browned butter berry banana bread

Well that was fun alliteration. Let's say it again. Browned butter berry banana bread!

There's 50g of white chocolate chips in there too but mentioning that in the title would have spoiled my fun.

This is actually the second time within a week I've baked this loaf and my last bake before these was also banana based. The warmer weather has sent me on a banana baking loop! Within a day or two of buying bananas they seem to turn brown. Not that I'm complaining, I like banana loaf.

For a slight change I decided to brown the butter for this loaf as I love the flavour of browned butter in blondies and figured it would work well in a banana loaf. Sadly I didn't detect much of a difference in flavour, probably because there was enough extra flavour with the berries, cinnamon and vanilla, but occasionally you'd get a little hint of the sweet, biscuity flavour from the browned butter.

I love how banana bread is so simple and easily adaptable. You can substitute and/or chuck in extras to your heart's content. Victoria sponges are fantastic for similar reasons. I nearly didn't bother posting this cake as I have posted a couple of variations of the same recipe already, but the vibrant berries bursting from the cake's surface were too enticing not to photograph. It's also good to remind people not to chuck out dodgy looking bananas. Look at what you can produce with them!

Browned butter berry banana bread

Recipe adapted from Hummingbird Bakery's banana loaf

250g brown sugar (I used half soft light brown sugar, half light muscovado brown sugar)

2 large eggs

2 large brown bananas, weighing roughly 250g

300g plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste

140g unsalted butter, melted and browned

50g (ish) white chocolate chips (optional! They were lurking in my baking cupboard)

150g mixed berries (I used frozen)

Preheat the oven to 170C/160 Fan/Gas 3 and line a 25 x 12cm loaf tin. Melt the butter in a saucepan and gently cook for about 5 minutes until the white solids turn golden and the butter starts to smell biscuity and sweet. Set aside to cool before adding to the cake mixture.

Whisk together the sugar and eggs for a minute or two until well incorporated and lighter in colour. Add the mashed bananas and vanilla bean paste and mix again. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and cinnamon then add to the sugar mixture. Mix thoroughly. Pour in the (cooled) melted butter and mix until everything is fully combined. Lightly coat the berries in a small amount flour and stir half of them into the mixture along with the white chocolate drops. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin, level the surface and scatter the remaining berries on top. 

Bake in the centre of the oven for roughly 1hr 15 minutes, checking on the cake after an hour. As the surface was quite brown I lay a piece of baking parchment on top to stop it burning for the last 15 minutes of baking. The loaf is cooked when firm to touch and a skewer inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for a few minutes before turning out to finish cooling on a wire cooling rack.

banana, coconut and pineapple bundt

Ah, Monsieur Swirly Bundt-Tin. We meet again....

Except this time I'm armed with cake release spray. In your face previous failed bundt attempts!

Admittedly this bundt is still a bit on the rustic side, but it did come out all in one piece which made me do a little happy dance.

After making banana and coconut muffins a few weeks ago I've had the flavour combination stuck in my mind. I knew I wanted to revisit it and add pineapple to the party. After some online searches I stumbled across this bundt recipe which appealed to me as the dessicated coconut is soaked in milk before adding to the mixture. Other than swapping the milk for coconut milk and adding pineapple chunks I more or less stuck to the recipe.

The recipe made a lot of batter, so much batter that I nearly filled a 2lb loaf tin in addition to the bundt tin. I was worried about the mixture overflowing so I stopped filling an inch or so from the top. The cake didn't rise as much as I expected though, if anything it seemed to sink slightly after coming out the oven, so I probably could have added more mixture to make the finished bundt more impressive in size.

I'm guessing the extra moisture from the pineapple chunks may have contributed to the lack of rise and somewhat soggy/dense/undercooked-looking texture. That or perhaps more bicarbonate of soda/baking powder is needed to give more rise for this size of banana cake. And maybe there's just too much milk in general. I don't know, I'm not good with the science-y aspect of baking so any thoughts are welcome.

Back to the texture, it reminded me of this cake I baked a couple of summers ago which was also packed with liquid/fruit and sank despite being fully cooked. Although this bundt used coconut milk instead of yoghurt, it has a similarly creamy flavour and texture. The cake might look a bit sorry for itself but the flavours are all good.  It would certainly work well as a pudding served with custard. Yes, I still think about comforting, hot custard in July.

Banana, coconut and pineapple bundt

An adapted recipe. It needs more tweaking but this is what I used:

1 1/2 cups of dessicated coconut

300ml coconut milk (for soaking)

185g butter, softened

1 1/2 cups caster sugar

3 large eggs

150g fresh pineapple chunks, cut small

3 ripe/brown bananas, mashed

160ml milk (as I still had 100ml left from the can of coconut milk I used that with 60ml semi-skimmed milk)

1/2 tsp (at least) of vanilla extract

3 cups of self-raising flour

Preheat the oven to 180C/170C Fan/Gas 4. Soak the dessicated coconut in 300ml of coconut milk in a bowl for about an hour. Coat the bundt tin in cake release spray and a dusting of flour. Tap out any excess flour into the sink.

Beat together the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until pale and fluffy (in a large bowl, as this is a big mixture.) Add the eggs one at a time, beating well between each addition. Mash the 3 bananas and add to the coconut milk mixture along with the pineapple chunks. Mix together then add to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix everything together. Add the flour and milk alternately, mixing well between each addition. Once everything is combined spoon it into the bundt tin. Fill until you're about an inch from the top so you don't run the risk of overflowing. Use the remaining mixture to fill some cupcake/muffin cases or a loaf tin. Bake for about an hour until deep golden, firm to touch and the edges are coming away from the tin.

D is for Dinosaur

I made another dress.

And this one has freakin' DINOSAURS on it! :D

I'm mildly ashamed that I've had this fabric for over a year and have only just booted myself up the backside to use it. I love that it's actually quite a subtle print.

"Hey, what a lovely blue dress. Wait... are those dinosaurs?"

"HELL YEAH THEY'RE DINOSAURS!" And they're on my legs too. DOUBLE DINO ACTION!

I made this dress following my new Elisalex pattern (the By Hand London ladies sent me a new copy as there was a fault with the initial reprint) and the bodice fits so much better than my last dress. I did a full bust adjustment (following By Hand London's excellent online tutorial) and slightly lengthened the bodice to hit my waist and the resulting bodice fits like a dream. I really couldn't be any happier with it.

As I liked the pleated skirt on my last dress I decided to do the same thing, except all my pleats are even and match up this time. I also remembered to make sure my waistband seams matched up, unlike last time. However I forgot to understitch the neckline, again. Ah well, third time lucky hopefully.

I decided to insert a lapped zipper on this dress as I hadn't done one before and liked the look of them. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and Winnie's tutorial was very clear to follow. There was definitely less swearing involved than when I inserted an invisible zip and I actually think the lapped zip feels more stable. It'll probably be my go-to zip method for dresses or skirts until I invest in a proper invisible zip foot for my sewing machine as the plastic one didn't fill me with confidence.

My only gripe with this dress was the lining. There are not enough swear words in the English language to convey how much I hated working with it. Dress lining is slippy at the best of times, but this one was just awful. I was forever unpicking stitching where it had slipped and/or puckered. It also unravelled like a demon and was near impossible to zigzag as it was so thin it just ate itself. I managed to zigzag the bodice lining seams (and I'm hoping they'll wash and wear ok) but I decided to add bias binding to the hem of the skirt lining to stop it fraying further.

And to end on a humorous note, I love these dino dudes who have merged together into a freakosaurus on my bodice due to my disregard for pattern matching at seams. I'm sure even sexy Patrick from the Great British Sewing Bee would forgive me for such a hilarious outcome. It weirdly works so perfectly.

I'm already itching to start my next sewing project. Watch this space! :)

strawberry and cream scones

It's Wimbledon season which can mean only one thing... it's time for strawberries and cream! Clichéd food blogger sitting right here.

There's little I love more in the summer than watching Roger Federer run about on a tennis court whilst I eat strawberries and cream from the comfort of my sofa. The only problem is when he does a shirt change as I run the risk of spilling food down my front due to the excitement. Anyway, I digress.

If I can stop myself from eating all the strawberries and cream as they are, I like to put them in scones. Add a dusting of icing sugar on top and the scones transform into something rather luxurious.

There's not much else I can really say about strawberry and cream scones, it's just a really good thing which everybody should make in the summer. I have a tendency to spread a lot of strawberry jam on my scone. What can I say, I like a bit of scone with my jam.

Scone-making used to be a skill which eluded me. I usually left them for my Mum to make as mine never turned out quite right. It's that balance of giving the mixture a light fold without over handling it. However, last year I became determined to master scone-making and after some practise, mostly making cheese scones to eat along with homemade soup, I think I've just about cracked it. :)

For my scones I used my Granny's recipe, which is this recipe but minus the dates. Mmmm date scones. Perhaps I need to bake another batch...