Easy Banana Muffins

I am back again! Life has been very busy lately that whenever I get home from class, I am just too tired to even update the blog. There are quite a number of recipes that I would love to share but some of them have no photos. So, I shall put the recipes up once I've photographed the outcomes.

Besides that, the weather now is getting much nicer than before, with more sunshine and less rainfall. I went to Roath Park last Monday and it was beautiful! There's not much flowers yet but I did spot some daffodils by the roadside. Spring is almost here! Yeay! Can't wait for the flowers to bloom so that we can have a picnic at the park. :)

Today, I am just going to post this recipe up (while waiting for my class which starts at 2pm) because this is definitely one of the easiest recipes I've ever made! Fluffy, moist and flavourful banana muffins that can be made from scratch and served on the table in under an hour.

Recipe (Banana muffins) :

• 3 to 4 large bananas, mashed (I used 3 1/2 and ate the other 1/2)
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cup plain flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 cup chopped walnuts
• 1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

1. Preheat the oven to 350F/175C. 

2. Combine mashed bananas, white sugar, egg, vanilla and vegetable oil in a bowl.

3. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into the bowl with wet ingredients. Mix just to combine. 

4. Fold in walnuts and chocolate chips. Do not overmix!

5. Pour into a lined or greased muffin tin and bake for about 20 minutes. 

Recipe adapted from Catcancook.

Banana Pancakes

Banana, in my opinion, is best eaten on its own. But there are times when you have way too much bananas at home that you could not swallow any of it anymore. These are the times when you can get very creative, by either making pancakes, muffins, pies etc.

Every week I would have at least one banana per day, unless I decide to take an apple as part of my meal plan. And today I ended up with two bananas waiting to be turned into something tasty, forcing me to look up on the internet for uncomplicated recipes that could be easily whipped up once I got out of bed.

After browsing through endless food websites, I finally decided to gave this recipe a try. Frankly speaking, I would prefer it with a little bit more banana than it called for. However, it certainly makes a delicious breakfast or brunch, especially if you're getting tired of the old plain pancake.

I served these fluffy pancakes with sliced bananas and strawberries (not in photograph). Since I do not really enjoy my pancake with maple syrup, I heated up a tablespoonful of strawberry jam and some water to make up for the missing syrup. I always freeze half of my pancakes for later use because I certainly cannot finish the whole thing all by myself in one go. So, whenever I feel like having them on weekdays, I would just pop them in the oven or microwave and they would still be as good! 

Recipe (Banana pancake):

Ingredients:

• 1 cup buttermilk
• 1/2 cup mashed banana, plus extra for slicing to be put on top (I'd add more banana next time)
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 tbsp melted butter
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 1/4 cup plain flour
• 1/8 cup sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt

1. Mix buttermilk, mashed banana, egg and vanilla extract in a bowl.

2. Sift plain flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt into the bowl and mix to combine. 

3. Add in the sugar and lastly, the melted butter.

4. Let the batter rest on the kitchen top for 5 minutes.

5. Heat the griddle to 325F or frying pan over medium heat. Use a 1/3 cup measure to scoop the batter and pour onto the griddle or frying pan.

6. Flip over once they start to form little bubbles. (about 1 minute) 

7. When both sides are cooked, serve the pancake with some sliced banana, butter and syrup.

Makes 6 - 8 pancakes.

Adapted from: Kitchen Treaty

Cranberry and white chocolate scones with chantilly cream

My family enjoys eating scones and the first recipe that I tried was Rachel Allen's recipe. It is a great basic scone recipe, which can be added with many other flavours such as fruits and nuts to suit your taste palette.

However, there are times when you feel like you want to try something new; new ingredients, new recipes. This is my first time baking with fresh cranberries. Fresh cranberries are hard to find, I've been looking all over for them. But I managed to find some while we did our grocery shopping at Citta Mall in Ara Damansara.

The scones taste pretty much like the raspberry scones I made while we were in Paris last year. I wanted to share that recipe with you but I don't have the pictures to post along with it. So I hope this recipe will do, for now.

These scones are light, flaky and flavourful - tart and sweet with a hint of orange, best served with clotted cream or chantilly cream. Since clotted cream can be quite expensive, almost RM 30 for a small jar, if I'm not mistaken, I simply served them with homemade chantilly cream, which is sweetened whipped cream with vanilla.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup buttermilk or yogurt
• 1 egg
• 2 3/4 cup flour
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 cup butter
• 1 cup of coarsely chopped cranberries (fresh or frozen)
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 orange, rind of

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Mix the buttermilk and egg in a bowl.

3. In another bowl, combine flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Cut in butter until the mixture resembles small peas.

4. Mix in cranberries, white chocolate chips, sugar and the rind of orange.

5. Pour in the buttermilk mixture and mix until just combine. Do not knead or it'll become stone hard.

6. Once combined, transfer onto a lightly floured working surface. Pat into 2 balls about 1 inch thick. 

7. Cut into 6 - 8 wedges each and place them onto a lined baking tray.

8. Bake for about 15 - 20 minutes until golden brown.

Adapted from: Food.com

Bread Pudding

Mom got home from work with some bread that one of patients gave her. It was a sweet bread with cinnamon and lots of dried fruits (raisins, dried orange peel, dried cranberries etc) in it. Though I don't celebrate Christmas, but somehow the bread reminded me of Christmas. I know that my siblings would not eat this kind of bread. We don't fancy anything with dried fruits in it. Not just our cup of tea.

Then my mom had this idea of turning it into bread pudding. And I was like, "Mmmm.. Why not?" It has got fruits in it and it tasted sweet. That would make a good bread pudding - or so I thought. And off I went to look for a new bread pudding recipe. I found one in one of my mom's cookbooks and adapted from that recipe.

The bread pudding would have been superb, only if the bread has less fruits in it. I had to dig out all of the fruits before I eat which involves a lot of messy work. Another thing is, I think I would make a custard sauce to go with the bread pudding next time, maybe a less sweet one would work best with this kind of bread.

Bread Pudding - serves 4-6

Ingredients :

• Sweet bread, toasted
• Butter
• 250 ml fresh milk
• 250 ml cream
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 tsp rose water

Method :
1. Put some butter on the toasted bread and put them in a baking dish.
2. Combine all the wet ingredients and pour over the bread. Let it sit for 5-10 minutes.
3. Put the baking dish in a water bath (with hot water in another tray) and bake in a preheated oven at 180C for about 45-55 minutes. If using individual size dish, it will bake in about 20-30 minutes.

You could certainly use this recipe using a normal stale bread. But be sure to add some cinnamon  or nutmeg and some sugar to sweeten it up a little bit. You could also put raisins or sultanas if desired.

Blueberry and Nectarine Flougnarde

Since the northern hemisphere is experiencing spring right now, the flowers in Malaysia, our roses, are blooming too. Sooo beautiful. Anyways, I'm on a short holiday right now. Class starts back on the 18th. So what else I can do when I'm on a holiday other than baking? :D

We went to Jaya yesterday to buy some fruits. The only fruit that we normally buy from Jaya is the seedless grapes. But yesterday, we took home some nectarines too. After browsing through many websites, I finally decided to make this blueberry and nectarine flougnarde, adapting a recipe from here.

According to Wikipedia, the clafoutis comes from the Limousin region of France and while black cherries are traditional, there are numerous variations using other fruits. When other kinds of fruits are used instead of cherries, the dish is properly called a flaugnarde. 

This is my first time baking and eating flougnarde/clafoutis. Therefore, I didn't know what to expect. I have to agree to what Ann said that the texture is dense and light at the same time. It tastes pretty much like a pancake too. 

Ingredients :

• 2/3 cup all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup castor sugar - if you like it sweet, just add more sugar
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 5 tbsp butter, melted
• 200 ml fresh milk
• 1 cup blueberries
• 1 nectarine

Method :

1. Preheat the oven to 200C and generously butter a 9-inch tart pan.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar and salt. Incorporate the eggs, one at a time, beating after each addition. 

3. Mix in the butter and milk. Make sure there's no lump in the batter.

4. Cut the nectarine into 1/4-inch thick wedges. Scatter the nectarine wedges and blueberries onto the prepared pan. Gently pour the batter over the fruits.

5. Bake for 20 minutes or until golden brown, but firm on top. The center may be slightly wobbly but a tester inserted in the middle should come out clean.

You can serve this with some vanilla yogurt, ice cream or whipped cream. From what I read, flougnarde is a actually a dessert but can also be eaten as breakfast. To me, this would actually make the perfect breakfast.

p.s : I finally bought Little Big Planet 2. :D