Best Banana Bread: Recipe

I've been ill for the past couple of weeks but luckily whilst I was still well I knocked up one of my favourite banana bread loafs. It is a great recipe for using up browning bananas and is perfect as an on the go breakfast, a slice of mid afternoon snack or with a little cream or ice cream as a pudding. The cake also keeps really well if stored in an airtight container it can last up to a week so is a good investment to make on a sunday afternoon.... just don't expect there to be any left by Wednesday!

I have tried adding chocolate chunks instead of the nuts or leaving them out all together and it works equally well each way - it just depends what you have in your cupboards!

Best Banana Bread

Ingredients

• 225 Self-raising white flour
• 1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 75g Butter
• 150g Caster sugar
• 450g Ripe bananas
• 2 Eggs
• Optional - 125g chopped mixted nuts or Chocolate
• Extra sugar for sprinkling on top.

Method

1. Line a 1lb loaf tin with non stick baking parchment
2. Pre heat the oven to 180 oC / 170 oC Fan ovens.
3. Sift the flour, Bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a bowl.
4. Rub in the butter then stir in the sugar.
5. Mash the bananas then add them to the flour mixture with the eggs and chopped nuts / chocolate if using.
6. Turn the mixture into the lined tin and sprinkle the top with sugar.
   
7. Bake in the oven for 1- 1.25 hours or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
8. Leave in the tin to cool for 10 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
   

Enjoy!

Oat and Raisin Cookies: Recipe

I made this recipe as a healthier version of the much loved cookie, the occasion was a healthy eating and practical skills session I ran for some children from the local primary schools visiting our Village college for the day to "try out big school"

The oil is a healthier alternative to butter, Wholemeal flour replaces half of the less fibre-rich plain flour and the sugar content was reduced whilst the amount of raisins was increased whilst the taste and quality of the cookie have not been affected!

The cookies are lovely and fudgey whilst containing some healthy ingredients so indulging in them isn't so sinful, they have been enjoyed by adults and kids alike and are also suitable for dairy intolerant people. They really are hard to resist and incredibly more-ish!

The list of ingredients may seem a little long but stick with it, this recipe gives good results.

Makes roughly 12 cookies although the ingredients can be easily multiplied.

Oat and Raisin Cookies

Ingredients

• 80g Wholemeal flour
• 80g Plain white flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 75ml Vegetable oil
• 75g dark brown sugar (muscavado)
• 7g Caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract or Vanilla Flavour
• 50g Rolled oats
• 85g Raisins.

Method

1. Pre heat the oven to 170 0c.
2. Put both sugars in a mixing bowl and mash to remove any lumps.
3. Add the vegetable oil, the vanilla extract and the egg to the sugars and whisk to remove any more lumps.
4. Add the oats and raisins to the mix and stir with a wooden spoon to combine.
5. Add the wholemeal flour to the mix and stir until combined.
6. Add the baking powder and stir again.
7. Add the plain flour a little at a time and stir until the mixture forms a soft dough.
8. To form the cookies: ake 2 teaspoons of dough and roll them into a ball, place the dough balls onto a lined baking tray, leaving a gap between them.
9. Bake in the oven for 16 minutes, rotating the tray half way through to give an even colour.
10. Remove the cookies and cool on the tray for a few minutes until they have firmed a little and are easy to handle.
    
11. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Enjoy!

Review: Afternoon Tea at the Hilton Doubletrees, Cambridge.

In July, to celebrate my mums' birthday we went for afternoon tea at the Hilon Doubletrees hotel.

We dined in style and in a way in which my mother has taught me to do things: on a half price voucher deal (afternoon tea for 2 = £15 reduced from £30)

There were 3 of us, who had eaten nothing since brunch so we ordered 2 afternoon teas which turned out to be a bit over ambitious.


The afternoon tea came with delicate finger sandwiches; egg and cress, smoked salmon and ham and mustard but that was the extent of the savoury.
There were creme brulees and mini trifles, eaton mess, scones, jam and clotted cream and themed Biscuits dipped in chocolate. The picture above shows biscuit shoes, a dress and handbag, The picture below has biscuits in the shape of a bear and a slice of chocolate rocky road cake.

We washed it all down with lashings of early greay tea and soon began to suffer with a sugar head ache due to the very low savoury to sweet ratio!

It was a really nice treat and next time we'll know to order 1 tea between 3 people and stock up on sandwiches or pork pies first! Although it may be a little out of my price range without the voucher their offer is available until October 2010 with a coupon in Explorer magazine.

Ruth and her Everest

The Blue Egg

You know when you say something as a joke and it backfires? Well, that was the blue egg.

We were having a drink at the delightful Cambridge Blue on Gwydir Street when my friend joined us.
"I'm going to the bar" He says "Can I get you anything?"
I look at the bar and see a giant jar of pickled eggs which had been dyed blue "A blue egg!" I chuckle. Seems the joke was on me though.

Here it is in all it's disgusting glory:

There is a very good reason why most food isn't blue.
*shudder*

It's been a while...

Courgettes in the green house

I realise that is a gross understatement as it's actually been over 6 months since I updated this blog. Its been a very busy time: Moving house and planting up our new grden, planning our wedding, working hard and travelling the globe during the summer so there is lots to write up about. Consider this a bloggers IOU.

I'll start close to (our new) home:

The Kitchen Garden.
We moved in early June and have spent a large amount of time turning the overgrown scrub land at the back of the house into a tamed place to grow vegetables. So far we have eaten tomatoes and courgettes that we've grown and today I had some freshly picked lettuce in my lunch time sandwich.

Plants waiting to be put in the bed.

The first of 3 veg beds.

We raided the 2 grow bags of potatoes which hadn't been worked to their potential so only yielded a small quantitiy of spuds but they were tasty none the less and not at all disappointing as it's rewarding having grown anything, no matter how small!

This is all unbelievably exciting for 2 people who have spent the past few years in a first floor flat looking longingly at other peoples gardens. So much so that weeding still feels novel, although I'm not sure how much longer that'll last!

We already have sage growing in the garden along with one head of rhubarb that I'm very excited to see if it grows. We brought a few pots with us from the old flat: Chillis from Wahaca and some herbs: Rosemary, Bay and

Most of the veg that we planted will mature ready for late autumn or early winter with the exception of 2 aubergines the size of ping pong balls and a tiny green pepper that'll need eating before the month is out.

We've got a way to go before we're completely self sufficient but when the days become shorter we'll start to harvest the Brussel sprouts, leeks, Cabbage, Broccoli, Kale, Cauliflower and swede from the garden and in due course I'll post up some recipes for them too.

Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake: Recipe

About 10 years ago, whilst I was at sixth form college a girl in my class brought in a gorgeously moist looking chocolate cake (think Bruce Bogtrotter) boasting that it was made with mayonnaise.

Ever since then I've been meaning to make one of my own and so, in the quest for dairy free treats for my lactose intolerant lovely, I made one this weekend.

I searched for a recipe and found a promising looking one on the eco friendly website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Whilst making it I had some reservations, mainly about the hideously off-putting tuna mayo-esque stench of what is usually an irresisstable chocolatey goo (Are you trying to tell me you don't eat half the chocolate cake mix before it even makes it in to the tin?) But the final cake turned out so lush that it's well worth holding your nose and thinking of tea time.... and you've well and truly earned a slice after beating the mayo into the mix so hard you develop new arm muscles....

I accidentally added an extra teaspoon of the coffee granules to the icing which wasn't a disaster, it just added a nice dark mocha element to the cake.

I hope you enjoy it....

Chocolate Cake recipe from by Caroline Marson at www.lovefoodhatewaste.com

Makes a 18cm cake

• 275g self raising flour
• 225g caster sugar
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• 200g jar of mayonnaise
• 4 tablespoons cocoa powder
• 225ml boiling water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

For the icing:

• 2 level teaspoons instant coffee
• 2 level tablespoons cocoa powder
• 2 tablespoons warm water
• 75g butter
• 225g icing sugar

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) mark 4. Line an 18 cm cake tin with greaseproof paper.
2. Sift the flour into a large mixing bowl and stir in the caster sugar and baking powder. Beat the mayonnaise well into the flour – it is very important to beat thoroughly into the dry ingredients.
3. Dissolve the cocoa in the boiling water and stir this gently until it’s smooth. Add to the flour mixture with the vanilla essence and give it a quick stir. Stir everything thoroughly until all the ingredients are blended but this time don’t beat the mixture because that will spoil it. Just keep stirring it gently until all the lumps are gone.
4. Pour the cake mixture into the tin. Bake for about an hour or until the center feels springy and a skewer comes out clean. Leave the cake in the tin to cool before turning out onto a wire rack.
5. For the topping, dissolve 2 teaspoons of coffee and 2 tablespoons of cocoa in 2 tablespoons of hot water. Add the soft butter and the icing sugar.
6. Beat the mixture thoroughly ensuring there are no lumps and spread it over the cake.

Muffin Madness

Over the last month I have made several rounds of muffins which are great for speedy breakfasts or guilt free snacking. They are moist, filling and seem to suit any ingredients changes I throw at them.

The basic recipe I've been playing around with is one which I blogged in September last year:

http://eyesbiggerthanmybelly.blogspot.com/2009/09/back-to-school.html

I made a batch just after Christmas (recipe 1) when we had some pathetic looking carrots languishing in the bottom drawer of the fridge: this time however I grated the carrots instead of boiling and mashing them as:
1) that boiling and mashing them was far too much hassle and created more washing up and...
2) they've got to keep more of their nutrients if they're only cooked once, right?
I also used rolled oats in place of some of the flour and cranberries instead of the pineapple chunks.

The results were great and even better was the fact that they could be devoured by my lactose intolerant God Daughter.

The second batch I made when we had 2 bananas left over from pack lunches which were more black than yellow (recipe 2). So I whisked up a batch of muffins and took the opportunity to use up a bag of pecans which were nearing their sell by date. However in my haste and baking frenzy I added ground ginger to the mixture instead of ground cinnamon, surprisingly they tasted no worse for it!

I've got another batch of carrot and cranberry muffins in the oven now - this time i've used muffin cases instead of fiddling around cutting baking parchment into squares and forcing it into the muffin trays which was akin to wrestling an octopus. I also had to improvise with plain flour and bicarb of soda as i've run out self raising. It doesn't seem to have affected the outcome; these muffins are just great for adapting to what ever you have in your cupboards.

Carrot and cranberry muffins (Recipe 1)
140g self raising flour
30g wholemeal flour
a pinch of salt
55g rolled oats (plus a little extra to scatter on top of the muffins)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
150ml sunflower oil
100g golden caster sugar
2 carrots, grated
100g dried cranberries
2 tbsp fruit juice (orange works well)
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract

1) Pre heat the oven to 200 oC or 180 oC for a fan oven
2) Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases or squares of non stick baking parchment
3) Sift together the flours, add the salt, bicarb, cinnamon and oats.
4) In another bowl beat the oil with the caster sugar and add the grated carrots, cranberries, fruit juice, egg and vanilla extract.
5) Fold the dry mix into the wet one
6) Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and add a pinch of oats to the top of each muffin
7) Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.


Banana, Pecan and Ginger Muffins (recipe 2)
140g self raising flour
30g wholemeal flour
a pinch of salt
55g rolled oats (plus a little extra to scatter on top of the muffins)
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tsp ground ginger
150ml sunflower oil
100g golden caster sugar
2 bananas, mashed
200g pecans, broken into small pieces
2 tbsp honey
1 egg
1tsp vanilla extract

1) Pre heat the oven to 200 oC or 180 oC for a fan oven
2) Line a 12 hole muffin tin with muffin cases or squares of non stick baking parchment
3) Sift together the flours, add the salt, bicarb, ground ginger and oats.
4) In another bowl beat the oil with the caster sugar and add the mashed bananas, pecans, honey, egg and vanilla extract.
5) Fold the dry mix into the wet one
6) Spoon the mix into the muffin cases and add a pinch of oats to the top of each muffin
7) Bake in the oven for 20 - 25 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.