What'd you do when life hands you lemons?

There are many good answers to that question - get a bottle of gin or tequila, make lemonade, polish the furniture.  I'm normally partial to the gin suggestion, but as it's only just past 10 am, I'll refrain for the moment. 

I came across this recipe the other day, channel surfing.  One of those TV cooking demos was making what looked to be really easy, and using lemons.  We had a large bowlful of those citrussy little gems which, if not dealt with promptly, were going to be wasted, which I hate.  So, off to the supy to buy some frozen berries (them being out of season at the moment) and voila!  We enjoyed it at the beach over the weekend, and now the remnants are enlivening our lunches.  I forgot to take any pictures of it once cooked, but I'm sure you can imagine what a lemon-berry loaf looks like.  Make some lemon icing if you fancy, I didn't bother and frankly it didn't need it. 

125 g butter
3/4 cup sugar
zest from 2 lemons
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups self-raising flour, sifted 
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 cup berries (I used mixed)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius.  Spray/line 23 cm loaf tin.
2. Cream butter and sugar.  Add zest and beat in eggs one at a time.
3. Add flour and lemon juice and fold until just combined. 
4. Fold in berries and spoon into tin.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until cooked through.
6. Remove from oven and allow to rest in tin for 10 minutes before turning onto wire rack. 

bananarama

Ness, my sister-in-law, posted a link to this recipe - banana choc chip muffins.  You can't go wrong - fruit and chocolate all wrapped up in a neat little muffiny package.  Perfect timing too, thanks Ness, 'cause we had some bananas that were in serious need of use.  I doubled the mixture, figuring to take some to a friend's house this evening, and the rest for the weekend.  If they last that long... 

So, thanks to Ness and to Chelsea sugar, we have lift-off! 

2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (duh, as if you'd leave the skins on)
2 eggs

1/4 cup oil (I used rice bran)

1 cup milk
3/4 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking powder
1 cup chocolate chips (or a little more...)

1. Preheat oven to 180°C. Spray muffin tray with non stick spray.
2. Beat eggs, bananas, oil, milk and brown  sugar together – just lightly. Mix in flour, baking powder and chocolate chips. Don’t over mix – ingredients should be just gently stirred together to combine.
3. Spoon into prepared tins and bake for 15 – 18 minutes, until puffed and golden brown and inserted skewer comes out clean.
4. Cool for 2 minutes in tins, then gently twist and ease onto wire rack

NB: Above ingredients is for one batch.  Ness brushed hers with a little maple syrup before cooking, for an extra glaze. 

 

gary the banana

It must be a week for people to realise that they have bananas over-ripening in their fruitbowls.  I did a couple of nights ago and so decided to make some muffins to deal with that.  And Laura, of Hungry and Frozen fame must have too, given her latest offering (that combined with lack of sleep and a very active culinary imagination). 

I'm not a big muffin-maker, if I'm honest, 'cause they just don't generally do a lot for me.  But banana muffins (and blueberry) can be different.  The key to wickedly good muffins, in my humble opinion, is increasing the amount of fruit, compared to the recommended amount.  I mean, a recommendation is like a yellow light right?  A suggestion, yes?  The bulk of this recipe is from the Chelsea Sugar site, but with a few important variations - the banana quotient was increased, as were the chocolate chips.  A light dusting of sugar and mixed spice will lift any baking, and for some reason (maybe the extra banana, or the size of my muffin tins) I ended up with 18 muffins, rather than the 12 which I was expecting.  Score! 

Apologies for the lack of photographic evidence of these muffins - all 18 are gone.  They went like hotcakes, so to speak.  But surely that's evidential proof of their tastiness?  And I'm sure you can imagine what a banana-choc-chip muffin looks like.  Anyhoo, in the absence of a photographic hommage, I have Gary the Banana, a Paul Rangiwahia original.  Kia kaha in the kitchen guys! 

2 eggs

3 ripe bananas, mashed

1/4 cup oil (I used rice bran)

1 cup milk

3/4 cup brown sugar

2 1/2 cups flour

4 tsp baking powder

c. 1 cup chocolate chips

white sugar and mixed spice, for dusting (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees celcius and grease/spray muffin tins. 
2. In large bowl mix the eggs, bananas, oil, milk and brown sugar together.
3. Mix in flour, baking powder and chocolate chips.  Don't over-stir it, just combine. 
4. Spoon into tins and bake for about 15 minutes, or until golden and a skewer comes out clean (in saying this, mine were still a little gooey in the middle, but that's just because of the amount of banana in there). 
5. Remove from oven, let rest in tins for a couple of minutes, then turn onto cooling racks.  They're really good warm, so make sure you eat one straight away!