Day 13.1: Zespri® Kiwifruit, Banana & Pecan Muffin

I think I over did a little, experimenting with Zespri® Kiwifruits for this Zespri® 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge that I have a couple more recipes to spare :p. I guess I'll just share out even though kiwifruits in cupcakes and muffins are pretty common. I liked this one, with very minimal items to wash and since it's school holidays, get the children to help out.

I've gotten BoiBoi to measure the ingredients and squashing up the banana and kiwifruit with his hand, much easier than a fork. It gives children a great sense of pleasure to be able to touch and feel the food they're eating instead of feeling squirmish about it.

The result is a dense but moist cake and love the crunch from the crushed pecans! Perfect for breakfast ;-) To make this low fat, just use low fat milk.

Zespri® Kiwifruit, Banana & Pecan Muffin
(Makes 12 using 3.25oz muffin cups)

(A) 225 g all purpose flour
25 g wholemeal flour
3/4 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

(B):
150 g brown sugar
2 Tbsp rolled oats
80 g chopped pecans
50 g cranberries (feel free to use raisins)

(C) Mash together:
3 medium sized banana (I've used quite ripe pisang emas)
1 - 2 Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit (good way to use up over ripe ones)

(D) Mix together:
225 ml milk, mix with 2 tsp apple cider vinegar and leave to thicken
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
6 Tbsp sunflower or vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:
3 Tbsp Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Jam
60 g toasted chopped pecans

Preheat oven to 180ºC and line muffin tin with paper muffin cups.

Sift (A) into a large bowl. If there are remaining wholemeal and salt in the sieve, just topple everything into the flour. Stir in (B) and make a well in the centre. Pour (C) and (D) into the well and gently stir with a rubber spatula until combined. Do not over mix otherwise it will become tough.

Spoon into muffin cups and bake for about 20 minutes or so depending on your oven, until golden brown or well risen or check with a skewer which should come out clean. Leave to cool in tin for 5 minutes before removing to cool on wire rack.

Warm jam up a little and brush it on top of the muffins while muffins are still hot. Sprinkle pecans on top and serve warm.

Don't forget, there are more recipes available at www.zespri.com.my

Day 1: Zespri® 14-Day Daily Scoop of Amazing Challenge

Day 2: Sunshine Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Smoothie

Day 2.1: Zespri® SunGold Rockstar Breakfast Smoothie

Day 3: Win A Trip To Auckland & Rotorua, New Zealand

Day 4: Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Parfait

Day 5: Zesty Zespri® Sungold

Day 6: Sunrise Zespri® SunGold Ice Lolly

Day 7: Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Chutney With Grill Chicken

Day 8: Lovin' Zespri® SunGold Kiwifruit Steamed Prawns

Day 9: Frangipane Zespri® Golden Drops

Day 10: Zespri® Kiwifruit Sambal Lada with Prawn Lemongrass Skewers

Day 11: Pandan Zespri® Kiwifruits Cooler

Day 11.1: Zespri® Kiwifruits Platter

Day 11.2: Lemony Sponge with Zespri® Kiwifruits

Day 12: Prawn and Zespri® Green Kiwifruit Aglio Olio Pasta

Day 13: Stir-Fried Chicken With Zespri® Kiwifruit

I Went Banana!!!

The weather in Kuala Lumpur has certainly gone bonkers. It's so freaking HOT and then some days its super windy coupled with thunderous storms especially in the evenings. Not only trees were uprooted but some innocent children were killed in one of these fierce storms.

Capt'n Hook had bought a couple of bunch of Dole bananas where the skin are still green. They were left there to be ripen but after 2 days, the skin is still greenish but my goodness when I touch them, they're all limp aiks!!! I peeled one omigosh it has over ripen *sobs*

I was so upset that I ranted on with my friends and some started to give suggestions on how to make use of them. And that really got me on a roll! Within the hour, I've got myself some banana jam, ice cream and a banana cake! So glad I managed to salvage the expensive bananas into something thanks to my friends otherwise I would have dumped them all away.



For the banana jam, just slice the banana into large chunks and add in some lemon juice. Cook on medium low heat and keep stirring. Since the Dole bananas were quite sweet, I tasted them and just needed a little sugar. Just cooked the bananas into a thickish paste and if you prefer chunks in your jam, try not to stir too hard. Cool down and store in containers. Serve immediately or store in fridge covered. Try to eat them up within the next couple of days but seriously the jam is so good that you'll finish them rather quickly!



Next, I sliced up some bananas and squeeze some lemon juice all over to prevent them from turning dark. Then I use my handheld blender and blitz the bananas up until they're creamy. Placed the covered container in the freezer and after about 2 hours I've got myself some really yummy and creamy "ice cream"! It's all natural without any cream nor sugar yay!



Since there were so much bananas, I've baked 2 loaves of Banana Cakes using Low-Fat Carrot and Nut Cupcakes recipe with some tweakings. What a lovely banana cake this recipes make. My cake looked very dark all cos I've used a very dark brown organic sugar which lend the cake a rather fragrant caramelly taste.

Low-Fat Banana Cake
Adapted from 500 Cupcakes & Muffins, By Fergal Connolly book (published by PageOne Publishing), page 310

225g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp ground mixed spice
150 g dark brown organic sugar
100 g roughly chopped walnuts
300 g mashed bananas
2 lightly beaten eggs
175 ml vegetable oil

Preheat oven to 175C. In a large bowl, combine all cupcake ingredients. Beat on a low speed with electric whisk until ingredients are combined. I've just use normal whisk, worked as well.

I've poured my batter into 2 lined loaf tins but they turned out quite low, I guess if you prefer one tall loaf, just pour all into one instead. Bake for about 45 - 55 minutes depending on your oven and the size of loaves. Remove tin and cool for 5 minutes. Remove cakes and cool on a rack.

I'm so happy with the results that I don't wait for such incidents to happen again but instead but extra bananas to let them ripe and turn them into such beautiful creations ;-)

Banana Pancake (Jamie Oliver's USA style pancake)

I hope everyone have a fantastic Chinese new year celebration. For us there were a lot of feasting LOL and there are more to come!

Ok I know I'm a day late but what the heck... yesterday was Pancake Day and here I am posting a delayed pancake recipe using Jamie Oliver's USA-style Pancake recipe from Happy Days with the Naked Chef. Hmm funny I've mentioned before that I need to post this up back in early 2008 but I have yet to do it! Best part, I've made this numerous times LOL.

I remember making this batch for breakie after a failed attempt of whipping egg whites for a pavlova LOL sighhh I whipped the whites mid way, stop it and ran out to grab caster sugar which I've ran out, I just can't believe it but that day was filled with disasters!!! When I came back with the sugar, the whites refuses to turn shiny... hence I chucked it aside. Instead of throwing them away, I remember Jamie's pancake recipe called for whipped egg whites and tadaaaa...

I've used bananas instead of blueberries but from his recipe you can practically use anything you have in your pantry such as fresh corns, bacon bits, choc bits etc.



Check out my other healthier version of banana pancakes.

Banana and Mango Smoothie Turned Popsicle

Kuala Lumpur's weather is still freaking hot but thank goodness mango season is still on. I've in stock frozen mango in my freezer. Not only that, I've some frozen bananas as well. Yeah I usually freezes bananas to prevent them from being over-ripen.



This round, I blended the mangoes and bananas with some milk (need this to run the blade) using a normal blender, can't use the handheld as the frozen fruits were too hard since I did not remove them from the freezer to sit out for a while. I poured out into 3 glasses and I still have some left. So I took out my popsicle containers and pour in the smoothie. My boiboi and I were enjoying the popsicle a few hours later after they turned solid. Have to finish these quickly as they contained milk.

Felt instantly refreshed!

Technorati tags: mango + banana

Banana Shortbread

This is a very simple but extremely delicious banana cake made with the recipe from The World of Bread in Alex Goh Baking Class series. As compared with the Banana Cake I had made earlier using boo_licious' recipe, this one is denser and the texture is like those store bought cake BUT more fragrant without the cloying banana essence flavouring that I dislike. My youngest brother told me the cake tasted good which is a good sign since I have not had favourable ratings from him on my cakes.

I've no idea how this cake was made known as shortbread in the book but Alex Goh mentioned that this cake is usually known as bread in the western world but it has the texture of a cake. Do give it a try. I've used 500g of banana and omitted the nuts. Feel free to experiment.

Banana Shortbread

(A)
250g sugar
130g margarine (I used butter)
1 tsp sodium bicarbonate
1/2 tsp salt

(B)
2 eggs

(C)
300g banana, mashed

(D)
300g plain flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
80ml milk

(E)
100g chopped walnuts

Cream (A) till light and fluffy. Add (B) and cream till smooth. Add (C), mix till well blended. Mix (D) till well combined. Add (E) and mix till well incorporated.

Pour mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin (L20cm X W10cm X H8.5cm). This quantity and mixture makes 2 loaves. To make the bread look extra attractive, sprinkle some chopped walnuts on top. Bake at 180C for 45 minutes.

Technorati Tags: banana cake