Snack Food | Crazy About Cooking

The Best Banana Bread

Karina Beginners Baking, Snack Food, Sweet Treats 04/06/201908/06/2019 0 Comment

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This beautiful, super simple banana bread is adapted from Australian Chef Karen Martini’s cookbook New Kitchen.

A combination of super ripe bananas and lovely, creamy Greek yoghurt, this is the perfect breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacky cake (just eat it all day, everyday – I dare you to stop).

I’ve adapted the recipe slightly and used walnut meal and desiccated coconut for a toasty, extra moist result.

Prep Time – 15 mins + 30 mins baking time

Serves – 4-5

Ingredients

100 ml extra virgin oil (I used 50 ml neutral vegetable oil)
80 gms brown sugar
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 egg
50 gms greek yogurt
100 gms wholemeal/plain flour
70 gms walnut meal
50 gms desiccated coconut
Pinch of salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp soda bicarbonate
2 large, extra ripe bananas (mashed)
1 banana and some walnuts for topping

Method

Line a loaf tin with some baking paper and pre-heat oven to 180° c.

Combine the oil and sugar together and whisk till fluffy. Add the vanilla essence and the egg, then slowly beat in the Greek yogurt till it is smooth and no lumps remain. Add mashed bananas to the mixture (you can add a little more sugar if the bananas aren’t ripe enough).

Combine all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add to wet ingredients and fold till combined. Be sure you don’t over mix the batter. You can add a little milk while folding if the batter is too dry.

Tip into your prepared loaf pan and top with a banana slices lengthways down the middle. Sprinkle with walnuts or desiccated coconut and bake for 20-25 minutes or until golden.

Serve warm with cream, vanilla ice cream or just by itself.

My aunt once told me that you should always use the ripest bananas to make banana bread. The soft texture and concentrated sugars ensure a strong banana flavour and you end up using half the amount of sugar.

A simple trick to ripen your bananas is to lay them flat on a baking sheet (skin on) and pop them in the oven (200° c) for 10-15 minutes. The skin should turn black and slightly sticky! Mash when cooled and use as directed.

Happy Baking!

Karina

Ginger Chilli Chicken Dumplings

Kerrin Asian Inspired, Not Vegetarian, Savoury Temptations, Snack Food, Uncategorized 31/05/201931/05/2019 0 Comment

Anyone who knows me will testify that I have literally never said no to dumplings. I absolutely love these bite-sized parcels of flavour-laden filling wrapped in light pastry. Although I live in an area with incredible Asian grocers that stock amazing dumplings, I do like to make my own as well. If you’re going to try this recipe I highly recommend getting yourself a dumpling press. It makes forming the dumplings 100 times easier and you can use it for making all kinds of sweet and savoury pastries as well.

Makes 72 wrapped dumplings and a few ‘naked’ ones

Ingredients

500gm chicken mince
1 handful of soggy old mushrooms (there’s sure to be a few hiding in the back of your fridge!)
1 medium zucchini
3 cloves garlic
1 tsp fresh ginger, grated
a few green onions (if you have them)
1 heaped tsp Korean seasoned soybean paste *
a cautious amount of chilli shrimp
soy sauce to taste
1-2 tbsp dehydrated mashed potato mix
2 x 36 packs of round wonton wrappers

Method

I love a recipe that calls for everything getting thrown in the food processor and this definitely fits that description.

Using the chopping blade, pulse all of the ingredients apart from the wonton wrappers in the food processor until well combined.

At this point, use your nose – the mix should smell gingery, and spicy and salty. Adjust any of your flavours until you’re happy with the smell.

Set a small pot of water to boil. Once it’s simmering, drop a teaspoon of the chicken mixture into the water and wait for it to float to the surface. Give it another 20-30 seconds or so then fish it out and have a taste. If you’re happy with how the flavours come together then you’re ready to make the dumplings. If not, then just add dashes of your different flavourings and keep testing a small amount until if has the flavour you want.

Grab your dumpling press and a small cup of water. Place one wonton wrapper in the press and drop about a teaspoon of mixture onto it. Wet your finger and run it around the edges of the wonton wrapper, then fold the press in half and squeeze to seal the edges. Place the dumpling on some baking paper for the seal to ‘set’.

This next step is optional. Take one dumpling at a time and rest it between your thumb and forefinger with the curved edge fitting into the curve of your hand. Push gently in the middle of the bit where the filling is and then push the two ends together so you’re effectively folding the dumpling in half.

If you have exactly enough mix for all of the wrappers then you should definitely go buy a lottery ticket 🙂

Usually I have some leftover, so I make some ‘naked’ dumplings – literally just teaspoon sized balls of chicken mix that I poach in either stock or Asian soup base. These can be stored in the fridge (in the liquid) for a few days easily.

These dumplings also freeze well, just make sure you freeze them on trays before portioning them out so that they don’t get all stuck together.

When you’re ready to cook them, drop them in boiling water, stock or soup base. When they float, leave them in the broth for another 20-30 seconds or until they’re cooked through.

Alternatively, they can also be air fried or deep fried (like I wasn’t going to air fry them!)

*Korean Seasoned Soy Bean Paste: where do I start? It’s an umami overload of flavour that adds SO much depth to a dish. I’m not going to say it’s life changing, but if you can get your hands on some it’s definitely going to rock your world. You should be able to find it in a dedicated Korean Grocer, otherwise your specialty Asian shop might stock it as well and it’s totally worth the effort to find it.