Banoffee Pie

Hello! New month and new recipe. This is a classic of the English desserts. I love this pie, specially in summer time, due this cake doesn't needs oven. You can get the toffee filling from a boiled condensed milk or using a jar of dulce de leche. But I will show you an other way which I rather than to cook the condensed milk. The process to to cook the can takes 2 hours, so there is an other way much faster and also delicious to make an smooth and tasty toffe. But if you can get a real dulce de leche jar just use it!

Banoffee Pie

Makes a 25 cm round pan
base: 
250 g digestives cookies crunched
100 g melted unsalted butter

filling: 
400 g condensed milk
100 g light brown sugar
100 g unsalted butter
4 bananas
400 g heavy cream
8 g vanilla sugar
pecan nuts for topping

Crush the biscuits in a food processor or in a plastic bag, seal the bag and crush with a rolling pin. Add the melted butter and mix together. Place this mixture in a tin and press with the bag of a spoon all over the base and the sides. Place it in the fridge.

Melt de butter in a pan on a low heat and add the suger, mix it until sugar has dissolved. Add the condensed milk and and bring it to boild for about 2 minutes, stirring all the time to thikens and gets golden. Spread the caramel all over the cookie base, cool and then put it in the fridge for about 1 hour, until firm.

Slice de bananas and place them all over the toffee. Beat the cream with the vanilla sugar until it form peaks and speard it all over the bananas. Top with pecan nuts.

If you want to see the result after few hours in the fridge you can check my instagram and you will see the perfect cut you get after cooling.

Have a nice week

♥♥♥

Banana Chocolate Cupcakes

It was quite a long time I'm not publishing cupcakes, so today I come with these which I use to make quite a lot and few weeks ago I enjoyed with some friends for the afternoon tea. These banana cupcakes with chocolate sponge are simply great. After the coconut recipe those are one of my favorites and one I use to make the most, so if you like banana and chocolate do not doubt and try them.

Banana Coconut Loaf

I'm back of my mini trip to Edinburgh, I really love this city and that time the experience was even better since I have some friends living there. If you are following me on facebook you will know I visited my friend Fernanda from the blog Fascinating Food, if you don't know her I totally recomend you visit her side, beside all her fabulous recipes you can explore some amazing places she visits.

I would like to show some of the places I've visited in my trip and some of the food I enjoyed, but this will be in a further post. So today I'm sharing with you this loaf. Once again I had some bananas that were already too ripe and I decided what better to make a lovely loaf? This time instead the buttermilk I put coconut milk and it was really delicious. And to make the loaf even better I added some chunked Bounty bars.

INGREDIENTS makes a 18 cm loaf tin
100 g butter at room temperature
175 g sugar
195 g plain flour
2 large eggs
2 tsp baking powder
a pinch of salt
118 ml coconut milk, one cup
2 very ripe bananas, mashed
Bounty bars, chunks

Preheat the oven to 180º and grease the loaf tin.

Sift the flour, the baking powder and the salt in a bowl, set aside. Cream the butter and the sugar in a bowl with an electric mixer until light and fluffly. Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing well after each addition.

Add the sifted ingredients graduatlly in three addition, alternating with the banana and coconut milk and mix until just combined. Stir in the Bounty chunks and mix it with a spatula. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and level it out with a spatula.

Bake in the center of the oven for 40 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center of the cake comes out with only few moist crumbs attached. Let cool for 15 minutes in the tin and after on a wire rack.

If your loaf gets darker on top before the inside is done cooking, cover it with aluminium foil.

You can also use loaf tin paper liners or just a baking paper on the bottom to unmold it better, but with the tin perfectly greased should be enough.

A slice of this loaf is perfect for breakfast or for the afternoon tea.

Enjoy ♥♥♥

Banana and Chocolate Layer Cake

Even you can buy bananas along the year, I think bananas fit perfect with summer recipes and specially this summer I decided to eat more healthy, eating more fruits and vegetables. But sometimes happens that bananas start to go bad, so I have the perfect reason to make a fantastic cake such as this one. Actually I was thinking to make a quick icecream I read on a magazine, but I have to confess that my freezer is full of icecreams, but also then is quite complicated to eat all the fruit I promissed myself I have to eat... so a cake is much easier to carry anywhere and share (which is an other perfect reason to not eat all what I make).

INGREDIENTS makes a tin of 20 cm

250 g flour

220 g sugar

175 g butter cubed and soft

125 ml sour cream

2 eggs

2 teaspoon baking powder 

2 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoon lemon juice

300 g ripe bananas (about 3 bananas)

Preheat the oven to 180º, grease and flour the tin.

Sift the flour and the baking powder and reserve. Mix mashed bananas and the lemon juice and reserve.

Mix the butter, the sugar and the vanilla. Add the eggs, one by one, continue mixing, add the sour cream and add the flour mixture gradually. Finally add banana mixture and beat until smooth and all ingredients are well combined.

Pour the mixture in the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes or until the skewer comes out clean.

Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 5 minutes, and after let it cool down on a wire rack. Once cooled cover with plastic film and store in the fridge, for few hours or much better overnight.

FROSTING & FILLING

400 g icing sugar

70 g butter cubed and soft

50 ml whole milk

1 ripe banana

1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

chocolate ganache

To make the chocolate you will need the same porpotions of chocolate and heavy cream and you can follow this. Store in the fridge for few hours.

For the frosting chop the banana with a fork. Mix the butter, milk and sugar until pale and smooth. Add the  chopped banana and lemon juice and beat for 3 minutes. Cover with plastic and place in the fridge for 1 hour.

Cut the cake and fill it with a ganache layer, place in the fridge if it is necessary for 10 minutes and cover with a frosting layer and repeat the process. You can top with melted chocolate.

I suggest to serve it very cold.

Enjoy!

XXX

Raquel

Banana Coffee Milkshake

Milkshakes are perfect for any season of the year, but specially during hot summer days is extra good. The one I show you today I like it for breakfast but also good any time of the day. You will need to put a banana in the freezer in advance and make a nice extra strong coffee and let it cool down. And in less than 5 minutes you will enjoy a tasty and refreshing milkshake.

INGREDIENTS  makes 2 milkshakes

1 ripe banana
6 scoops of vanilla ice cream
1 large coffee
cocoa powder for decorating

Peal and cut the banana and store it in the freezer, you can do it at least with 20 minutes in advance.  Make a coffee, let it cool down and place it in the freezer or in the fridge to make it quicker. Put all ingredients in  the blender and serve inmediatly. You can decorate with some cocoa powder.

Enjoy it!!

♥♥♥

Helado de Chocolate, Plátano y Nueces de Pecan

Este es mi primer helado casero, y realmente es muy fácil de hacer. Partiendo con los ingredientes base que lleva este helado, que son la leche condensada y la nata para montar, se puede conseguir un delicioso y cremoso helado. Tan solo tendremos que añadir los ingredientes elegidos para conseguir el sabor que deseamos.

He aprovechado que tenia unos plátanos maduros y le he añadido chocolate y nueces de pecan caramelizadas. He puesto nutella y para intensificar el sabor a chocolate unas cucharadas de cacao puro sin azúcar.

Yo no tengo heladera, pero con un poco de tiempo y paciencia no es necesario tener una heladera en casa para hacer un buen helado!

He sacado la base de esta receta aquí, y como en Holanda también me ha sido imposible encontrar el gasificante para hacer el azúcar invertido, usando la leche condensada también es una buena forma para evitarnos tener que hacerlo.

INGREDIENTES para 6/8 raciones

250 ml de nata para montar (heavy cream)
200 ml de leche condensada
3 plátanos maduros
2 cucharadas de cacao puro en polvo
3 cucharadas de nutella
100 g de nueces de pecan caramelizadas

Procedimiento

1. Montamos la nata.
2. Pelamos y cortamos los plátanos y los ponemos en una batidora americana o similar y batimos.
3. Añadimos la leche condensada, el cacao y la nutella y batimos un poco mas hasta que esté todo integrado.
4. Mezclamos junto con la nata y repartimos en moldes aptos para congelación.
5. Pasados 45 minutos sacamos del congelador y removemos con una espátula comenzando por las pareces que es lo que se solidifica primero. Repetimos esto 3 veces cada 45 minutos. Es lo que se llama proceso de mantecado. 
6. Tras la última vez que lo sacamos del congelador, lo batimos con una batidora eléctrica, seguidamente añadimos las nueces, removemos con la espátula y dejamos que acabe de congelar. 
7. Lo guardaremos durante 3/4 horas antes de servir y poder así formar las bolas cremosas. Si lo dejamos mas tiempo o días será necesario sacarlo unos 20 minutos antes y así poder formar las bolas.

Nota: En la receta original no aparece el proceso manual de mantecado, pero yo he preferido hacerlo, y el helado estaba perfectamente cremoso.
La leche condensada la guardaremos previamente en la nevera.
El recipiente lo tendremos previamente 1 hora en el congelador.
Después del último mantecado y de añadir las nueces de pecan he esparcido algunas por arriba también.

Mi principal temor era la cristalización, pero os aseguro que este no cristaliza nada, y es que cuanto más grasa lleve el helado menos va a cristalizar, con lo que la nata, la leche condensada y el plátano han facilitado la no cristalización, pero el resultado merece la pena!

Si no habéis hecho nunca helado tenéis que probarlo, no os vais a arrepentir! yo me arrepiento de no haberlo hecho antes!

XXX

Raquel