Going Bananas Over Bananas

We spent the whole day baking. And we made cupcakes (AGAIN!) due to popular demand by a little young man. We made crackers again. And we experimented in making banana crackers. The sides were crispy, but the texture of the middle parts were like roti canai. I am not complaining, but it would have been nice if all of them turned out crispy. But the little young man enjoyed them. We also attempted banana chips. But they did not turn out crispy. They turned out chewy instead.

Here is the recipe for the banana crackers.

Ingredients:

1. 1 1/2 cup flour (1/2 cup of all-purpose flour, high protein bread flour and whole-meal flour)
2. 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
3. 3 tablespoons of butter
4. About 6 tablespoons of cold water
5. 2 large bananas

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1. Preheat oven to 200C.

2. Sieve the flour and salt into a large bowl.

3. Add the butter into the bowl and mix the ingredients until it resembles bread crumbs.

4. Mash the bananas and add it into the mixture.

5. Add the cold water and mix the dough until the mixture forms a compact ball. If it is crumbly, add more water. If it is too sticky, add more flour.

6. Divide the dough into 4 to 6 round balls.

7. Put a ball of dough onto a baking sheet and roll it until it is evenly flat. The thinner it is, the crispier the crackers will be.

8. You can use a pizza cutter to pre-cut the crackers before putting them into the oven. I used a butter knife. Use a fork to poke holes into the flattened dough.

9. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until it is brown.

10. Once it is cool, break the crackers into pieces.

Recipe for banana chips.

1. Preheat oven to 90C. Coat baking tray/foil with a thin layer of butter.

2. Slice bananas thinly (about 1/8") and place on baking tray.

3. Bake for about 2 hours + or until brown and crispy.

Banana cupcakes with sprinkles (by the little young man)

Wholemeal crackers

The Glorious Heavens (Part 6)

A jet flying in the far distance

'We all live under the same sky, but we don't all have the same horizon.' - Konrad Adenauer

'The sky is that beautiful old parchment in which the sun and the moon keep their diary.' - Alfred Kreymborg

Cupcakes, Cupcakes and MORE Cupcakes! And Crackers Too!

My little young man got back his appetite all of a sudden after indulging in my home-made banana cupcakes. He has been talking non-stop about cupcakes, eating cupcakes for breakfast, morning tea, afternoon tea and supper, breathing cupcakes and most likely dreaming about cupcakes at this very moment!

I baked a smaller batch yesterday and Joel finished everything by this morning's breakfast! I made banana cupcakes yesterday. It is salicylate-free if you do not add the sprinkles on the top. Here is the recipe for the banana cupcake.

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Ingredients:

1. 3 tablespoons of butter
2. 2 tablespoons of refined brown sugar
3. 2 large eggs
4. 3 large bananas
5. 1 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
6. Sprinkles (optional)

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1. Cream the butter and sugar in a large bowl.

2. Add in one egg at a time and beat it well.

3. Mash the bananas and add them into the creamed mixture.

4. Beat them well.

5. Add the sifted flour a bit at a time and continue to beat it well.

6. Fill the paper cupcakes with the batter.

7. You can add some sprinkles on top if desired.

8. Bake them in pre-heated oven of 190C. Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly browned.

Enjoy your cupcakes!

The plain cupcakes are salicylate-free

The little young man made these today. He prepared all the paper cups, mixed the ingredients, beat the ingredients well and did the sprinkling. All I did was to scoop the batter into the cups and put them into the oven to bake and to take them out. He even helped a lot in the 'eating part'!

We made lemon and banana cupcakes today. If you are able to tolerate lemons (I cannot tolerate them at all), you can replace the bananas with the rind of 1 lemon and juice of 1 lemon.

Cupcakes galore! Lemon cupcakes (in front container) and banana cupcakes (in container next to casserole).

I managed to bake wholemeal crackers yesterday. I used a bit less butter than the original saltine crackers recipe. I find that it has its own unique taste. And I have to stop pigging out on crackers and work more in the garden. If not, I'll be looking like cupcakes SOON!

Just replace the all-purpose flour with wholemeal flour and you're all set to bake wholemeal crackers!

Here's the link to my salicylate-free salt crackers:

Salicylate-Free Salt Crackers Recipe



Bon Appetit!

The Container Garden - An Update

My one-year-old lemon tree has been very out of shape. I trimmed it and it looks VERY neat now!

My 1 year-old lemon tree!

Some of the cherry tomatoes

The lone sweet corn!

I sowed six corn seeds but only two sprouted. And one of them died after sprouting. The weather was just too wet. Only this survived. I hope it is sweet.

A new pot of Periwinkle!

The ONLY red spinach! The rest of the seedlings died from the constant downpour.

Not very healthy looking vegetables due to the excessive downpour everyday.

The baby radish! 

All 5 baby radishes. They were VERY tiny.

3rd harvest of kangkung

The periwinkle seeds fell into the bougainvillea pot, sprouted and now is blooming very well!

They come in droves everyday! Haha... Escargot?

I had to harvest them while they were still green as fruit flies were all over the place! I placed them in a container and let them ripen at room temperature. 

More are turning yellow

The ripened tomatoes!

The cherry tomatoes were attacked by the sparrows!

More tomatoes and a mini capsicum!

The Oleander Hawk Caterpillars are back! 

A Swallowtail butterfly laying an egg on my baby orange tree

This is a WEED, but it has beautiful, tiny yellow flowers. Does anybody know its name?

Allamanda flowers in full bloom (buttercups)

White Japanese Rose

One of the last harvest

I've chopped down all the okra, tomatoes, capsicums and chilli plants as they have all caught viral diseases and fungus infections due to the excessive rain every day. I added compost to all the soils and am PATIENTLY waiting for the rainy weather to be over. Hopefully next year will be a greater year where the vegetable harvest is concerned! :)