‘Muffin top’ banana blondie

This was originally dreamed up as a single serve recipe...and as much as I could have eaten it all to myself, I felt it was better suited two and so shared it with my mum. If you choose to eat it all yourself...I wont judge! It is the weekend after all ;-)

I love single serve recipes as they are quick, require few ingredients and are great for experiments as if things don’t turn out quite the way you expected you haven’t got a whole pan of cake to dispose of! Luckily that was not necessary in this instance.

This little recipe is a coming together of my mug cakes and my blondies. I also tried to strip back the ingredients to the bare minimum to keep it quick and easy.  Chickpeas feature...that was always going to be the case...you know me by now! This little blondie was just like a giant muffin top in shape and texture hence the title of the post, yummy!

I baked this in the oven and it had a deliciously light (blondie like) texture and a golden top. I haven’t tried it in the microwave but since my mug cakes are typically microwave versions I see no reason why this wouldn’t work, obviously without the golden oven baked top so they may not have quite the same 'muffin top-ness'. 

Recipe: Quick banana blondie (for two)

Ingredients:

1 banana (1/3 sliced, 2/3 mashed)
1/4 cup chickpeas
1 tbs coconut oil- melted
2 tbs agave
1/4 cup flour- I used white spelt (but you could use GF mix of choice)
scant 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/4 tsp (or more) cinnamon
Maple syrup to serve (optional indulgence)

Method:

Blend together the mashed banana and chickpeas with the oil and agave until well blended. Add the remaining dry ingredients and mix through.

Spoon the blondie into a 'dollop' on a small lined baking sheet or alternatively use a small pie dish. arrange the remaining banana slices on the top. Decorate with a few choc chunks or nuts if desired.

Bake for approx. 10-12 minutes until golden on top. Note: You could microwave this blondie for 90 seconds, but the texture may not be so light or the top golden.

 

For further guidance on making gluten free choices please see this post.

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.

Double choc banana blondie

On Monday and Tuesday I celebrated my birthday with my work colleagues.... I told you I like to drag out my birthday (which was on Friday) for as long as possible!

At the weekend I'd baked an experimental 'double chocolate banana blondie' to surprise my work colleagues with...they knew it would be healthy and vegan, I then also told them it was gluten free and sugar free....just before they took their first bite I also told them that it had an added secret ingredient...could any of them guess?

Nope......but can you guess? Go on, you should know me well by now.

Oh yes...beans! Well, actually chickpeas.

This was originally going to be a simple 'blondie sponge' based on this blondie recipe, however I realised I had no sweet potato so decided to wing it and sub this for banana and a little tofu instead, this gave the cake a lovely subtle banana kick, not overly so bananary the way a full on banana cake would be but it really complimented the chocolate layer (which I decided needed to be added for visual pizazz) and the choc chunks and nutty crumbles on the top really well.

The verdict....recipe requests, just like this time! I should probably share my baking experiments more!

So that was Monday, but yesterday it was my turn to be surprised when I was presented with a vegan banana cake that had been ordered for me specially and had taken a while to be delivered. It was such a sweet gesture. So after lunch, we all had a slice...it tasted pretty good, although more like a tea bread as it was much dryer than my cake and the apple juice that had been used as a sweetener overpowered the banana in my opinion. The unanimous vote was that my cake was better…yay!!  

Ah ha, here is me and a slice of my surprise banana cake...figured you might want to see a photo of my silly face at birthday time...a rare occurrence to see an actual photo of me on this blog!

The recipe below is for my banana cake. You could make it into a loaf, slices, muffins or a nice round sponge as I did. Options, options...feel free to get a little crazy with your toppings too.

Recipe: Double choc banana blondie

Makes one 7” round cake

Ingredients

1 medium banana

½ cup silken tofu

½ cup mashed chickpeas

1/3 cup coconut butter- melted

2 tsp vanilla extract

¼ cup agave plus ¼ tsp stevia

1 cup GF flour mix* (I used 1/3 cup each of almond meal, buckwheat flour, tapioca flour)

½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp baking soda

A pinch salt

½ tsp cinnamon

3 tbs cocoa powder

Handful dark chocolate chips

Handful nuts (I used hazlenuts)

*you could substitute spelt or regular flour for non GF

Method

Blend the wet ingredients in food processor until very smooth. Pour into a bowl, add dry ingredients (except cocoa, chocolate and nuts) and blend together well mixed.

Divide the mixture into two bowls and add the cocoa two one half of the mixture and mix through well.

Spoon the chocolate mixture into a greased/lined  7” round cake tin (or square tin or loaf tin) and smooth out. Spoon over the blondie layer and gently smooth across taking care not to disturb the bottom layer.

Add the choc chunks and nuts to the top. Bake in the oven at 180C for approx. 20 mins until lightly golden at the edges and a skewer comes away clean.. Allow to cool before slicing and serving.

 
This recipe is shared with Slightly Indulgent Tuesday's

For tips and info on recipe measurement conversions, ingredients, substitutions and the methods behind how I do things.... check out my 'baking tips' tab at the top of the page.