Healthified Banana Coffee Cake with Cinnamon-Chocolate Chip Streusel

I’ve always wanted to bake something healthier but looks equally guilt- triggering. And after my post- exam horrors, its time to do some BAKING.

I replaced the butter from Emiline’s recipe with 3/4 its amount of applesauce and an extra tablespoon of yogurt. Because of this, it lacks the buttery texture but I’m pleased to say that it is much more moist than the original version. I also reduced the amount of chocolate chips and sugar because I used a baking pan that’s deeper but smaller in area. (which meant 30 minutes of extra baking. Don’t do this. The wonderful sweet aroma will poison you with extreme hunger)

The next time I make it, I’ll definitely sub. 1/2 cup of flour with the same amount of oatmeal to further healthify it. Feel free to completely substitute all the flour with oatmeal for a gluten- free recipe.

(okay… I agree its a pretty long name…) Makes 8 servings

Adapted from Back to the Cutting Board

Ingredients

(Batter)

Baking powder	1  tsp
Baking soda	1 ¼ tsp
Flour	1 ½ cup
Salt	¾ tsp
Applesauce	6 tbs
Large egg	1
Sugar	¾ cup
Plain yogurt	3 tbs
Mashed very ripe Bananas	1 1/3 cup/ 3 large/ 8 small

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Note*: Your bananas must be EXTREMELY ripe—black all over. If yours isn’t, you can nuke your bananas in a microwave oven/electric oven for 5 minutes at 200°C (or lower depending on how ripe your banana is)

Method:

1. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt into a medium bowl

2. Beat the sugar and egg with an electric mixer till fluffy (no need to reach foamy stage). Beat in the mashed bananas, applesauce and yogurt. Add in dry ingredients 1/3 at a time and mix well to form uniform mixture.

 (Topping/Filling)

Chocolate chips	½  cup
Raisins (Not in picture)	¼ cup
Cinnamon	2 tbs
Brown sugar	½ cup

 

Instructions:

Mix all topping ingredients together. It is okay to leave chunks of brown sugar, as long as you don’t leave the cinnamon in clumps.

To finish

Applesauce	1 tbs (or more depending on size of pan)
Cocoa powder	1 tbs (or more depending on size of pan)

 

3. Use your CLEAN fingers or a pastry brush to spread some applesauce on the interior of the baking pan

4. Using a sieve, or your fingers, sift/ sprinkle the cocoa powder to cover all the spread applesauce. (Applesauce ≈ butter & Cocoa powder ≈ flour)

5. Use a medium sized ladle to spoon half the batter into the baking pan

6. Sprinkle with half of topping.

7. Spoon the remaining batter over the topping in step 6 and sprinkle the remaining topping

8. Bake “coffee cake” until toothpick inserted into center comes out clean, about 45- 75 minutes depending on depth of pan. Let it cool for at least 10 minutes before gobbling.

Giant Wolfberry Cinnamon Roll

Wolfberries are like chinese raisins. But they are red, more sour, and less sweeter than raisins. My mum loves them, and my brother used to snack on them when he was younger. Nowadays, baking is my escape, from the horrible reality I’n stuck in, so that the frustrations of life won’t get into me.

Running low on raisins today, I decided to substitute wolfberries in this recipe besides changing it a little. The soury taste of the wolfberries really reflects my mood today. I’m not really good at baking. At bit careless too I must say. I only realised the yeast I was using were dead after I baked this. By pure luck though, I had added some baking powder as a precaution during the mixing process.

Giant Wolfberry Cinnamon Roll

(Makes 12- 16 servings)

 

Ingredients

(Dough)

Instant yeast	2 ¼  tsp
Warm water	¼  cup
Sugar	½  tsp
Fat free Milk	1/3 cup
Vanilla	1 tsp
Baking powder	½  tsp
Baking soda	½  tsp
Applesauce	3 tbs
Large egg	1
All purpose flour	1 ½ cup
Whole wheat flour	1 ¼ cup
Sugar	1/3 cup
Salt	¾ tsp

 

 

 

 

 

Method:

1. In a small bowl, dissolve yeast and 1/2 tsp. sugar in the warm water. Let stand for 5 minutes.

2. Stir milk, 1 tsp. vanilla and egg into the yeast mixture. Set aside.

3. In a large bowl (or a food processor), mix remaining dry ingredients and applesauce.

4. Slowly pour in yeast mixture and stir (or process) until dough forms into a ball.

(Note: Mine was pretty dry so I added a bit more milk until it formed a ball.)

5. Place dough on a floured surface and knead lightly 4-5 times.

6. Spray a large bowl with cooking spray and place the dough inside. Cover with a lid or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place (29°C) for 1 hour or until almost doubled in size.

(Filling)

Wolfberries	1 cup
Raisins	½ cup
Cinnamon	2 tsp
Fat- free Yogurt (Skim milk is fine too)	½ cup
Brown sugar	2 tbs
Vanilla	1 tsp

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Instructions:

Soak the wolfberries in warm water for 5 minutes and squeeze them dry. In a blender or food processor, place all ingredients. Blend until the wolfberries and raisins are chopped up but the mixture is still thick and chunky, about 1-2 minutes. You can add in a little bit more yogurt/milk if it gets hard to blend. Set aside.

To finish

7. Punch dough down, cover and let rest for 5 minutes.

9. On a floured surface, roll dough into a 15 x 10 inch rectangle.

10. Spread the filling evenly across the dough but leave a 1 inch space across the top (long) edge.

11. Roll up the dough tightly starting at the bottom (long) edge. Pinch the seam to seal well. (For detailed method click here)

12. Roll over so the seam is down. With a serrated knife cut the dough in half, lengthwise. (For detailed method click here)

13. Spray a baking pan with cooking spray. Take one half of your dough and coil it around itself with the cut side up. Then take the other half, making sure the cut side it up, join the end with the end of the first half and continue coiling it around to create one big swirl. Cover with wet cloth and left rise for 1 hour or until doubled in size.

14. Preheat oven to 180°C. Remove wet cloth and bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan and put on a plate.

Serve warm or at room temperature.

* Do NOT glaze the bread with egg yolk. It will end up looking yellowish like mine.

Perfect-4-Breakfast Banana Bread

With yogurt, bananas, whole wheat, raisins/chocolate chips, what more can you ask from a perfectly nutritious breakfast? It even keeps well too– for about 5 days refrigerated. I’m having these for breakfast this week! The original recipe is from greenlightbites. Roni, the blogger, is incredibly good in giving recipes makeovers to make them healthy. I really admire her for that!

Here‘s the original recipe. I changed it a little as some of the ingredients are not readily available here in Singapore and others because I don’t have them.

Ingredients

Whole wheat bread flour	1 cup
Baking soda	1.5 tsp
Overipe Banana	1
Applesauce	2 tbs
Medium egg	1
Maple syrup	1 tbs
Black sugar	1 tbs
Plain yogurt	0.5 cup
Skim milk (or any liquid)	1 tsp (or less)
Vanilla essence	5 drops
Raisins/ Chocolate chips	4 tbs



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 160°C. Spray your baking pan with non-stick cooking spray or spread with baking paper and set aside. Mix the flour, baking soda and salt together. Sift and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, mash the bananas. Add the applesauce, egg, maple syrup, sugar, yogurt, milk and vanilla essence and whisk until smooth. Mix in the chocolate chips/ raisins.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just incorporated.
4. Pour the batter into the baking It will be thick, just spread it across the bottom with a spatula.
5. Bake for 60 minutes (more or less depending on the size of your pan. Mine took 60 minutes)  before attempting to remove it from the pan.  (to check for doneness, poke a chopstick/ toothpick into the cake. it is don if the chopstick/toothpick comes out clean)

Delicious Red Bean Mochi

Red Bean Mochi

Ingredients:

100g glutinous rice flour
150g green tea
40g brown sugar
Sweet potato powder/ potato flour/ potato starch/ corn flour

Choice of Filling (1)
Red bean paste (see previous post)

Choice of Filling (2)
Equal amounts of peanut and sesame powder
Sugar to taste

Procedure (for mochi skin)

1. Mix the glutinous rice flour and brown sugar till even in a bowl

2. Add green tea and stir till smooth

3. Steam mixture at high heat for 10 minutes or until the mixture partially solidifies (soft but not liquidy)– when it looks like a dough

4. While steaming, shape the red bean paste into small balls. Also, mix the ingredients for filling (2) together

5. Remove the mixture– Careful! Its hot!

6. While waiting for the mixture to cool, sprinkle a clean surface with sweet potato powder

7. When mixture has cooled, sprinkle some sweet powder on the mixture

8. coat a large spoon with sweet potato powder and scrape the dough out of the bowl

9. turn the dough onto the clean coated surface and coat it with sweet potato powder

10. cut out the portions of dough you want and wrap it with desired filling

note: you may also choose to coat small balls of dough with filling (2) to make Chinese Muah Chee

Fragrant Taiwanese style Red- Bean paste

Ingredients:

1. 500g adzuki red beans
2. 500ml water
3. Red sugar (adjust to your taste)

Steps

1. Wash adzuki beans while picking out ‘rotted’ ones
2. leave to soak overnight
3. change water and bring to boil
4. repeat step 3
5. reduce the flame
6. smash beans with a large ladle (its okay to still see whole beans)
7. add sugar to taste and water if the paste seems too dry
8. stir thoroughly with ladle

its the best red bean paste ever! the red sugar gives it a coffee- like aroma. My mum recommended adding some instant coffee but note that more sugar has to be added to offset the bitterness 😀

My First Success: Steamed Chocolate Chip Cake

I warped an egg cake recipe from my mum’s taiwanese cookbook to make it chocolaty! Its my first successful recipe because I finally have my very own 2-in-1 oven, a hand mixer and a blender!

My mum loves banana cake and wants a guiltless treat so I’m going to experiment for the perfect fat free one for her! Anyway, that will come soon but first…

Steamed Chocolate Chip Cake

Recipe:

(A)

1. 100g self- rising flour
2. 25g cocoa powder

(B)

1. 4 egg whites
2. 6 tbs white sugar

(C)

1. 4 egg yolks
2. 3 tbs white sugar

(D)

1. a handful of chocolate chips
2. a handful of raisins– soak them in warm water and then squeeze them dry using a strainer so that they will be plump and juicy!
3. some chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

1. Sift ingredients (A) in a bowl
2. In separate bowls, whisk ingredients (B) till soft peaks form as seen in the picture using a hand mixer, and stir ingredients (C) to form a smooth mixture
3. Add mixture (C) to (B) and whisk gently till uniform
4. Heat some water in the steamer
5. Stir in slowly (A) (using a rubber spatula– recommended)
6. When (A) has been uniformly stirred in, stir in (D)
7. Pour mixture into a lined cake pan (it’s okay if you don’t line it, its just cleaner and easier to remove)
8. You can choose to top the cake with some of mixture (D) but note that ‘pimples’ will form (see pictures above)
9. After water begins to boil, steam the cake at high heat. I recommend steaming for 7 to eight minutes so that it is half cakey and half moist because it might otherwise taste too dry! But if you want to, steam the complete 15 minutes, then serve with yoghurt, whipped cream, coffee, milk, fruits or tea!

I love this recipe!!! Its really good if you half steam it, it’s self- saucing so no additional cream or anything has to be added. Trust me, its not as good fully steamed. Try it for a less guilty chocolate treat! But, butter lovers beware! Its absent.