Sourdough Chocolate Chip Banana Bread Muffins

During isolation the internet seems to be obsessed with two things, sourdough and banana bread (okay and maybe toilet roll and growing spring onions from scraps in a jar). Obviously I have you covered on Sourdough, whether you’ve never tackled it before or whether you want a new recipe to try, and of course banana bread isn’t anything new around here. Hopefully by combining the two I can show a really easy recipe that helps you use the discarded starter, preventing waste, and give you something easier to make than the sourdough itself.

Before we get to the recipe lets talk about the sourdough starter and the discard we are going to be using. If you are using your starter on a daily basis you will have a lot of discard and you might not want to bake with that everyday. Thankfully the discard can be kept in the fridge for a few days, topping up each time you feed the starter, or you can even freeze it. When you come to use the discard it is still important to smell it, if there is any off notes, any unpleasant smells these may translate to flavour in your recipe. If you store your starter in the fridge however you won’t have as much discard, you’ve already reduced your waste by slowing down the fermentation meaning the starter needs a lot less feeding. When I store my sourdough baby in the fridge I find it needs two rounds of feeding to bring it back to health and guess what? If you are filling my feeding schedule, two feeds will give you 200g of discard and that is exactly what this recipe calls for, it’s almost like I planned it that way.

Using sourdough discard in your recipes is also easier than you might think. Most sourdough starter recipes are made to be 100% hydration, that is to say with an equal weight of flour and water. This makes using the discard in a recipe straightforward because, say you have 100g of discard, you just divide the amount in half and take out 50g of flour and 50ml liquid from your existing recipe. Using discard in recipes like quick breads like banana bread or muffins, pancakes, waffles are the easiest things to use but you can even use it recipes such a chocolate cake, where the acidity would give a real boost to the chocolate flavour.

Sourdough Banana Bread Muffins
Makes 12

150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp fine sea salt
225g very ripe bananas (weighed without skin)
200g sourdough discard
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
150g unsalted butter, room temperature
185g light brown muscavado sugar
2 large eggs
200g dark chocolate, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180ºC (160ºC Fan). Line a 12-hole muffin tray with paper liners.

In a bowl add the flour, baking powder and salt and whisk together to combine. In a separate bowl add the bananas and use a fork to mash. Pour in the sourdough discard and vanilla and stir until evenly mixed. Place the butter and sugar into a large bowl and using an electric mixer, cream together until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until combined before adding the second. Add the flour mixture and gently fold to combine. Add the banana mixture and mix just until you have an evenly mixed batter. Finally add in about 2/3 of the chocolate and mix briefly to evenly distribute.

Divide the mixture evenly between the muffin paper, filling each one almost to the top. Scatter over the remaining chocolate and throw on a few cacoa nibs too if you like, dried banana chips could be nice too.

Bake in the preheated oven for about 20-22 minutes or until the muffins spring back to the touch. Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 10 minutes before carefully transferring the muffins to a wire rack to cool completely.

Kept in a sealed container these will keep for a couple days, they also freeze brilliantly

Vanilla and Tonka Bean Ice Cream

Ice cream is one of those dishes that I turn to for comfort. Doesn’t matter the season, doesn’t matter the flavour, the process of making it and then the enjoyment from eating it, is a particularly comforting one. I don’t know how you’re all doing right now, I hope you’re staying safe and not going stir crazy stuck at home, but I’ve found myself in a weird place. Some days I’m fine, keeping busy with the few bits of work I've managed to save, and some days like today I wake up at 5.30 in the morning full of anxiety and stress. So I made ice cream. I know in some parts of the world eggs seem scare right now and if thats the case can I suggest this no churn ice cream instead, no eggs required. Scarcity was an issue here in London too, a couple weeks ago, but thankfully the panic buying and hoarding seems to have quieted down a little and all the ingredients needed have become plentiful again.

For the flavour, I wanted nostalgia and simplicity so I made a vanilla enriched base, using the vanilla beans because really what else am I saving them for. When I grabbed the vanilla from my newly organised baking cupboard (quarantine made me do it, or at least gave me a lack of excuses not to do it) I remembered I had a little jar of tonka beans, hidden and neglected in the back. Every time I use tonka I remember how much I love it but I rarely use it because it’s not widely available and I don’t like using lots of ingredients that are harder to track down so forgive my indulgence today you can leave it out if you prefer. Tonka has a unique flavour, a mash up of vanilla and spice. Its a strong flavour and needs to be used sparingly but it can really elevate a dish and make it wonderfully special. Paired with the vanilla of this dish it makes the ice cream a little more complex and rounds out the flavour, if you have some give it a try, if you don’t have some and self isolation’s got you bored maybe order some and have a play with a new ingredient.

Before we get to the recipe I wanted to talk about something a little more serious. I am a self employed food writer and unsurprisingly most of my work for the year basically vanished in a flash. I want to keep producing work for you guys, I want to give a place to come to for fun recipes you can make whilst we’re all stuck at home, and I want to produce content that you can escape with for a bit, but for that I need you’re help and support. I’ve decided to start a patreon and it will be an extension of the site. There is exclusive recipes, bonus episodes of my podcast, live hangouts and more as I think of it. I have kept the price really low and of course if you cant support I completely understand and don’t worry I’ll still be posting regular new recipes here and hanging out over on instagram. But, if you can support me, I would be forever grateful. The next recipe is online today and it is the cookies I used to turn this ice cream into an ice cream sandwich, it's a caramelised oatmeal and milk chocolate cookie, and its a bit special.

https://www.patreon.com/theboywhobakes 

Vanilla and Tonka Bean Ice Cream

300ml whole milk
450ml double cream
125g caster sugar
1 vanilla pod
1/2 tonka bean
6 large egg yolks
Pinch of salt

To make the ice cream in large saucepan place the milk, cream, half the sugar, the vanilla beans scraped from the pod (throw the pod in too), and grate in the tonka bean too. Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Turn off the heat and pop the lid on the pan, setting aside for an hour so the vanilla and tonka can do their thing and infuse the dairy.

Once the hour is up place pan back on the heat and bring to a simmer. Meanwhile place the egg yolks, the salt and the remaining sugar into a large bowl and whisk together until the yolks are pale. Whilst continuing to whisk slowly pour in the milk mixture. This whisking helps prevent the eggs from scrambling and the slow pour helps gently increase the temperature of the eggs. Pour the custard back into the pan and over low heat, cook stirring constantly with a silicon spatula, scraping the bottom of the pan, until the custard reaches 75-80C and is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Pour the custard into a bowl, through a fine mesh strainer to remove any lumps, and place the bowl into a large bowl filled with ice. Stir the custard for a few minutes until cooled to room temperature then press a sheet of clingfilm onto the surface of the custard, to prevent a skin for forming, and chill for at least four hours but preferably over night. This chilling does two things, it allows the flavours to enhance further plus cooling the custard down means when churning the ice cream is formed quicker which improves the texture.

When thoroughly chilled churn using an ice cream machine, referring to the manufacturers instructions. Scrape the finished ice cream into a sealable container and freeze until solid. Homemade ice cream is best within a couple weeks.

The recipe for the cookies in the pictures, a caramelised oatmeal and milk chocolate cookie, is online now on my patreon page.

Vegan Hot Cross Buns

It’s clear if you’ve ever read more than one recipe on this site that I am not vegan. I always say veganising a recipe is a skill I don’t necessarily posses and whilst that is true I want to try harder and include more vegan recipes and options on the site. This recipe, a slight spin on classic hot cross buns, wasn’t originally a result of that thinking though. It was through necessity. I wanted to post a really good hot cross bun recipe for easter but I was concerned in this mad world we are all living in right now that a couple of the required ingredients were on the scare side at the moment. Removing the eggs would be fine, you can make a lovely bread dough with enriching it with eggs, but flour..well flour is needed for hot cross buns. I decided to go with spelt because I had found it to be available at a couple supermarkets still, ignored by those panic buying all the bread flour. Thankfully spelt makes for wonderful breads and works particularly well in this recipe. With no eggs, turning the recipe fully vegan seemed like a no brainer, the only other ingredients were milk and butter and vegan versions of those would be very easy straight swaps. 

For the flavourings I kept everything fairly classic, lots of spice and dried fruit but I switched things up just a little using dried cranberries and pistachios instead of the traditional raisins and currants, but as always use whatever you prefer.

Since we are also in our houses with no access to friends and family right now it is worth nothing these also freeze brilliantly. Once the buns are fully cooled separate them, place them onto a tray that will fit in your freezer and freeze until solid. At this point you can put them in a ziplock bag or box and they wont stick together. Defrost them and serve them warm with butter and you’ll have an incredible breakfast waiting for you. 

The Buns
500g spelt flour (I used a mix of Doves Farm white and wholewheat spelt flours)
1 1/2 tsp fine sea salt
2 tsp mixed spice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
50g caster sugar
7g fast action dried yeast
300ml almond milk (other plant milks should also work fine)
65g vegan ‘butter’ block (I used stork block as it seems like the easiest to find in the UK)
85g dried cranberries
50g pistachios, roughly chopped

The Cross
3 tbsp spelt flour
3-4 tbsp almond milk

Apricot Glaze (optional)
2 tbsp smooth apricot jam

To make the dough place the flour, salt, spices, sugar and yeast into the bowl of a stand mixer and add in the milk and fat. With the dough shook attached mix on low speed until a shaggy dough is formed. Now at this point it is worth noting the differences when using spelt flour. The flour has gluten but it breaks down a lot easier than regular wheat flour so don’t be tempted to knead this for a long time, we’re going to do another 3-5 minutes on low speed just until the dough becomes smooth and looks a little elastic. 

Note: since we are talking about flour lets talk about availability. I know right now flour is scarce so I wrote this recipe with spelt as I noticed it was still available in some supermarkets I visited. If you have regular bread flour at home don’t worry just sub it in, kneading fully for about 10 minutes as you would with a normal bread dough. Also if I understand the situation properly you should see start seeing flour appear on supermarket shelves again soon, it wasn’t really a shortage but a supply chain issue because of the panic buying, it should start flowing back into the chain very soon.

Tip the dough out onto the worksurface and press into a flat disc. Add the cranberries and pistachios and lightly press them into the dough. Briefly knead the dough so the additions are evenly distributed. Add the dough to a lightly oiled bowl, cover and set aside to prove for about an hour or until doubled in size. 

Tip the dough out onto the worksurface and divide into 12 equal sized pieces. Roll each piece into a neat ball and place onto a parchment lined baking tray, in rows of three set a couple inches apart. Lightly cover the buns and set aside for about 45 minutes to an hour or until the buns have almost doubled in size. Whilst the buns proof preheat the oven to 190C (170C fan).

When the buns have risen we need to make the cross. Simply add the flour to a small bowl and mix in enough milk to form a thick but pipeable paste. Scrape the mixture into a piping bag. At this stage we would normally add an egg wash which you can of course do if keeping the buns vegan is not a concern but if it is you have a couple options. The dough has sugar so the crust will naturally brown, so you can just leave it off, but if you want something that more closely resembles traditional buns you can make a simple plant milk/syrup mixture. Take 2 tbsp of plant milk (I used almond) and to that add about 1 tsp of agave or maple syrup, I think even brown sugar would work, and mix together to combine. Brush a thin layer onto the buns.

Cut off the end of the piping bag to make a small opening and pipe a cross onto each bun. Bake in the oven for about 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and allow to cool before serving. Kept in a sealed container these will keep for a couple days but they can also br frozen for up to a month.

For the optional glaze place the jam and an equal amount of water in a small saucepan and bring to a boil until syrupy in consistency. Brush over the buns whilst still warm. The jam mixture will give the buns a wonderful shine and that characteristic sticky crust. 

Coffee Caramel Flan

I feel like throwing recipes out into the void of the internet is a bit strange right now, it feels at once both redundant and hopeful. Baking is my job, and that includes this site, so to stop working risks my livelihood and my future. Having already lost a significant portion of work I feel like I have to keep pushing, even if it feels a bit weird right now. Does that make sense? I’ve also tried to have a dialogue with you guys over on instagram to see what you’re thinking and what you need right now. Overwhelmingly you told me that you’re baking through your stress and that watching my regular stories on baking is a nice little escape, so I am going to continue posting new recipes and try and make this a happy place for you to come and lose yourself for a little bit. I will also try and develop recipes that are easy, use minimal ingredients and can be made without issue right now. One of the main things you wanted was a sourdough bake-a-long so thats going to start on Saturday morning. If you want to get prepared you can of course read the guides I already have on here, come Saturday the only thing you will need is a jar with a lid and a bag of bread flour. So come join me every morning on instagram for a little social baking.

Todays recipe was obviously developed before this virus became as big of a deal as it now is so if you cant get all of the ingredients right now maybe bookmark it and come back for something else another time.

Comfort is a word I throw around a lot. Baking seems to have comfort inherently built in for me, for you too I’d wager. It’s a treat, a thing for special occasions or even that thing we do to boost our spirits. Some recipes do seem to have an abundance of comfort and flan, creme caramel, purin or whatever you want to call this style of set custard seems to be at the height of comfort. I can’t quite place my finger on why though, maybe it’s because it’s familiar and something from childhood, maybe its because its custard and custard is just a mainstay of comforting desserts, maybe it’s the soft wobbly texture, who knows. Whatever the reason, it’s a dish that can warm the soul and right now that’s all that matters to me.

For my version I wanted to add a coffee element so there is one additional step compared to the classic recipe, the dairy is first steeped with freshly ground coffee. If you prefer to keep the custards more classic feel free to skip this step but I love the extra flavour it adds.

Coffee Caramel Flan
Makes 6

Caramel
150g caster sugar
25ml water 

Coffee Custard
550ml whole milk
175ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
30g freshly ground coffee
125g caster sugar
5 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt

For this recipe I used 6 round moulds, which are sold as small pie tins. It makes wide flat custards that are about 4 inches wide. You can also make these in classic dariole moulds or ramekins. If making them in dariole moulds (small pudding basins) you may get 1 or 2 extra flans. Spray each mould with a little spray oil or lightly grease with a little softened butter.

Place the sugar and water for the caramel into a small saucepan and place over medium heat and cook, swirling occasionally but definitely not stirring, until the sugar has dissolved, the mixture is bubbling and eventually turns to a rich golden brown. For this style of custard I like to take the custard to a pretty dark colour so it has that identifiable edge to it I expect from flan. Once at the desired colour add an extra tablespoon of hot water to thin the caramel a little (be careful, the water will make the caramel bubble violently). Divide the caramel evenly between the prepared moulds and set aside for the moment.

To make the flan we need to first infuse the coffee flavour into the dairy. Add the milk, cream, vanilla and half of the sugar into a medium sized saucepan and add the coffee. Place the pan over medium heat and bring to a simmer. Remove the pan from the heat, cover, and set aside for about 30 minutes to allow to infuse. 

Note: for the coffee you can use any form of real coffee, whether you grind it fresh or whether you have ready ground in your pantry. Ideally you want the coffee medium ground so it can be strained out but even if you use coffee finely ground for espresso (like I did with the version in the pictures) it’ll taste delicious you may just have a few smaller grains in the end product, which I actually don’t mind. If you only have instant you will be able to use it but it wont need infusing, just bring the dairy to a simmer and mix in coffee a lit bit at a time, adding enough until it tastes as  strong as you prefer.

Preheat the oven to 150ºC.

Bring the coffee mixture back to a simmer. Once at temperature pour the dairy through a fine mesh sieve to remove as much of the ground coffee as poissible. Place the eggs, salt and remaining sugar into a large bowl and whisk together just to combine. Your aim here is to combine everything without adding any air, bubbles are the enemy of a silky smooth custard. Pour the infused dairy into the eggs, as you stir constantly to prevent the eggs from scrambling. 

Divide the custard evenly between the moulds. If there are bubbles on the surface of the custard you can help them disappear by lightly waving a kitchen blowtorch over the surface and you’ll see any visible bubbles pop. 

Cover each mould with a small piece of foil and place the custards into a large roasting tray (I use a 9x13 brownie tin) with a kitchen towel lining the base of the tin. Place the tin into the oven and carefully pour boiling water into the tin, adding enough to go about 1/2 way up the sides of the moulds. Bake in the oven for about 40 minutes or until the custards are set around the outside with just a little wobble in the middle. Remove the tin from the oven and allow the custards to cool in the water for 30 minutes before removing and allowing to cool to room temperature. Once room temperature place the custards in the fridge for at least 4 hours.

To serve, dip each mould in hot water for 5-10 seconds to loosen. Use a very thin knife to loosen the sides of the custard from the moulds and then invert onto a plate to serve. 

Once made they can be kept in the fridge for a couple days before turning out of the moulds to serve.