Banana Bread!

Dear Appu…

This is another quick and easy alternative to use overripe bananas, that can’t be used anywhere else! They taste awesome when baked as bread with toasted walnuts and spiced with cinnamon powder! Mmmmmm! And I am sure there are tons of recipes and variations out there to tweak it to the most moist, delicious batch possible, but here’s the one I tried in my maiden attempt from Joy of Baking. The details…

1 cup (115 grams) walnuts or pecans, toasted and coarsely chopped
1 3/4 cups (245 grams) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (150 grams) granulated white sugar
1 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup (113 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
3 ripe large bananas (approximately 1 pound or 454 grams), mashed well (about 1-1/2 cups)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Garnish: (Optional)
1 large banana, sliced or dried banana chips

Method

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C) and place oven rack to middle position. Butter and flour (or spray with a non stick vegetable/flour spray) the bottom and sides of a 9 x 5 x 3 inch (23 x 13 x 8 cm) loaf pan. Set aside. (I used a regular round loaf pan because that is all I had!)

Place the nuts on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes or until lightly toasted. Let cool and then chop coarsely. 

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nuts. Set aside.

In a medium-sized bowl combine the mashed bananas, eggs, melted butter, and vanilla. With a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, lightly fold the wet ingredients (banana mixture) into the dry ingredients just until combined and the batter is thick and chunky. (The important thing is not to over mix the batter. You do not want it smooth. Over mixing the batter will yield tough, rubbery bread.) Scrape batter into prepared pan and  place the slices of banana on top of the batter for garnish. Bake until bread is golden brown and a  toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 55 to 60 minutes. Place on a wire rack to cool and then remove the bread from the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature. This bread can be frozen. Makes 1 – 9 x 5 x 3 inch loaf.

Carrot cake – to die for!

Dear Appu…

In honour of R’s birthday, I searched online for a nice new cake recipe. Something I had not yet tried before. My search criteria on google was ‘awesome birthday cake recipes’, and the second link led me here. I have tried recipes from AllRecipes before and this sounded like a very good one.

Now R loves carrots. And I love carrot cake. And I guess, on its own it would have been quite amazing. But being a birthday occasion, I wanted icing, so I could write something on it. So instead of following the made from scratch cream cheese frosting recipe from this one, I tried out this recipe instead. Oooooo! Totally out of this world. And instead of plain cream cheese, I got one pack of strawberry flavour and the other was plain and mixed together, there was this pale pink look and a faint strawberry flavour which was amazing. Here’s the process in detail.

Ingredients for the cake

3 cups grated carrots
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups white sugar
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 (8 ounce) can crushed pineapple with juice
3/4 cup chopped pecans

Method 

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease and flour a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine grated carrots, flour, white sugar, baking soda, baking powder, salt and cinnamon.

3. Stir in eggs, oil, 1 1/4 teaspoon vanilla, pineapple and 3/4 cup chopped pecans. Spoon batter into prepared pan.

4. Bake in the preheated oven for 30 to 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Allow to cool.

Directions for Frosting

2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese, softened (I used one part Strawberry, and one part plain flavour)
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sifted confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a medium bowl, cream together the cream cheese, butter and the pecans until creamy. Mix in the vanilla, then gradually stir in the confectioners’ sugar. Spread evenly on the cooled cake. Store in the refrigerator after use. I also put the frosted cake in the fridge, and took it out just before it was time to cut it.

This recipe, of course, can also be used without any frosting. If you have noticed, the cake does not use any butter, which is such a pleasant change. And what’s a little unusual is that it uses pineapples alongwith the juice. Enjoy!

Lemon Berry Muffins

Dear Appu…

Its been ages since I posted here, and you’ve nagged me enough about it. You don’t have much access to the internet now, so I figured this is a good time to catch up and surprise you when you finally come online.

Baking always puts me in my happy place. And its one of the best things I have shared with Winkie so far. He has been helping me bake for a few years now, ever since he was around 3. Its one of his favorite things to do with me, and a cheer-upper any day. If I have been particularly nasty to him and want to make things up…I invite him to bake with me. That’s how special it is.

So today after a long time, I came across an interesting recipe I wanted to try out. And I didn’t want to do it alone. I asked Winkie before school, if he’d like to come home and do some baking. He started jumping up and down and hugged my legs and said he loved me. So nice!

Well….from this point on, the recipe takes over. Enjoy! 

Ingredients

2 cups self-raising flour
1/3 cup of castor sugar (a little more if you want it sweeter)
2 teaspoons of grated lemon rind
1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
60g melted butter
1 egg lightly beaten
1 cup of milk

Makes about 12 muffins.

Method

1. Sift flour into a large bowl.
2. MIx in lemon rind, sugar, then egg, butter and milk.
3. Stir in the berries.
4. Spoon mixture into greased muffin pans.
5. Bake in 180C oven for 25 minutes until golden.
6. Drizzle with lemon icing glaze on muffins while hot.

Lemon icing glaze

1 tablespoon of lemon juice
icing sugar

Mix juice and enough icing sugar to make a watery icing for glazing. About 1 teaspoon of glaze for each muffin.

The taste, to be honest, wasn’t spectacular, but it was very likeable!