I’ve been baking for people with gluten and lactose intolerance lately and it’s a welcome challenge to be able to adapt my recipes for them. We’re lucky that these days we have so many ingredients available in our local supermarket or specialty store and most of them substitute 1:1 that catering to dietaries have become so much easier. Today, I’m sharing my gluten-free & dairy-free recipe for yummy banana nut muffins. Now don’t hit that close button just yet, if you’re not gluten-free, just use plain flour instead and this recipe still works like a charm. And if you do not have almond meal, use gluten-free flour for the gluten-free option or plain flour for non-gf option to substitute for the almond meal. Easy-peasy!

This recipe is super easy. I actually love it with pecans and walnuts, but you can use whichever is readily available to you. Both the maple syrup or vanilla really gives that delicious aroma and another layer of flavour that perfectly blends with the nuts and bananas. This is not a recipe to skip, it’s so quick and easy to make, you don’t even need to whip out your mixer, just bowls and your spatula.

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You must be thinking, with all the substations and combos that I’ve given you for this recipe, how many times did I test this? Well… too many times that I’ve lost count! All my recipes are tested before I publish them and I regularly update them if needed. So yes, I’ve made all the combos I suggested to you not once but several times so you can rest assured, all of them work.

Now before you pop the muffins in the oven, don’t forget to sprinkle coarse raw sugar on top. This gives your muffins that crunchy crust and gives them that professional baker look. They also make for amazing photos! Speaking of, when you make a batch (or two!) don’t forget to snap and tag! I love seeing your creations and it also gives me direction on which type of recipes you guys love. Also, don’t be a stranger and leave a comment below if you have any questions about the recipe. Now, gluten and/or lactose intolerant or not, let’s get baking!

 
Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 10 Mins Cook Time: 30 Mins Total Time: 40 Mins

Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free

Banana Nut Muffins

Makes 6 large muffins or 12 standard muffins

Ingredients

Instructions

0/3 Instructions
  • Preheat oven to 180C. Grease and line a large 6 cup muffin pan or standard 12 cup muffin pan. In a medium bowl, mash bananas add eggs, vanilla or maple syrup and oil. Mix until smooth.
  • In a large bowl, sift together, brown sugar, flour, almond meal and baking powder. Make a well in the centre and add the wet ingredients. Mix until almost incorporated. Add the nuts then mix until incorporated.
  • Pour into lines muffin cups. Sprinkle 1/2 a tbsp of raw sugar on top of each muffin. Bake at 180C for 30 minutes or until a tooth pick inserted comes out clean.

Notes

  1. If you are not gluten-free, simply use plain flour instead of gluten-free flour.
  2. If you do not have almond meal in your pantry, simply substitute plain flour or gluten-free flour (if you're gluten-free) for all the amount of almond meal.

 

These cupcakes are sooooo fluffy minions would definitely go bananas! So here’s the thing… I know some people think that if you divide a banana bread recipe into a cupcake pan and frost them you can get away with calling them banana cupcakes, but cupcakes are meant to have the texture of a cake not a quick bread. So if bananas bread is too dense for your taste, but you want to use your overripe bananas for baking, this is a great recipe for you. I like to top these babies with whipped dark chocolate ganache (yum!) or dulce de leche buttercream (double yum!)

So today, you’re getting two frosting recipes with these cupcakes! They are absolutely delicious with both and always a crowd favourite. Both frosting recipes only need a few ingredients and are fairly easy to make. They are not too sweet and have a light texture from whipping. For the dulce de leche, you can use store bought dulce de leche or Carnation Top ‘n Fill. Make sure you use good quality chocolate for the whipped ganache, it makes all the difference.

I get a lot of questions about stand mixers, and these are my recommendations. It comes with a caveat though, I only recommend you get one if you bake a lot because they are not cheap. Otherwise, a hand mixer is the more practical option.

Click on the photos to shop for the products. Most products ship internationally.

Mrs.Fancypants earns a small commission from affiliate links, when you buy the products above. If you’re in Australia, feel free to check the availability on advertised sites.

When you make the batter for the cupcakes, if it looks a little curdled after you add the sour cream, it’s fine the flour mixture should bring it together. Now what are you waiting for? Get your whisks and bowls out and start baking! But seriously, if you try this recipe, let me know what you think in the comments below! I love hearing your feedback.

 
Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 20 Mins Cook Time: 18 Mins Total Time: 38 Mins

Fluffy Banana Cupcakes

Makes 15 cupcakes

Ingredients

    For the cupcake batter
  • For the whipped ganache
  • For the dulce de leche buttercream

Instructions

0/10 Instructions
  • If you're making your own dulce de leche, peel the labels off the cans of condensed milk, place it in a pot of water making sure it's submerged then simmer for 1.5 hours with a lid on. Leave in the pot and cool to room temperature.
  • Preheat oven to 175C no fan and line cupcake pans with 15 cupcake liners.
  • In a medium bowl, sift dry ingredients together. In a separate bowl mash bananas then mix with sour cream.
  • In the bowl of your stand mixer, with a paddle attachment, cream butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time fully incorporating after each addition. Add vanilla.
  • Turn off stand mixer and with a rubber spatula fold in dry and wet ingredients alternately, beginning and ending with flour. Fully incorporating after each addition.
  • Scoop a (regular not measuring) tablespoon into each cupcake liners or if you have a scale, about 55g each. Bake for 15 minutes turning halfway or until skewer inserted comes out clean. Cool down completely before frosting. Garnish with one banana chip after frosting.
  • For dulce de leche buttercream
  • In the bowl of your stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip the butter until light and fluffy. Add the dulce de leche and whisk until smooth.
  • For the whipped ganache
  • Place the chocolate in the bowl of your stand mixer. In a sauce pan, bring cream to the boil then our on top of the chocolate making sure the chocolate is submerged. Let sit for 5 minutes.
  • With the paddle attachment on low-medium speed, mix the chocolate and cream just until incorporated. Cool down until it's the consistency of peanut butter.
  • With the whisk attachment, whisk the ganache on high until fluffy.

You guys have requested for a video on how to create swirls in your batter. Swirls or marbling or ripples give another dimension to your cake and looks very impressive when sliced and served. The great thing is, it’s quite easy to do. I made a video using my Classic Banana Bread recipe and jazzed it up with some chocolate swirls so you can see how easy it is.
https://youtu.be/uA5NEOAeUgE

Like I said, the recipe is my Classic Banana Bread but I added cocoa powder to some of the batter. Also, this is an easier method where you don’t need a mixer and also just uses 2 bowls. I wrote the recipe below so that you can see the difference in the methods, but both yield the same great outcome. This just proves that there is more than one way to skin a cat!

I hope you try this–both the recipe and the marbling–and don’t forget to let me know how you go. I promise you, this banana bread recipe is the champion of all banana bread recipes out there, and there won’t be any turning back after you make this. Have fun baking and eating!

 
Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 15 Mins Cook Time: 1 Hr 15 Mins Total Time: 1 Hr 30 Mins

Marbled Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

Instructions

0/6 Instructions
  • Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and line a large loaf pan (9x5x3in or 23x13x8cm) with baking paper. See notes.
  • In a medium bowl, mix together wet ingredients and mashed bananas.
  • Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients then pour and mix in wet ingredients.
  • Take 1 cup of the batter then mix with cocoa powder. Set aside.
  • Pour 1/3 of the light batter into the baking pan, then pour 1/2 of the dark batter. Repeat until batters are finished.
  • Take a knife and draw a figure 8 4-5 times in the batter. Bake for 75 minutes turning halfway. It's done when toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Yesterday, my high school classmates and our families, had a picnic at Centennial Park. Getting set-up and finding a spot was a tad challenging, but we got there in the end! It was nice to be able to catch up with friends after the lockdown restrictions have eased. More than that, it was great to be at the park where we weren’t rushed to vacate the table for the next booking, or limited by set menus, or are anxious that the other table is too close to ours. We had space, time and unlimited menu selection.

I brought a creamy chicken & macaroni salad and banoffee. The banoffee was demolished, and I received plenty of compliments and questions, and of course, recipe requests. So I thought, yeah, it passed the test! The husbands loved it, the kids loved it, the ladies loved it, so I might as well make a post about it here and find out if you would love it too!

Banoffee, as far as I know, is an English dessert. The base is a biscuit base with fresh bananas & dulce de leche topped with whipped cream. Sounds uncomplicated right? Mrs.Fancypants version, the one that was demolished at the picnic, is similar. My banoffee is no-bake and I make it in a 9 inch springform not a pie plate. The crust is made from biscuit crumbs and can be chocolate or plain. I’ve tried both and I like it either way. I made the plain crust more interesting by using brown butter instead of normal melted butter. The filling is dulce de leche, whole fresh bananas and stabilised Chantilly cream. Stabilised Chantilly cream is basically whipped cream with vanilla, icing sugar and gelatine. It holds it shape for days, and holds up against the mound of honeycomb that I pile on top. Yes, I top my banoffee with honeycomb and grated dark chocolate. Now do you understand why it was such a big hit?

Watch this video to find out what brown butter is and how to make it. Then you can move on to printing off the recipe and trying my version of banoffee. I would love to see how you went, so snap a photo, tag and use #mrsfancypants on Instagram.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WeaURfNiAOc

UPDATE: I’ve now published a video on how to make honeycomb. Feel free to watch it below as well!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CJs0IkqB0QB/

 
Difficulty: Easy

Mrs.Fancypants Banoffee

Makes 1 x 23cm springform tin

Ingredients

    For the crust: Option 1: Chocolate crust
  • Option 2: Digestive biscuits
  • For the filling:
  • For the topping:

Instructions

0/17 Instructions
    Dulce de leche:
  • Line the bottom of a medium pot with a small tea towel. Place the can of condensed milk in the pot on top of the tea towel, making sure the pot is tall enough so that you can fill it up and the water will be at least 2 inches above the top of the can. You can have more than one can, but you will only need one for this recipe. You can keep the rest for frosting cakes or using as spread. The tea towel will prevent the can(s) from making rattling noises while you cook your dulce de leche.
  • Bring the water to a boil then slow it down to a simmer and cover with a lid. Make sure that the water is only simmering, it has never happened to me, but the can might explode if the water evaporates rapidly.
  • Cook the dulce de leche for 2.5 hours then let it completely cool down in the pot. Set aside.
  • Pie crust:
  • While the dulce de leche is cooking, it’s time to make the crust. Crush Oreos or digestive biscuits until it resembles sand. Add the butter and mix with a spoon until it looks like wet sand.
  • Take a 23cm springform pan and grease lightly. Then start pressing the crumbs on the base and all the way up the sides of the springform. Put in the fridge or freezer to set.
  • Make the toppings:
  • Make sure you have everything ready before starting. Line a medium rectangular baking pan with parchment paper then grease lightly.
  • In a small sauce pot stir golden syrup, water and sugar together then put on a medium flame.
  • Leave the mixture on medium heat and bring it to the boil then clip on a candy thermometer, cook until candy thermometer registers 150C, about 10 minutes.
  • Take off the heat then sprinkle bi-carb soda and use a wooden spoon incorporate the bi-carb into the mix. This will make your honeycomb bubble. Do not over mix or you will not get aeration on your honeycomb.
  • Turn over onto your prepared baking pan and let set for a few hours then you can snap or cut it into small pieces.
  • Make the stabilised whipped cream:
  • Put the water in a small cup and sprinkle powdered gelatine on top. Let stand for 5 minutes to bloom, then blast for 5-10 seconds in the microwave until the mix is liquified.
  • Start whisking your cream then add the sugar 1 tbsp at a time. Add the vanilla then slowly pour the liquid gelatine mix in. Whisk to soft peaks or stiff peaks depending on your preference. Set aside.
  • Assemble:
  • Take the crust out of the fridge and line the bottom with the bananas. No need to slice the bananas, just keep them whole and trim them so they form 1 layer.
  • Cover the bananas with all of the dulce de leche.
  • Spoon the whipped cream to cover the dulce de leche and fill up you pie. Set in the fridge.
  • To serve:
  • Just before serving, take your pie out and decorate with the honeycomb. Once you put the honeycomb on the pie, you can’t put it back in the fridge.
  • Grate some dark chocolate to fill in the gaps on top. Now your banoffee pie is ready to be served.

Notes

  1. If you don’t feel like making dulce de leche, you can get a ready-made can of top & fill by Carnation from your local store.
  2. I use gelatine to stabilise the whipped cream and this means that you don’t have to worry about the cream collapsing or being too soft. This helps the cream keep its shape for up to 2 days and also hold well against the honeycomb piled on top. However, if you are serving the pie right away, you can skip the gelatine and water and just whip the cream and sugar to stiff peaks. This should hold for a few hours.
  3. Watch the video to find out what is brown butter.

Tags

#banoffee  #pie  

This is a classic, and one for the books. Tried and tested a thousand times, and always a winner, you can’t go wrong with this fail-proof banana bread recipe!

I’ll let you in on a little secret… You probably have heard of this magical ingredient called beurre noisette. No? Maybe you’ve heard of browned butter instead? Ah… Yes? Good. If not, that’s still okay, you’ll find out what it is today, that’s all that matters.

Beurre noisette is the culinary term for what is commonly referred to as browned butter. To be honest, I much prefer saying toasted butter. Because when it comes down to it, beurre noisette is exactly that, butter that is melted then toasted.

So how do you make brown butter? This is your luck day because I made a video to show you and save you from burning your precious butter. Also, if you want to know more about beurre noisette, here’s a post about it(insert link to post).

 

 

Now why am I talking about brown butter, you ask? Because I use it in this recipe and I think that, and sour cream sets it apart. Try it and let me know how you go.

 

 

Do I have anything else to add? Hmm… Yes, actually. I know that a lot of you are trying out baking and cooking to stay preoccupied during this very sad, current state of the world. I try not to mention all the bad things happening out there because I want Mrs.FancyPants to be a refuge, but I just want to say that like you, I am also affected. As a chef by trade, I’ve been stood down now for 3 months, and it has been such a trying time for all of us. The good thing is, we are all in this together. So, I hope I am providing some form of entertainment and support to you, because this project, Mrs.FancyPants, has definitely kept my mental health above water by giving me something to build and do.

So I want to thank you, my dear reader, for coming back and asking me questions about my recipes, or about ingredients, or just leaving comments and giving me feedback. Your presence is very much appreciated & I hope I put a smile on your face!

 
Yields: 8 Servings Difficulty: Easy Prep Time: 15 Mins Cook Time: 1 Hr 15 Mins Total Time: 1 Hr 30 Mins

Classic Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf

Ingredients

0/10 Ingredients
    Mash together:
  • Sift together:
  • Whisk together:
  • Optional:

Instructions

0/6 Instructions
  • Preheat oven to 175C. Grease and line a large loaf pan (9x5x3in or 23x13x8cm) with baking paper. See notes.
  • In your stand mixer bowl, or with a hand mixer, mix both sugars and bananas until the bananas are mashed.
  • In a medium bowl, sift together flour, cinnamon and baking powder.
  • In a third bowl, mix all the dairy and eggs until smooth, making sure the butter is not too hot, or else the eggs will cook. Add this mix to your mashed banana mix. Once everything is incorporated, fold in the dry ingredients.
  • Pour into prepared loaf pan until about 3/4 to the top, if you have some extra, pour it into muffin pans. Top with walnuts or chocolate chips (optional)
  • Bake for 45 minutes then turn the pan around and bake for another 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. If you had extra mix (if you have a smaller loaf pan than me, your loaf will probable bake in an hour) bake muffins for 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.

Notes

  1. If you don't have a loaf pan this size, use the loaf pan that you have, you will have to bake it less and pour the rest into muffin pans.
  2. Beurre noisette is the culinary term for browned butter. More accurately, it is toasted butter, and is made by simply melting the butter in a pan and toasting it until it starts to smell fragrant and turn into a deep golden colour, not smelling burnt and black. You can watch the video above if it's your first time to make beurre noisette.