The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting

The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting

The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting… So the question of what to do with old bananas would pop into most peoples minds at some point while they look at their decaying fruit. A bright spark of an idea will envelope them as they remember that they love banana bread and surely it can’t be too difficult to make…

Bella and I are both guilty of leaving bananas too long on the bench and having them eventually end up in the garbage, but no longer! I will forever now be making banana bread because this recipe is so, so simple. You just bung all the ingredients into the food processor and blitz, spray your bread tin and throw it into the oven for one hour – and what an hour it is. The house fills with the aroma of freshly baked banana bread, scented with vanilla and cinnamon that lingers hours after the baking has finished.

The Easiest Banana Bread Ever w/ Lemony Cream Cheese Frosting is a moist, dense cake that has a fine crumb and holds it’s self well to toasting or eating fresh. It will keep in your fridge for ages, just lightly cover it and if you want the feeling of freshly baked banana bread then pop a thick slice into the microwave for 5-7 seconds and it bounces back to it’s old self – moist and slightly warm, yum!

Forever a classic – Blondie  🙂

Warm Sticky Date Puddings w/ Butterscotch Sauce

Finding Feasts - Sticky Date Pudding_ (1)
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A lesson learned… Please don’t try this at home!

It’s amazing how things can change from normal to absolute dire panic in a split second. This is what happened to me two weeks ago… Happily preparing spaghetti at about 6:30pm on a Sunday evening, I dropped a pot of boiling water on the floor. I had a loose top on, the saucepan’s handle was sticking out and the pot must have been off balance on the stove top. As I threw in some pasta, I spun around to get some more and that was it… That was the moment. That was exactly when Sunday night took a turn for the worse.

Frantic calls to the hospital, to my sister (a nurse) and to Bella (to take Seb who was in shock not quite knowing what was going on) and I was whisked away with feet and hands in a large bucket of water to the hospital, husband in tow. To say the pain was extraordinary is an understatement, it was just insane… several of doses of morphine was needed to get through that night!

Anyway, with mid to deep level burns (they no longer grade a burn in degrees) on my foot and burns to my knee and hand, I was told not to be on my feet for more than 15 minutes at a time. Cooking was left to hubby, which fortunately didn’t require much more than reheating as I had made 3 kg of spaghetti sauce and a big batch of Thai green curry paste the weekend prior. All sitting in the freezer, and unbeknownst to me at the time, ready for the two weeks off my feet… almost too funny how things work out.

So, now I’m getting back into the swing of things I wanted to cook something soul warming, something that will soothe and sate the cooking void I had just been in, and what’s better than a traditional Warm Stick Date Pudding with Butterscotch Sauce.

Please take care in the kitchen, an accident is really only a micro second away.

Blondie 🙂

Finding Feasts - Sticky Date Pudding_15

Best Ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pies – Egg Free

Best Ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pies – Egg Free
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My objective for this year is to make the perfect fruit mince pie.

Best Ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pies – Egg Free… For me, the most essential element to the perfect fruit mince pie is the pastry. It must have a buttery, fine crumb and be of the correct thickness (4mm) – this is very important as it needs to break apart in large enough chunks so as to get the perfect mouthful of fruit and pastry. It is vital that it maintains it’s structural integrity! There also needs to be a sweetness included in the pastry that sugar alone will not do… I thought I would be making at least three different recipes to come to the right one, but no, got it one! The fact that it’s egg free is just a bonus to those who have allergies but is in no way an intentional omission… just a happy coincidence.

Here is a small excerpt from Australian Gourmet Traveller about water and egg in shortcrust pastry… “Egg yolks and water also affect pastry. Egg yolks contain fat and act as an extra shortening agent but are used more to add colour and richness to the pastry. When you’re adding water to pastry, be careful to add only enough to bring the mixture from a crumbly dough to one that can be kneaded and rolled easily. Too much water in the mix means the pastry will steam as it cooks, making for a flimsy result, so add small amounts gradually until you have achieved the right texture.”

There is alot of butter in these pies so they need to be chilled; at room temperature the pastry becomes too fine a crumb, but with a slight chill the pastry holds firm and then each mouthful is a cacophony of cool and crumbly pastry, buttery, sweet and fruity flavours that marry and melt in the mouth…. too much? Nah, each bite is poetry!

Oh, I forgot to mention the hint of cardamon, this adds a mellow flavour that’s complimented by the fruit filling.

For the filling I used Robertson’s Traditional Fruit Mince, which is actually really good. It has the right texture and spice, but next year I will definitely work on my own filling – one step at a time!

Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of rum! (oh, is that Christmas?)  Blondie

Best Ever Christmas Fruit Mince Pies – Egg Free

Buche de Noel or Yule Log

FinSkis Buche de Noel
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Buche de Noel, Swiss Roll, Yule Log or Christmas Cake…regardless of what you call it, it’s divine! This chocolate sponge, filled with velvety soft whipped cream, covered in ultra rich chocolate icing is perfect for the Christmas day family gathering.

I’m a sponge virgin! The shot that you are looking at is my very first attempt at a sponge roll and with 38 days till Christmas (ekkk!) I am feeling rather chuffed at my first attempt.

Researching the history of Buche de Noel (thanks to good old wikipedia and Google!) as the name suggests it is French in origin but has links to Celtic tradition which dates back all the way to the Iron Ages. In winter the families would get together in December to celebrate winter solstice, the shortest day of the year. They would decorate yule logs with holly, pine cones or ivy and burn the logs. This would not only usher in spring but also warn off any evil spirits and signify rebirth.

Legend has it that the recipe really came to life when Napoleon issued a law which stopped Parisians using their chimneys because he thought the cold air caused people to get sick. Seeing as people were no longer able to burn logs in their fire places the Parisian bakers invented the dessert as a substitute for the actual process of burning the log.

I tasted my first Buche de Noel a few years ago at my husbands parents place.They bought the most amazingly decorator chocolate log cake I have ever seen, each year the log would come with different decorations which we have kept. The Santa on top of mine is from the very first cake I tasted.

Sponge cakes are easy, providing that you follow the instructions to the nth degree. I did with this one. My sponge was light, fluffy and easy to roll. The secret is to have everything prepared and ready.

So from my family to yours, wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and HAPPY BAKING!

Bella Cool

Salted Caramel Sauce

Salted Caramel Sauce
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Salted Caramel Sauce… You can’t beat a gorgeous caramel sauce to add a little indulgence to a dessert dish, throw in some Murray River Salt flakes (my preferred choice) and it’s transformed from normal to sublime!

This is another fabulous gift idea for Christmas, just make it a day or two prior to the day you will be handing it out.

Blondie 🙂

 

Chai Spiced Cherry Compote in Port Syrup

Chai Spiced Cherry Compote in Port Syrup
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Chai Spiced Cherry Compote in Port Syrup… Tis’ the season to be cherry!

Thanks to Bella’s parents, who went cherry picking near Orange over the weekend, we have mounds of these glorious red baubles. This means you will be seeing quite a few cherry recipes this year.

Using my Chai Whole Spice Mix (see below) I have made a delicious Chai Spiced Cherry Compote in Port Syrup that can be used in numerous ways. Have it drizzled over ice-cream, you can puree it and make it as a filling to use in your biscuits (use it instead of the prune jam in the Finnish Tarts – Joulutorttu) or put a couple of cherries with some syrup in the bottom of your champagne glass… it’s limitless!

Chai Spiced Cherry Compote in Port Syrup

Cheers… Blondie