Banana and Oatmeal Muffins

The banana battle continues on in our fruit bowl - forcing me to result to tried and true but long forgotten battle plans [read:recipes]. A rummage through the bookshelf got me reacquainted with "Muffins - Fast and Fantastic" by Susan Reimer, this book is responsible for developing my baking passion! When I first moved to Edinburgh I shared a flat in St Stephen's Place with a couple from New Zealand (whoever thought putting an Aussie and two Kiwi's in a flat together was a good idea?) and various other people ranging in nationality from South Africa to Scotland occupied the third bedroom, which was really just a box room and probably explained why there was always a very high turn over in occupancy for it.

Being the first time I had ever 'stood on my own two feet' my very first grown up decision was to make sure I ate healthy food which was to include my 5 a day. This was a very good plan, that seemed to last all the way from the front door of the flat to the supermarket at Cannonmill's and back again. Peppers and mushrooms always went in the pasta that was great for dinner and could be taken to work for lunch the next day, the broccoli and cherry tomatoes that went into the feta salad also made a great dinner (but not quite so nice the next day for lunch), apples for morning tea, I pretty much had this healthy eating thing under control! Except for the banana's. They seemed to multiply in the fruit bowl and this is when I went out and purchased afore mentioned Muffin Book. I made banana muffins every Sunday afternoon, tried all the variations I could lay my hands on, and had a banana muffin every morning for breakfast.

Now I think about it, this was obviously the beginning of the end for banana's and I, and we parted company quite amicably after about a year or so Breakfast Banana Muffins. But as I've mentioned previously Hubby loves 'em, which has ended our fruit bowl cease fire.

Banana Oatmeal Muffins

225g SR flour

1 tsp bicarb of soda

1/2 tsp salt

3 large well ripened bananas, peeled and mashed

110g caster sugar (vanilla!)

1 egg beaten (the cake stand at work had duck eggs on it this week so I used one of those)

90ml milk

90ml veg oil

60g rolled oats

85g walnuts

1 tsp vanilla extract

Prepare the muffin tins. Preheat oven to 190-200C.

In a large bowl, sift together; flour, bicarb and salt.

In another bowl, mash banana thoroughly (I pop them in a mini food blender and give them a good whiz - that'll teach 'em!) until pureed. Stir in sugar, egg, milk, oats, vanilla and oil.

Pour all of the wet ingredients into dry. Stir until batter is evenly mixed but still lumpy. No dry flour should be visible. Add walnuts during the final strokes.

Spoon into tins. Bake for 20-25 mins, until tops are lightly browned and spring back when pressed gently.

Makes 12 standard sized muffins

Adapted from 'Muffins - Fast and Fantastic'

Sometimes I sprinkle some more rolled oats and a bit of demerara sugar of the tops of the muffins before baking but today they have gone au natural.

Carrot Cake

Well in for a penny in for a pound - here goes my first blog entry. OMG! Feeling slightly intimidated I have to say!

Anyhoo, Hubby has been nagging [read:asking] for me to make him a Carrot Cake for quite sometime now. He has been very supportive with all the bits and pieces going on in my day to day life lately so he deserves a treat, and the more calories it contains the better - although in an attempt to fool myself into thinking of this cake as 'slightly' healthier I used extra light cream cheese for the frosting!

This is one I have made before and its always been a success and tends to get very receptive responses. It makes a whoopingly huge cake so don't be scared of the quantities listed, it took the entire bag of carrots to get enough grated weight! I made the cake yesterday after work and iced it tonight before dinner.

Carrot Cake
250ml veg oil
250g light brown sugar
3 eggs
720g coarsely grated carrot
120g coarsely chopped walnuts
375g SR flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp mixed spice
Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting
30g butter
80g cream cheese, softened
1 tsp finely grated lemon rind
240g icing sugar

Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a deep 23cm round cake pan and line the base with baking paper.

Beat oil, sugar and eggs in a small bowl with electric mixer until thick and creamy. Transfer mixture to a large bowl, stir in carrot and nuts, then sifted dry ingredients.

Pour mixture into the prepared pan, bake in moderate oven for about 1 1/4 hours. Cover the cake loosely with foil halfway through cooking. stand cake for 5 mins; turn onto a wire rack to cool. Spread Lemon Cream Cheese Frosting over the cold cake.

To make the frosting; beat the butter, cream cheese and rind in a small bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy; gradually beat in icing sugar.

Serves 12
Taken from The Australian Women's Weekly Cafe Cakes Cookbook

May need to work on the old photography skills me thinks! Don't let this shocking photo put you off, the cake defies the picture - honest!

Fresh From The Oven - Whole Wheat Walnut Bread

Here it is - finally!  I'm a little late with this months Fresh From The Oven challenge but I finally got a chance to make it this morning.  Adding its weight to the 'finally' is the fact that this is also my 200th post - woo hoo!

This months Fresh From The Oven Challenge was picked by Sarah from Simply Cooked.  Sarah choose Whole Wheat Walnut Bread which has been adapted from The Neighborhood Bakeshop by Jill Van Cleave. 



At this point I need to point out that this bread and I did not start out life as friends!  The dough was awkward and unruly at times but with a firm hand (and more than a few choice words of which I will not repeat here) determination won the day.  The end result is a wonderfully crusty loaf that is moist on the inside and flecked with hidden gems of walnuts, with a deep nutty flavour that surpasses the addition of the walnuts alone.  It is wholesome!  I've surprised even myself to discover that I actually really like eating this bread ... but part of me wonders if that is pay back for having to put up with its 'attitude'!  We've eaten it simply with a good farm churned, lightly salted butter to really bring the flavour out but I think it would also work really well alongside an 'earthy' flavoured soup like butternut or sweet potato, or equally as well with some rich blue cheese liberally applied.

My only punishments modifications to the recipe below was to use my kitchen-aide to knead the dough and two dinky little bread tins to bake the finished product in.  Both of these measures were on account of how wet the dough was to work with, it resisted all efforts (by this I mean adding all the reserved flour and a whole bunch more!) made to pacify it into a workable dough.  I'm wondering if the recipe states too much water?  Neither of my proving steps resulted in the bubbling mixture described below, just a bowl of drowned yeast!

Whole Wheat Walnut Bread
1 tsp active dry yeast, divided
500ml lukewarm water, divided
380g plain bread flour, divided
1 tbsp honey
1 tbsp olive or walnut oil
220g stone-ground whole wheat flour (40g of this can be replaced either with semolina flour or oat flour if you have any handy)
1 tsp sea salt
150g coarsely chopped walnuts, toasted

First prepare the sponge starter. Dissolve 1/2 tsp yeast in 250ml lukewarm water in a medium bowl. Let prove until bubbly, about 5 minutes.

Add 190 g bread flour and stir until a thick batter forms. Cover the bowl and leave at room temperature to rise and bubble for 6 to 8 hours. The starter is ready to use now or can be put in the fridge overnight. (Bring it back to room temperature before using.)

Dissolve the remaining 1/2 tsp yeast with the remaining 250ml lukewarm water in a large bowl. Let prove for about 5 minutes.

Add the sponge starter and mix well. Stir in the honey, oil, whole wheat flour, semolina flour (if using), and salt.  Add 160 g of the remaining bread flour gradually to form a stiff dough. Add the walnuts.

Turn out onto a floured surface and knead for ten minutes, adding as much of the reserved flour as needed to keep it from being too sticky. Knead until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Grease the bowl and return the dough, turning it to coat it in oil. Cover the bowl and allow the dough to rise until it is doubled in size, about 2 hours.

Divide the dough into two pieces and form into loaves. Place on a baking pan and leave them to rise again, about 30 minutes.

Bake at 200C for 30 to 40 minutes, until the loaves sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

Cool on a wire rack.


Makes 2 loaves
 

 
I really enjoyed using the sponge starter technique as described in the recipe.  I've tried twice now to make my own sourdough starter but both times have ended in smelly tragedy.  This recipe has encouraged me to give the starter another try.  I made my sponge starter on Thursday night and it has kept in the fridge until this morning, even surviving an accidental summer holiday on the bench top for an hour or so last night!