Eggless Ragi Banana Bread

Ingredients:

• ½ cup - Ragi flour / finger millet
• ½ cup - Wheat flour
• ¾ cup - Mashed bananas 
• 1 and ½ tsp - Baking powder
  
• ¼ tsp - Baking soda
• ¼ tsp - Salt
• 1 tsp - Vanilla 
• 1 tsp - Nutmeg powder (optional)
• ¼ cup - Honey
• ½ cup - Yogurt
• ¼ cup - Olive oil

Directions:

• Sieve ragi and wheat flour. Add salt, baking soda, baking powder and nutmeg powder. Keep it aside.
• Blend together curd, honey, olive oil and mashed banana.
• Add this wet mixture to dry mixture and combine everything well. Grease loaf pan with little oil. Pour batter into the pan and tap it.
• In a preheated oven, Bake at 180 degree C for 30-40 mins. Once the upper crust turns light brown, insert a toothpick at the center and it should come out clean.

Recipe based on jopreetskitchen.com

Banana Crumb Muffins

Happy Tamil New Year to all of you. I dint do anything special for new year because I am not feeling very well. But I had a couple of ripe bananas sitting on my counter-top, and I wanted to bake something to use up these bananas. Also had some cut mangoes in the fridge.

As I was browsing my recipe collection, I came across these bananan crumb muffin recipe. I love crumb topppings on my muffins! But I have never tried it out. Last week, Hubby and I were having high tea at a bakery in Clementi and he asked me what a ‘crumb’ topping was. So I thought this recipe would be a good idea to use up the bananas and show hubby what crumb topping was. The recipe was straight forward, the technique for the crumb topping was also easy. So I got out my new muffin cases :) and made these delicious muffins. 

Warm out of the oven…. They were moist and so full of banana flavour. The crumb topping was sweet and crunchy! The recipe called for 3 ripe bananas, but I only had 2. So I added about half a medium mango, and mashed them together. When I tasted the muffins, the mangoes were not very prominent. And the 2 bananas were more than enough.  Recipe adapted from Annie’sEats.

Banana Crumb Muffins

Yields 14 muffins.

Ingredients:

For the muffins:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour (I used Unbleached Plain Flour)

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 bananas, mashed 

3/4 cup white sugar (I used unrefined raw sugar)

1 egg, lightly beaten

½ teaspoon Vanilla extract

1/3 cup butter, melted 

For the topping:

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour (I used Unbleached Plain Flour)

1/8 teaspoon Vanilla extract

1 tablespoon butter   

Directions:

•      Preheat oven to 375°.    
•      In a large bowl, mix together 1 ½ cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
•      In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg, vanilla extract and melted butter.
•      Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture just until moistened.
•      Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.  
•      In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tablespoons flour and vanilla extract.
•      Cut in 1 tablespoon butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal.
•      Sprinkle topping over muffins.   
•      Bake in preheated oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into center of a muffin comes out clean.

Whole Grain Banana Bread

Whenever we buy bananas, somehow the last 2 or 3 gets too ripe before we could finish them.  So I have been looking for a recipe to use up these ripe bananas, and also for a healthy morning breakfast option.

So when I saw this recipe for wholegrain banana bread on http://www.texanerin.com/, I jumped on it.  For this recipe you need really ripe bananas, they have to have dark spots and be real mushy. Otherwise the bread is not going to be sweet enough. Since there is very little sugar, you want the sweetness for the bananas.

The bread smelled wonderful! It was so moist and dense and sweet! We had one slice every morning and it was divine! I packed a slice, and asked Hubby to pass it to a colleague of his. She is also a good friend of mine, and loves my creations, so supportive of all the craft work I do. So when she ate the bread, she couldn’t believe that it was homemade, and made from scratch.

So go ahead give this healthy wholegrain banana bread a try for your next week breakfast, and let me know how it turns out!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups (195 grams) whole wheat flour or whole spelt or whole wheat pastry  

1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 cup (100 grams) unrefined sugar, or normal brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup (85 grams) honey
3 tablespoons oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
4 medium bananas, mashed

Optional:

1/2 cup (60 grams) chopped walnuts
Cinnamon sugar (1 tablespoon unrefined sugar + 1 teaspoon cinnamon)

Directions:

• Grease a 10.5" x 3" (27cm x 8cm) pan and grease it well. Sometimes the bananas like to stick to the pan. I have a weird sized pan. If you use a different size, which I'm guessing you will, just adjust the time.
• This is an extremely moist bread, so if it comes out dry, you'll know it was in for too long. Preheat your oven to 350°F / 175°C.
• In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and sugar.
• In another medium-sized bowl, lightly beat the eggs. Add honey, canola oil, vanilla and mashed bananas.
• To prevent more dish washing, I put one banana at a time in the liquid mix, and mash it with the bottom of a glass. If they're ripe enough, really TRULY ripe enough, this will be easy. You can also puree the bananas. Add the nuts if using.
• Add the wet mix to the dry mix, but just until combined. Pour into the prepared pan.
• Bake for 40-45 minutes. Remember to adjust the time accordingly depending on pan size. The time between the toothpick coming out wet and coming out dry is very small.
• Remove to a rack to cool for 15 minutes before turning out onto the rack to cool completely.
• If you live in a humid environment, refrigerate this after a few days. It's incredibly moist and humidity isn't its friend.

Bananas Foster French Toast

This is one of those recipes that's so ridiculously indulgent and mouth-watering. Here is a recipe for possibly the best French Toast I've ever eaten. Hope you like bananas! Not that you need to love them, anything doused in brown sugar and butter is bound to be fabulous.

The banana topping is deeply sweet with caramel flavors while the french toast itself is caramelized, rich, with a lovely hint of cinnamon. When it all comes together it's DIVINE. 
 

Bananas Foster French Toast
Serves 2-3
French Toast:

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• pinch salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 6 thick slices bread
• butter for frying

Bananas Foster Topping:

• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 2 bananas, sliced
• pinch cinnamon 

 Method:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. 
• In a large shallow bowl or dish whisk together eggs, milk, salt, cinnamon, and allspice. Soak bread slices in egg mixture, allowing to absorb as much liquid as possible.
• While bread is soaking, heat a large skillet or griddle on medium heat.
• Melt butter in pan and brown the bread slices, working in batches if necessary. Brown for about 3 minutes per side, or until lightly golden.
• Place slices on a baking sheet and finish cooking in preheated oven for 12-15 minutes, or until slices have a desired brown color.

• While the french toast is in the oven, prepare the bananas foster topping. I
• In a small skillet, melt the butter. Add the brown sugar and stir until dissolved into butter.
• Add banana slices to pan, stirring so they are covered in caramel sauce.
• Sprinkle a pinch of cinnamon. Bananas are done when they are warmed through. Pour bananas foster mixture over French Toast.

Enjoy your breakfast!