Welcome to winter

November is still fall in the states but here it's considered the first month of winter and oh boy can we tell?! It is freezin'!! Strangely it never ceases to surprise me when the temperature appears to shift dramatically overnight and all of a sudden it's a new season. That's definitely what happened here but I am not complaining because I love, love wearing comfy hoodies and winter scarves!

During these colder months one is more inclined to answer the call of the couch and the cake which while we all know is immensely enjoyable may lead to a certain sense of guilt. Well here at TVandCookies it is an aim to make it possible to have dessert any and every day and this is one of those recipes! This banana apple bread is a delicious slice of winter flavour without the guilt trip that cake can so often involve, in fact with these mini versions you can have and eat your whole cake! Another nice element of this bake is that it uses up otherwise less appetizing fruit and I now look forward to seeing browning and black bananas on my kitchen counter.

The apples here are slightly more for props than actual use but you can choose to use fresh apple if you want. However I found that fresh apples add slightly too much moisture so dried apple gives you flavour without too much extra liquid.

Mini Banana and Apple Breads

4 over-ripe bananas
3 heaped tablespoons greek style yoghurt (soya yoghurt for vegans)
1 tsp vanilla essence
2 tablespoons honey/Agave nectar/golden syrup
2 whole eggs and 2 egg yolks (vegan- egg replacer for c.3 eggs - follow package guidelines)
190g Fine Wholemeal flour
50g Plain Flour
1 tsp Baking powder
1 tsp Baking soda
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Nutmeg
50g Dried apple finely diced
50g Toasted Walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat your oven to 150' C and prepare your mini cake tins/muffin cases/cake tin.

2. Mush up your over-ripe bananas. If you have an electric mixer you can use this.

3. Add the yoghurt, vanilla, eggs and honey/syrup and mix everything together.

4. In a seperate bowl sieve together your flours, baking powder, baking soda and spices.

5. Pour a small amount of this flour mixture over your apple pieces and walnuts.

6. Add the rest of the flour mixture into the wet mixture and beat just until combined.

7. Now add your apple pieces and walnut and mix just once or twice to incorporate.

8. Fill your cases 1/2 way up and then bake. 20-25 mins for miniture cakes/muffins or 1 hour for a large cake. Keep a close eye on your cakes as you may want to cover with tin foil if you are getting browning before the time. It is important to test the finished cake with a toothpick at multiple points because the apple pieces will soak in some of the liquid and may give you a false negative.

9. Let your cakes coo fully before cutting. Then enjoy with alone or with something sweet =)

It doesn't need it but who can resist a little drizzle of sweetness?!