Homely and Healthy Honey and Banana Muffins

Healthy Muffins for Sunday morning tea with a friend, what could be nicer. It's no secret that we have a backyard beehive and with that comes a stock of our own delicious honey, and I am always looking for ways to use it in my cooking. 

BLUEBERRY, WILD OATS & BANANA MUFFINS

Dear friends, beware, these are super healthy, in fact there is no sugar to be found in them, except of course in the fresh blueberries and bananas, oh and a little in the yoghurt. These are probably the kind of muffins you would find on the menu in a Healthy cafe in trendy Byron Bay (New South Wales) or Cairns (Queensland) but there they would be served with a drizzle of maple syrup or exotic homemade ice cream beside them.

AUSSIE BANANA CAKE WITH MAPLE SYRUP AND OATS

This banana cake with it's rustic finish of a rolled oats topping and it's unique Maple syrup flavour is a refreshing change to the usual banana cake with icing, and a lot healthier. I still have over a litre of whey in my frig following my mozarella cheese making, so I decided to substitute whey for the usual yoghurt in this recipe. It has produced a lightness of texture and the cake rose beautifully. Whey is becoming an essential addition to my baking and I am on a quest to find a multitude of uses for this humble byproduct of cheese making.

Ingredients:

2 cups (300g) self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
150g butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste
2/3 cup (150g) castor sugar
2 eggs
3 medium overripe bananas, mashed
1/3 cup whey, or natural yoghurt (95g)
2 tablespoons traditional rolled oats
1/4 cup (60ml) maple syrup

Let's cook:

1. Preheat oven to 200deg C., (180deg. C fan-forced).
2. Grease a 16cm x 20cm, or 20cm x 20cm ovenproof baking dish; line the base with baking paper, and extend the paper by 5 cm over the sides.
3. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a bowl.
4. Beat the butter, sugar and vanilla paste in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time before adding the mashed banana. Fold in the flour mixture and yoghurt in two batches. Spread the batter into the prepared pan, then sprinkle with the rolled oats.
5. Bake cake for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and brush the maple syrup over the top of the cake, then return to the oven for a further 10 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre of the cake comes out clean. Cool the cake in the pan.

Suitable to freeze. Serves 12.

So dear reader, have you discovered any other uses for whey in your cooking or household activities?

The original recipe for this cake comes from the AWW.

Best wishes

Pauline

Wholesome Baked Banana Custard

Wholesome Baked Banana Custard

Click here for recipe:
http://happyretireeskitchen.blogspot.com.au/p/blog-page_2.html


Last night we made a comforting baked banana custard dessert, lactose, gluten and sugar free, just using dates and vanilla as sweetening agents. A recipe adapted from WholefoodsSimply website. Such a nice change to banana cake and bread. The pudding was delicious and could be further sweetened if desired with honey or real maple syrup. The recipe fills four cup size ramekins perfectly. For those that are egg intolerant, I'm sure chia seeds could be used as a substitute. This is a very adaptable recipe, where cooked apple or even cooked pumpkin could be substituted for the banana.