Banana

Sue's Awesome Banana Muffins

Quite a lot of the recipes I make and share come from my wife (Sue). When she made these quick, easy, and mostly healthy Banana Muffins the other day I was blown away. Not only were they delicious, but a fun activity to do with Zach.

IMG_8285.jpg

Ingredients:

  • 3 large ripe bananas

  • 3/4 cup white sugar

  • 1 egg

  • 1/3 cup oil vegetable oil is best

  • 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour

  • 1 tsp baking soda (bi carb soda)

  • 1 tsp baking powder

  • 1/2 tsp salt


Optional Ingredients:

  • Chocolate Chips

  • Blueberries

  • Oats (Steel Cut)

METHOD:

  1. Preheat your oven to 180 degrees C and line your muffin tin with 12 paper muffin cups.

  2. In a large mixing bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until no large pieces remain.     

  3. Add the sugar, egg and oil and mix with a wooden spoon until everything is incorporated.

  4. Measure the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a separate mixing bowl and stir them together with a fork. Once they’re mixed together, dump the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.

  5. Using a wooden spoon, carefully mix the wet and the dry ingredients together. The danger here is over-mixing which will result in dense, flat and dry muffins. The best technique for mixing is to scoop underneath the mixture and pull up gently instead of stirring around in a circle (like you’d stir your coffee, for example). Continue mixing this way just until the dry ingredients have been incorporated. It’s fine if there are a few small streaks of flour in the batter; it’s the large pockets of flour you want to make sure are incorporated.

  6. Spoon the batter into 12 lined muffin cups. Try your best to ensure you fill the cups evenly. This will ensure each of the muffins is finished baking at the same time (you don’t want some over-baked and some raw in the middle!)

  7. OPTIONAL: Add in Chocolate Chips / Blueberries to filled muffin cups, stir in/mix with toothpick.

  8. OPTIONAL: Coat / top muffins with sprinkle of oats.

  9. Bake the muffins in the oven at 180 degrees C (350F) for about 16-18min (it could be 22-25 min depending on your oven, but check around the 18min mark) or until they are golden brown.

  10. Let them cool in the tins for about 5 minutes and then turn them out of the tins to let them cool completely on a cooling rack. Or, enjoy one warm from the oven slathered in butter.


Notes:

You can store the muffins in an air tight container for about 4 days, but just make sure they are fully cooled before you store them.

An all chocolate chip batch

An all chocolate chip batch

Banana Pancakes

I've never made pancakes from scratch before - but yesterday I decided to give it a go as a special treat for my wife's birthday. I normally opt for the super easy (lazy) instant pancake batter that comes in the shaker bottle - but this recipe was so easy and the result was so good that I had to share.

pancakes.JPG

(Makes ~10-12 pancakes).

Ingredients

  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 cup milk **
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/4 cup melted butter (21g) **
  • 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
  • Butter or oil, for cooking pancakes
  • 3 bananas sliced
  • Maple Syrup
  • Strawberries (optional) 

(**Note: you can make these dairy-free by substituting almond milk + nut butter)

Method:

  1. Preheat your oven to 100 degrees C (about 200 degrees F). Place a baking tray with sheet in the oven. This is where we’re going to put the pancakes once they’re done cooking so they stay warm.
     
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt). Set aside.
     
  3. In a measuring cup or small bowl prepare wet ingredients. Measure and add milk, water, egg, melted butter, vanilla and whisk until smooth.
     
  4. Preheat your pan or griddle over medium heat. When warm, brush with a teaspoon or two of oil or butter. (Note: Oil won’t burn, but butter is more flavourful). 
     
  5. Pour the liquid ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix (slowly with whisk) until flour is combined. Be sure not to over mix the batter.
     
  6. Using a 1/4 cup measure, drop circles of batter onto your pan. Add the slices of banana to the surface of the pancakes (depending on how many slices you have you might be able to do about 2-3 slices per pancake).
     
  7. Cook in batches careful not to over crowd your pan. You'll need to turn them once to have them golden on both sides. The trick with pancakes is to wait until bubbles appear on the top (which means the underside is just about ready to flip). Transfer the pancakes to the oven to keep warm. Repeat with the remaining batter.
     
  8. Serve with butter and maple syrup. Decorate with strawberries.