Banana Bread

Funny thing is when I was young, I used to hate bananas. And when I say hate, I mean absolutely despise them. While I love my grandpa to bits, he used to always try to get me to eat the weirdly textured, awful tasting fruit trying to enlighten me about the great nutrients it has. He never really did convince me to eat them.

Fast forward a decade and now I eat bananas most days strangely enough. Amusing how things turn out don't they? On the other hand, my boyfriend sees bananas at the enemy (don't worry, you don't have to eat this banana bread!) but that's not a problem - more for me!

This banana bread is awesome fresh out of the oven. Cut through the crunchy top and you will be rewarded with a soft fluffy crumb that will have you coming back for more. The best thing is that banana bread recipes require old bananas that are spotty so you can get rid of them before they go bad!

A question I have for you, dear reader, is have you ever thought about why banana bread is categorised as 'bread'? I think it's to trick us into thinking we aren't devouring cake when in actual fact, we really are ;)

Banana Bread
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

Ingredients

3 medium-large bananas, smashed
1/3 cup melted salted butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
1 1/2 cup of flour

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C.

2. Mix butter into the mashed bananas in a large mixing bowl.

3. Beat in sugar, egg and vanilla. Sprinkle the baking soda and salt over the mixture and stir in.

4. Add the flour and mix until thoroughly incorporated.

5. Pour batter into a greased 10 x 20cm loaf pan.

6. Bake for 50 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

7. Cool on a rack. Remove from pan and slice to serve. Eat!

Coconut cherry swirl loaf

For the rest of the year, I have really made it my goal to exercise at least 3 times a week despite all the work load that the university semester will bring. This is really a short term goal as I plan on exercising regularly from now on - it WILL be incorporated into my lifestyle! I do not really like exercising first thing in the morning on an empty stomach as I always feel queasy afterwards and if I eat breakfast first, I will feel the oncomings of a runner's nightmare - a stitch. So I normally go for a run mid-afternoon or at night!

My grandparents had bought an excess of cherries and once again, my dad was fretting about them going bad. As well as that 2kg tub of yogurt he bought. So once again, I was stuck with the duty to finish off all these things. I picked out the good ones to bring to uni as a snack (yay!) and this seemed like a wonderful way to use up the cherries! I decided to use this jam in a yogurt cake after the success of the lemon version.

The swirl within the cake is quite simple to do. Pour in half the cake batter, spoon on some cherry jam, pour on remaining batter, spoon on remaining jam, use a skewer and swirl!

I put this in the oven as I went for my run.

I don't know if it was because I knew that this was waiting for me when I got home, but I swear I ran extra fast today!

And what greeted me after that long and strenuous run was this.

This loaf was moist and not too sweet - definitely the perfect post workout snack. Especially when fresh from the oven!

Mmm, look at that wonderful crumb from the yogurt. The top browned quite quickly despite the middle of the cake not being cooked yet. I would probably lower the temperature to 160C next time and cook it for longer, maybe 75 minutes?


Coconut cherry swirl loaf
an original recipe by Crystal Noir

Coconut cake
1 cup dessicated coconut
1 cup whole milk plain unsweetened natural yogurt
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 cup caster sugar
3 eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt

Cherry jam
2 cups pitted cherries, roughly chopped
1 tablespoon corn flour
1 tablespoon caster  sugar

Method
1. You can either prepare the cherry jam or just use about 3/4-1 cup jam of choice. Add pitted cherries, sugar and corn flour into a food processor. Process until it is chunky or to a texture of your liking.

2. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the sides of a 23x12cm loaf pan with oil and line the bottom and sides with baking paper.

3. Spread coconut on a separate tray and toast until golden brown. Remove from oven.

4. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the yogurt, oil and sugar. Beat the 3 eggs in a separate bowl and pour into the large mixing bowl, whisking until combined. Stir in toasted coconut until combined.

5. Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together, right over the yogurt mix and stir with a spoon until just combined (make sure not to overmix!)

6. Pour half the batter into the prepared cake pan and spoon on cherry jam. Pour on the remaining batter and top with the remaining cherry jam. Swirl the jam with a skewer - be careful not to overswirl! Bake for 60 minutes, or until the top is golden brown and a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cover loaf with foil if it browns before it is completely cooked.

7. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack and let it stand for 10 minutes. Transfer the cake onto a plate. When cool, cut and serve. Yum!