Sunday, September 12, 2010

Banana Crunch Cake

This recipe is from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking. I love it with the topping, but I also make it w/o and put a caramel icing on it, which works because the cake itself is not overly sweet. I've never been a fan of banana cake or banana bread, but this recipe converted me! I especially love the fact that it has no white flour in it. This recipe makes delicious muffins, too. Just be aware that this only makes 4 cups of batter, which is enough for one 8" x 2" square pan. If you want a round cake, you should use a 9" pan. Also, I've only ever made this recipe with walnuts, not pecans, and never used any chocolate or toffee chips.

Cake batter
1 cp (120g) oat flour (or ground oats)
1 cp (120g) whole wheat flour, traditional or white whole wheat
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cp (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temp
2/3 cp (132g) packed light or dark brown sugar
2 large eggs, room temp
1 cp (225g) mashed banana (2 large or 3 medium), the riper the better
1/2 cp (109g) plain yogurt, non-fat to full-fat
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cp (60g) chopped pecans or walnuts
1 cp (168g) chocolate or toffee chips (optional)

Crunch topping
3/4 cp (60g) old-fashioned rolled oats
1/3 cp (66g) packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
2 T (28g) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cp (30g) chopped pecans or walnuts

1. Grease and flour an 8-inch-square pan. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Whisk the flours, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl.
3. Cream together the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl until light and fluffy, ca. 5 minutes.
4. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, stopping to scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl between additions.
5. Mix in half the dry ingredients until moistened, then mix int he bananas, yogurt and vanilla. Scrape down the sides and bottowm f the bowl, then add the remaining dry ingredients and the nuts and hcips, if using, mixing until evenly moistened.
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared pan.
7. Make the topping, if using. Combine the oats, brown sugar, cinnamon and alt in a small mixing bowl until well blended. Stir int he melted butter until the moisture forms large crumbs; stir in the chopped nuts. Sprinkle the topping over the batter in the pan.
8. Bake unit the edges pull away from the pan and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, 40 to 45 minutes. Remove the cake from the oven and place on a rack to cool for 20 minutes before serving warm, with ice cream, or cool completely before eating.

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