{"id":1932,"date":"2010-11-08T19:30:56","date_gmt":"2010-11-08T11:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/?p=1932"},"modified":"2010-12-27T21:23:38","modified_gmt":"2010-12-27T13:23:38","slug":"banana-bites","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/banana-bites\/","title":{"rendered":"Banana bites"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Finding\u00a0new and interesting\u00a0ways to use overripe bananas seems to be a constant challenge, especially lately.\u00a0 I buy them with the best of intentions to make sure that I eat at least one piece of fruit each day.\u00a0 The only problem being that I am quite fickle when it comes to bananas, I don’t like them too green or too ripe, they have to be just right.\u00a0 Invariably this often\u00a0means that I have to freeze them or find something to bake that includes bananas.\u00a0 I have already written about the more traditional recipes to use such an ingredient, yoghurt banana cakes with honey icing, <\/a>\u00a0 banana bread,<\/a>\u00a0 choc chip banana bread (yum),<\/a>\u00a0 banana bran muffins,<\/a>\u00a0 and brown butter banana tart<\/a>.\u00a0 So this time I wanted to find something completely different.<\/p>\n

I looked up several websites and found many different recipes for banana cakes, pancakes, shakes, ice-cream and muffins all of which were too “normal” for what I wanted.\u00a0 Then I stumbled across something titled “Banana cookies” which I had never made before.\u00a0 After reading the recipe and finding I had all the ingredients that I needed, I got stuck into baking them.<\/p>\n

I tweaked the original recipe ever so slightly but am\u00a0not quite sure what I did wrong\u00a0as my mixture\u00a0did not spread anywhere near as much as stated and didn’t really have the consistency of biscuits.\u00a0 In fact, they reminded me of muffin tops\u00a0and in my book they are always a good thing!\u00a0 So I have called these little creations Banana Bites because that is exactly what they are.\u00a0 If you have over-ripe bananas to use up, you should give these a try.<\/p>\n

banana bites (recipe adapted from <\/span>foodblogga<\/span><\/em><\/a>)
\nmakes approximately 35<\/span><\/p>\n

Ingredients
\n<\/span>125g (\u00bd cup) unsalted butter, at room temperature
\n\u00be\u00a0cup granulated sugar
\n1 large egg
\n1 teaspoon vanilla extract
\n480g (1lb) banana with skin on to yield 350g\u00a0(\u00belb) mashed very ripe bananas (about\u00a03 large)
\n2\u00a0\u00bd cups plain (all-purpose) flour
\n1 teaspoon baking powder (soda)
\n\u00bc\u00a0teaspoon salt
\n\u00bd teaspoon ground cinnamon
\n1\u00a0teaspoon mixed spice
\n50g (\u00bd\u00a0cup)\u00a0rolled oats
\n60g (\u00bd\u00a0cup) lightly toasted pecans, finely chopped
\n80g (\u00bd\u00a0cup) dark raisins<\/p>\n

Preparation
\n<\/span>Preheat the oven to 180\u00b0C (350\u00b0F).\u00a0\u00a0Line two baking sheets with\u00a0non-stick baking\u00a0paper.<\/p>\n

In a large bowl, beat butter and sugar until pale and creamy.\u00a0\u00a0Beat in the egg and vanilla.\u00a0 In a separate small bowl, mix flour, baking powder, salt,\u00a0and spices.\u00a0 Add one third of this mixture to the butter mixture and mix to just combine then one half of the mashed banana and beat again.\u00a0 Repeat this process making sure that you finish with one third of the flour mixture.\u00a0\u00a0Gently stir in the oats, pecans, and raisins to distribute throughout the dough.<\/p>\n

Drop\u00a01 tablespoon of cookie dough on the lined baking sheets.\u00a0 Bake\u00a0for 15-20 minutes, or until firm and golden brown. \u00a0Transfer to a rack and cool for 15 minutes.<\/p>\n

My tips\/alterations:<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0*The only alterations I made to the original recipe were to the quantity of bananas and flour and I changed a few of the spices.\u00a0 *These didn’t spread much at all but puffed up a little to form more of a cake like shape.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

ease: 9\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0This is basically a simple cake\/biscuit recipe.\u00a0
\nprep time:<\/strong>\u00a020mins.\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong>
\ncooking time: 20mins. <\/strong>
\ntotal: 40mins<\/strong>\u00a0+ cooling.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

taste: 7.5<\/span> 8\/10.<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Initially I thought these were OK but after my fourth one I decided that I really liked them.\u00a0 THESE WERE NOT THAT SWEET so you could really taste the banana flavour.\u00a0 They really reminded me of muffin tops, which gave them an extra half a point. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n

If you would like them sweeter, add some extra sugar or a little maple syrup into the mixture or top them as suggested below.<\/p>\n

would I make it again:\u00a0\u00a0Yes<\/strong>\u00a0 and maybe sprinkle them with just a little\u00a0demarara sugar for a\u00a0bit of\u00a0crunch and a touch of extra sweetness.\u00a0 I’d also substitute the raisins with some pecan nuts for something a little different.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Finding new and interesting ways to use overripe bananas seems to be a constant challenge, especially lately. I buy them with the best of intentions to make sure that I eat at least one piece of fruit each day. The only problem being that I am quite fickle when it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1966,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[77,78,57,31,44,48,35,29,27],"tags":[5,6,127,104,115,119,107,102,100],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1932"}],"version-history":[{"count":27,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1932\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.foodfourthought.com.au\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}