Mia Bakes: Applesauce Walnut & Raisin Quick Bread (With Green Banana Flour)

 Frankly speaking, I don't really understand the logic of quick breads. Let's face it, you can't get bread without long proofing. The texture just ain't right. They're still cakes, albeit coarser and denser.... Muffins! Yes, they're muffins baked in a loaf. Are they not? But breads or muffins, they're delicious. And they're also super quick and easy to make. So let's make ourselves some (slightly healthier) walnut and raisin quick bread using applesauce and green banana flour!
This is also going to be an eggless recipe, as I was baking this for my grandma, who doesn't eat eggs in the morning (due to religion). Making this eggless will allow her to eat the bread for breakfast instead of having to wait till after noon to eat it. 

If you've not heard of green banana flour, it's a gluten free alternative to grain flour, having been made from green bananas. They're said to be high in resistance starch, with benefits such as:

1. Improving negative effects of metabolic syndrome

2. Promotes a healthy colon

3. Could reduce insulin sensitivity

4. Possibly aids weight loss

5. May reduce cholesterol levels

So let's get over with the ingredients so we can get started!
To get 1 loaf serving, you'll need:

250g unsweeten applesauce

80g dark brown sugar

135g plain flour

85g green banana flour (I used Edward & Sons)

75g unsalted butter, soften

70g honey

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

1/4 tsp almond extract (optional)

1/3 tsp salt

2 1/2 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp baking soda

100g raisins (I mixed sultanas with yellow raisins)

50-60g walnuts, roughly chopped.

In a large bowl, cream the soften butter and brown sugar together. Then, add in the applesauce, honey and extracts and mix until well combined. There might be some "separation" of the butter, but it's alright. From 135g of plain flour, take about 1 to 2 tbsps and mix it into the raisins and chopped walnut mixture and toss till everything is well coated. This will prevent the walnuts and raisins from sinking to the bottom of the bread while it bakes. 

Then, add in all the of the dry ingredients (flours and leavening agents) into the wet ingredients and mix until there's just a few streaks of flour to be seen. Then, dump in the chopped walnuts and raisins and mix until just combined. You do not want to overmix your batter, as the green banana flour (along with applesauce) will make your cake quick bread slightly denser (and crumbly) than usual. Overworking the gluten in your plain flour will definitely give you a super dense and tough bread. 

Once there's no more streaks of dry flour to be seen, scoop the batter into a lined loaf pan and bake at 175 degree Celsius for 30 to 35 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean with just a few crumbs. Leave the bread to cool down slightly in the loaf pan for 5 to 10 minutes before taking it out of the pan and letting it cool COMPLETELY on a wire rack. Do not try to slice it when it's still warm; things will get messy with all the crumbling. 

And tadaa~ 

The dark brown sugar and honey will add a lot of rich sweetness to the cake, and while the applesauce helps to make the cake quick bread super moist, the green banana flour helps to give the bread a denser and "coarser" texture, like a christmas plum cake. Well, as I've said, this is definitely more of a cake (rich and sweet) than a bread (bland). Try it and let me know what you think!

Till then,
Mia Foo

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Mia Bakes: No Knead Raisin Milk Bread

Soft, fluffy bread using just plain flour and absolutely no kneading required at all. You don't even need to touch the dough with your hands, is it possible?

The answer is YES!

So let's get over with the ingredients, so we can get started.

To get 1 small loaf (it'll only fill up 2/3 to 3/4 of a standard loaf cake tin), you'll need: 

150g plain flour

1 egg

25g castor sugar

75ml milk (need not be lukewarm)

1/2 tsp instant yeast

1/4 tsp salt

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

40g raisin

ps. you can easily double this recipe to get a "standard sized" bread loaf. 

Making this bread can't be any simpler. You just need.... TIME. 

Yes, not elbow grease, but time. 

In a large bowl, add in your flour, castor sugar, instant yeast and salt. Make sure that your yeast is not in direct contact with the salt. Then, crack in an egg and add in the milk (I prefer to add the liquid directly over the yeast's spot to better dissolve them, though I know it's actually not required) and mix with a spatula or wooden spoon. When the dough has some sort of come together with no pockets of flour, add in the vegetable oil and continue stirring the dough for at least 5 minutes (or more, if you can) with the spatula, to help the gluten to develop. 

Now, for other kind of bread dough I would recommend that you mix with a pair of chopsticks, but not for this recipe, because the dough will be more like a batter and using spatula will give a more effective mixing due to the higher surface area. The ridiculously high hydration of the dough is what gives us soft and fluffy bread with no kneading. 

And yup, after you're done with the mixing, scrap down the sides of the bowl to push down the stray bits of batter as best as you can and cover the bowl with some cling wrap. Then, leave it on the countertop for 20 to 30 minutes first before keeping it overnight in the refrigerator (about 8 to 10 hours will be ideal). 

The next morning, take your bowl of dough out of the refrigerator and leave it on the counter for about 30 minutes for it to warm up slightly. Then, add in the raisins and stir with a spatula until well mixed. Then, pour out the dough into your prepared loaf tin (mine is non-stick but I greased it slightly with some non-stick cooking spray anyway to be doubly sure that nothing sticks. you may even line your tin with parchment paper because it's going to be quite sticky), cover it with a damp towel or clingwrap and set it at a warm place for 2nd proofing, until it is at least 1.5x to 2x the size. You can tell by sticking a toothpick into the batter and then using the height of the batter that has stuck onto the toothpick to make a marking on the loaf tin to know where should the batter rise till to be twice of the original depth/height. 

As it was an exceptionally chilly morning, it took me about 1.5 hours for the dough to nearly double in size. If your oven comes with a dough proofing setting, go ahead to use it and it should take you 20 to 30 minutes instead. Otherwise, you can put the tin inside your oven (switched off) and add in a bowl of boiling hot water below the rack to quicken the 2nd proofing process. 

And once the dough has proofed, brush the top of the dough with some eggwash (I used only the egg yolk with some water, hence it's super browned. But you can use the whole egg too) and bake it at 180 degree Celsius for about 25 to 30 minutes until nicely brown. 

Check for doneness by lightly tapping the surface of the bread with your fingertips. If it sounds hollow, the bread should be fully baked through. 

Tadaa~ Super soft, sweet and milky raisin bread with absolutely no kneading at all. 

And because the bread is made with plain flour instead of bread flour, the texture is much finer, closer to our usual store-bought loaf bread, and not as chewy as what you'll usually get with using bread flour. 

Just see how soft and fluffy it is! The bread considerably harden up (went stale) on the 3rd day even though I kept it in an airtight container, so I'll highly suggest that you do a smaller batch and try to finish the bread within 1 to 2 days.

Till then,
Mia Foo

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