42. Banana Cupcakes

Some people really don’t like banana. I don’t understand those people.

Banana bread/cake/muffins are some of my favourites. The flavour of banana is just so unique, you don’t really get anything else like it, at least not normally. I mean, apples taste kinda like pears, oranges and lemons can give pretty similar citrus flavours, but bananas? In a class of their own.

Here’s an extremely easy recipe for if you have a banana left over that’s gone just s bit too ripe for you to want to eat straight out of the fruit bowl.

Makes 12 cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 overripe banana, mashed

• 100g (3.5oz) butter, room temperature

• 30g (1oz) golden syrup

• 140g (5oz) light brown sugar

• 170g (6oz) self-raising flour

• 2 eggs

• pinch of salt

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• 1 tsp ground ginger

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C and line a muffin tray

2. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

3. Add in the mashed banana and golden syrup and mix until combined

4. Sift in the flour, salt, cinnamon and ginger and combine.

5. Add in the eggs and mix until batter has fully combined together.

6. Split your mixture evenly between 12 cases

7. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and risen.

8. Enjoy!

22. Banana Coconut Muffins

Now I’m studying at Le Cordon Bleu, I don’t get an awful lot of time to bake just for fun, rather than practicing for exams. So I wanted to make something new for you guys, but something pretty easy. Muffins are definitely easy! I put a question out on my instagram story a few days ago and got some great ideas of what to make over the next few weeks, but I decided to start with my friend Beth’s suggestion “something with bananas”. Easy enough!

I have done banana and chocolate chip muffins on the blog before, so I decided to change it us and use coconut for something different. I’ve not used coconut much before to be honest, but I’m kinda enjoying coconut milk these days (Lactose intolerance life, wooooo), so thought I’d give it a go in my baking. These turned out pretty small as I made them in cupcake size rather than muffin, mostly because I wasn’t thinking, and partially because that’s what I had to hand. Either way, no matter the size, these turned out very tasty!

Makes 12 cupcake sized muffins

Ingredients

• 200g (7oz) flour

• 1 tbsp baking powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 70g (2.5oz) butter, melted

• 80g (2.8oz) demerara sugar (plus extra to sprinkle on top)

• 125ml coconut milk or normal milk

• 75g desiccated coconut

• 1 egg, beaten

• 2 medium bananas, mashed

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. In a bowl combine the flour, baking powder, sugar, desiccated coconut and cinnamon.

3. Make a well in the middle and pour in the milk, melted butter and egg. Fold these in to the dry ingredients until well combined.

4. Add in the mashed banana (you want it mashed as well as possible!) until well mixed in.

5. Divide the mix into a lined cupcake or muffin tray and sprinkle some demerara sugar on top of each one.

6. Bake for 25-30 minutes until risen and golden.

7. Allow to cool a little before eating!

21. Eclairs/Profiteroles

Pastries at dusk are the first three words that come to mind when I think of eclairs. When I was younger, Mum and I used to buy a two pack of eclairs from Sainsbury’s to play “Pastries at Dusk”. This was not a complicated game. We would sit at the table, with one eclair each and see if we could finish it faster than the other without licking our lips. I nearly always won. In hindsight, the licking your lips thing is only hard if it’s a sugared doughnut, but that didn’t stop the fun. I loved pastries at dawn with Mum, and have loved eclairs longer than that. So when we made eclairs at school last week, and I knew I would have to practice them for my exam, I thought why not put up an eclair/profiterole recipe on the blog? This won’t be quite the same as the recipe I was given for the exam, and also won’t be the same flavours, but it’s close enough to get some practice in!

My eclairs unfortunately deflated a bit in the oven as I opened the door a little too early and let the steam escape, so I would recommend keeping the door shut and just peering in if you can, if your oven has a light. Still tasty though!

Makes 12-14 eclairs or roughly 30 profiteroles

Ingredients

For the choux pastry

• 65ml water

• 65ml milk

• 50g (1.75oz) butter

• A pinch of salt

• A pinch of sugar

• 75g (2.5oz) plain flour

• 5 or 6 medium eggs, beaten

For the crème pâtissière

• 250ml milk

• 4 egg yolks

• 45g (1.5oz) sugar

• 15g (0.5oz) plain flour

• 15g (0.5oz) cornflour

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• A knob of ginger, chopped (optional)

• A small banana, chopped (optional)

For the chocolate ganache

• 175g (6oz) dark chocolate

• 75ml double cream

• 15g (0.5oz) butter

Method

1. In a pan, melt the choux pastry butter and add in the milk, water, salt and sugar. Bring this mixture to a light boil and remove from the heat to add in the flour. Mix this well and then return to a medium-high heat for at least a minute, stirring continuously to dry it out a bit. It may start to lightly coat the bottom of the pan. Transfer the pastry to a bowl to cool.

2. Grease a baking tray with butter and leave to the side. Preheat the oven to 180C.

3. After your pastry has cooled to just above room temperature, start adding the eggs a small amount at a time. Once you have mixed in the first bit of egg so that it is all fully combined, you can add another bit of egg and repeat. This MUST be done in multiple steps or else the egg won’t mix in properly. You may not need all the egg.

4. Keep adding in the egg until you get to “dropping consistency”. To test for dropping consistency, get a decent amount of mixture on your spatula and hold it over the bowl to see how it drops. If it stretches and forms a V hanging from the spatula after dropping, you have reached the right consistency and do not need to add any more egg.

5. Put the mixture in a piping bag with a round piping nozzle. Pipe your eclairs or profiteroles onto the baking tray. Profiteroles should be about the size of a 10p, the eclairs should be about 12-15cm long.

6. Bake for 18-22 minutes until evenly golden brown. Don’t open the oven part way through! Take out and allow to cool on a wire rack. Not on the tray, they will stick!

7. Make the crème pâtissiere. Put the milk, vanilla and half the sugar in a pan and heat gently until steaming quite heavily, but not boiling. If you want to make banana and ginger cream like I did, add the banana and ginger to the milk to infuse it.

8. In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and rest of the sugar, then add in the flour.

9. Drain the steaming milk into the bowl, through a sieve if you added the banana and ginger, and whisk the mixture immediately so that the egg mixture doesn’t coagulate. Return the mixture to the pan and put back on the heat. Keep whisking the mixture.

10. Cook until the cream thickens and becomes elastic and glossy. It will “boil”, i.e. a bubble may come through the mix, which means it has cooked. Continue cooking until it no longer tastes starchy. You can only really do this by tasting it!

11. Put the cream on a plate or tray to cool and cover with clingfilm touching the surface to stop a skin forming. You can cool it at room temperature or in the fridge, but shouldn’t leave it in the fridge for too long or it will get too cold.

12. Make the ganache by melting the butter in a pan, adding the cream and bring it to a boil. Take off the heat and add in the chocolate in chunks. Stir until chocolate has fully melted and it is all well combined.

13. Once the eclairs/profiteroles have cooled, make small holes in the bottoms using a star shaped nozzle.

14. When the crème pâtissière has cooled to room temperature, or just above, scrape it into a bowl and whisk until smooth. Put in a piping bag with a nozzle the same size as you used to make the holes and use this to fill your eclairs/profiteroles. Scrape off any excess from the bottoms.

15. Dip the eclairs/profiteroles in the cooled ganache or spoon the ganache over.

16. Enjoy!

Review 2 - Crosstown Doughnuts

My friend and I were wandering through Spitalfields market last Sunday morning on our way to Brick Lane to get some brunch. We both ended up having something completely different to what we had been craving at Brick Lane, but that was A ok. We spent a good while browsing around the market at Brick Lane, waiting for our "brunch" to settle some, and went downstairs into their vintage market, where I discovered that I desperately wanted a red leather jacket and could not find one in my size. It's always the way isn't it? You find something in a vintage sale or charity shop that you love and it's never ever in your size. 

Anyway, after some moseying we decided to head back to Spitalfields and grab some dessert. Our sweet tooths were not satisfied with our very savoury brunch. On our way through the first time we had walked past a load of different stalls, but one in particular had caught my attention.

Crosstown Doughnuts. 

Photo source: https://crosstowndoughnuts.com/locations/

I watch a Youtube channel called SortedFood (they're great, seriously, check them out) and they occasionally go out of the kitchen to try and find London's best *fill in the blank*. They had got some Crosstown Doughnuts in this video and I thought they looked absolutely incredible. So there was no choice really. Doughnuts it was.

What makes Crosstown Doughnuts different is that they use an incredible sourdough base to their doughnuts. It is seriously good. It just adds a different texture to the doughnut than the traditional and isn't overly sweet, which is just exactly what we needed.

I ended up having the "Sea Salt Caramel Banana" doughnut, which is made with a chocolate sourdough base, filled with banana custard and topped off with sea salt caramel and chocolate soil. It was heavenly. My friend had the "Raspberry Jam", which was apparently very good. It certainly went quickly!

They are slightly spendy for a doughnut, with mine at £4.00 and the raspberry jam at £3.50 (maybe, can't remember, but Deliveroo says these prices), but they were seriously seriously good.

Crosstown Doughnuts have a load of locations across London and do delivery of doughnut boxes to your home, office etc. I'd recommend giving them a go if you're in the market for something sweet!

Review:

Item: Sea Salt Caramel Banana Doughnut
9/10 for taste, 7/10 for cost. Yes please!

Crosstown Doughnut Details:

Hours: Mon-Fri 09:30-18:00, Sat 10:30-17:00, Sun 10:00-17:00 or until sold out. (varies location to location)

Address: Spitalfields Market, 6 Lamb St, London E1 6EA

Website: https://crosstowndoughnuts.com/

6. Mini Banoffee and Chocolate Strawberry Tarts

I made some banoffee tarts for my coworkers over the weekend to help use up some leftover caramel from a millionaire's shortbread. The shortbread didn't go great. I didn't thicken the caramel enough, so it didn't really hold together very well, but that doesn't matter in a tart!

Also helped me use up some bananas. The bananas weren't that brown when I used them, but the oxidisation of the slices made them look a bit off. Still tasty though! 

The banoffee tarts went down a treat, and as it turned out, I had made a load more pastry than was necessary, so I froze the leftovers for another day. When deciding what I wanted to do with the rest of it I had a real craving for chocolate, but I didn't want to do banoffee tarts (because obviously I would do them again with how well they'd gone) and chocolate banana tarts, so I went with the classic combo, chocolate and strawberries. These went down well too, but probably not as well as fan favourites banoffee. I think my coworkers just really like bananas?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy these. Two recipes for the price of one this week!

Yields 48 tarts, 24 of each.

Ingredients

• One load of sweet shortcrust pastry, recipe in Lemon Tarts.

• 75g (2.5oz) dark sugar (I used light, so my caramel was lighter than I wanted)

• 75g (2.5 oz) butter

• 1 can condensed milk (397g)

• Pinch of salt

• 1 banana

• 50g (1.75oz) butter

• 1 tsp honey

• 100g (3.5oz) dark/milk chocolate (or 50g of each)

• 1 tbsp icing sugar

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 100ml double cream

• 1 punnet of strawberries

Method

1. For both tarts I used the same recipe as in Mini Lemon Tarts to get my tart shells, as follows.

2. Preheat oven to 175C.

3. Roll your pastry to about 1/6-1/8" thick and use a round cookie cutter to cut out your tart cases. I used one about 3" in diameter, but you should adapt to the size of your tray/cases.

4. Line your tray/cases with your freshly cut circles, making sure you push them down to the bottom so that they have a flat bottom when baked.

5. Bake your cases for 15-20 minutes until they are golden brown and allow to cool.

Banoffee

1. For your banoffee "toffee" melt 75g of butter with the dark sugar and pinch of salt over a low heat until the butter is completely melted and the sugar is completely dissolved.

2. Add in your can of condensed milk and bring up to a rapid boil, stirring all the time.

3. Keep stirring and boiling your caramel mixture until it thickens and turns golden (or not if you used light sugar like me). If you're wondering if it's thickened yet, it hasn't. This should take 1-2 minutes.

4. Let your caramel cool a little and then pour into your tart cases, filling to the brim or just below.

5. Slice your banana and lay a slice on top of each of your tarts.

6. Chill in the fridge until the caramel is completely set.

Chocolate Strawberry

1. Melt your chocolate either in the microwave or a bain marie (bowl over a pot of simmering water).

2. Once your chocolate is completely melted, mix in the icing sugar and vanilla extract.

3. Whilst your chocolate is cooling a little, whip your double cream until it just holds its shape. Use an electric beater, or use it as a work out. My muscles recommend the electric beater.

4. Fold the melted chocolate into your whipped cream until combined, try not to knock out the air though!

5. Using a spoon fill your mini tarts up to the brim with your chocolate mixture, trying to smooth over the tops as you go.

6. Decide how you want to add your strawberries to the top. Personally I sliced the tops off, cut each one in half and then cut most of the way through each half from top to tip a couple of times so that I could fan it out to get "three" slices. I thought it looked good, but was probably more effort than necessary!

7. Chill your tarts, and keep chilled if they don't all go immediately!

Sorry for terrible photos, I forgot to take any until I got to work. Oops.

5. White Choc Chip Banana Muffins

When I asked my coworkers last week if they had any requests, I got a couple of quite specific and quite vague requests. One happened to mention they loved banana bread with walnuts, hint hint, nudge nudge. Another said they wanted everything (as long as it's not chocolate... unless it's white chocolate... please). Another asked for the chocolate espresso snowcaps again, which I happily provided (I love them too much not to fill that request). 

So I thought about how I could best fill my coworkers' requests. I can't make a banana bread at the moment, because I don't have a loaf tin in the new place. And I don't especially like walnuts. I also couldn't make everything, due to logistical problems, such as, I had only the weekend and a limited amount of tupperware to store it in. 

White chocolate chip banana muffins seemed the way to go.

They went down pretty well and certainly made the office happy, but I don't feel they've been my best bake. Still, who doesn't like some banana-y goodness in cake form?

Makes 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 4oz (115g) butter

• 4oz (115g) golden caster sugar

• 6oz (170g) self raising flour

• 2 eggs

• 1 banana, ripe or over ripe

• 3.5 oz (100g) white chocolate chips

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Cream together the butter and sugar.

3. Add in the eggs and the banana, either mashed or cut into small pieces (doesn't matter too much either way if you're using an electric mixer).

4. Add in the flour, then the chocolate chips and vanilla extract.

5. Line your muffin tray with muffin cases and divide it up until your cases are about 2/3 full.

6. Bake for 18-20 minutes.

7. Let cool and enjoy!

No pictures... I got too excited about eating them...