When Banana Meets Blueberry 当香蕉遇上蓝莓

I made this last night, combining the last banana I had on-hand and frozen blueberries that had been sitting in my fridge for months.

I flipped through my latest recipe book collection, 《好吃戚风轻松上手》and decided on this Blueberry Chiffon Cake. Basically, all chiffon recipes from this book are without raising agent. Instead, one extra egg white is used to build up the volume.

The recipe I adapted called for 60g of blueberry jam; coincidentally the banana that I had also weighed 60g. So I replaced the jam with mashed banana.

The result? The chiffon cups are light, cottony soft and fluffy but they shrink quite a lot after removing from the oven. I am not sure if this is because chilled/leftover egg whites are used instead of fresh one. I noticed the meringue appeared to be matte, not as fine and glossy as it supposed to be.

The taste? Hint of banana flavour with juicy and sour blueberries. The blueberries I bought during promotion are the sourest blueberries I ever taste but I think they compliment the sweetness from the banana.

I am submitting this to Aspiring Bakers # 5: Fruity March (March 2011) hosted by Jess of Bakericious.

Banana Blueberry Chiffon Cake

Ingredients: (make one 17-cm chiffon cake or 14 cupcakes)

3 large egg yolks
40ml vegetable oil
60g blueberry jam (I replaced with mashed bananas)
2 tbsp milk (not in original recipe)*
80g cake flour (I used 72g plain flour + 8g corn flour)
4 large egg whites
50g castor sugar (I used 45g)
50g frozen dried blueberries (I used frozen fresh blueberries) (coated with additional flour)

Method:
1) In a bowl, manually whisk yolks and blueberry jam/mashed bananas.
2) Add oil and whisk till combined.
3) Sieve in flour, mix till incorporated (*I found the mixture very dry, so I added 2tbsp of milk which is not in the original recipe).
4) In another bowl, whisk whites will frothy, then add sugar in 3 sessions. Whisk till stiff peak (when lifted, the tip of the meringue is stiff).
5) Fold in 1/3 of the meringue to the yolk mixture, mix well. Then pour the mixture to the remaining meringue, fold till just incorporated (original recipe add the remaining meringue to the yolk mixture). Fold in blueberries with a rubber spatula gently.
6) Fill up ¾ of the paper cups with the batter, bake in preheated oven at 180C for about 15 minutes, centre rack. For 17-cm chiffon pan, bake for about 30 minutes.
7) Remove from oven and invert the cake immediately if bake in chiffon pan. Need not invert if bake in paper cups.

Note:

Do not thaw frozen blueberries. Take them out from the freezer just before use and wash over running tap water. Pat dry and coat with flour to prevent sinking.

(Recipe reference: adapted and modified from Blueberry Chiffon Cake from《好吃戚风轻松上手》by 福田淳子)