Making the most of leftover bananas with Michelle Darmody's recipes
Banana bread and sourdough seem to have become the recipes of these times. Sourdough for the more adventurous, banana bread for the frugal baker who hates to see ingredients go to waste. Variations on banana bread have been made up and down the country, in a bid to combat the sweetening and overripe excess in the fruit bowl. Here are some recipes to try if you are weary of banana bread but still have a glut to attend to.
Bananas are versatile, and using them at the different stages of ripeness gives you different results. For the frozen yogurt, for example you need quite sticky overripe fruit but for the caramelised bananas you need a bit of bite, so the fruit needs to be firm and preferably unblemished.
If bananas are not your ideal flavour you can make the frozen yogurt or the crumble with substitutes. The frozen yogurt works very well with the majority of soft berries, or I made a version recently with grilled peaches. I left them to cool then blitzed them with the yogurt and condensed milk - it was delicious.
I will not be throwing out my banana bread recipes just yet but maybe putting them on hold for a little while.
Caramalised banana with frozen yogurt
Frozen yogurt:
375g of overripe bananas, skin off
500g of Greek style natural yogurt
160g of condensed milk
Caramalised bananas:
4 tbs of golden caster sugar
4 not so ripe bananas
1 tbs of maple syrup
a small handful of pecan nuts, chopped
Method:
Blitz all the ingredients for the frozen yogurt together until smooth. Scoop into a freezer proof container and freeze until solid.
Scatter the sugar into a heavy based frying pan. Heat until it melts and starts to turn amber in colour, place the bananas into the pan and coat them in the caramel. Drizzle in maple syrup and bubble for 20 seconds, remove from the heat.
Allow the frozen yogurt to sit outside the freezer for at least ten minutes so that it is soft enough to scoop. Scoop a ball onto a plate. Sit the warm caramelised banana beside it and sprinkle with pecan nuts. Repeat this with the other three bananas then drizzle any remaining caramel from the pan onto the desserts.
Pecan and leftover banana muffins
150g of wholemeal flour
100g of self raising flour
2 tsp of baking powder
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
60g of muscovado sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
100g of natural yogurt
80mls of rapeseed oil
Method:
350g of ripe bananas (without the peel) mashed and 1 firm banana sliced
50g of pecan nuts chopped
Line a muffin tin with twelve paper cases and preheat your oven to 190 degrees.
Stir the two flours together and sieve in the baking powder and cinnamon. Mix well. Stir in the sugar.
Mix the eggs, yogurt and oil together. Stir these into the dry ingredients. Mash in the banana and combine everything including the nuts.
Scoop into the twelve prepared cases. Bake for about 25 minutes until baked through. Once cool enough to handle place onto a wire rack.
Banana blueberry crumble
Crumble:
100g of plain flour
50g of ground almonds
60g of golden caster sugar
60g of butter, cubed
50g of porridge oats
50g of mixed seeds
Fruit filling:
300g of bananas
150g of blueberries
1 tbs of maple syrup
Method:
Preheat your oven to 190 degrees.
Mix the flour, almonds and sugar, rub in the butter until the mixture looks like rough breadcrumbs. Stir in the porridge and seeds.
Roughly chop the bananas, leaving one whole for decorating. Place the chopped bananas, blueberries and maple syrup into an oven proof dish and very gently toss them. Sprinkle the crumble mix on top so that it covers the fruit completely. Half the extra banana lengthwise and place it on top of the crumble pushing it down slightly. This is optional.
Bake for about 20 minutes until the topping is golden. Allow to cool slightly before serving.
