Banana bread (with pineapple)

Makes 1 loaf, serves 6

1 ½ cups sifted plain flour; 1 cup sugar; 1 tsp baking powder; ½ tsp salt; 2 large ripe bananas; 1 egg; 4 tblsp butter, melted; ½ chopped dried or crystallised pineapple; 1 cup coarsely chopped walnuts; 1 tblsp butter, softened; ¼ cup chopped candied peel and ¼ cup walnut halves for topping

Sift the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt into a mixing bowl. Mash the bananas with a fork in another bowl, stir in the egg until well mixed, and stir in the melted butter. Add this mixture and the chopped walnuts and pineapple to the flour mixture and stir only until well blended.

Butter a 22 x 12cm loaf pan, spread the batter evenly in the pan, and sprinkle the top with the candied peel, some extra pineapple and walnut halves.

Bake in a preheated 180°C oven 45 minutes or until golden on top and a toothpick tester comes out clean.

Pineapple Kale Smoothie

Adapted from https://www.wellplated.com/kale-pineapple-smoothie/

Ingredients for 2 servings

2 cups lightly packed chopped kale leaves stems removed; 3/4 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk or any milk you like; 1 frozen medium banana cut into chunks; 1/4 cup plain non-fat Greek yogurt; 1/4 cup frozen pineapple pieces; 2 tablespoons peanut butter creamy or crunchy; 1 to 3 teaspoons honey to taste

Instructions

Place all ingredients (kale, almond milk, banana, yogurt, pineapple, peanut butter, and honey) in a blender in the order listed.

Blend until smooth. Add more milk as needed to reach desired consistency. Enjoy immediately.

Banana/Pineapple Splits

The Star Wars Cookbook: Ice Sabers, 30 Chilled Treats Using the Force of your Freezer, Lara Starr, photography by Matthew Carden 2013 San Francisco

  

Bananakin Splits  makes 4 splits

Strawberry Sauce: 350g frozen strawberries (I used fresh); ¼ cup caster sugar; 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

Chocolate sauce: ½ cup thickened cream; ¾ cup chopped dark chocolate

Roasted bananas: 4 ripe bananas, peeled and halved lengthwise; 2 tblsp brown sugar

Splits: 500m each of chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream; ½ cup crushed pineapple; whipped cream; 12 maraschino cherries 

1. To make the strawberry sauce: Set the strawberries in a fine strainer over a bowl and thaw for several hour or in the refrigerator overnight. Reserve the juice in a small bowl and set aside. Force the berries through the strainer with a wooden spoon, mashing and stirring as much of the berry puree as possible is passed through the strainer. Discard the seeds. Add the reserved juice, caster sugar and lemon juice and stir to combine. (I put the strawberries into the blender with the caster sugar and lemon juice and used all the puree)

2. Preheat the oven to 200°C

3. To make the roasted bananas: Line a baking tray with baking paper or a nonstick liner. Place the bananas on the prepared sheet, cut-side up. Sprinkle the tops with the brown sugar. Roast for 30 minutes, or until the bananas are soft when tested with a fork and the topping is golden and bubbly. Cool for 15 minutes.

4. To make the chocolate sauce: melt the cream and chocolate together in a microwave or in the top of a double boiler. Stir until smooth. Set aside. It will thicken as it cools.

5. To make the splits: Put one scoop each of the chocolate, vanilla and strawberry ice cream into four long ice cream split bowls.

6. Top the vanilla ice ceam with the chocolate sauce, the strawberry ice cream with the crushed pineapple and the chocolate ice ceam with the strawberry sauce. Add two banana slices to each split and top with the whipped cream and cherries.

"Go forth, young Jedi! May your Ice Sabers and other frozen treats delight your appetite, and may the Force always be with you! " Lara Starr, cookbook author.

Banana Pineapple Cake

The Red Cross Tried and True Cookery Book, NSW 1983 

Banana Pineapple Cake (Recipe contributed by Lorna Martin, Chatswood Branch). 

125g (1/4 lb) butter or margarine; 1 cup brown sugar; 2 medium sized eggs; ½ cup crushed pineapple (conserve juice); 2 ripe mashed bananas; 1 tsp cinnamon; 1 tsp nutmeg; 2 cups S R four

Cream together shortening and sugar, add eggs and pineapple. Add mashed bananas, mix spices through flour, add ½ cup pineapple juice. Mix all together thoroughly. Place in a well greased cake tin. 

Cook in moderate oven 35-40 mins. When cooked and cool, ice with pineapple flavoured icing.

Pineapple icing: 1 cup icing sugar; 1 tblsp butter; sufficient pineapple juice to make a creamy icing.

Pineapple and kiwano

When I was offered some of these unusual fruit? vegetables? at one of our local op shops I couldn't resist taking some home. What I was told were probably cucumbers turned out to be horned melons or kiwano, and I made this delicious sorbet. Anne

From: https://blog.fatfreevegan.com/2006/12/kiwano-banana-and-pineapple-sorbet.html

Kiwano, Banana, and Pineapple Sorbet

Ingredients:

2 bananas, frozen solid; 1 cup fresh pineapple chunks, frozen; juice of one kiwano (or use 1/3 cup of any other fruit juice or lite coconut milk); 2 tablespoons agave nectar or other sweetener (may not be necessary if you use other fruit juice)

Instructions:

Put the frozen fruit in a food processor and allow it to thaw for about 10 minutes. Mix the agave nectar with the kiwano juice. Start up the food processor and pulse to chop the fruit thoroughly. Add the juice-agave mixture and process, scraping down the sides of the processor if necessary, until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately in the shells of the kiwano or in small bowls. Serves 2-3.

Our family fruit growers in Queensland say - These are prickly cucumbers, they are a native to South Africa, and they are an enormous PEST. Yes they are a nice fruit - but once introduced, if every fruit is not discarded correctly the seeds are very easily spread and they can become invasive. The sugar industry has spent years trying to eradicate them out of cane block. We know from personal experience

No I would not plant them or encourage anyone to plant them.

They go orange when ripe - you can eat them like an ordinary cucumber in salads.

Thanks for that info Leila! Anne

One bowl Pineapple Bread

https://chocolatecoveredkatie.com/2018/08/23/pineapple-bread-recipe/

“Eating this sweet and moist pineapple bread is like being on your own little tropical island…” Katie

One bowl Pineapple Bread

Ingredients: 2 cups spelt, white, or oat flour; 1 tsp baking soda; 3/4 tsp baking powder; 3/4 tsp salt; 1 1/2 cups overripe mashed banana; 1/2 cup crushed pineapple, drained; 1/2 cup pure maple syrup, honey, or agave; 3 tbsp coconut milk or milk of choice; 3 tbsp oil OR additional milk of choice; 2 tsp pure vanilla extract; optional 1/4 tsp coconut extract; optional walnuts, shredded coconut

Instructions: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a 9×5 loaf pan or line with parchment. Combine first 4 ingredients in a bowl, adding shredded coconut and/or crushed nuts if desired. Add all remaining ingredients, stir to form a batter (do not overmix), and smooth into prepared pan.

Bake on the center rack 25 minutes, then do not open the oven door at all but turn off the heat and let sit in the closed oven 10 additional minutes. If it’s still undercooked at this time, simply turn the oven back on and continue baking—checking every 5 minutes–until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out mostly clean. Let cool. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

The taste and texture are much better the second day, so I highly recommend waiting if you can. Leftovers can be sliced and frozen for up to a month.

I made a few adaptations to this recipe as I was on a farm and unable to access all the ingredients and the bananas were calling out to be used! So, I used 1 cup gluten free plain flour and 1 cup gluten free self-raising flour, ½ tsp baking soda and no baking powder, instead of the maple syrup/honey I used ½ cup rice bran syrup, ½ cup milk and no oil. Sadly, I had no shredded coconut. Otherwise everything else is the same, and it tasted great, Anne

Nauruan Pineapple and Banana Bread

https://ethnicfoodsrus.com/around-the-world-recipes/smallest-countries-worldwide-cuisines/nauruan-cuisine/banana-pineapple-bread/

Banana Pineapple Bread

Ingredients: 2 large eggs; 1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil, melted (this ingredient is what really makes this recipe so awesome. Be sure to get “extra virgin” – the taste is distinct, unique, and wonderful); 1/3 cup buttermilk; 1-1/4 cups granulated white cane sugar; 1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed; 1 tbsp. pure vanilla extract; 2 cups all-purpose flour; 1 tsp. baking powder; 1 tsp. baking soda; 1/2 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg; 1/4 tsp. salt; 1 to 1 1/4 cups mashed ripe bananas; 1 cup fresh or frozen pineapple, diced

Directions:

1 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180°C)

2 Prepare two 8″ (20cm) by 4″ (10cm) bread pans with a light coating of grease topped with flour on the bottoms and inside walls.

3 Combine the coconut oil, buttermilk, eggs, vanilla, brown and white sugars in a large mixing bowl. Stir and blend together until completely smooth and devoid of any lumps.

4 Using another bowl, whisk together the baking powder, baking soda, flour, nutmeg and salt.

5 Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture, and stir together. This should be a very gentle “folding” procedure. Do not stir vigorously, you just want the two mixtures to be combined into one batter, but not “whipped” together.

6 Now fold into the batter the pineapple and bananas.

7 Now pour your combined-fruity batter into your prepared pans and bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, or until the loaf tops are well set and turning a rich golden colour. If you are using frozen pineapple, it will take a little longer than if using fresh. The breads are well done when you can stick a toothpick deep into the center and it is almost clean when you pull it out.

8 Remove the pans from the oven and let them cool a bit – 10 to 15 minutes – before taking the loaves out of the pans.

9 Serve your Nauruan style Banana Pineapple Bread while still nice and warm. What doesn’t get eaten right away will still taste great later, at room temperature.

10 For a drink accompaniment, try taking some Nauruan Pandanus tea. Wonderful combination, and very healthy for you, too.

I made this delicious bread with gluten free plain flour and it worked very well, a lovely light texture. The pineapple is a great addition to the old favourite, banana bread, Anne

Bunya pineapple (and other fruit) milkshake

The Bunya Cookbook: Australian Cuisine, Elisabeth Stuart-Fox,

The Aboriginal and Islander Community Health Service, Brisbane, 2001

Biram (Milk shake)

Serves 5

Ingredients: 1/3 skim milk powder; 1 ½ ripe bananas; 1 ½ large ripe navel oranges (they have no pips); 1 slice rockmelon; 1 slice pineapple; 6 tblsp low-fat fruit yoghurt; 2 tsp vanilla essence; 1 cup water; 2 cups ice cubes

Method: Put al ingredients in a blender powerful enough to crush ice. Blend thoroughly and serve immediately

Pineapple toasties

Breville Eight Up Snackmaker: Instruction book and thought starter recipes, Sydney c1970s

Desserts: Fruit Layer Dessert

As I don’t have a Breville Eight Up Snackmaker I dug out the old campfire jaffle iron from my childhood to create the Fruit Layer Dessert for myself and a toasted sandwich of chopped pineapple, banana and cheese for Les, yum, Anne

Makes 4 Brevils

1 banana, sliced; 2 slices pineapple, fresh or canned; 2 tspn brown sugar; 4 slices thick raisin toast, buttered

Place two slices bread, buttered side down, onto preheated scallops. Place half the banana onto each bread slice. Top with a slice of pineapple and remaining banana. Sprinkle each sandwich with brown sugar and top with bread slices (buttered side uppermost).

Lower lid and toast for two minutes.

Serve hot with cream or ice-cream.

My fruit layer dessert

Les's pineapple, banana and cheese toastie

Eat Up that Pineapple!

Eat Up! The Healthy Weight Gain Cookbook, Lee Gold, 2002 Melbourne

Nourishing drinks: Pina colada smoothie

1 serve

½ cup (125ml) unsweetened pineapple juice; ¼ cup (50g) pineapple pieces, drained; ½ cup (125ml) coconut milk

Combine pineapple juice, pineapple pieces and coconut milk in a blender or food processor fitted with a metal blade. Process for about 1 minute or until smooth. Strain the smoothie through a strainer for a smoother texture. Serve immediately.

Nourishing drinks: Tropical smoothie

1 serve

1 cup (50ml) unsweetened pineapple juice; ½ ripe mango (about 125g) peeled, stoned and cubed; ½ ripe banana, peeled and chopped; ice cubes

Combine pineapple juice, mango and banana in a blender or food processor fitted with the metal blade. Process for about 1 minute or until smooth. Pace ice cubes in a glass and pour smoothie over. Serve immediately.

Grains, pasta and rice: Quinoa with fruit porridge

Serves 1 – 2

¼ cup (40g) quinoa; ¾ (185ml) water; 2 tspn honey; 1//4 cup (40g) old-fashioed rolled oats; ¾ cup (185ml) unsweetened pineapple juice; 2 tspn sultanas; 2 dried apricots, diced; 2 prunes, pitted and diced

Place quinoa in a colander and rinse under cold water and drain well.

In a medium saucepan, bring water and honey to the boil. Stir in quinoa and bring to the boil over medium-high heat., stirring constantly. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes. Stir in oats, pineapple juice, sultanas, apricots and prunes and simmer for another 15 minutes or until quinoa is soft, stirring occasionally. Pour the porridge into warm bowls.

Tropical Fruit Cake

My niece Katrina discovered this beautiful recipe and sent this photograph to the Pineapple Princesses. Thanks Kat it looks amazing! Anne.

“It’s supposed to be like a hummingbird cake, the banana was stronger than the pineapple in the cake, but I liked the fresh pineapple on top. The icing is cream cheese with mango. I’ll defini be doing that again!

I cut back sugar to 80g brown and 50g white sugar. I think the cake was still sweet enough but may have been slightly less moist/ faster cooking. Still a very moist cake” Kat.

Sweet, Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh, London 2017

Tropical fruit cake

Serves 8

“This is an exceptionally moist cake – almost unusually so, with its bounty of pineapple and banana and the addition of oil. It’s known as a ‘hummingbird cake’ in Australia, New Zealand and Canada, and is traditionally iced with a plain cream cheese icing but we’ve added mango puree here. It’s not that the cake needs any help - you can eat it without any icing at all, if you like – but we love the chrome yellow colour it brings to the cake and the way it compliments the tropical fruits inside. Piled high with fresh fruit on top this is an unexpectedly refreshing cake.” The authors.

1 medium pineapple, peeled and core removed. 300g of the flesh should be cut unto 3–4cm chunks for the cake, 50g of the flesh should be cut into 2–3cm chunks for the garnish (drained, canned pineapple is a fine alternative to fresh); 2 large eggs; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 100g soft light brown sugar; 100g caster sugar; 160ml sunflower oil; 2 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (150g); 45g desiccated coconut; 225g plain flour; 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda; ½ tsp ground cinnamon; ½ tsp ground ginger; ½ tsp ground cardamom; ½ tsp salt

Icing: ¼ of a large ripe mango, peeled and roughly chopped (50g); 65g unsalted butter, at room temperature; 100g cream cheese; 75g icing sugar, sifted

To garnish: ½ banana, cut into roughly 1cm pieces (50g); ½ of a large ripe mango, flesh cut into long, thin strips (70g); 50g pineapple flesh (see above); scooped out seeds of 1 passionfruit; 20g flaked coconut

1 Preheat the oven to 200°C/180°C Fan/Gas Mark 6. Grease and line the base and sides of a 20cm round springform tin with baking parchment and set aside.

2  Place 300g of pineapple flesh in a food processor and use the pulse button to crush the fruit, it should be finely chopped but not become a puree. If starting with fresh pineapple, tip the finely chopped flesh into a medium saucepan and place ver a medium heat. Bring to a simmer, cook for 4-5 minutes (taking care that it does not boil vigorously as this will cause too much of the liquid to evaporate, then transfer to a large mixing bowl (large enough to mix the whole cake in later) to cool. If you are starting with canned pineapple you can skip this boiling stage.

3 Place the eggs, vanilla, soft brown sugar and caster sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer with the mixer attachment in place. Whisk together for about 3 minutes, until creamy, then, with the machine on a medium speed, pour in the oil in a slow and steady stream until combined. Add this to the bowl of cooled pineapple along with the mashed bananas and desiccated coconut. Stir to combine.

4 Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, spices and salt together into the wet mix and use a large spatula to fold until just combined. Pour into the cake tin and bake for about 40 minutes, until nicely browned. Reduce the oven temperature to 180°C/160°C Fan/Gas Mark 4 and continue to cook for 10-15 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

5 To make the icing: place the mango flesh in the small bowl of a food processor and blitz to form a fine purée. Tip out into a small bowl and set aside. Add the butter and cream cheese to the food processor – there is no need to wash the bowl – and process until smooth. Add the icing sugar, pulse to combine, then add the mango purée. Pulse again until evenly mixed and scrape into a bowl. Keep in the fridge, covered, for at least 2 hours – it needs time to thicken – before icing the cake.

6 When ready to serve, use a small spatula or knife to spread a thick layer of the mango icing all over the top and sides of the cake. Place all the fruit for garnish in a small bowl, mix gently, then spoon it into the centre of the cake, you want it to be piled up in the middle, rather than spread evenly over the top. Finish by pressing the flaked coconut into just the sides of the cake and serve.

Banana Fritters with Fresh Pineapple

Low FODMAP recipes: based on the Low-FODMAP Diet, designed for people with irritable bowel syndrome, Dr Sue Shepherd 2013 Melbourne

Banana Fritters with Fresh Pineapple

“Banana fritters takes me right back to my childhood. As a grown up I've tried to lighten the texture a bit by using sweetened breadcrumbs instead of batter, and serving them with fresh tropical fruit. Completely delicious if I do say so myself!” Dr Sue Shepherd

1 cup (120g) dried, gluten-free, soy-free breadcrumbs; 1/3 cup (75g) brown sugar; 3 tspns ground cinnamon; 2 eggs; ½ tspn pure icing sugar; 4 small bananas, peeled and halved lengthways; 40g butter; gluten-free, lactose-free vanilla ice-cream, to serve; ½ small pineapple, peeled, cored and finely chopped; pulp of 2 passionfruit
 

Preheat the oven to 150°C.
 

Combine the breadcrumbs, brown sugar and cinnamon on a large plate.
 

Lightly beat the eggs and icing sugar in a shallow bowl.
 

Dip the bananas in the egg mixture, then toss in the breadcrumbs until well coated.
 

Heat half the butter in a large non-stick frying pan over medium-low heat. Add half the banana pieces and cook for 3-4 minutes each side until golden brown. Transfer to a baking tray and keep warm in the oven. Melt the remaining butter and cook the remaining banana halves.
 

Place two banana halves on each serving plate. Tops with scoops of ice-cream, then spoon over the chopped pineapple and passionfruit pulp. Serve immediately.

 

I used rice crumbs instead of breadcrumbs. This dessert really was light and delicious.

Highly recommended! Anne.

 

 

And this marvel is Les's experiment with Ella and Rob's new juicer (etc) gadget

- 100% frozen pineapple extruded as sorbet - totally yum! Anne

Pineapple Lassi

Recipes for a Small Planet: High Protein Meatless Cooking, written by Ellen Buchman Ewald, illustrations by Diane Coleman USA 1973

Pineapple Lassi 
        

“The perfect refresher on a summer day.”

½ cup yoghurt; ½ cup unsweetened pineapple juice; 1 banana; ½ cup ice; ¼ tspn nutmeg; honey to taste (optional)

Process in the blender until the ice is broken up and the consistency is smooth. Add a couple more cubes of ice if you prefer a thinner, icier shake. Enough to serve three.

Bananas and Pineapples Unite!

Artist, Stephan Brusche, from Rotterdam, Netherlands, has issued a challenge – get creative with a banana!

http://www.fruitdoodle.com/world-banana-day-2015

https://www.facebook.com/stephan.brusche?fref=ts

http://www.boredpanda.com/banana-art-stephan-brusche/

So, depending on what time zone you live in there still may be time to get fruitdoodling and participate in this inventive competition!!!

Here are some of my favourites of Stephan’s fabulous banana creations!

And here’s my speedily constructed but heartfelt contribution to the world of banana celebrities “The Banana who wanted to be a Pineapple Princess”! Anne.

Pineapple fruit salad

Cooking For Brides by Ted Moloney, drawings by George Molnar 1965  

“With sweets dinner ends on a light, gay note.With wine we are mellow. With your good food we are almost perfectly replete. Serious discussions, if any, have ended with the main course. From now on the conversation becomes bubbling, especially if there is champagne. Your sweet course, when it comes to the table, must heighten the stimulation. It has to be light, flippant, delicious – without a care for you.”

“Fruit Salads. These look their best served in a clear crystal bowl. Through the crystal you can see the fruits arranged layer upon layer of different colours. A layer of pineapple. On top of this a layer of bananas. A layer of very ripe apricots or peaches. To complete the rainbow, ripe, red strawberries all over the top. . . never have a great multiplicity of fruits. . . never chop your fruit up into tiny confetti-like pieces. . . be generous with sugar.”

Encyclopedia of Creative Cooking, a step-by-step guide to the world’s best cooking, Volume 5 Vegetables, Sydney 1979

Tropical Fruit Cup, Africa

1 ripe pawpaw; 1 banana; 1 cup diced pineapple, fresh or canned and drained; 1 small mango; 2 pieces preserved ginger; finely chopped; 1 tblspn medium sherry; juice 1 lime

1 Peel all the fruit and dice, Place in bowl.

2 Mix in the preserved ginger and pour over the sherry and lime juice. Chill in the refrigerator.

Serves 6.

Pineapples by Design

My friend, Jenny Trevethan, created this beautiful pin(eapple) cushion. She is one of the Artisans in the Dungog by Design Collective. I recommend you check them out on Facebook or at the Dungog Markets!

Jenny says “Most people would describe me as that grey haired old lady from Glen Martin but really I am just an enthusiastic hand stitcher who loves the garden and the wonderful wildlife it brings so close to us here in our lovely countryside.”

Jenny also lent me this fabulous book – “Betty Crocker’s Cook Book for Boys and Girls first came out 1957, I was nine then. I can remember loving the bright colour photos and trying out some of the recipes. The Easter Hat Cake has a classic look. I made the Raggedy Ann Salad a lot - my middle name is Ann.”

Thanks very much Jenny!

Candle Salad

“It’s better than a real candle, because you can eat it.”

Place crisp lettuce leaf on plate.

For candle base use 1 slice pineapple.

The candle is ½ banana set upright in center of pineapple slice.

The flame is 1 maraschino cherry, fastened on top of banana with a toothpick. 

And here are some more pages out of this treasure from Jenny's childhood because I just love it! Anne.