a banana loaf

Another week, another TWD recipe...this time for Black and White banana loaf chosen by Ashlee of A Year In The Kitchen . I followed the recipe for this almost to the t (couldn't resist adding a handful of chopped dark chocolate to the chocolate half of the batter!) I thought this loaf was....okay. The texture of my loaf was rather dense and it had quite a thick crust on it. Maybe my bananas weren't quite ripe enough. The marbling didn't turn out quite like Dorie's picture either...in the meantime the loaf has been relegated to the freezer. I have bigger things planned for it in the form of a chocolate and banana pudding...cubed banana loaf soaked in chocolate custard and packed into ramekins with a filling of chocolate ganache tucked inside. Watch this space.

blueberry pie raincheck

You may have noticed that Dorie hasn't featured yet this week with TWD....the recipe being for a lovely looking Blueberry Pie. Last week I seemed to have on hand all of the components (ie. an excess of ripe bananas, toffee sauce) for banoffee pie ...and with a banoffee pie fiend in the house it seemed appropriate. I will definitely try the blueberry pie next time I have some berries to hand. You can check out how the blueberry pies turned out here, it looks like a goodie. In the meantime here was our banoffee substitute. The topping is half cream, half sour cream and the bottom is a cookie crumb meringue cake with dark chocolate and toasted almonds.

Meringue cake with dark chocolate and almonds

4 egg whites

225g caster sugar

250g sliced almonds, toasted and roughly crushed/processed

250g plain sweet cookie crumbs, crushed

100g dark chocolate, melted

Beat egg whites until stiff, gradually incorporate sugar as you would making meringue. Beat until the mixture is glossy. Gently fold in the crushed cookie crumbs and almonds. Pour in the melted chocolate and gently swirl into the mixture. Pour into a cake tin lined with baking paper. Bake at 170c for 30 minutes or so. This is also lovely topped with softly whipped cream and seasonal fruit and served in wedges like a pavlova.

banoffee ice cream

Mum came over to Hokitika on Thursday and pudding was called for. With the fruit bowl being full of ripe bananas, banana ice cream seemed a good choice. I used a recipe from Stephanie Alexander's Cook's Companion - a simple cream rather than custard based ice cream mix. There was some toffee sauce in the fridge which was perfect with it...

simple banana ice cream

350g ripe bananas
juice of half a lemon
300 ml cream
100ml light sugar syrup (1 part sugar boiled with 2 parts water until dissolved)

Blend the banana and lemon juice in the food processer until smooth. Mix in the sugar syrup then the cream, pulsing to combine, and pour into an ice cream machine. Churn only until the mixture is creamy not frozen solid, as the cream can curdle using this recipe. Especially good drizzled with warmed toffee sauce and served with sliced fresh banana.