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Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Banana-Walnut Cupcake: A Perfect Coffee Partner

Banana Walnut Cupcake.
Perfect with Coffee


It's the month of June and it's the start of the rainy season here in the Philippines. It's been raining a couple of days, my afternoons seems kind of unproductive lately. I can't go out of the house because of the heavy rains. 


My daughter has been nagging me to bake some cupcakes. She's been hooked on this online baking game lately and she really wants to try baking for real. I've had a lot of free time one rainy afternoon, we (my daughter and I) decided to make some cupcakes.



And since the cold rainy weather is enticing me also to make a strong cup of coffee, what would be a great partner for coffee than some hot, fresh from the oven Banana Walnut Cupcakes. 


Here is my recipe. It's so easy to prepare, you can try this at home.


Ingredients:




2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
4 large bananas
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
3/4 cups butter, melted
1 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup evaporated milk or fresh milk
3/4 cup chopped walnut




If you do not have walnuts, you can actually use other nut varieties available, like peanuts or cashew nuts. You can also use crushed pineapple instead of nuts (but that would be called Banana-Pineapple Cupcake! LOL). If you use crushed pineapple, you can eliminate the milk or your cupcake will be very soft and will take a longer time to bake. Some banana-walnut cupcake recipes use white instead of brown sugar. I prefer using brown sugar because it adds color to the final product and it has more nutrients compared to white sugar.


I used a food processor in preparing this cupcake. If you do not have a food processor, its okay. Just follow the procedure but make sure that you mash the bananas and blend well all of the ingredients.


To make the cupcake, first prepare all your ingredients and preheat your oven to 375 deg F. 


In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and baking powder then set aside. Mash two pieces of the bananas in a separate bowl until lumpy. Set aside. Melt the better in a small saucepan. Take off from heat when melted and set aside to cool down.


My happy-helper mashing the bananas for me. 
In your food processor, place the remaining bananas and add the brown sugar. Process for about 3 minutes using your chopping blade attachment. Add the eggs, vanilla, and melted butter and blend for a minute or two. Alternately add the flour mixture and milk to the banana mixture, starting and ending with the dry ingredients. Blend well, but do not over beat the mixture or else you'll end up having a tough texture. Add your mashed banana and chopped walnuts to the mixture and mix well. 


Mixing the banana-sugar mixture using food processor.

Mix in the chopped walnuts.
Line your muffin pans with paper cups. I used a 2 1/2 oz paper cup for my cupcakes. Fill the cups 1/2 or 2/3 full. I used an ice cream scoop to make it easier and less messy. After filling, tap the muffin pan lightly on the counter. Bake on your pre-heated oven for 15-20 minutes. You can check if your cupcakes are ready by inserting a toothpick to the center of the cupcake. If it comes out clean, you may take your cupcakes out of the oven. Cool your cupcakes in the pan for 3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool. 


Fill the cupcake pans using an ice cream scoop.


Cupcakes cooling on the pan.
This recipe yields 24 cupcakes. You may serve this plain or with frosting. Some recipes suggest frosting these little delights with cream cheese frosting or dusting it with confectioners sugar on top. I prefer mine plain. 



Enjoy your banana-walnut cupcakes with coffee or your favorite beverage. 


I hope you like my recipe. 


Yumyum. Photos courtesy of my photographer husband.
Who devoured 4 pieces of these lovely cupcakes. 



2 comments:

  1. Could you tell me what are the metric measure instead of cups?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Maria. It's been I awhile since I last opened my blog. I had been very busy. I don't use metric measure in baking coz most of my recipe books use volume measurement instead of weight measurements.

    I found this site which can make conversions of measurements and they are ingredient specific too. Try this site: http://www.onlineconversion.com/weight_volume_cooking.htm

    Hope this helps. :)

    ReplyDelete