Banana Bread

Oh haaaaaay! It's been a month since I last posted but I've had a some other exciting-and-kind-of important-sort-of life-changing stuff occupying my time of late. And I've actually just been pretty busy with quite a few weekends away from home, but I have still managed to squeeze in some cooking here and there.

I was working from home the day I made this, which meant when I finished up for the day I had some time to put a banana bread in the oven. There were a couple of dire-looking bananas in the fruit bowl, which normally I chuck straight in the freezer for future use in cakes or smoothies, but I was inspired to whip something up then and there. I looked for a 'healthy' recipe for banana bread, something without as much sugar and fat and found one on BBC Good Food. I didn't quite have the right amounts of everything so I adapted it a bit to suit, and added some extras.

140g flour - wholemeal would make this even healthier, but I didn't have any.

100g self-raising flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

pinch of salt

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed - I think 3 is best, but I only had 2.

4 tablespoons of agave syrup - I only had honey, so I mixed about 3 tablespoons of clover honey with a little hot water, to make it more like a syrup. I used a little less as I didn't want it to be too sweet.

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

150ml of low-fat, plain yoghurt - I didn't quite have 150ml so about 50ml was some mixed berry yoghurt I also had in the fridge.

chopped pecans or walnuts (optional - and I didn't opt for these).

Pre-heat oven to 160 degrees celsius, fan bake. Put all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and line a loaf tin with baking paper - make sure you leave it coming up over the sides a bit. In a second bowl, combine the mashed bananas, agave syrup/honey, beaten eggs and yoghurt. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Pour into the tin and sprinkle the nuts on top, if you're using them. Bake for 1 hour 10-15 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean - mine was done in just over an hour though so keep an eye on it. Cool on a wire rack and eat warm, or like the Aussies do, slice it, toast it and spread it with butter, cream cheese or even lemon curd at breakfast time. Store in an airtight container and it should last at least a few days, longer if you're toasting it.

I was a bit over the usual for breakfast and this was a bit of at treat for the rest of the week but it didn't taste overly sweet and a couple of slices with butter were surprisingly filling. It wasn't quite as banana-ry as I would've liked, so I'd use 3 bananas next time. I've recently bought an Easiyo yoghurt maker too, which is great as I use a lot of natural yoghurt, both in cooking, smoothies and just to eat, so it's nice to be able to make your own. It's also great served with any sort of sweet cake instead of cream, to take the edge off the sweetness a wee bit. Enjoy!

One-cup Pancakes

It was Mother's Day recently and instead of a pressie, I thought I'd invite Mum over to have brunch with me and just hang out. I offered her a 'menu' a few days before, with several choices, and she chose pancakes. Now I know this isn't a super fancy thing to make, and most people can probably pretty easily whip up pancakes, but this one is uber easy - and you probably have everything in your cupboard already. This recipe is another Jamie Oliver one, but I chose it because it's the simplest of simple recipes. It was a lovely sunny day, so making these in my kitchen on a Sunday morning for my mum was really nice.

1 large free-range egg (I used 2 smaller ones)
1 cup of self-raising flour
1 cup of milk
sea salt
1 tablespoon of oil

And whatever you want to put on your pancakes! I chose:
1/2 cup of frozen mixed berries
6 tablespoons of plain yoghurt
2 teaspoons of runny honey
1 teaspoon cinnamon

Crack the egg(s) into a large mixing bowl. Add in the flour, milk and a pinch of sea salt. Whisk it all together until it's a nice smooth batter. If you wanted to put anything in the pancakes, like blueberries, you would fold these in at this point. Put a large frying pan on a medium heat and add half the oil to the pan. Make sure the oil covers the whole pan - I usually use a pastry brush or a paper towel. Add large spoonfuls of the batter to the pan, with space between each pancake to allow them room to spread out. Cook them for 1-2 minutes or until bubbles appear on the surface, and then flip them over for another couple of minutes on the other side. You need to cook them in batches, so once they are cooked, I put them on a plate in the oven on a low heat so they keep warm. Use the rest of the oil between batches if you need to.

For the accompaniments, I put the frozen berries in the microwave for about 20 seconds and then blitzed them a little with a hand blender, but not so much that they were completely puréed and smooth. I divided the pancakes between two plates, in piles, and topped with the plain yoghurt, berry sauce, drizzled the honey over and sprinkled a little cinnamon on the top.

We washed our pancakes down with some mimosas (a fancy way of saying bubbly with orange juice), even though I was a little hungover. It was a really nice way to treat my mum, but with something homemade we could enjoy together.. I'm lucky that I live in the same city as my mum, so I see her fairly regularly, but that hasn't always been the case - I spent the better part of nine years living overseas and despite the fact that I've been living back home for over two years now, she still tells me how happy she is to be able to spend time with me. I am sure everyone says this about their mum, but mine is pretty special, so it was a pleasure to make these, and enjoy them with her. Love you Mum!

Mini Plum Crumbles

This dessert would make a great follow up to the smokey bbq pulled pork from my last post. It's pretty simple - you might already have most of the stuff at home, like I did - and it's pretty quick to make too.

Why did I make it? I was given some beautiful plums by some friends when I was visiting the Hawke's Bay a couple of weekends back. They were starting to go a bit soft and I didn't want to waste their deliciousness.
Where did this recipe come from? From my head - a bit of conglomeration of all the crumble recipes I've ever used.
What's it good for? When you've got an excess of fruit, when you want a warming dessert or just because it's delicious - I like to add just a wee bit of sugar when I stew the fruit so it's still a bit tart, which goes beautifully with the sweet crumble topping.
How many people can eat it? This recipe made two mini crumbles, but just multiply it for more
What do I serve it with? Ice-cream, cream, yoghurt....whatever you fancy really. I served it with plain, unsweetened yoghurt with a little sprinkle of cinnamon on top. I find that I need something to counteract the sweetness, so I'm a big fan of yoghurt with rich desserts.

What do I need?

It's important to stay hydrated while cooking

300g plums (stones removed, cut roughly into quarters) or any fruit you choose like peaches, cherries, apples etc
1 tsp caster sugar
10g butter
20g brown sugar
40g rolled oats
2 tblsp flour
1 tsp mixed spice
1/2 tsp of cinnamon



How do I make it?

Preheat the over to 180 degrees celsius. Pop the plums into a small saucepan. You might need to add a little bit of water, but my plums were pretty juicy so I didn't bother. Sprinkle the sugar over the fruit and gently simmer on a low heat until the fruit is tender. You might want to adjust the amount of sugar to your taste or to the type of fruit you're using, While the plums are doing their thing, make the crumble. Cut the butter into small pieces (it's easier if it's at room temperature at this point) and put into a bowl with the brown sugar, rolled oats, mixed spice and cinnamon. Use your fingers to rub the mix together until it looks like something that vaguely resembles breadcrumbs. At this point, I found my mix was a bit too melty-buttery (wasn't really complaining), so I added some flour. I could have used more than 2 tablespoons, but just use your judgement based on how the mixture looks.
Your fruit should be done by now. Mash it up a bit if it needs it and then spoon it into ramekins. Top with the crumble mixture and bake for about 15 minutes or until the crumble is bubbling and the top is a wee bit brown. Enjoy - but don't burn your tongue like I did!