Bananas are very popular in my house but the moment the skins start to turn brown, my children turn their noses up at them. I often get left with a few in the fruit bowl that needed using up. Here are some ideas for what to do with them.
- Banana Muffins These are delicious and can be eaten at any time – even for breakfast. There are plenty of recipes on the Internet but I used this one. I couldn’t find any paper muffin cases in the cupboard so I used my silicon muffin tray to make these.
2. Banana Loaf This banana loaf is so delicious! There are a lot of recipes online. Some call for cream cheese icing which I think goes really well with banana. I drizzled this one with glacé icing as I didn’t have any cream cheese. You can add lots of different things to banana loaf such as chopped walnuts, raisins or cinnamon. It’s also nice if you substitute some or all of the flour for wholemeal flour.
3. Cooked Bananas You can do these in the oven but I usually cook them in a frying pan for speed. Slice the bananas in half along their length. Put in a pan with some butter, lemon juice and brown sugar. Cook until they are brown and soft, and the sugar is becoming a sticky sauce. They are delicious served with cream.
4. Banana “ice cream” I have put the words ice cream in inverted commas because there is no cream involved with this recipe. It is very simple and healthy as the only ingredient is bananas, although I like to experiment by adding other things such as cinnamon or peanut butter. The one pictured here has cinnamon added which gives it its lovely golden brown colour. Chop up some bananas and put them in a plastic bag in the freezer. Freeze them until they are almost solid but not quite. If they have been in the freezer too long, take them out and leave them at room temperature for about an hour. You can also add other soft fruit to the bananas such as strawberries, raspberries or peach. Blend the fruit with a hand blender until it is smooth and resembles ice cream. You can fool yourself (or your children) that you are eating ice cream when it is actually just fruit.
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