Stocking up on fruit and veg at the weekend, I noticed that there were two very black bananas in our fruit basket. I find black bananas extremely unpleasant to eat, but know from years of making Avoca’s Banana Bread that overripe bananas work really well in baking. I did a bit of searching online to find a banana recipe that only used two bananas and was also dairy-free, as I wanted to give them our pal Maria Crispy, who is ‘trendily lactose-intolerant’. Very very specific and picky indeed, but of course the magical internet had plenty of options.
Once you veer into the territory of dairy-free recipes, you find that a lot of the writers also assume that you’re off wheat and eggs as well. However, there’s no need to follow them to the letter, and when I made this lovely one for Banana and Coconut Muffins I just used normal flour.
Ingredients
- 120g caster sugar
- 280g flour (use spelt if you’re off wheat as well)
- Pinch salt
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 60ml vegetable oil
- 2 bananas
- 1 egg, beaten
- 280 ml coconut milk
I wasn’t sure about the vegetable oil, never having baked with any before. I thought olive oil might taste too strong, so used sunflower, and it was perfectly fine. There’s no discernible taste of oil from the finished muffins.
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 200°
- In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt.
- In another bowl, mix together the coconut milk, oil and the beaten egg.
- Fold the liquid from the second bowl into the first, and mix together lightly.
- Add the mashed banana before all the ingredients are fully combined. Do not over-mix, it’s fine if the mixture looks a bit rough.
- Spoon the mixture into a muffin tray (oiled with vegetable oil) or fairy cake cases on a baking tray. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until they are golden on top.
With the leftover coconut milk, I was able to make a light dinner of Thai Tom Yun Gai soup. Yay!
The Banana and Coconut Muffins recipe came from Ezinearticles.com.
Tuesday 16 June, 2009 at 9:08 pm
I empathise with trendily-intolerant Maria Crispy – though I’m a huge fan of anything containing lactose, I’m allergic to eggs, which puts a fairly severe limit on the number of baking recipes which are any good to me (as above).
I’ve found ways around it though (with the help of vegan recipes, as Jean found) – if only one egg is called for in a recipe it’s generally a binder and can be replaced easily enough. I’d be happy to try those muffins without eggs and maybe a bit more fruit. Ground flaxseed mixed with water works well as a binder as well – mix in about a 1:3 ratio and leave it for a few minutes while it turns gloopy, and then use it in place of eggs in the recipe. About a tablespoon of flaxseed (plus roughly 3x tbsp water) replaces one egg, so scale up if needed. The muffin (or whatever) will likely be a bit denser and nuttier.
If 3 or 4 eggs are called for they’re probably meant to lighten / aerate the end product, which is a bit trickier.
On a side note, I’ve baked with olive oil before in various breads and it turns out fine.
Monday 10 August, 2009 at 6:23 pm
All going well until I discovered you omitted when to add sugar in your recipe! Grr…. Please crosscheck your ingredients with method before posting
Thursday 20 August, 2009 at 11:48 am
I didn’t have problem with adding sugar – it was lack of instruction about the veg oil that got me!! I didn’t add it at all and just used it to brush top of muffins half way through cooking and they turned out great – v yummy. Prob would be moister (if that’s a word) with it added.
I double checked recipe from the original location and got full instructions.
Thanks for info on avoiding egg Aidan.