Tag Archives: Banana

(Vegan) Banana Bread Muffins

10 Mar

Last weekend I had some black bananas and needed breakfast, so I thought, why not muffins? But I checked the fridge and realized I was out of eggs. So after texting my egg supplier to place my order for the next day (my friend Rachel has some backyard chickens), I did some quick internet research for an egg-free muffin.

Luckily, or perhaps fore-sightedly, I keep flax seed on hand for this very reason. I’m forever running out of eggs, but flax seed serves is an eggs-cellent egg replacer (ha) and it keeps for months sealed airtight in the fridge. Even if you’re not vegan, I recommend this strategy if you’re also not so good at inventory and grocery shopping.

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The flax seed completely fulfills the eggs’ role as a binder, but not so much as a riser. So it will hold your muffins together, but you won’t get that light, airy, cake-y texture. But all the more perfect for banana muffins — these come up super dense and moist, like banana bread. Two-bite banana bread! What more could you ask for?

This recipe calls for coconut oil to make them truly vegan. I had butter on hand, so I used that. But I recently purchased a jar of coconut oil, so I look forward to experimenting with it.

This made about 9 small muffins. Keep in mind that because there are no eggs, the batter won’t really rise during the baking process, so however high you fill your cupcake holders, that’s about how big your cupcakes will be.

I thought they were delicious! And apparently so did my coworkers, seeing as the leftovers vanished pretty quickly. Enjoy!

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Banana Bread Muffins from Kitchen Treaty

1 T flax seed meal + 3 T water
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
2 overripe bananas, mashed
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup applesauce (about one of the individual cups)
2 1/2 T coconut oil or vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease or line a muffin tin.

In a small bowl, stir together the flax and water. Set aside for 5 minutes.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flours, baking soda, and salt.

In a medium bowl, mash the bananas. Add the brown sugar, applesauce, oil, vanilla, and flax/water. Mix well.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. Stir until just incorporated.

Spoon batter into muffin tins. Keep in mind that it won’t rise, so fill tins as big as you’d like your muffins.

Bake 18-22 minutes, or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Yield: About 9 small muffins, or about 6 jumbo muffins with domed tops.

Banana Bread Muffins

Linking Up With:

Funday Monday from Still Being Molly
Block Party from Hungry Happenings
Made by you Monday from Skip to my Lou
Inspiration Monday from Twelve O Eight
Time to Sparkle from Love Grows Wild
Wonderfully Creative Wednesday from All She Cooks
Create It Thursday from Lamberts Lately
Full Plate Thursday from Miz Helen’s Country Cottage
All Things Pretty from Sparkles and a Stove

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Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

22 Jul

I was never a big pancake fan as a kid, or even a big breakfast fan. I grew up eating cereal or granola bars, even on the weekends.

The exception was when my grandparents were in town, and my Poppee would cook up grits, bacon, and “dippy” eggs to order. I had no idea that the majority of America didn’t refer to eggs over easy as dippy eggs, though I think it’s a much more sensible term. (After you finish your egg whites, you break the yolk and dip your toast into it. Get it?)

Aside from those occasional big family breakfasts, I generally avoid breakfast. I don’t really like American-style breakfast foods, so I either eat very simply, like an apple and peanut butter, or I eat leftovers, like pasta or stir fry or soup. My favorite breakfast is probably spaghetti and meatballs. People tell me that’s weird, but personally, I think it’s weird that there’s so much amazing food in the world that we’re not supposed to eat before noon. Why not eat spaghetti and meatballs?

Well, instead of something as “weird” as pasta, I’ll share a more normal breakfast recipe — pancakes.

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes

At first, pancakes were just not that interesting to me. Plain bread with plain sugar maple syrup. Meh. But as an adult, I discovered a much wider world of pancakes. Adding in bananas or pumpkin, nuts, chocolate chips — now that’s a delicious breakfast.

For these pancakes, I used whole wheat to make them a bit healthier, and I mashed a couple bananas to stir in. As I cooked them, I added in chopped walnuts to about half of them and a few dark chocolate chips to the other half. Yum! You can enjoy these pancakes the classic way, with butter, whipped cream, and/or maple syrup. Or, I prefer a healthier and more on-the-go preparation: folded in half like a taco, with peanut butter spread inside. Delicious and protein-rich!

Peanut butter-Pancake Taco

The big plus of these pancakes is that they are really excellent to freeze and re-heat. Whenever I make them, I make a really big batch, enjoy a couple, and then freeze the rest. Just slide the pancakes into ziploc bags with a square of wax paper in between each one. When you’re ready to eat them, heat in the microwave for 45-60 seconds, and they’re ready. Amazing!

Whole Wheat Banana Pancakes from 100 Days of Real Food

2 cups whole-wheat flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon honey
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1 ¾ cups milk
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2 ripe bananas, mashed
Walnuts or pecans, optional
Dark chocolate chips, optional

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt.

Make a hole in the center of the flour mixture and pour in the honey, eggs, milk, and melted butter. Whisk together thoroughly, but do not overmix. Gently fold the mashed bananas into the batter.

Heat a griddle or sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add pancake batter in small scoops (I use a 1/4 cup measuring cup). If desired, sprinkle a handful of nuts or chocolate chips on top. When the pancakes have begun brown on the bottom, flip them over to cook the other side.

Note: For vegan pancakes…

  • Substitute 2 tablespoons flaxseed and 6 tablespoons warm water for eggs. Stir together and let sit for a couple minutes until thick.
  • Substitute soy or almond milk for milk.
  • Substitute maple or agave syrup for honey.Breakfast is served!

Linking Up With:

Funday Monday from Still Being Molly and Lipgloss and Crayons
Market Yourself Monday from Sumo’s Sweet Stuff
Made by you Monday from Skip to my Lou
Anything and Everything Blog Hop from My Thrifty Chic
Time to Sparkle from Love Grows Wild, Inside BruCrew Life, The Recipe Critic, and The Gunny Sack
Link Party Wednesday from Lil’ Luna
Create It Thursday from Lamberts Lately
All Things Pretty from Sparkles and a Stove and My Fashion Forward Blog

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Banana Fluffernutter Cupcakes

4 Mar

My mom is nuts for marshmallow fluff. Whenever I think of it, I picture her eating it straight off a spoon with a giant grin on her face. My mom is an excellent role model. She also demonstrated burping the alphabet and how she could squirt water through the gap between her two front teeth, both at the dinner table. The latter didn’t go well when my sister, who was about five years old at the time, attempted to do the same. She didn’t realize it wouldn’t quite work the same if you’re missing your four front teeth. That mess put an end to our water squirting at the dinner table, even if my dad was away on business.

Surprisingly, I never got on that much with marshmallow fluff. Maybe because I would always prefer to have chocolate. But this frosting changed my mind. I’ve never had a fluffernutter sandwich, but my mom always spoke of them fondly. To make a classic fluffernutter sandwich, you spread peanut butter and marshmallow fluff between two slices of soft white bread. I was thinking about this when dreaming up a new cupcake idea, and I decided that adding banana to the mix would be pretty awesome. Plus, I had some brown bananas I really needed to use. Thus, the concept for banana fluffernutter cupcakes was born: banana cupcake with peanut butter filling and marshmallow frosting. Unfortunately, these cupcakes disappeared before I could take one to my mom, but I might have to make another batch for her.

Cupcakes & Flowers

I started with a basic banana muffin. I thought something more muffin-like rather than cake-like would balance out the crazy sugar dose in the frosting.

I used applesauce instead of butter to be slightly healthier, and honestly, if you subtract the frosting, the banana/peanut butter portion of this recipe makes for an excellent and fairly healthy breakfast muffin. But if you wanted to go all out, by all means, use butter instead of applesauce.

A note about the applesauce: The first day, the paper completely stuck to the cupcake when I tried to peel it off. I recommend using butter or at least half butter and half applesauce. But if you do want to go applesauce all the way, not to worry. I took these to work on the third day after making them, and not only were they still moist, but also the paper peeled right off, no problems.

While they baked, I set out to make the marshmallow frosting. This stuff is SO GOOD. It’s just sugar with sugar, really.

After letting the cupcakes cool completely, I used my cupcake corer to remove the centers from each cupcake. This little guy is only 5 bucks and is seriously handy. You can get through a whole tray of cupcakes super fast. I definitely recommend it. But if you don’t have one, you can use a paring knife.

Not a happy day to be a cupcake.

Hardcored. Ha.

Instead of making a sugary peanut butter filling, I decided to fill them with plain peanut butter right out of the jar. I thought making a sweet filling might be too sweet when paired with the frosting. And most brands of peanut butter (like my favorite, crunchy Peter Pan) include a significant amount of sugar already. I used a little spoon to smush the peanut butter down in there.

Then I topped them with the marshmallow frosting, and there you go.

One Cupcake...

Super delicious. The blend of banana, peanut butter, and marshmallow is to die for. The flavors mingle so well together.

Two Cupcakes! Two! Ha Ah Ah. (Sorry. I just watched a video of The Count from Sesame Street. Don't ask.)

 

Banana Fluffernutter Cupcakes

1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 bananas, mashed
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup (1 individual serving) applesauce (OR 1/3 cup butter)

Pre-heat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper liners and set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash bananas with a fork. Add sugar, egg, and applesauce. Mix on low until just combined. Mix in flour mixture on low until just combined.

Pour the batter into the cupcake pan and bake for about 25-30 minutes. They should spring back slightly when tapped.

Let cool completely. Core each cupcake and fill with peanut butter. Top with marshmallow frosting.

Marshmallow Frosting

1 cup confectioners sugar
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 tub (about 8 oz) marshmallow cream

Sift sugar and set aside.

In a large mixing bowl, beat butter until creamy. Beat in 1/2 the sugar until combined. Add vanilla and the rest of the sugar and beat until combined.

Stir in marshmallow cream.

 

Aerial View

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Banana Butterscotch-Chocolate Cake

16 Feb

I don’t know why, but I have been having some issues in the kitchen lately. Burnt butterscotch,  chocolate blooms, spilled food, cracked cakes, depleted food stores… you name it. I’m in some kind of food funk, so I guess I’ve been avoiding the kitchen for a couple weeks. I re-entered carefully a few nights ago, trying out a new semi-homemade recipe I got off the back of a bag of Nestle Tollhouse butterscotch chips. Even this proved challenging for some reason, though the end result turned out tasty. I edited the recipe a little bit to include chocolate, since a dessert isn’t really a dessert unless chocolate is involved (and I ran short on butterscotch). I’ll go through how I made it, but word of warning: be sure to have quite a few medium and large bowls on hand, and preferably someone to wash all these dishes for you.

I started by pre-heating the oven to 375 F and buttering a bundt pan. Then I filled a large mixing bowl with a box of yellow cake mix, 4 eggs, 1/2 cup vegetable oil,  1/4 cup water, and 1/4 cup white sugar. I also added in 2 mashed bananas — I didn’t worry too much about mashing them well. I just kind of shmushed them with a fork as I dropped chunks of banana into the bowl. I figured the hand mixer would take care of them.

Ingredients

Then I mixed everything together with a hand mixer in medium-low speed for about 3 minutes.

In a medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl, I melted 3/4 cup of butterscotch chips by cooking at 20-second intervals in the microwave, stirring in between each round. I did the same thing with 3/4 cup of dark chocolate chips in another medium-sized, microwave-safe bowl. I added about a cup of the banana cake batter into each of the melted chips bowls.

Banana-Butterscotch BatterBanana-Chocolate Batter

So then I had: a bowl of banana batter, a bowl of chocolate-banana batter, and a bowl of butterscotch-banana batter.

3 Batters

Then I set about filling the bundt pan in a way that would give me a great marbling effect. I just dropped random spoonfuls of each batter into the pan: spoonful of banana, spoonful of chocolate-banana, spoonful of butterscotch-banana… repeat. The bowl looked pretty cool, with yellow, brown, and tan spots everywhere.

Marbled Cake Batter

Once the pan was full, I put it in the oven for about 35-40 minutes, until I poked it with a toothpick and it came out clean.

Hot Cake

Once again, I was too impatient, and I tried to take the cake out of the pan too soon, resulting in a cracked cake! And this time I didn’t have an icing to hide the cracks! BAhhh what was I gonna do!? Easy — I just cut it into two halves, and served it as two separate cakes. Where the cracks were messy, I just sliced off a bit of crumbled cake and ate it, so that the edges would be smooth cuts. This worked out really well since I was taking some to the office, and they never eat it all anyway. So I sent one to my office and one to the BF’s office.

But first — the topping! The recipe called for drizzling melted butterscotch over the top of the cake. Unfortunately, I completely burned and ruined the last bit of butterscotch I had, so that was a fail. (Told you I’ve been having kitchen issues lately.) So instead I topped it with melted chocolate, which is a fantastic substitute. (Even that took two tries though. Issues.) This is the same ganache-y topping I use on my Chocolate Chocolate Chocolate Cake. The general rule is one part butter to two parts chocolate. So I melted about 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips with 1/4 cup (1/2 a stick) butter, heating in the microwave in 20-second intervals, stirring well in between each round. While the chocolate is still warm and smooth, drizzle it over the top of the cake, evenly all around. As it cools, it will firm up to be solid, but it won’t get hard, thanks to the butter. Tasty!

Banana Butterscotch Chocolate Cake

How Sue Sees It:
– If you prefer only butterscotch and not the added chocolate (not sure why you would, but whatever), just replace all the chocolate with more butterscotch.
– Reviews for this cake were mixed — some loved it, some liked it, some didn’t care for it. I think it totally depends how the taster feels about banana. If you like banana, you’ll love this cake. If you don’t, you won’t. Duh.

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