Oaty breakfast bakes

Original recipe from Get your kids to eat anything, by Emily Leary. This book did not live up to its title promise for us (!), but this is a quick, easy and tasty recipe which I've made several times. It's a great alternative to banana bread for using up overripe bananas, and a handy healthy snack that travels well.

Ingredients:

450g yogurt of your choice (Greek or regular, any fat content seems to work)
3 medium eggs
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed (can also do 3 bananas and 2 eggs)
400g porridge oats
30-80g maple syrup, to taste

1 tsp baking powder

pinch of salt

...plus fruit/nuts/seeds of your choice. I've used milled chia seeds, chopped hazelnuts, cranberries, sultanas, pumpkin seeds. You can also add any spices or other flavours you like.

Mix the yogurt, eggs and banana. Add the dry ingredients and any add-ins and mix well. The original recipe suggested topping with fresh fruit such as blueberries or blackberries, but I haven't tried that yet.

Bake covered with foil at 180°C fan for 30 mins (recipe suggests a 30x25cm tin). I tend to line a big shallow tin/tray with silicon baking sheets, and spread the mix on those, about 1.5cm depth. 

It makes a soft but solid bar, easy to cut once cool, freezes well. Because it's moist it can go mouldy in a couple of days so freezing is recommended!

Made based on the above with low-fat natural yogurt, 3 small bananas, 2 medium eggs, 100g jumbo raisins, 80g mixed seeds and 20g cacao nibs, and cut into 20: per piece 165 cals, 7g protein, 24g carbs, 4g fat.

Banana muffins

Here's one from the Moosewood desserts book, called into action to deal with a glut of ripe bananas. It turned out really well, especially given that it received help from a nearly-2-year-old in the making.

I used the cup measurements but have given a conversion to weight (untested) from a website.

2 cups plain flour (280g)
1 tsp each of baking powder and bicarb
pinch of salt

3 ripe bananas, well mashed
1 cup packed brown sugar (170g) (I used a mix of light and dark, and would try reducing a little next time)
0.5 cups vegetable oil (110ml)
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla

~0.5 cups (80g) each of dark choc chips and dried apricots  - could also try chopped nuts, sultanas, coconut...

Preheat oven to 180°C (fan) and line a 12-hole muffin tin with cases.

Sieve the flour, raising agents and salt together. Mix the bananas, eggs, oil and vanilla using an electric mixer. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet until just combined, then stir in the additions. Quickly spoon into the muffin cases (they will be quite full) and bake for 20-25 minutes.

The muffins rise beautifully with nicely cracked tops, and are really light and tasty, although quite sweet so I think they could stand a little less sugar. Choc chips and apricots work well but the variations are pretty endless!

Not such a success...

I had some bananas and butter to use up and was tempted by this "lighter" banana cake (as opposed to the usual banana bread). Unfortunately, it came out rather squidgy, and I don't think I'll bother making it again.

I followed the instructions as best I could (excellent step by step photos on the recipe), apart from not having a stand mixer (how big a kitchen do these people have?). I even included the stated amount of sugar, despite the fact that my instinct with any American recipe is to halve it. I didn't have 3 cups of plain flour, but subbed in one of self raising and reduced the baking powder/soda by a third. Was that where I went wrong?

The recipe said to bake in "three round pans". I only have one, so I baked it in two square ones instead. There wasn't a huge amount of batter (they must have been intending three very small tins) but I figured they would rise. They didn't rise much, but at the end of the baking time the skewer test indicated they were done, so I pulled them out, but they then sank while they cooled.

I cut the uneven bits off, sandwiched them together with some spare apricot jam, and there you have it. Banana squidge. Tastes OK, but less than great texture-wise. Cross that one off the list, I can't bothered faffing to find out where it went wrong.

[Edit] The cake was so squidgy it went mouldy in under a week. Big-time fuzzy mouldy. The birds liked it though!