Banana cookies

In an attempt to use up two bunches of blackening bananas, I made a recipe I’d found on Simply Recipes, adapted for my starter (read: no spices) kitchen and my preferences. These come out as very soft, cakey cookies – almost spongey, in fact, even after cooling.

Ingredients

120g butter, room temperature (I used salted; if you use unsalted, add a pinch of salt when you add the flour)
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg, room temperature
1 cup mashed bananas (I used three bananas, which was a heaping cup)
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 cups flour
Scant cup chopped white chocolate chunks

1) Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celsius (or 350F)

2) Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Add egg and keep beating until creamy.

3) Add baking soda to mashed bananas and let stand a minute or two (this apparently helps give the cookies their lightness)

4) Mix banana mixture into butter mixture. I did mix it pretty thoroughly using a mixture to get rid of any latent banana chunks and to beat in air.

5) Sift flour into banana-butter mixture and stir until just combined.

6) Fold in chocolate chunks.

7) Drop onto a greased baking sheet. I used a tablespoon measure. They do spread a fair bit so take that into account. Bake for 11 – 14 minutes until ligtly golden brown. Let sit for a minute or so to firm up, then transfer to wire rack to cool completely.

Proper Brownies

In my house cake, muffins, and brownies all had distinctly different textures.  I notice this difference disappearing in most commercial bakeries.  Try a proper brownie, they really are an entirely different food than just small pieces of chocolate cake!

Recipe for a 13×9 (in.) cake pan:

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Grease a baking pan lined with foil.

Melt in a small saucepan:
1/2 cup unsalted butter
4 oz. unsweetened chocolate

Let cool.

Beat until light in color and foamy in texture:
4 large eggs
1/4 tsp salt

Gradually add and continue beating until thick:
2 cups sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

With a few swift strokes, stir in the cooled chocolate mixture just until comvines.  Even if you are using an electric mixer, switch to a wooden spoon for this.  Stir until just combined:
1 cup all-purpose flour

Gently stir in, if desired:
1 cup chopped nuts (or other goodies)

Scape batter into the prepared pan.  Bake about 25 minutes.  Cool completely in the pan on a rack.

-From “The Joy of Cooking”

Enjoy!
-Emma

Profiteroles filled with Creme Patisserie and covered in Chocolate Butter Sauce

Here’s a fancy and impressive dessert recipe to try!

For Profiteroles:

65 g / 2.5 oz. flour
50g/ 2 oz. Butter
2 eggs
1 tsp. salt
120 ml/ 4 fl. oz. Water
1 egg beaten with 2 tbsps. milk (for brushing)

Preheat oven to 200 C/400 F.  Grease cupcake tray with 12 depressions at least.

Put butter and water in saucepan over low heat, stirring continuously until butter melts.  Bring to boil then remove from heat.  Add all flour and salt and stir until well mixed.

Return saucepan to medium heat and stir mixture continuously until it comes away from the sides of the pan.

Add two eggs, one at a time, beat until smooth.

Spoon pasty into tray.  Whisk remaining egg with milk and brush the resulting mixture over the pastry.

Bake in oven 25-30 minutes.  Poke each profiterole with a sharp knife or fork to release the steam.  Leave to cool.

For Creme Patisserie

1 Tbsp Flour
7 Fl. Oz. Hot Milk
2.5 Oz. Sugar
2 egg yolks
2 Tsp. vanilla

Beat egg yolks and sugar together in a bowl

Add flour and stir in

Heat milk in saucepan.  When hot (but not boiling!) slowly pout into egg, sugar, and flour mixture.  Mix well.

Return mixture to saucepan and cook on low-medium heat, stirring constantly.  The mixture will start to turn lumpy, keep stirring until it recovers a uniform consistency and add vanilla.  The resulting mixture should taste very like thick custard.  Add more sugar if desired.

For Chocolate Butter Sauce:

225 g./ 8 oz. Plain Chocolate, broken into pieces
250 ml/ 8 fl. oz. Water
90 g./ 3.5 oz. butter, but into pieces

Stir chocolate pieces and water together in a saucepan over low heat until the chocolate is smooth and completely melted

Remove from the heat and stir in the butter until the mixture is glossy.

Open the profiteroles, fill with custard, and douse in chocolate sauce.

-Juliet

Small Batch Baking

Every time I feel like trying out a dessert recipe, im struck with the same old notion : it’ll probably go to waste! Coming from a family of fairly health conscious eaters (Im sure most of us are these days…..although i have a very very demanding sweet tooth), and one thats not very large, my sweets often get comfortable in a little corner in the fridge, only touched once in a while, when someone gets that intense sugar craving or if friends come to visit. As a result of this, i went in search of a recipe that produced a small quantity of my all time favourite snack : a crispy, granola inspired cookie. I baked them yesterday and I’m proud to say they are hardly any left, probably because there were only about 10 cookies to begin with!

This recipe was originally for chocolate chip cookies but i substitued the chips for oats, sunflower seeds, coconut, cashews and almonds! You can use anything really.. all that matters is that you get the basic dough right.

2 tbsp + 2 tsp butter (room temp)

2 tbsp brown sugar

2 tbsp granulated sugar

2 tbsp egg (well beaten)

1/4 tbsp vanilla

1/4 cup + 2 tbsp all purpose flour

scant 1/4 tsp baking soda

1/8 tsp salt

1/3 cup chocolate chips or A handful each of oats, sunflower seeds, dessicated coconut, chopped almonds and chopped cashews

1. Cream the butter and sugar.

2. Mix in eggs and vanilla.

3. Stir in the dry ingredients.

4. On a greased cookie sheet, place balls of dough (size according to your prefference) and press them slightly so they flatten. Be sure to leave some space between each ball as the cookies expand as they bake.

5. Bake at 190 degrees celcius for about 8-11 minutes.

Tina

FroYo (empasis on the Yogurt)

I’ve recently discovered and come to love a new food trend: Frozen Yogurt.  Now, I know you’re thinking of the stuff you’re used to that is basically diet ice cream.  This is different: this is amazing.  It is literally yogurt which has been frozen.  It still has the yogurt tang.  Delicious!  Here are two places where you can try some:

Tangy Sweet (http://www.tangysweet.com/) in Dupont Circle, Washington DC.
Has more flavors and toppings.  The Green Tea flavor is awesome!

SweetGreen (http://www.sweetgreen.com/Home.html) on M Street, Georgetown, Washington DC.
Has wonderfully tasty salads, as well!

Know of any other places to get some?  Share with us!

Enjoy!
-Emma

PS: A great place to get a really good frozen yoghurt in London is at Muffinski’s, which is in 5 King Street, quite near Covent Garden. You can get a whole range of fruity flavours, including raspberry (delicious!), strawberry, blackberry, banana and, as far as I can remember, mango. The muffins are really nice too!
– Chloe

dark chocolate and orange…

Since returning home about a month ago, ive rarely ventured into the kitchen… barring the occasional snack raid. My grandma and aunts are always refusing any kind of assistance while preparing lavish feasts for the family (nearly every weekend)…. and if its not that, i find myself dining out almost every other day as there are always new places to try out and people to catch up with.

Worried that i might lose that baker’s touch (yes, i sometimes like to believe that ive been bestowed with such a gift), i decided try out a recipe that i found in one of the books my aunt had lying around. I found the exact same recipe on BBC Good Food so im going to shamelessly steal the picture from there. My cake looked pretty simillar to this one, except it was a square cake and i decorated it with a dusting of confectioners sugar as opposed to candied orange peel.  

While the cake turned out amazingly moist (thanks to the sunflower oil), the orange flavour is very VERY subtle. This may be due to the fact that i didnt bother looking for a seville orange.. and just used what was lying in my fridge. Also, reducing the sugar by about 50 grams is a good idea, as the dark chocolate ganache more than makes up for it.     

Ingredients :

1 Seville orange

a little melted butter , for greasing

100g plain chocolate , broken into pieces

3 eggs

280g caster sugar

240ml sunflower oil

25g cocoa powder

250g plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

orange candied peel , to decorate

Method :

1. Pierce the orange with a skewer (right through). Cook in boiling water for 30 minutes until soft. Whizz the whole orange in a food processor until smooth; let cool.
2. Preheat the oven to 180C/gas 4/fan 160C.Grease and line the base of a 23cm/9in round cake tin. Melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave for 2 minutes on High, stirring after 1 minute. Let cool.
3. In a large bowl, lightly beat the eggs, sugar and oil. Gradually beat in the puréed orange, discarding any pips, then stir in the cooled melted chocolate. Sift in the cocoa, flour and baking powder. Mix well and pour into the tin. Bake in the centre of the oven for 55 minutes, or until the cake springs back when lightly pressed in the middle. (Check after 45 minutes and cover with foil if it is browning too much.) Allow to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, then turn out on to a wire rack to cool completely.
4. Make the chocolate ganache: put the chocolate into a heatproof bowl. Bring the cream to the boil and pour over the chocolate. Leave for 2 minutes, then stir until smooth. Set aside until firm enough to spread over the cake – up to 1½ hours.
5. Transfer the cake to a serving plate. Using a palette knife, swirl the ganache over the top. Decorate with strips of candied orange peel.
6. Since my cake tin was slightly smaller in width, my cake turned out to be slightly taller. So, once it cooled down, i sliced the cake into half (horizontally), spread some ganache on one slice, then placed the other slice on top and finally swirled it over the whole cake.

 

Eat well… because life’s too short not to!

Tina

So tasty and addictive and unhealthy that I have to share

Fried chocolate sandwiches!  I place all blame on epicurious.com for this one!

Basically you put chocolate between two pieces of bread, butter the bread, and fry it.  Here are proper directions, though
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/FRIED-BITTERSWEET-CHOCOLATE-BREAD-236691

I made the “student version” with the bread I happened to have around and chocolate chips, and it was still delicious.

Enjoy!
-Emma

Banana Chocolate Chip Cookies

Based on a recipe from 500 Fabulous Cakes and Bakes and a lot easier to make if you have an electric handwhisk. Adding the banana obviously makes it more healthy, and thus more acceptable to society. It makes 24 cookies if you make the dollops fairly small.

Ingredients:
115g/ 4oz/ 1/2 Cup of butter
45g/ 1 3/4 oz/ 1/4 cup caster sugar (for a popcorny taste use icing sugar)
100g/ 3 3/4 oz/ 1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2.5ml / 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
175g/ 6oz/ 1 1/2 cups plain flour
2.5ml/ 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1.5ml/ 1/4 tsp salt
175g/ 6oz/1 cup chocolate chips (or as many as you want, really)
1-2 Bananas depending on how much you like the taste of banana

1) Preheat the oven to 180 C/ 350 F/ Gas 4. Grease baking sheets as you run out of room for separate cookies. Cream the butter and all the sugar until light and fluffy.

2) In another bowl, mix the egg and the vanilla essence, then gradually beat into the butter mixture. Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt and stir.

3) Mash up some bananas with an electric handwhisk. If you do not have acess to such a thing use a potato masher or a fork. Pour the mashed up bananas into the rest of the mixture and combine thoroughly. Add chocolate chips as desired. The resulting mixture should be gloopy, but smooth.

4) Place heaped teaspoons of the dough onto the greased baking trays. Ensure they are not too close together otherwise they will form one giant cookie, which, surprisingly, has its downsides. Bake in the oven until lightly coloured for about 10-15 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack too cool.

-Juliet

Baked Pears

One of my family’s favorite desserts are baked pears.  Mom makes them stuffed with hazelnuts, with a syrupy coating that I think involves apple juice and maple syrup.  As a student, I had none of these three ingredients, but thought a baked pear would hit the spot.  My version isn’t quite as good as Mom’s, but it uses more store cupboard ingredients.

Store Cupboard Baked Pears:

1 pear, halved and with the seeds and woody bit removed

Filling:
1 TBSP butter
1 TBSP brown sugar
2 TBSP oats

To serve:
milk, cream, or ice cream, depending on what level of dessert you’re going for

After removing the woody parts from the pear, you’ll be left with a little hollow in each half.  Fill these hollows with the oat mixture.  Pile on as much more oat mixture as is structurally possible.  Put the halves of pear in a baking dish, and bake at about 300 F for about 20 minutes, or until the pear gets soft and the topping gets golden.

Enjoy!
-Emma

A party without a cake…

What’s a birthday party without a cake? Well, I guess it can be a perfectly respectable affair, but to me it just lacks a certain celebratory flair. When a friend’s birthday came our way, we knew we had to bake something special and beautiful. There were only two criteria: it couldn’t be a chocolate cake, and, as students with limited kitchen facilities (not even a handheld mixer!), it had to be something simple and easy to put together. Since we even lack round baking tins,Tina and I opted for a yellow, vanilla-flavoured sheet-cake which could be baked in a rectangular brownie pan, the recipe of which we found on Baking Bites.

Since we made this all by hand, the cake was dense rather than fluffy, but it was absolutely wonderful and came together quickly and easily. The icing was a spectacular surprise; although caster sugar is used, the result is smooth and buttery, with absolutely no crunchy bits of sugar throughout.

the beautiful finished product, which we decorated with decorative sugar flowers and candles bought from Waitrose. The dark splodges on which we’ve placed the white flowers are little dollops of dulche de leche (Argentinian milk jam) which Tina bought at Borough market some time ago. The dulche de leche also makes a great topping for a classic banana cake…

Sheet cake (the instructions reflect what we did, lacking a mixer)

2.5 cups cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 cups sugar (we used golden caster sugar)
1/2 cup butter, softened
3 eggs
1 cup milk
2 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 175 degrees Celcius
Grease 9×13 inch sheet pan with vegetable oil
Sift cake flour, baking powder and salt into bowl. Note: we don’t have a sifter, so we improvised by tossing the dry ingredients around a bit to aerate them. This might have contributed to the cake’s denseness, so if you like a denser, moister cake, don’t sift the ingredients.
Add sugar and mix to blend
Cut butter into four or five chunks. Drop into bowl with flour (we cut the butter into small pieces and rubbed them into the flour mixture). Blend until mxiture looks sandy and no chunks of butter remain (one or two minutes with an electric mixer on slow)
Combine milk, eggs and vanilla in large measuring bowl. Beat lightly until combined, using a fork.
Pour one cup of this egg mixture into bowl with mixer on low. Turn speed up to medium and mix for one and a half minutes (we mixed this until smooth. You could use a fork, spatula or even just your hands for this).
Reduce speed back to low and pour in the rest of the egg mixture. Continue to beat at low speed for about 30 seconds (or until smooth! It does take a bit more time by hand) until liquid is fully incorporated. Scrape down sides of the bowl and beat for a few more seconds if necessary
Pour batter into prepared pan; spread it evenly with a spatula. Tap gently a few times to eliminate any bubbles
Bake for 30 – 35 minutes until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes clean
Let cool for 30 mins in the pan before tuning it out onto a rack to cool completely

Vanilla Frosting

the paste of flour, milk and salt. It is not tasty, but it is the start of something beautiful (and tasty). Anyway, once you have this product, let it cool for about an hour and a half before adding it to the butter and sugar

the fluffy gorgeousness of this sweet, rich frosting

1 and 1/3 cups milk
1/4 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 and 1/3 cups sugar (we used golden caster sugar)
1 and 1/3 cups butter, softened
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine milk, flour and salt in medium saucepan with heat turned off. Whisk until smooth.
Cook over medium-high heat, whisking, until mixture thickens and comes to a boil, about 5 – 7 minutes.
Boil for 1 minute, then remove from heat
Strain into medium bowl and cover. Cool to room temperature, about 1.5 hours
When flour mixture is cool, beat together sugar, butter and vanilla until mixture is creamy and light (it is possible to do this with a fork and whisk, as we did, it just takes a bit longer!)
Add flour mixture a dollop at a time, beating it in until frosting is creamy and light

Original recipe is here, original frosting recipe is here