chocolate chips – Jellybeans in the City

#QuarantineCookbook: Banana Loaf Three Ways

It sure looks like the quarantine has turned me into some kind of maven in the kitchen (if I may say so myself; indulge me, please).

With a little bit of extra time that working from home afforded to me, as well as the greater availability of ingredients from online sellers, I found myself getting bitten again by the baking bug.

I decided to try my hand on an old favorite: the Banana Loaf. It’s a simple enough recipe and the ingredients are easily accessible.

It’s also great as a mid-afternoon snack or an after-meal dessert.

Here’s the twist, though: my kiddos and I have varying preferences when it comes to the Banana Loaf. I love it with nuts (for the contrast in texture), while my daughter #ExhibitA prefers it without; my son #ExhibitB, a sweet-tooth just like his mom, would go bonkers for it if it has chocolate.

What’s a budding baker mom to do?

Well, why not have it three ways? I made a plain Banana Loaf, two loaves with nuts, and a loaf with nuts and chocolate. This way, everybody’s happy (especially me, because I get two loaves, hehehe!).

Here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

3 ripe mashed bananas
2 tsp lemon juice
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups buttermilk substitute (made by combining 1 1/2 tbsp vinegar with enough fresh milk to make 1 1/2 cups of the mixture)
1 cup roughly chopped walnuts
1/4 cup dark chocolate chips

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 135 deg C (275 deg F). Line four 8″x 3″ loaf pans with wax paper and lightly grease the bottom and sides.

In a small bowl, combine the mashed bananas with the lemon juice. In another bowl, combine flour, salt and baking soda. Set both bowls aside.

Using an electric mixer, cream the butter, white and brown sugar in a large bowl for three minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then mix in the vanilla.

Mix in the flour mixture alternately with the buttermilk substitute until evenly combined. Stir in the mashed banana mixture.

Scoop enough of the batter to the first loaf pan to fill it two-thirds of the way. This will be the plain Banana Loaf.

Fold in the chopped walnuts in to the batter until evenly distributed then scoop enough of the mixture to fill two-thirds of the next two loaf pans. These will be the Banana Loaf with Walnuts.

Fold in the dark chocolate chips into the remaining batter then scoop it into the last loaf pan. This will be the Chocolate Walnut Banana Loaf.

Place the loaf pans into the pre-heated oven and bake for sixty to eighty-five minutes (depending on your oven) or until a toothpick you insert into the middle of the loaves comes out clean.

As soon as fully baked, remove the loaf pans from the oven and place them directly into the freezer for forty-five minutes. Doing this will add to the moist texture of the loaves. (I’m not familiar with the exact science behind this but I can’t argue with the results).

Serve and enjoy!

The loaves turned out to have just the right amount of moistness and are not overly sweet.

As it turns out, even #ExhibitA likes the loaf with the chocolate chips. Hmmm…

PS:

If you want to add some more sweetness to the loaves, you can top them with some cream cheese frosting, similar to the one used for my Carrot Cupcakes.

You may also adjust the amount of walnuts or chocolate chips you add into the banana loaf batter for the second loaf pan and so on, or the sequence of adding the tweak ingredients, depending on your family’s preferences (and whose preference reigns supreme!).

Try this recipe out and let me know how it goes!

Looking for other easy-to-cook dishes to try out while in quarantine? Check out my other kitchen adventures:

Yummy ice cream break at Cold Stone Creamery, BGC

Rain or shine, weekend lunches while out with my kiddies are some of the most fun experiences ever. Oftentimes, after feasting in our favorite haunts in Bonifacio Global City – Saboten being one of them – we want to prolong the family bonding time by enjoying some yummy dessert.

Good thing there’s a Cold Stone Creamery Parlor nearby. The store is known for its ice cream, freshly made right in the store and churned on frozen granite stone (hence the name) together your choice of add-ons like nuts, fruits, candy and cake bits.

Being chocoholics, my son and I split a cup of Chocolate Ice Cream topped with chocolate chips. My daughter, on the other hand, chose a cup of French Vanilla Ice Cream topped with crushed graham crackers.

The ice cream had a rich and premium texture and taste which made the hefty price tag of Php158 per cup seem kinda worth it.

This Cold Stone Creamery outlet is located at Ground Floor, Serendra, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City. Other outlets can be found at:

Second Floor, Main Building, SM City North EDSA, Bago Bantay, Quezon City
Ground Floor, Main Mall, Mall of Asia Complex (MOA), Pasay City
SM By The Bay, Seaside Boulevard, Mall of Asia Complex (MOA), Pasay City
Ground Floor, UP Town Center, Katipunan Avenue, Diliman, Quezon City
Corte de Las Palmas, AlabangTown Center, Alabang, Muntinlupa City
Level 4, Robinsons Galleria, Ortigas, Quezon City
Upper Ground Floor, Building A, SM Megamall, Ortigas, Mandaluyong City
Ground Floor, Trinoma Mall, Bagong Pag-Asa, Quezon City
Level 2 , Greenbelt 3, Greenbelt, Makati City
Evia Lifestyle Center, Daang Hari Road, Alabang, Muntinlupa City
Second Floor, Ayala Malls Serin, Tagaytay-Nasugbu Road, Tagaytay City

This post contains affiliate links.

Want to make ice cream at home? Check out these ice cream makers available on Amazon.com!

Nostalgia ICMP400WD 4-Quart Electric Wood Bucket Ice Cream Maker. I like its combination of old-fashioned look and modern convenience.

Cuisinart ICE-21 1.5 Quart Frozen Yogurt-Ice Cream Maker (White). This one has clean lines that will look good in most modern kitchens.

Want to try making some homemade ice cream and other desserts today? There’s no need to leave home to shop for ingredients. With Honestbee, just order your groceries online and you’ll get them delivered right at your doorstep at your preferred time. Use this referral link and get Php500 off for a minimum spend of Php2,500. You can download the Honestbee app on iTunes or Google Play.

If you’re in the US and an Amazon Prime member, sign up for a free trial of Amazon Fresh to get your groceries delivered to you.

Recipe: Oatmeal Peanut Butter Breakfast Balls

It is a cliche already but breakfast is the most important meal of the day. It fires up your metabolism and gets you going for the rest of the day.

However, in the rush of morning chores and preparations to leave for work or school, family members seldom have the time to prepare and eat breakfast. Fortunately, I came across some recipes for Oatmeal Peanut Butter Breakfast Balls on Pinterest that seem easy to prepare in advance over the weekend and just take out and serve for a quick breakfast before leaving the house.

Another lucky break for me is getting a Super Crunchy Peanut Butter among the sampler jars that Fix & Fogg sent for me to try out.

Fix & Fogg is a maker of small batch peanut butter based in Wellington, New Zealand. Its peanut butter variants have just become available in the Philippines, stocked in retail outlets like All Day Supermarkets, Cartel Deli, Earth Origins Marketplace and Power Plant Market, as well as distributed online via websites such as Beauty MNL, Gerald.PH and the Green Grocer.

I tweaked the original recipe: substituting instant for rolled oats, replacing walnuts with some chopped cashew nuts that I bought from Antipolo, using semi-sweet chocolate chips instead of the regular ones and taking out raisins (because I’m not too wild about them).

Ingredients:

1 cup instant oats
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup Fix & Fogg Super Crunchy Peanut Butter
1/2 cup chopped cashew nuts
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Procedure:

Mix all ingredients together in a large mixing bowl.
Using a small ice cream scoop, scoop up the mixture to form domes. (I had to firmly pat down the mixture into the scoop to get some properly shaped domes. If the mixture is not tightly packed, it will easily crumble once you take it off the scoop.)
Freeze for an hour or until the balls are firm.
Store in airtight resealable bags inside the chiller.
Take out the balls you plan to have for breakfast a few minutes before serving (like while you’re still making your coffee).

Recipe yields 22 breakfast balls. Each ball has approximately 87 calories.

My little boy tried one and he immediately wanted another!

Want to try this recipe today? There’s no need to leave home to shop for ingredients. With Honestbee, just order your groceries online and you’ll get them delivered right at your doorstep at your preferred time. Use this referral link and get Php500 off for a minimum spend of Php2,500. You can download the Honestbee app on iTunes or Google Play.

If you’re in the US and an Amazon Prime member, sign up for a free trial of Amazon Fresh to get your groceries delivered to you.

Disclosure: Fix & Fogg provided product samples for me to review. Reactions and opinions about the product are my own.

Recipe: Lava Cake in Less than 5 Minutes

I got myself a pair of Hershey’s Lava Cake Makers from Gourdo’s a couple of months back.

These nifty plastic mugs enable you to make mug cakes using your microwave oven. They even come with lids so you can have your mug cakes on the go.

Imagine the possibilities:

Whenever you have craving for sweets, you can easily whip up a dessert
You can teach your kids how to make their own sweet snacks in a fun, fast and easy way
You can have something to serve to unexpected guests in a matter of minutes

The packages come with 2 lava cake recipe options: one using the cake mix from Hershey’s and one from scratch. Since I have the ingredients readily available, I decided to make the lava cakes from scratch. I wrote down the recipe as I thought I might lose the hardcopy (and I did!). This recipe yields 2 yummy mug cakes, great for sharing!

Ingredients:

2 tbsp vegetable oil
1/4 cup milk
1 large egg
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/3 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp cocoa
1/2 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Procedure:

In a small bowl, whisk together vegetable oil, milk and vanilla. Add the flour, sugar and cocoa and whisk to combine.
To make 1 lava cake: place 1/8 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips at the bottom of the mug, then pour in 1/4 of the batter to cover the chocolate chips. Place another 1/8 cup of chocolate chips then cover them with 1/4 of the batter.
Microwave on HIGH for 90 secs or until cake is fluffy.
Repeat steps 2 and 3 to make the second mug cake.