Banana, apricot and chocolate bread

I don’t know a single child who would turn down a slice of banana bread and my daughters are no exception. And for us parents, giving our little ones a slice of homemade banana bread when they get home from school feels just so, well, wholesome.

This is a lovely take on the standard banana bread; the addition of apricots keeps it extra moist, while the chunks of chocolate are a gooey treat. My recipe is loosely based on one I found for banana loaf in Baking with Kids by Linda Collister. It is indeed a great cake to bake with your children, who will no doubt enjoy mashing the banana, beating the eggs and licking the bowl at the end.

Banana, apricot and chocolate bread

100g butter
250g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
pinch of salt
75g demerara sugar
75g caster sugar
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3 ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
75g plain chocolate, chopped
100g dried apricot, chopped

Preheat the oven to 180°C/gas mark 4.

Grease a 900g loaf tin with a little butter and line with greaseproof paper.

Gently melt the butter over a low heat and set to one side to cool slightly.

Sieve the flour, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl, add the sugars and combine. Make a well in the middle.

Pour the melted butter and eggs into the well, and add the mashed banana, chocolate and apricot. Mix everything together thoroughly.

Spoon the mixture into your prepared tin and bake for 50 to 55 minutes. When it’s ready, the top should be a lovely golden brown and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Allow the banana bread to cool completely on a wire rack before removing from the tin and peeling off the paper.

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Parsnip and carrot cakes

Maple syrup and banana cupcakes

Chocolate orange cupcakes

Simple banana smoothie

Normally my children have pretty healthy appetites, so when they tell me they’re not hungry that’s a sure-fire sign they must be poorly.

Over the past couple of weeks both my girls have been a bit ill – and my husband too – and so I’ve turned to the good old smoothie to make sure I get some sustenance into them. Even when they’re feeling pretty grotty, they can generally manage a glass or two of smoothie.

Of course these smoothies are too good only to have when illness strikes and they’re a brilliant way to use up those over-ripe bananas. You can also add any soft fruit you happen to have in. We keep a bag of berries in the freezer and I like to chuck in a handful or two of those. But here’s the basic banana recipe.

Serves 4

3 or 4 bananas
4 tbsp plain or Greek yoghurt
2 tbsp runny honey
½ tsp vanilla extract
2 pints of cold milk

Chop the banana into a blender or smoothie maker and add the rest of the ingredients. Simply whizz up until smooth and serve to your patients.

Peanut butter and jelly super smoothie

I adore smoothies. They’re so easy to make and, for me, they constitute the perfect breakfast on those days when I don’t really fancy eating all that much. They’re great for kids when they’re feeling poorly and off their food. And this particular super smoothie, with the addition of oats, is an ideal post-run drink to give me a much-needed energy boost when I’m absolutely exhausted.

Peanut butter and jelly (jam to us Brits) is the most wonderful combination. I think I could probably live on peanut butter and jelly sandwiches if I could get away with it. It also works really well in this super smoothie. With the oats and banana it makes for quite a substantial smoothie; pretty much a meal in a glass.

While I’d usually use milk and yoghurt in my smoothies, I’ve come up with this recipe for Blue Diamond using their unsweetened Almond Breeze almond milk. It’s free of sugars and has less than half the calories of skimmed dairy milk and half the calories of soya milk, which makes it a great alternative for those wanting to avoid dairy and/or live a healthier lifestyle.

Peanut butter and jelly super smoothies

Makes two glasses

1 banana, peeled and roughly chopped
200g strawberries, hulled
60g rolled oats
3tbsp peanut butter
3tbsp strawberry jam
275ml Almond Breeze almond milk

Simply place all the ingredients in a liquidiser or smoothie maker and blend until smooth. Pour into two glasses and enjoy as a super healthy start to your day.

Disclosure: I was provided with a free sample of Almond Breeze so that I could develop a recipe for their competition.

Maple syrup and banana cupcakes

My two girls almost ate us out of house and home during the Easter holidays. And now that they are back to school and nursery, they are coming home in the afternoon absolutely ravenous. There’s no way they can keep going until tea time without a quick snack as soon as they get through the front door.

These maple syrup and banana cupcakes are perfect, and they’re also good as a lunch box treat. They contain wholemeal flour and fruit so they’re also vaguely healthy!

Maple syrup and banana cupcakes

Makes 12

150g self-raising flour
100g wholemeal flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
50g Demerara sugar, plus extra for sprinkling on top
1 tsp cinnamon
60g margarine, very soft
2 large ripe bananas
50g sultanas
2 eggs, beaten
3 tbsp maple syrup
4 tbsp milk

Preheat the oven to 200ºC/gas mark 6 and line a bun tin with 12 paper cake cases.

Mix together the self-raising and wholemeal flour, baking powder, salt, sugar and cinnamon in a large bowl. Add the soft margarine and mash it into the flour using a fork until well combined.

Mash the bananas using a fork and stir this into the mixture, along with the sultanas.

Add the beaten eggs, maple syrup and milk and beat until the mixture is well combine and dropping consistency.

Spoon the mixture into the paper cases and sprinkle a little Demerara sugar on top of each one.

Bake in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Place on a wire rack to cool. Eat them as they come or make into more of a pudding by eating warm drizzled with more maple syrup.

 

Banana and chocolate cupcakes

If you ever need to rustle up some cakes for a school cake sale, these should do the trick.

Totally unsophisticated, completely garish and obscenely sweet. Just what little children are looking for in a cupcake.

I made these last week for the Christmas Fair and they disappeared in minutes of doors opening.

And they can’t be that unhealthy; they do contain banana after all.

Banana and chocolate cupcakes

Makes 8 cakes

1 large ripe banana
110g soft butter
110g caster sugar
2 eggs
½ tsp vanilla extract
110g self-raising flour

For the icing
60g plain chocolate
25g butter
2 tbsp milk
2 tbsp golden syrup
Sweets of your choice for decoration – Smarties, jelly beans, dolly mixture – go crazy!

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 350°F / gas mark 4. Line a muffin tin with eight paper muffin cases.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Whisk the eggs and vanilla in a separate bowl, then gradually add the eggs to the butter mixture, beating well.

Peel and mash the banana and stir into the butter mixture. Sift and fold in the flour.

Fill the muffin cases with the mixture and bake for 20 minutes, until risen and golden. Leave to cool.

To make the icing, put all the ingredients in a bowl and microwave on a medium heat for a minute or two, and mix well.

When the cupcakes are cool, spoon over the chocolate icing and decorate with your chosen sweeties.