Microwave Banana Bread / Muffins

I had been baking a lot of chocolate cakes since my family loves chocolate in any form,   but was longing to try something different. Finally settled for Banana Bread/Cake since had some ripe Bananas at home, but sadly did not have a recipe! The closest I could find was Banana and coconut Cake which is actually my cousin’s recipe that I have adapted to bake this bread.  The recipe called for Coconut and bread crumbs but I omitted them and just used Bananas and added cinnamon powder since I remembered the distinct taste of cinnamon in Banana Bread that I had tasted long time ago.

Lo behold, the Bread turned out so soft and moist…the house was filled with the sweet aroma of Cinnamon, Banana and Baked Bread!! Someone has rightly said …..baking really has a soothing effect on our minds!! My Mum in law declared, that was the best bread she had ever eaten J  The bonus point was, I let my little boy taste it for the first time and I felt, it was all worth the try, when I saw his little dance after taking his first bite J.  Ever since it has become a frequent tea time snack at home and breakfast menu for my little bunny! 

Moreover it’s a healthy recipe with the goodness of Bananas, eggs, and a dash of spice which really calmed my senses!! I have replace the bread crumbs with wheat flour and butter with cooking oil J.  So here goes my first attempt in baking my first Banana Bread / Muffins J

Ingredients required:

1 ¼ cup sugar

½   cup butter or oil

3 eggs

1-2 cups mashed bananas ( I used 2 cups)

1 tsp vanilla essence

¾ cup soul milk (yogurt)

1 tsp cooking soda

1 cup Maida/All purpose flour

1 cup Wheat flour

1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

½ cup cashews / walnuts finely chopped

1 ½ tsp Cinnamon powder

Method:

1.      Pre-heat oven at 350 F or 180 C. Beat eggs and add sugar and oil and cream together.

2.      Mix in mashed banana, Vanilla essence.

3.      Combine sour milk with soda, once it rises in volume, add it and mix well.

4.      Sift together all purpose flour, wheat flour, baking powder and Cinnamon.  Add this to the creamed mixture and blend it well.

5.      Stir in the chopped walnuts/cashes and pour into a greased and floured cake/loaf pan.

6.      Bake for 40-45 minutes in moderate oven or until the bread is done.

How to bake in Microwave: If you are using a microwave, set the micro power to 480 Watt (which is a moderate power setting to bake in my Microwave model) and bake it in greased and floured borosil dish for 20 minutes on the rotating tray.  Once done, insert the round steel stand used for grilling and place the cake dish on top of it. Bake for 3-5 more minutes under Combi Grill mode in the medium setting to brown the top. Please do go through user manual of your microwave if you are not too sure about the power settings. It differs in each Microwave model. The objective is to keep the temperature setting in moderate power.…not too low or too high to get best results.

If you are using small cupcake molds made of silicon, it will be done in 8-10 minutes under 480 watts. I did not use silicon cupcake molds in the combi- grill mode, since I was not sure if they would be safe under excess heat!  Use your best judgment and bake in short durations in order to avoid any kind of burning! That’s what I do J

Will come up with more updates about the microwave baking as and when I discover the secrets! Till then take care and bake some healthy banana bread/muffins and enjoy!!

Points to Ponder:

You must be aware of verities of bread that can be prepared in your kitchen. But you would be delighted to know few more verities which you may have never heard before!! Read on to know more………….

Genesis 3:19 – Bread of sweat (hard work)

Proverbs 31:27 –Bread of Idleness

Proverbs 4:17 –Bread of wickedness

Psalms 127:2 –Bread of Sorrows,

Psalms 80:5 –Bread of Tears

Isaiah 30:20 – Bread of Adversity

The Bible references mentioned above talks about people who eat bread according to their deeds. But the best of all is Bread of Life who is Jesus himself. As eating bread is so essential for us to sustain physically, Jesus the Bread of life is also very essential to sustain us spiritually, emotionally and eternally!!!

John 6:35 – Jesus says, “I am the Bread of Life, Whoever comes to me will never go hungry and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty.”