Banana Bread (Curtis Stone)

I always get really ecstatic whenever I see over-ripe bananas on my kitchen counter. Actually, I always wish that they brown quick so that we can't eat them up in time, and I get to use them to bake. Over-ripe bananas are good for baking, they make the cakes or muffins or bread extra sweet and moist. This is a recipe by the take-home-chef, Curtis Stone. I decided to make my banana bread using his recipe, cos a blogger whom I followed commented that this is a keeper recipe, it results in super moist and soft banana bread.

 

 

 

 

Recipe (adapted from here)

 

1.5 cups all-purpose flour (I used superfine flour)
1 teaspoon baking soda (I changed to baking powder, cos I don't like the taste of baking soda esp. in my non-sweetened cakes)
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (I used all-spice powder)
1/4 teaspoon salt (I used pinch of salt)
2 large eggs
1 ¼ cups sugar (I only put in 1tbsp sugar)
1/2 cup vegetable oil (I used grapeseed oil)
1 ½ cups coarsely mashed very ripe bananas (3 large)
2 tablespoons yogurt (no yogurt available, so I just used leftover apple puree)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 ½ cups walnuts, toasted and chopped (I omitted this, cos the lil' fella is not eating nuts yet)

 

*I never followed a recipe 100%, never ever, cos I seldom have everything on the ingredient list available all at the same time, and I always just make do with whatever I have available. I bake for myself and the lil' fella (who's turning one this month), the reason why I usually omit or cut down by a lot the sugar on the ingredient list. As a result, my cakes or muffins are only nice and soft and moist when fresh out of the oven. When kept overnight, it will turn dry. But I heat them up in the microwave and serve with cold apricot jam (for myself), still yummy :)

 

If you're baking this for kids and adults, I would suggest that you follow the original recipe, or at least put back in some sugar. Hahaaa.. me and the lil' fella has quite bland tastebud.

 

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 175°C (fan forced). Butter 1 (9- by 5- by 3-inch) metal loaf pan, then dust with flour, knocking out excess.*I should have covered my batter w. aluminium foil cos my cake turned out to be quite brown on top, but it was only just done inside.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a bowl.
Beat together eggs and sugar in bowl of electric mixer at medium-high speed until very thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beater is lifted, about 10 minutes. Reduce speed to low and add oil in a slow stream, mixing, then mix in bananas, apple puree, and vanilla extract. Remove bowl from mixer and fold in flour mixture gently but thoroughly.
Pour the batter into the loaf pan, spreading evenly. I topped with sliced banana for decoration.
Bake in middle of oven until golden brown and a wooden pick or skewer comes out clean, 1 to 1 1/4 hours. (I only baked for 50min)
Cool loaf in pan on a rack 10 minutes, then turn out onto rack. Turn loaf right side up and cool completely.

This banana loaf cake (or banana bread) is okay for freezing. I stored half the loaf in the freezer after cooled and sliced, so that we can have something for breakfast when we don't have anything available to eat.

 

 

Josh meets Mamalia (feat. Moo Cow Yogurt)

Mamalia from Moo Cow Yogurt Sandakan made an appearance and was giving away free yogurts. It was a Sunday and the lil' fella just got up from his nap. We went out for an afternoon 'yamcha' session and dropped by at Moo Cow for our lil' fella to meet Mamalia.

All of us was well surprised that he had no fear for the mascot Mamalia. In fact, he loved him. He was giggling non-stop playing with Mamalia and even extended his arms to him (a sign that he wanted Mamalia to carry him). The person in charge was terrified when he heard me saying that. Hahaaa.. he must be worried that the lil' fella may crush Mamalia. LOL!

 

 

 

 

Moo Cow Frozen Yogurt Sandakan is available at Bandar Prima, Mile 4.

Hokkaido chiffon cupcake

 

 

 

This is my first attempt making Hokkaido chiffon cupcake. I have once tried a very soft and springy, yet not too dry version and loved it. The other reason I'm trying this out is also because we are having some visitors over from Seremban tomorrow and I thought it would be great if I can serve them with some homemade treats for tea time.

 

I took this recipe from one of my favorite baking blogger but I could only find muffin cups at home, so I had to settle with them. The recipe states to fill the batter up to the brim of the cup, which is exactly what I did. It started off rising nicely. At about 12th minute, it seems like it's going way over. I baked for about 14minutes, it came out a little on the brown side, but still acceptable. For next attempt, I would keep it at 12min. I waited for the sponge cake to sink down (it should sink down), but it didn't sink down nice enough to the edge.

 

Baking at 5th min

Baking at 12th min 

I then left it to chill in the fridge for it to be cooled enough to pipe the cream frosting in. We then left home to go to my in-law's place for dinner and was already lil' fella's bed time when we got home. I just left the piping to be done the next morning.

 

Coincidentally, lil' fella woke up extra early the next morning. He always knew my plan. In the end, I resort to babywearing him while piping cream into the cupcake. Lucky that I didn't have lots to pipe. But he was alright, he actually enjoyed watching me do it.

 

It was good that he woke early. It gave us enough time to pipe the cream, chill the cakes and get ready for breakfast. The lil' fella had banana and avocado oatmeal for breakfast, while I succumb to this yummy looking Hokkaido chiffon cupcake, accompanied by a nice big mug of TWG French Earl Grey tea.

 

Babywearing him while piping cream

 

 

It was a good one for a first attempt. The cream frosting was a little grainy, maybe because the non-dairy whipping cream I used was still in a semi-frozen state when I whipped it. The cupcake was a little on the dense side. I should have realized that when I prepared the batter. It was thicker than the previous chiffon batter I used for my swiss roll recipe, which I found quite amusing, because this recipe actually calls for 4 egg white and 3 egg yolk, shouldn't it be soft and spongy since there were more portion of egg white used? It could have been my nectarine puree. I used nectarine instead of mango (as per the original recipe). I had some really sweet juicy nectarine left over from my previous JB trip and I froze them so that I can use them for occasions like this. Yet, I couldn't taste much of the nectarine. What a waste! For  next attempt, I would try add in some fresh milk to make it lighter. All in all, good attempt, still.