Banana Archives • Mushroompride

Triple Chocolate Banana Cake – Delishar

I wanted to bake something easy, as a treat for the girls and the husband. Banana cakes / breads have always been a winner in the Kay household. Easy to make, plus it always turns out moist, and deliciously good. Here are some of my previous banana bakes:

Spongy Banana Cake
Chia Seeds Banana Bread
Banana Honey Chia Cake
Moist Banana and Chocolate Chips Bread
Chocolate Malt Avocado Banana Bread
Healthy Wholemeal Banana Chocolate Bread

At first, I was thinking of making a chocolate pound cake. However, I didn’t want to use that much butter, and the ripened bananas on the counter seems to be calling out my name, begging to be used. Didn’t take much persuading to decide of making this recipe. Super moist banana bread with tonnes of melted chocolate with each bite. So so sinfully good, I tell you! And easy to make to0!

I made a double batch of ganache that day and I didn’t want it to go to waste. So I baked another batch for my helper’s cousin in a 7 inch cake tin, divided it so I got 2 layers. Iced the middle with Nutella, layered sliced bananas, then poured ganache over the cake, and garnished it with some chopped walnuts. Simple Chocolate Nutella Banana Cake done. 🙂

triple chocolate banana cake 2

triple chocolate banana cake process

Triple Chocolate Banana Cake

Delishar

Makes a 9×5 loaf pan

Chocolate banana cake

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup good quality cocoa powder I used valrhona
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tbsp espresso powder optional
1 cup mashed ripe banana about 3 medium banana or 2 large
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup greek yoghurt or plain yoghurt
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste
1 cup semi sweet mini chocolate chips

Ganache

100 g dark chocolate chopped
100 ml heavy cream

Chocolate banana cake

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.
Grease and flour your loaf pan.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cocoa powder, and salt.
In another bowl, whisk together sugar, oil, yoghurt, bananas, egg, and vanilla.
Add dry ingredients into wet, and mix until just combined.
Fold in chocolate chips.
Bake for 55-60 minutes or until skewer comes out mostly clean or with few moist crumbs.
Cool in pan for 10 minutes before unmoulding and cool completely on wire rack.

Ganache

In a sauce pan, bring cream to a simmer.
Then remove from heat and add chocolate.
Allow to stand for a minute or two, then whisk until combined and smooth.
Cool ganache completely for it to thicken before drizzling over cake.

triple chocolate banana cake

…

Banana Peanut Butter Nutella Muffins – Delishar

The night before baking, I asked my girls if they would like to make some muffins for breakfast. The both of them jumped in joy, randomly shouting out the muffins they’d like to make. “Apple muffins! Chocolate muffins! Banana muffins! Yummy muffins!”, they were so excited. So we had a short discussion before deciding on banana muffins, and of course with some chocolate in it. I suggested Nutella. This is going to be the first time that they are introduced to that jar of sinful deliciousness.

Yeah, we have been pretty strict about the girls’ diet. But we also believe in everything in moderation. The girls have to earn their own muffins by making it themselves. With some help from mummy, of course. My eldest, Melody helped with measuring the ingredients, mashing the bananas, and whisking the dry ingredients. Peighton lined the muffin tins, and helped with mixing the wet ingredients. They both took turns to mix in the wet and dry ingredients. And while I wasn’t looking, they sneakily popped a few peanut butter chips in their mouth.

PhotoGrid_1448422276556

It was a learning experience not just for the girls but also for myself. I had to learn to let go, and not be such a perfectionist about flour flying all over the place, and not exact measurements. I had to tell myself that each swirl that the girls created is uniquely beautiful on its own. It was an experience where I had to focus on the present, and allow myself to take in the positive energy exuded by the girls, rather than focusing on the should haves. I’m thankful for this experience, and grateful for the smiles and joy on the girls faces. They were truly mindful, and being in the moment. I’ve got so much to learn from them.

Oops! This post sort of took a turn to be a reflective piece! Oh well, the muffin turned out awesome by the way! They were soft, fluffy, and makes the perfect little snack! If you have not tried baking with your kids, you should. It’s a great bonding experience, but be prepared to make a mess, and just have fun. 🙂

Banana Peanut Butter Muffins with Nutella Swirls

Delishar

1 1/2 192g cup plain flour
3 large ripe bananas mashed
1/3 cup 67g castor sugar
1/3 cup 73g packed brown sugar
1 large egg grade aa, 65g, slightly beaten
1/3 cup 80ml vegetable oil
1 tsp 5g baking powder
1 tsp 7g baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup 100g peanut butter chips
1/4 cup 60g nutella

Preheat oven to 190C.
Heat nutella in microwave for 10 seconds blast until nutella is runny.
Don’t burn it!
Mash bananas and mix in sugar, egg, oil, and vanilla extract.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt, and peanut butter chips.
Add wet ingredients into dry ingredients.
Mix until just combined but still lumpy.
Fill liners to 3/4 full, then spoon about a teaspoon of nutella on top of each muffin cup.
Using a skewer or back of knife, create swirls.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.
Leave to cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer to baking rack to cool completely.

Nutella Swirled Banana Muffins 2

…

Banana Walnut Blueberry Yogurt Loaf – Delishar

My girls asked me to bake them something with bananas after we got back from the USA. I looked at my pantry and found a pack of walnuts sitting there calling out my name. Grabbed the 3 over ripe and neglected bananas sitting sadly on the counter-top, then off to my tiny kitchen.

I usually stock some yoghurt in my fridge as a quick breakfast or snack. So why not add some in my bake to keep it nice and moist?! Happily, I opened up my fridge door but to my dismay, I’m out of plain or greek yoghurt! What I had left were nata de coco, aloe vera, and blueberry yoghurt. It was a no brainer to grab the blueberry, since blueberries and bananas usually go well together.

Blueberry Banana Nut Bread 5

The house smelled so heavenly as the loaf cake was baking in the oven. My girls kept asking if it was ready, and if they can sneak a little bite. The blueberry yogurt flavoured the cake very subtly, not over powering the fragrance of the bananas. The cake turned out moist and light, with lovely walnut for a little crunch. This recipe turned out to be one of the best banana loaf cake I’ve made! Another super simple one bowl, mixer-free recipe for the win!

PhotoGrid_1453034676391

Banana Walnut Blueberry Yogurt Loaf

Delishar

Makes a 9×5 loaf

3 over ripe bananas mashed
1 1/2 cup 192g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/2 cup 75g coconut sugar
2 large eggs room temp
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup blueberry yogurt or subtitute sour cream / greek yogurt
1/2 cup walnuts chopped
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup melted butter or coconut oil

Preheat oven to 175C.
In a mixing bowl, mash bananas.
Mix in yogurt, eggs, vanilli extract, and melted butter.
Stir in salt & sugar.
Then sift in flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and nutmeg.
Mix until just combined.
Fold in chopped walnuts.
Bake 50-60 minutes or until skewer inserted comes out clean.
Allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes before unmoulding to cool completely on a cooling rack.

Blueberry Banana Nut Bread 3

…

Chocolate Chips Banana Nut Oat Muffins (Oil-free) – Delishar

After all that Chinese New Year goodies binge, I decided on making a healthier version of muffins. I made some oil-free muffins made with oat flour, coconut sugar, dark chocolate, bananas, and walnuts for the family to snack on. Be sure to use overly ripe bananas whenever you are using it for baking as it is much sweeter and has a better consistency. If you do not have coconut sugar, you can always substitute it with brown sugar.

The greek yogurt and bananas used in the recipe kept the muffins moist. The crumbs of these muffins are unlike those that are tender and will fall apart or crumble. These muffins are still moist but has a denser texture. Nonetheless, the girls still enjoyed their share of muffins. Can’t really go wrong with bananas, walnuts, cinnamon, and chocolate can we? Granted, it isn’t the same texture of muffins that you are probably used too, but you’ll definitely feel much better eating one or even two. 🙂

PhotoGrid_1444110419036

Chocolate Chips Banana Walnut Muffins (Oil-free)

Delishar

3 ripe bananas mashed
1 cup 285g greek yogurt
2 large eggs
½ cup coconut sugar or brown sugar
1 cup 90g oat flour
1 cup 98g whole wheat pastry flour
½ tsp. baking soda
1½ tsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla extract
½ cup 82g mini chocolate chips, divided
½ cup 65g chopped walnuts, divided

Preheat oven to 350F/175C.
Line a 12 cup muffin tray with parchment liners.
Spray with non-stick spray if you are using regular paper liners or it will stick.
In a large bowl, combine masged banana, sugar, yogurt, vanilla extract and eggs.
Mix to combine.
In a separate bowl, combine oat flour, wholewheat pastry flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Whisk to combine.
Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients in 3 batches.
Mix until just combined.
Fold in ¼ cup crushed walnuts and ¼ cup mini chocolate chips.
Fill muffin cups to 3/4 full.
Top each muffin with remaining chocolate chips and walnuts.
Bake 15-18 minutes, or until toothpick inserted comes out clean.

You can process rolled oats in food processor to get oat flour.
Or you can substitute plain flour if you do not have oats / oat flour.
Adapted from withpeanutbutterontop

banana nut muffins 4

…

Healthy Banana Ice-cream – Delishar

Ice-cream with only one ingredient? Oh yeah, you heard me! And with added carob powder, it’s extra good for you too! Ice cold dessert any time of the day sounds so wrong, but that’s totally right! I had mine at 10am in the morning for my tea-break before I left for work. And I felt good about it because it was vegan, guilt-free, and refine sugar-free! I felt even better knowing that there was Organic Carob in it! Some of you might be curious about what exactly is this Carob I mentioned.

Carob is a tropical pod with sweet caramel-like edible pulp. It is most often used as a substitute for cocao in dessert making. It’s similar to cocoa powder in colour, and can be substituted one-for-one in recipes. However, it contains 1/3 less calories as compared to standard chocolate! It is listed as one of the ultimate superfood along side acai berries, chia seeds, ginseng etc. It helps to lower cholesterol and regulate blood sugar, which is a common problem in our population.

12377881_900628216712012_2686142833877687041_o

Carob contains great source of calcium, three times as much calcium as milk, and is low in fat. It is rich in protein as well as vitamins like A, B, B2, B3 and D. Carob is an excellent source of calcium, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium and contains iron, manganese, barium, copper and nickel. It contains antioxidants, high in fibre, and protein.

What’s more, Carob is stimulant-free. So no worries about caffeine and theobromine with the little ones, and people who are sensitive to caffeine! Because Carob is naturally sweet, it is a great alternative to refine sugar/chocolate. Due to the sweetness of Carob, when using it for baking and cooking, the amount of sugar added to the recipe can be reduced.

So does it taste like chocolate/cocoa powder? What does it taste like? The answer is no, it doesn’t taste exactly like cocoa powder or chocolate. Carob has a really nice earthy caramel like taste. If I were to put it, it’d have to be kind of like a cross between maple syrup and gula melaka. Very palatable. The carob powder has a lighter brownish hue to it which in turn would probably trick the mind thinking it is cocao.

Banana Carob Insta 1

Besides this recipe, I used the carob powder to make French toast, and drizzled carob syrup on the French toast in place of maple syrup for the family. My girls loved it so much, they have been asking me to make them French toast every single morning. I was amazed by how this one ingredient banana ice-cream turned out. Sweet, creamy, and absolutely delicious!

The girls, and the husband were raving about how good it tasted. And I actually felt good about serving my girls dessert, knowing it’s so much healthier than regular ice-cream! Check out Forever Young Enterprise for more carob recipes like ogura cakes, smoothies if you would like to know how you can use carob products in your baking. The carob products they carry are gluten-free, nut-free, dairy-free, caffeine-free, non-GMO, and Halal certified. All their carob products have no added sweetener, and are suitable for consumption by diabetic patients because of their low glycemic index value (GI value of only 15!) and low glycemic load value (GL).

12742449_930178793756954_781087589276963898_n

In collaboration with the good people at Forever Young Enterprise, the distributor of these amazing Australian certified organic carob products, I am hosting a giveaway of 2 sets of carob products for you to try out. Each winner will receive a 200g of raw carob powder, a 200g of roasted carob powder, and a 250ml bottle of carob syrup. To take part in the giveaway, simply complete the widget below.

Visit Forever Young to find out more about Carob products, or purchase some of this amazing superfood.

One Ingredient Healthy Banana Ice-cream

Delishar

Makes about 2 cups

3 large ripen bananas sliced

Optional

2 tbsp roasted/raw carob powder
Chopped walnuts
Carob syrup to drizzle

Slice your bananas into 1/2 inch rounds.
Place in ziplock bag and freeze until frozen. (2-3 hours or overnight)
Blend frozen bananas in food processor together with carob powder.
Scraping down sides some time to make sure well blended.
At first the banana pieces will look crumbled or smashed. Scrape down the food processor and continue blending until smooth and creamy.
Eat immediately if you like soft-serve ice-cream.
Or transfer back into air-tight container to freeze for another hour or so before serving if you like a more solid ice-cream.
Serve sprinkled with walnuts, and drizzle some carob syrup.

Mix it up! Add some nuts, nutella, peanut butter, mint extract, strawberries etc!

Banana Carob

a Rafflecopter giveaway

This giveaway ends on Tuesday, April 12, 2015 at 12:00 a.m. Singapore time (GMT+8). There will be 2 winners selected by random.org and will contacted by email. Each giveaway set includes: 200g raw carob powder, 200g roasted carob powder, 250ml carob syrup. The winner will need to respond within 48 hours. If there is no response from the winner after 48 hours, another winner will be selected. The winner will be directed to Forever Young Enterprise for collection/delivery; therefore, it is open to Singapore entrants only. This giveaway is sponsored by Forever Young Enterprise Pte Ltd.

…

Best Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins – Delishar

There’s always bananas at home, and it’s not always that we consume all of it before it goes overly ripe. The husband and my girls seem to think that bananas with a little spots on it isn’t as appealing. Thank goodness for banana bake recipes, that I get to use my spotted bananas. I always have to remind the husband and my helper not to throw away the spotty bananas, as there have been a couple of times I got disappointed only to find out that my bananas that I’ve been saving for baking was thrown away because it was ‘too ripe’.

I’ve made a lot of banana related recipes for the family and shared it on my blog. Some of my favourite includes Guilt-free Banana Ice-cream, Spongy Honey Banana Cake, and Banana Walnut Yogurt Cake. But this recipe tops the list! Deep banana flavour, caramel notes from the brown sugar, little bits of bittersweet chocolate chips to compliment, and the muffin… the moist moist muffin with tender crumbs! It’ll bring you to a muffin high! lol!

You can also make this recipe healthier by substituting 50% of the flour with wholewheat flour. That means, 96g of wholewheat flour + 96g of plain flour, instead of all plain flour. Use unsweetened applesauce in place of butter to reduce the overall calories, and do use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. 🙂

Don’t forget to take part in the $100 Tangs Gift Card Giveaway!! Click on this link to go to the giveaway page.

PhotoGrid_1463661610267

Best Banana Chocolate Muffins

Delishar

3 large ripe bananas mashed
1 &1/2 cup 192g plain flour
1/3 cup 67g castor sugar
1/3 cup 67g brown sugar
2 tsp baking power
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup 75g melted butter
1 large egg
1 cup 175g chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 200C.
Line your muffin tray.
Whisk together salt, sugar, flour, and baking powder.
Add melted butter, egg, vanilla extract, and mashed bananas into flour mixture.
Mix until almost combined.
Add chocolate chips and fold about 4-5 times.
Your batter should still be lumpy, do not over-mix or you’ll get tough muffins.
Divide batter into muffin liners.
Bake 13-17 minutes. (Mine took about 15 minutes)
Allow to cool in pan for 5 minutes before transferring to wire rack to cool completely.

To reduce calories, you can substitute butter with unsweetened applesauce.
Adapted from recipe.com

Banana Chocochips Muffins 2

…

Sticky Banana Toffee Cake – Delishar

I’m a big fan of toffee or salted caramel… I’m also a huge fan of pudding cakes, such as my Sticky Date Pudding, that I absolutely heart to the max! Perhaps it’s the sticky and gooey texture that I really enjoy, or that fluffy yet moist cake that acts like a sponge, soaking up all that delicious sauce. Whatever the reason is, this 2 dessert recipes are the ones that I highly recommend you give it a try.

The first time I had this cake was when I was dining at Gorden Ramsay’s restaurant, Bread Street Kitchen. I remembered the first bite I took, it literally took my breath away. I closed my eyes, gathered enough strength in me not to melt away, and whispered a “wow”. I could not get enough of the cake! Although, I have to be honest that I don’t quite fancy the sauce. It was a little too thick, kind of gooey and starchy like in consistency. But the cake was amaze-balls!

So I got home and started researching on sticky banana toffee cake, tried a few. Made a few different sauces to go with it. And here I am. The perfect combination. Try it, and try not to fall in love with it. It is humanly impossible not to.

PhotoGrid_1465220967551

Sticky Banana Toffee Cake

Cake adapted from once upon a chef

Sauce

200 g brown sugar
200 ml heavy cream
50 g butter
1 tsp vanilla extract

Cake

1-3/4 cups 220g all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup 113g unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
3/4 cup 150g sugar
2 large eggs
1 cup 375g very ripe mashed bananas, from 2-3 spotty bananas
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon salt

To Serve

1 ripe banana sliced
Sea salt flakes Fleur de Sel

Sauce

Add sugar, butter, cream, and vanilla in a heavy bottom sauce pan on low heat.
Melt all the ingredients and bring to boil.
Lower heat and allow sauce to reduce and thicken, about 5 mins.

Cake

Preheat the oven to 175°C.
Grease a 8-inch baking dish.
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl.
In a large mixing bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar until blended.
Add the eggs, mashed bananas, lemon juice, and vanilla extract, then mix well.
Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated.
Do not over mix.
Transfer batter into the prepared pan and bake 35 minutes, until golden brown and skewer inserted comes out clean.
Spread about 1/3 cup (80ml) of the sauce over top of the baked banana cake.
Return the cake back into the oven, bake for another 5-6 minutes to get the sauce bubbly.
Cool the cake in the pan on a rack for at least 30 minutes.