Cinnamon Swirl Banana Bread~

Feel like some banana bread? Sometimes I have random cravings.. and hoping my bananas will quickly ripen! This is a delicious banana bread with a twist~ or should I say "swirl" hahha! Super quick and super easy :D

Cinnamon Swirl Banana bread

Recipe adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction

Ingredients

Banana bread

2 cups (250g) plain flour

3/4 tsp bicarb soda

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 cup (100g) brown sugar

60g unsalted butter, softened at room temperature

2 large eggs

1 1/2 cups ripe banana, mashed (about 3 bananas)

1/3g (80g) plain/vanilla yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla essence

Cinnamon Swirl

1/4 cup (50g) caster sugar

1 tsp ground cinnamon

Simple Glaze

1/2 cup (60g) soft icing sugar

1 tbs heavy cream

Chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 180oC. Grease and line a loaf pan.

2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, bicarb soda, salt and cinnamon.

3. In a separate large bowl beat the brown sugar and butter on medium speed until well blended. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in mashed banana, yoghurt and vanilla. Slowly add the dry ingredients and mix with a wooden spoon - do not overmix. Batter will be thick.

4. Spoon half batter into prepared loaf pan. Sprinkle with cinnamon-sugar swirl ingredients. Top with remaining batter. Bake for 40-45 minutes or until skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool in the pan for 15 minutes then remove and allow to cool completely on wire rack.

5. Make glaze by combining icing sugar and heavy cream. Add more icing sugar if needed to reach desired consistency. Drizzle over banana bread and top with some chopped walnuts (optional).

my not so cinnamon "swirl"

This banana bread is super moist! and the glaze gives it a nice sweetness :D

Take 2!

There are many times when I have tried out a recipe and failed (yes! it's true!) or it doesn't turn out quite as expected. There are always room for improvements and so this blog entry is dedicated to my second attempts and 2 particular recipes: the cantonese egg tart and banana bread. If you recall from my previous blog about egg tarts, I didn't have the proper egg tart tins so they didn't turn out so well. The pastry was quite thick and the tarts didn't look very presentable.. BUT thanks to K who bought the egg tart tins for me from Hong Kong~~ we were able to bake them again =)

You can find the recipe for cantonese egg tarts here.

Baking in the oven~~

Ta da~~ done ^_^ they could have been a bit more brown...

but they tasted delicious :D

My first attempt at banana bread did go quite well but it didn't look that great. So when I tried again I decided to decorate the top with sliced bananas and a few oats! Much better :) You can find the recipe for banana bread here.

Cooling in the tin~~

Mmm.. I can smell the banana ~~

sliced up! you can see the chunks of banana goodness ^^

So when you think u have failed.. just try again :) I mean.. that's what baking is about yeh? Experimenting.. trying out new recipes... and improving them!

Banana bread - from the cafe??

One of my friends at work loves to buy banana bread from a cafe down the road. I agree, it does look quite tasty and so it was one of my goals to try and make some banana bread too!
This is my first attempt.... I may need to try other recipes or try my own ^^" But it did get my friends' approval! *THUMBS UP* Although it did not rise as high and the texture was not as "bready"... it had nice chunks of banana and walnut =) and it's the taste that counts right? ;P

Banana bread
(from http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/17901/banana+bread)

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups plain flour
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 2/3 firmly packed cup dark brown sugar
• 100g chopped walnuts
• 3 large over-ripe bananas
• 2 large eggs, lightly whisked
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 100g unsalted butter, melted, cooled

1. Preheat the oven to 175°C. Lightly grease an 11cm x 22cm loaf pan and line base and 2 long sides with a sheet of baking paper, leaving 2cm overhanging.


2. Sift flour, cinnamon, baking powder, soda and 1/2 teaspoon salt into a bowl with the brown sugar, then add the nuts.


3. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork or potato masher, then stir in the eggs, vanilla extract and cooled melted butter. Using a rubber spatula or wooden spoon, fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until they're just combined - don't overmix. 


4. Scrape cake batter into prepared pan. Place in the oven and bake for 1 hour or until golden brown and a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean. Cool the loaf in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool. Cut into 8-10 slices

Bread cooling in loaf tin ^^

Slicing up bread~~ can you see the banana and walnut chunks? ^^

Close up of banana bread slice

So if you see it in a cafe.... you can make it too =D Suggestions for less chunky bread would be to process banana until puree and process walnuts till crumb like.