HEALTHY IN A HURRY: Chewy Fudgey PB-Naner bake.

Its time for another recipe!

Chewy Fudgey PB-Naner Bake
Tweaked from the creative gingergirl

Here’s what you’ll need:
2 tbsp oats
2 tbsp flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
Sprinkle of cinnamon
1 small banana (about 1/3 cup mashed)
1 tsp ground peanuts
1 tsp peanut butter

Instructions:
1) Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius. (Or if you’re using a toaster oven like I did, just preheat it)
2) Grease your baking tin.
3) Mix the oats, flour, baking powder and cinnamon together before adding the mashed banana and ground peanuts.
4) Spread it out on your baking tin and bake for 10 minutes. (If you’re using a toaster oven, bake for <10mins)
5) Top it off with the peanut butter while its hot so it can melt nicely. Enjoy while its fresh out of the oven!

Disclaimer: This makes a very small portion.. So I recommend doubling it or even tripling it 🙂

Switch things up!
-You could make a double portion, and layer with PB and Jam.
-Add fruits between layers for bursts of sweet juiciness.
-Throw in some chocolate chips to up the decadence level.

Healthy Peanut Butter Banana Bread Recipe

Is it a bread? Is it a cake? A healthy banana bread recipe? Is that even possible?

So many questions, so little time. Let’s skip the mundane questioning and jump straight in.

Brace yourselves for an amazing recipe that I’ve tweaked from Yammie’s brilliant recipe.

I wasn’t intending to make any changes apart from the type of flour used, but my brother ate one of the bananas I set aside for baking, so I ended up adding more applesauce to make up for it. Luckily, the end result was super moist and yummy. As I always do for baking, I omitted the salt.. you can’t even taste the difference honestly, so you might as well go without!

We were too eager to dig in that the bread was attacked from all directions, resulting in the oddly shaped leftover blocks.

But looks don’t matter of course, its what’s inside that counts.

And do you know what’s inside these not-so-aesthetically pleasing brown blocks?

PEANUT BUTTER CHIPS!!

See those light brown chunks that look like hunks of peanut? Those are the nomworthy peanut butter chips.

I was so pleased when I stumbled upon them in Walmart when I was in the United States. I used them once in Reeses’ Peanut Butter Chip Chocolate Cookies (sounds decadent eh?), but that’s another story.

This banana bread was so moist and flavorful, I couldn’t stop at a piece. (They are healthy, so I guess I can eat more right? :P) In fact, it tasted so good, you wouldn’t know that they were made without butter or oil! These taste best when they are fresh out of the oven, but they are still tasty when eaten at room temperature when you are on the go.

As everyone knows, peanut butter and banana were match made in heaven. So its actually no surprise that this pairing turned out so perfectly. Maybe someone should try a PBJ banana bread… now that would be an interesting threesome. (Keep those thoughts clean, there are children around)

I bet you aren’t even reading what I’m saying.. you’re probably just waiting for me to end this long story and share the recipe with you. Well, the time has come… *drumroll*

PB CUBE RECIPE (Peanut Butter Banana Bread)

 {See what I did there? B cube cause there are three Bs and I spelled cube out cause I cut them into cubes!  *Crickets chirping*  You better get that funny bone checked, my friend… You seem to be suffering from a severe lack of humor.}

Jokes aside, here’s the recipe, for real this time.

Made in a 9×9 baking tin. (Should fill a 10 inch loaf pan)

You’ll need:

2 large eggs
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup unsweetened applesauce
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cup wholewheat flour
1 cup peanut butter chips
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon (tweaked to your liking)
1 cup mashed ripe bananas

Switch things up with: chocolate chips, dried fruits, chopped nuts etc.

Steps:

1) Grease your loaf pan or baking tin. (I suggest you lay a baking sheet for easy removal)

2) Preheat the oven to 350º F.

3) Mix together the eggs, honey, applesauce, and vanilla.

4) Mix together the flour, salt, soda, powder, and cinnamon and add to the wet ingredients. Stir in the mashed bananas and mix well.

5) Add in any mix-ins. (I added PB chips!)

6) Pour into the loaf pan/baking tin and bake for 45 minutes.

Now enjoy the delicious smells that will come wafting from your oven in a couple of minutes. Ahh, the sweet smell of success.

Hope you like the recipe!

Breakfast blues. (in a good way)

Just a short post, here’s one of my recent breakfasts, wholegrain flaxseed waffles topped with blueberries and crunchy peanut butter.

Waffles 😀

 

I just toasted the waffles, and then added the blueberries and peanut butter halfway through. Look at the blueberries! They are indigo blobs of goodness, on the brink of exploding like pretty purple paintballs.

Simple and healthy, this is a breakfast idea for you to try 🙂

Here’s a nicer shot,

Who says healthy eating doesn’t taste good?

 

World’s Best Butter Cookies

Nono, I wasn’t being a snooty baker. These really are the best butter cookies I’ve made… and the recipe is titled “World’s Best Butter cookies”. These cookies were buttery, not too sweet and simply delicious. The batter was kind of soft though, compared to most cookie dough, so I’d recommend that you don’t skip the refrigeration step.

Behold, The World’s Best Butter Cookies from Food.com

 

(They look like mini pancakes here)

Yield:
48 cookies Units: US | Metric

Ingredients:

8 ounces unsalted butter
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 large egg yolk
2 cups all-purpose flour

Directions:

1) Beat the butter, sugar, salt and vanilla together until smooth and creamy.
2) Mix in the egg yolk until well incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl at least once.
3) Add the flour and mix just until incorporated.
4) Scrape onto a lightly floured board and knead a few times, just until the dough smooths out.
5) Turn onto a sheet of plastic wrap and roll into a log, wrap up and refrigerate for several hours or freeze.
6) Before baking, preheat the oven to 325°F.
7) Line your baking sheets with parchment.
8) Slice the dough into slices about 1/8″ thick and place them on the sheets about an inch apart (they won’t be spreading very much, but they need air room around each cookie).
9) Bake until JUST beginning to turn golden around the edges, about 16-18 minutes.
10) Note: you can do many things with these cookies.
11) You could roll the dough out and cut shapes.
12) You could slice them even thinner and sandwich them with chocolate or jam or lemon curd.
13) You could make them and then dip them half into chocolate.
14) You could just make them and eat them, which is my favorite.
15) Whatever you do, they will be delicious.

Do give the recipe a try, and let me know how it turns out! 🙂

Blueberry bread

Its time for a recipe!

Look at the burst blobs of blueberries! (alliteration)

I came across this recipe on Dawn’s blog a while back, and I decided to give it a go.

Homemade Blueberry Bread

 Recipe (makes 12 slices)

Dry

1 cup bread flour

1 cup whole wheat flour

1/2 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup blueberries, fresh or frozen

Wet

1 cup milk

1/4 yogurt

1 tsp vanilla extract (or more if you’re a vanilla fan)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 180C/350F.
2. Mix all the dry ingredients EXCEPT the blueberries with a whisk in a large bowl.
3. In another large bowl, mix together the wet ingredients.
4. In the ‘dry ingredients’ bowl, make a well in the center and pour in the wet ingredients. Combine all the ingredients by mixing. Note: DO NOT OVERMIX. About 25 seconds of mixing should do the job. There may seem to be some lumps here and there but it’s totally fine – it’s meant to be like that! 
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Grease a baking tin with oil or butter and pour in your batter.
7. Gently tap the baking tin to remove any air bubbles within the batter.
8. Bake for about 40 – 50 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.

This is definitely a healthier bread recipe since yogurt substitutes the butter/oil. Of course, that comes at a cost since this bread is denser than most. However, it still tastes good, and is even better eaten when its toasted and topped with peanut butter.

Another suggestion is that you could spread honey on the top of the bread after baking to add some sweetness. 

Do give it a try and let me know how it went! 😀

Have a great day.