Tag: banana

Banana oat muffins

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Perfectly soft and springy, moist and banana-y, not too sweet. The perfect breakfast!

  • 180g plain flour, plus extra for sprinkling
  • 80g rolled oats
  • 100g caster sugar
  • 2 tbsp ground flax seed
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp baking soda
  • ½ tsp salt
  • 1 egg
  • 180ml milk
  • 80ml veg oil
  • ½ tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 ripe bananas, mashed
  1. Pre-heat oven to 190C fan (200C) and line a muffin tin with 12 paper liners
  2. Combine flour, oats, flax seed, sugar, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium bowl
  3. In a separate, larger bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, oil and vanilla, then stir in mashed bananas
  4. Add in the flour mixture and stir until just combined
  5. Spoon batter into the prepared muffin cases, filling three quarters full. Sprinkle with some extra oats on each one
  6. Bake for 18-20 mins until golden and springy. Cool on a rack and then store in an airtight container

Banana almond pancakes

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

A brilliant use for that one over-ripe banana in the bowl that everyone keeps avoiding. Tender, fluffy, sweet and wholesome. Feeds 2.

  • 150g plain flour
  • 60g ground almonds
  • 40g soft brown sugar
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 2 heaped tbsp almond butter
  • 200ml milk
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 big brown banana, roughly mashed
  • 2 tbsp veg oil
  1. In a big bowl, mix together the flour, ground almonds, sugar, baking powder and salt
  2. In another bowl, whisk together the egg, milk, almond butter and vanilla. Then stir in the mashed banana
  3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and scrape in the egg mixture
  4. Combine as briefly as possible with a whisk or a spoon – don’t over-beat, or the pancakes will be stiff and chewy when you’re aiming for light and fluffy
  5. Heat the veg oil in a large non-stick frying pan over a medium heat
  6. Blob heaped spoonfuls of the mixture separately into the hot oil to make small individual pancakes
  7. Cook for 2-3 mins a side until golden brown on the outside and just cooked through

Serve with a pile of blueberries, or crispy streaky bacon. Or both. They’re sweet enough to not need syrup though.

Carrot banana muffins

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Breakfast cake! With not only bananas but carrots too – so healthy! – and spices which give it hints of gingerbread. Just like if a carrot cake and banana bread had a beautiful fluffy child. Makes 9.

  • 1 egg
  • 50g soft light brown sugar
  • 80g plain flour
  • 50g ground almonds
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • Pinch of salt
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
  • ½ tsp ground cinnamon
  • ½ tsp mixed spice
  • Couple of gratings (¼ tsp) nutmeg
  • ¼ tsp ground ginger
  • 50ml sunflower oil
  • 1 ripe banana, mashed
  • 60g carrot, peeled and grated
  • Handful of sultanas
  • Handful of sunflower seeds and flax seeds
  1. Pre-heat the oven to 170C fan (190C) and line muffin cases
  2. Whisk together the sugar and egg until well combined and thickened.
  3. Add the flour, ground almonds, baking powder, salt, bicarb, cinnamon, mixed spice and nutmeg
  4. Mix together thoroughly, then add the oil, bananas, grated carrot, sultanas and seeds
  5. Give it a thorough mix then spoon shaggy mounds of the happy mixture into the muffin cases
  6. Bake for 35 mins until golden and then cool on a wire rack
  7. Store in an air tight container at room temperature

These freeze really well if you can’t get through all of them before they go stale

Banoffee pie

~ Sophie ~ Leave a comment

Sticky, gooey, ridiculously sweet. Will win you friends and influence people. Serves 6 generously

  • 120g digestive biscuits (about 8 of them)
  • 60g butter, melted
  • 200g tinned Carnation caramel (annoyingly half a tin) or dulce de leche
  • 2 bananas
  • 150ml double cream
  • Chocolate shavings to decorate

If you don’t have caramel, you can cook a tin of condensed milk by placing it in a saucepan, fully covering the tin with water, bringing to the boil and simmering uncovered for 3 hours.You will probably need to keep topping the water up. Then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely before opening.So then it’s just a construction job.

You need a tin or serving dish and, if you want to serve it like a cheesecake, you’ll need a lined springform tin

  1. Crush the digestives to crumbs and pour over the melted butter
  2. Mix together and press into the bottom of the tin/dish
  3. Leave on one side to cool and harden for at least 15 mins
  4. Cut the bananas into rounds and whip the cream until thick but not stiff
  5. Spread the caramel over the biscuit base, arrange the banana slices on top in an even layer and finish with a layer of whipped cream
  6. Decorate with grated dark chocolate or cocoa powder

Banana bread

~ Sophie ~ 1 Comment

A recipe handed down by my mum and the absolute best way to use those very brown bananas that you’ve been trying to persuade your family to eat for a week and no-one wants to touch. The addition of walnuts and cranberries adds a touch of bitterness and sourness which offsets the sweetness of the banana perfectly. I tend to buy cranberries when they’re in season and keep them in the freezer. They keep for months, and you can use them from frozen. In fact, I don’t think I ever use them for anything else. Perhaps I need to expand my cranberry repertoire.

  • 200g plain flour
  • 2 tsp baking powder
  • ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda 
  • ½ tsp salt 
  • 75g unsalted butter at room temperature 
  • 175g caster sugar 
  • 2 eggs, beaten 
  • 450g bananas, mashed. This is quite flexible – I usually use 2-3 bananas, I’m not sure what they weigh
  • 100g walnuts, chopped roughly 
  • 100g cranberries 
  1. Preheat oven to 160C fan (180C)
  2. Grease and line a 8×4” loaf tin. I dislike this job out of all proportion to the effort it takes, so I always try to delegate it
  3. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a bowl 
  4. Stir in the nuts and cranberries so they’re coated with flour – this means they won’t sink to the bottom of your loaf. I don’t know why. Witchcraft? Chemistry? But it works
  5. In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
  6. Add egg a little at a time and beat well as you go
  7. Stir in the mashed bananas
  8. Then tip in the flour mixture and stir together (don’t beat it at this stage)
  9. Coax into the loaf tin, make sure it gets into all the corners
  10. Bake for 1 to 1½ hours. Use a clean skewer to check if its done – if you poke it into the middle of the loaf, it should come out clean