Banana Cheesecake Bread: Another Way to Use Up Overripe Bananas

What happens when you have too many bananas left over to simply make a banana bread? Then you crack out the big guns and make banana cheesecake bread! 

I bought an entire bunch of bananas, and completely forgot about them: they sat in my fruit bowl until they went brown and spotty. Now, I like spotty bananas, but even for me these went too far: they had got to the powdery stage of ripeness. 

So, I didn’t really want to make a load of banana bread because a) I’m not really banana bread’s biggest fan, and b) I already have a problem with baking more than can be eaten at home. But, I do have a friend who adores cheesecake in all its manifestations! I thought I’d make him a nice treat. 

This is an extremely banana-y dessert that’s sickly sweet, so I heartily recommend that it’s served with a dark chocolate, or mocha, sauce, or dusted liberally with a good quality deep, rich cocoa powder. The bitterness is key to mellowing out the sweetness. Alternatively, you can go all-out sugar-fest and eat with a delicious caramel sauce and some chopped pecans. 

The trick is to add one large mashed banana for every 225g (8 ounces) of cream cheese to your favourite cheesecake recipe. Mine is thick and crumbly, like a European baked cheesecake, but even if you use a more custardy style, like a New York cheesecake, bananas have a good setting quality like eggs when used in baking, so don’t worry about the recipe being too soft or soupy. 

Next time I make this, I'll make a round one; but, because I had so many bananas, I made two loaves. One went to my friend, and the other went to college with my fiancé.

Variation on a Theme: Chocolate Chip Wholemeal Banana Bread (Wheat- an Dairy Free)

I haven't done banana bread in ages, and seeing as I have a load of overripe bananas hanging around, it seemed timely...

This banana bread is made with wholemeal flour, with the naughty addition of some milk chocolate chips. You can't always be healthy in this life, and this doesn't have any butter so the odd chocolate chip should be okay!

I used the same recipe as my vegan banana bread, with the totally un-vegan addition of two medium eggs. I mixed them into the bananas, oil, and sugar before adding the dry ingredients. I personally like to add eggs for texture and structure, but you don't have to add any eggs if you want to keep it eggless. I also stirred in some milk chocolate chips for added interest.


If you would like to make the bread yourself, here is how you do it.

INGREDIMENTS
This will yield one 8x4 inch (20x10 centimeter) loaf.

• 8 ounces (225 grammes) wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 tablespoon (15 millilitres) baking powder
• 2 teaspoons (10 millilitres) mixed spice
• Pinch of salt
• 3 large overripe bananas
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• 3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) sunflower oil
• 2 medium eggs
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) chocolate chips, milk or dark, or use dairy free chocolate
• Optional: Golden syrup or honey, for brushing

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease and flour a loaf pan.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and spice into a large mixing bowl. In another bowl or large jug, mash the bananas with the sugar and salt until smooth and runny. Beat in the oil and eggs.
• Make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon only until combined. You don't need to beat it, as the texture will be tough if you do.
• Gently fold in the chocolate chips, then pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes. Test the loaf with a cocktail stick, and if it's still sticky in the middle, bake for a further 5 minutes. Repeat this process if needed.
• Remove from the oven once baked and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
• If you would like to glaze your bread, brush the top of the loaf with some golden syrup of honey as soon as it comes out of the oven.
• Eat when it has fully cooled, and store the leftovers in an airtight container for up to two weeks.

Banoffee Fairy Cakes (Wheat Free; Dairy Substitute)

Introducing my latest creation: wheat-free, dairy-free banoffee fairy cakes! Tada! 

I have a confession to make: I don't like bananas. I'll only eat a banana in a very specific set of circumstances, when the banana is exactly the correct ripeness and presented to me in exactly the right form. There's something about the texture: it's fine until you chew, then it just gets weird. But, that's just me.

I do however really like the flavour of banana, if indeed its texture is too odd for my taste, and one banana thing I truly love is banoffee pie. Originally from East Sussex but now famous world over, banoffee pie is traditionally made of a pastry case covered with sliced banana, topped off with toffee sauce and decorated with whipped cream and shaved chocolate.

The concept of mixing buttery pastry, banana and toffee together has now spread into other kinds of desserts, such as ice cream sundaes and cakes. This inspired me to make some nice little banoffee fairy cakes.

These are not in anyway complicated, just a banana flavoured sponge fairy cake, topped with toffee flavoured glacé icing, and decorated with a little banana chip.

FREE FROM
☑ Soya (check for soya lecithin)
☑ Yeast
☑ Wheat
☑ Nuts


CONTAINS
☒ Gluten (oats and spelt)
☒ Dairy (you can use margarine instead of butter)
☒ Eggs

 INGREDIMENTS
For 12 fairy cakes

• 3 ounces (85 grammes) white spelt flour
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) cornflour

• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• 2 medium eggs, at room temperature
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) caster sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence (preferably the pure and natural kind)
• 2 ounces sunflower oil
• 1 medium banana, mashed
• 1 tablespoon (30 millilitres) warm water

For the icing:

• 4 ounces (115 grammes) icing sugar
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) butter or margaine
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) golden syrup
• 1 ounce (30 grammes) brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons (30 millilitres) water
• 12 banana chips

METHOD

• Make the batter following this recipe, adding the mashed banana with the water. Distribute among 12 large fairy cake cases and bake as instructed.
• Once baked, allow to cool completely before icing.
• To make the icing, melt together the butter (or margarine), golden syrup, and brown sugar together with the water in a saucepan over medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and beat in the icing sugar until smooth.
• Pour the icing over the cakes, and while still wet press a banana chip into each cake.
• Allow to set before eating, roughly 30 minutes.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: No-Churn No-Cook Strawberry Cheesecake Ice-Cream (EGG FREE, WHEAT FREE)

Variation on a Theme: Persian Banana Bread

I usually like to experiment with ingredients and flavours and see what mental image they bring to mind, and when I looked in the press and saw leftover pistachio nuts from my pistachio ice-cream fiasco, an image of hanging gardens, men in parachute pants on black horses with curved swords, and bejewelled belly-dancers in head scarves came to mind. Do not ask me why, although my recent works-of-Zack-Snyder marathon (including "300") may have put me in the right frame of mind to conjure such images.

So, I went ahead and made a Persian inspired banana bread with pistachios and orange-lemon glaze.

Middle-Eastern cookery has been fashionable over the last 5 or so years, I have found. Here in Limerick all of a sudden Lebanese restaurants have sprung up, jars of Moroccan spices and preserved lemons have started to appear in the supermarkets, and cookery programmes have been centred on Moroccan and "Persian-style" cookery and street food. I know that Morocco is nowhere near the Middle East, but countries that border the Mediterranean sea to the south and the east tend to have the same sensibility when it comes to flavours and combinations.

When I think of Persian food, I think of citrus fruits (especially lemons), pistachios, prunes, lamb, spices (cinnamon, ginger, star anise, turmeric, paprika, mint, coriander, and cloves spring foremost to mind) honey, almonds, chickpeas and flatbreads. I know there isn't a single banana in sight in that list, but I just fancied some banana bread and making it a little bit more interesting.

So, I used my vegan banana bread recipe (and it turned out quite differently this time, the high likelihood of which I explain in that recipe) and added:

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon ginger and 1/2 teaspoon garam masala blend for the spices
• 2 ounces (55 grammes) toasted and chopped pistachio nuts for the filling

When it was cooked, I brushed the top with some very delicious Seville orange marmalade, warmed mixed with about 2 teaspoons of lemon juice, and then put the loaf back in the oven for about 3 minutes to set the glaze.

Needless to say it is very delicious, but due to the variant nature of bananas, this one turned out much drier than usual. I'm thinking maybe some sort of peanut butter and jam sandwich inspired load next, but I am yet to work out how exactly that would translate into a loaf.

THIS TIME LAST YEAR: Sweeties Make Great Gifts, Hopefully!

Vegan Banana Bread (Wheat-, Dairy-, and Egg Free)

Sometimes I get the sudden urge to bake things and then I discover that I'm missing some fairly critical ingredients: either late at night, early in the morning, or when I've run out of money for the week and have to rely only on the things in the house. The other day I wanted to get rid of some bananas that were slowly turning an upsetting shade of brown, and then I discovered that I had no eggs... and eggs are pretty vital when it comes to baking most things.

However, I put two and two together in my mind: I don't have eggs => who else doesn't have eggs? => vegans don't eat eggs => find a vegan recipe. So I did.

Luckily for me, I found this recipe online and adapted it for use with spelt flour and it worked a treat! Through my research I learnt that in a lot of vegan cookery eggs are replaced either with bananas or applesauce, which was ideal given that I needed to make egg-free banana bread.

I will note that, unlike cakes and biscuits where one can get away with replacing some of the flour with cornflour, one must use all spelt flour in tea bread, otherwise the texture is compromised. A tea bread needs to be firm enough to be cut into slices, and the addition of cornflour makes the crumb too fine, leading to breakage when you attempt to cut it. That's just my experience, anyway.

INGREDIMENTS
This will yield one 8x4 inch (21x10 centimeter) loaf.

• 8 ounces (230 grammes) white or wholemeal spelt flour
• 1 rounded tablespoon baking powder (yes, that's a lot. It's needed to compensate for the lack of air incorporated into the beaten eggs; it doesn't affect the flavour)
• 2 to 3 teaspoons cinnamon, or mixed spice for added interest
• 3 ounces (85 grammes) soft brown sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 3 large overripe bananas
• 3 fluid ounces (85 millilitres) sunflower oil
• Optional: 2 ounces (55 grammes) dried fruit or nuts

HOW-TO

• Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, Gas Mk.4, or moderate). Grease and flour a loaf pan.
• Sift the flour, baking powder, and spice into a large mixing bowl. If you are using dried fruit or nuts, mix them into the dry ingredients to coat; set aside.
• In another bowl or large jug, mash the bananas with the sugar, oil and salt until smooth and runny.
• Then, make a well in the middle of the dry ingredients and pour in the banana mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon only until combined. You don't need to beat it, as the texture will be tough if you do.
• Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes. Test the loaf with a cocktail stick, and if it's still sticky in the middle, bake for a further 5 minutes. Repeat this process if needed. Baking this bread is not an exact science: every banana will be slightly different in size, therefore every time you make this the cooking time will slightly change.
• Remove from the oven once baked and allow to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Consume in swathes in lashings of butter, raspberry jam or peanut butter; that is not a serving suggestion, that is an order...