blackberries. Let cool to room temperature.
- Cut the cake into wedges and serve with some of the fruit topping spooned over top, along with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. Delicious!
Homemade Baking Mix
Yield: Makes about 6 cups
This is so easy to make. I like to keep mine in the freezer, but you can keep it at room temperature for several months.
Ingredients
- 700g plain flour (5 cups, all purpose)
- 3 TBS baking powder
- 2 tsp salt
- 220g of solid white vegetable fat (Crisco or Trex, 1 cup)
Instructions
- Put the flour, baking powder and salt into the bowl of a food processer and blitz for a couple seconds. Add half of the fat and blitz for about 30 seconds. Add the remaining fat and blitz again for about 30 seconds. The mixture should resemble fine bread crumbs. Store in an airtight container.
- Use as per any recipe requiring a baking mix.
Notes:
Note: You can also do it by hand using a pastry blender.
I had some stale bread that needed using up today, along with some bananas that were ripening. I knew I could use two of the bananas up in another kind of bake, but I wanted to do something different with the one.
I am not a big bread eater most of the time. I only ever rarely eat it, and then it is always whole wheat, and usually as toast. I had bought this loaf of white bread when Eileen and Tim were here one day because they only eat white bread.
If I had a large freezer, I simply would have frozen it to use another time, but alas . . . I only have the top of my refrigerator freezer at this point in time. I have given the birds lots of my bread over the past few months.
Today I thought I could use at least some of this to make some sort of dessert and with the banana involved, a chocolate and banana bread pudding came to mind. And why not!
I wish you could have seen this when it first came out of the oven. The bread and custard had all souffled up and looked like a pretty flower.
All puffy and tall, golden brown. Buttery golden brown. Alas, what goes up usually comes down in a very short time so I was unable to get a photograph. You will just have to take my word for it!
It was indeed, extremely pretty. I love recipes like this one, where you can use up things you have in your house. I hate waste.
Bread puddings and the like are the perfect use for stale bread, as is French toast. A bread pudding is actually like a baked French toast in almost every way.
Or you could say French toast is fried bread pudding. Its all in how you look at it I guess!
Today I used Villagio Classic Italian White Bread. The slices were nice and thick. Brioche would also work very well. Mmmm . . . especially chocolate chip brioche, but I digress.
This is a bread and butter pudding, in that the slices of bread are buttered on one side before layering them in the dish. I cut them in half and used a glass pie dish, placing half of them in buttered side up, and sprinkled with cinnamon
They looked like a flower laying there in the pie dish. I covered the first layer of bread with sliced banana. Not too thin, each slice being about 1/3 of an inch thick. Then I sprinkled semi-sweet chocolate chips over top.
Bananas and chocolate go so well together. I wouldn't use milk chocolate here. It would be too sweet with the banana. Just my opinion.
I thought semi sweet would work much better. Trust me on this.
I placed the remaining half slices of bread over top of the banana and chocolate chips, again sprinkling them with ground cinnamon.
I placed them slightly askew from the bottom layer so that there were no real gaps right through to the bottom of the dish if that makes sense.
A rich custard then gets poured over top. This, too, is simple. Just beaten milk and cream, eggs and some brown sugar.
I used full fat milk. I mean there is cream, so what the heck. Why not use whole! Desserts are suppose to be a tad bit indulgent.
You want to whisk these together until the sugar melts completely into the liquid. You could add a touch of vanilla if you wanted to, or a bit of vanilla and lemon, but I did not.
Pour this over the bread, making sure that every slice gets some on it.
I then used the back of my wooden spoon to smush them down a tiny bit. Making sure each and every scrap of the bread was soaked or soaking.
Submerge it as well as you can, but don't compact it, if that makes sense. (And I hope that it does!)
I didn't bother putting any chocolate chips on top. I knew that the oven temperature would only burn them, or cause they to dry out too much. I don't like chocolate chips that are burnt and dried out.
I also don't think any other kind of chocolate chip would work as well as the semi sweet. You could chop up semi sweet chocolate or even dark chocolate, but make sure it is a good quality chocolate.
I sprinkled it with a final but of freshly grated nutmeg and then just left it sitting for half an hour so that a lot of the custard could be absorbed. Makes for a lovely soufflé like finish, in my opinion.
This is a pudding that loves to be served with lashings of something creamy. Vanilla ice cream. Pouring cream. Custard sauce.
I decided to serve it with lashings of cream. Yes, there is only me. Don't judge me, lol. I already judge myself.
This is pretty indulgent and difficult to resist. A once in a blue moon treat perhaps.
My problem is I have far too many of those. Blue moon treats that is, but at this stage of my life, I figure a bit of indulgence every now and than won't hurt.
Do you know what you can do with leftover bread and butter pudding? Pop it into the refrigerator and let it get really cold. Then cut it into slabs.
Fry the slabs in hot butter and then serve it hot, drizzled with maple syrup, with some berries scattered over top for breakfast. Just saying. Not that I am going to do that.
But a gal can dream can't she? Dreams cost nothing. Enjoy!
Banana Bread Pudding
Yield: 3
Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 40 Mininactive time: 30 MinTotal time: 1 H & 19 M
You can use Brioche bread for this delicious pudding or ordinary white bread. Delicious served warm with vanilla ice cream, pouring cream or custard sauce. Simply double the ingredients to serve six.
Ingredients
- Softened butter to butter the bread and grease the casserole dish
- 5 thick slices of bread, you can leave the crusts on
- 1 banana, peeled and sliced
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 4 TBS semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 3/4 cup (180ml) whole milk
- 1/3 cup (80ml) double cream
- 1 large free range egg, lightly beaten
- 2 TBS soft light brown sugar
- pinch of grated nutmeg
Instructions
- Butter all of your bread slices on one side and cut in half through the middle. Butter a 9 inch pie dish.
- Place half of the bread slices in the bottom of the dish, butter side up. Sprinkle with half of the cinnamon. Slice the banana over top and sprinkle with the chocolate chips. Top with the remaining slices of bread, butter side up, and sprinkle with the remainder of the cinnamon.
- Whisk together the milk, cream, egg and brown sugar until the sugar melts into the mixture and dissolves. Pour this evenly over the bread in the pan, making sure everything gets covered. Push the bread down into the milk mixture with the back of a wooden spoon if you need to.
- Sprinkle a bit of nutmeg on top and leave to sit for half an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375*F/190*C/ gas mark 5.
- Bake the bread pudding in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes until risen, golden brown and the custard has set. (A knife inserted half way between the side and the center should come out clean.)
- Serve warm and spooned out into bowls.
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