Roti Banana Pancakes via STREAT - $ - V

I'm very excited to announce I will be doing some regular guest-blogging over at the STREAT website!

My first post is up now and you can see it over here.

Roti banana pancakes from Bangkok...you know you want to...look how delicious they are...


Enjoy!

Reader Recipe - Zucchini/Banana Bread - 1 - $ - V

It has been a weekend of high drama around here: lost mobile phones, emergency departments, found mobile phones, my cat needing surgery. After all that I'm feeling a little shaky and I haven't been near my kitchen for days.

Thank goodness I have a reader recipe to share! The ever-generous Duncan has given us this one. It is supposed to be zucchini bread, but he put bananas in it instead. He's a bit cheeky like that.
I guess it will be depend on whether you're feeling a little bit fruity or a little bit veggie; or what you have handy at your place, as to how you bake this loaf.

Ingredients

2 large zucchinis, grated OR 4 large, very ripe, mashed bananas
¾ cup walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped
½ cup dried cranberries OR sultanas
2 2/3 cups plain flour
1 1/3 cups caster sugar
½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
200ml olive oil
3 eggs, beaten
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp mixed spice
2 tsp vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

Preheat oven to 150C.
Grease and line a 2 litre loaf pan.
Sift flour, bicarb, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl. Stir in sugars, then add egg, oil, vanilla, zucchini/banana, nuts and cranberries/sultanas. Stir with a wooden spoon, until well combined. Spread into the prepared pan.
Bake in the oven for 1¼ hours or until a skewer comes out clean.
Cool slightly in the pan before turning onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Banana Bread - 2 - $ - V

Just when you thought those bananas in the fruit bowl were too brown for eating...along comes this banana bread recipe and saves them from the rubbish bin.

This loaf can be eaten hot, cold or the absolute ultimate: slicing it, toasting it and covering it in cream cheese and honey.

Ingredients

3 large, very ripe bananas (or 4-5 little ones), mashed
125gms butter, softened
1 1/3 cups of brown sugar, firmly packed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1tsp vanilla essence
1tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/4 cup thickened cream
3/4 cup wholemeal plain flour
3/4 cup white plain flour
1tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180C degrees.
Put the bicarb in the cream and stir well to dissolve it. Set aside.
Use an electric beater to cream the butter and sugar.
Add the eggs and vanilla essence and mix well.
Add the cream, with the now dissolved bicarb, and mix well.
Sift in the two kinds of flour and the salt and mix well.
Add the bananas and mix well.
Place the batter in a well greased and lined loaf tin. As this recipe makes a really heavy loaf, it's a good idea to leave the baking paper long enough to hang over the sides of the tin so you can pull the bread out after it cools. Don't have them too long though, or they might catch fire in the oven! Trim them with some kitchen scissors (see picture below).


Bake for 1 hour and then allow to cool in the tin for at least 15 minutes before you remove it. Either serve immediately or cool on a wire rack for eating later.

Enjoy!