Banoffee Pie

My banoffee pie is never a thing of beauty but tastes pretty damn good. The first time I ever made it was in my third year of university and my house-mate and I felt like we stumbled across the holy-grail. We became obsessed with eating it!

I made my banoffee pie a few weeks ago as I had dinner with my boyfriend and his granny and I made the desert. Turns out she loves caramel so that was lucky! Unsurprisingly, the recipe is from Mary Berrys Complete Cook Book. Serves around 8 people with 816 cals a slice....bit high on the kcal but it is delicious!!

Ingredients

90g Butter
90g Light Soft Brown Sugar
1 x 397g Can Caramel Condensed Milk

Biscuit Crust
90g Butter
175g Digestive Biscuits

Topping
2 Bananas
200ml Double or Whipping Cream
Cocoa Powder or Chocolate Curls

20cm (8 inch) Springform or Loose-Bottomed Cake Tin

1. Lightly grease the can tin, and line the bottom with baking parchment.
2. Make the biscuit base: melt the butter in a saucepan, add the crushed biscuits, and stir well to combine. Press on to the bottom and side of the flan tin. Place in the fridge to set.
3. Meanwhile, make the filling: put the butter and sugar into a saucepan, and stir over a low heat until melted and combined. Add the condensed milk, and stir until smooth. Bring to a boil over a high heat, stirring. Boil for 1 minute only, then pour immediately over the biscuit base.  Chill for at least 30 mins, until set. (The pie can be made up to this stage the day before serving.)
4. Peel the bananas, cut into chunky slices, and arrange over the set toffee base. Spread the whipped cream over the bananas to cover them completely so they do not discolour. Chill the pie for atleast 2 hours until firm enough to cut. Before serving sift cocoa powder over the cream or decorate with chocolate curls.

I have never been able to perfect getting the biscuit base thin enough. So my banoffee pie doesn't have sides but it still holds! I just keep it in the fridge for a number of hours so it really does set. I decorate the top by using a fine grater and grating a chocolate bar. I totally love this desert and it is a real crowd pleaser.

Breakfast Bagels

I once again tried to fight the urge not to bake on my rest days...and once again I failed. However my urge was spurred on by the fact I reeeeally wanted to use my new KMix with the dough handles and I must admit, I was very impressed! I have NEVER made bread before or used yeast so im pretty happy with the results! Ever since I bought Lorraine Pascale's: A Lighter Way To Bake, I have always wanted to bake the second recipe in the book 'Beautiful Boiled Then Baked Breakfast Bagels'.

Makes 8 Bagels - 229 KCAL Each

Ingredients

200g Strong-Wholemeal Bread Flour

300g Strong White Bread Flour

7g Sacheet of Fast Action Yeast

1 Heaped Tsp Salt

325ml Warm Water 

Spray Oil

3 Tbsp Honey (Optional)

1 Egg, Lightly Beaten

2 Tbsp Toppings e.g Sesame Seeds, Poppy Seeds

Recipe

1. Sieve the wholemeal flour into a large bowl. Put three quarters of the bran the remains in the sieve back into the flour and save the remainder for later. Add the white flour and then add the yeast and salt. Toss everything together and make a well in the centre. Pour in the warm water and mix together to form a soft but not sticky dough.
2.  Knead the dough for 10 mins by hand or 5 mins by machine. To test if the dough is kneaded enough, form it into a ball with a nice taut top. Put some flour onto your finger and prod the top of the bread, making an indent of about 1/2cm. The dough should spring back all the way if it is kneaded and be stretchy. If necessary, knead it  bit more.
3. Weigh the dough  and divide the weight of the dough by eight, then separate the dough into eight equal-size portions weighing the amount you came up with. Place seven of the pieces under a tea towel so they don't dry out. Take one piece and roll it into a ball with a nice taut top, then dip your index finger in a little flour to coat and push it through the centre of the dough ball until it touches the work surface. With your finger still in the hole,pick it up and spin it around to make the hole bigger - about 4cm wide is ideal as the hole will close up quite a bit as the dough rises. Place the bagel onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and repeat with the rest of the dough balls. Space the bagels quite far apart on the baking sheet as they will expand quite a bit.
4. Spray the bagels with some oil and then cover them with cling-film. The cling-film should be loose enough for the bagels to increase in size, but still airtight.
5. Leave the bagels in a warm place for 40 mins or until they have increased in size by about a third. To test if they are ready, put some flour on your finger and prod the side of the bagel, making an indent of about 5mm. The indent should bring back about halfway.
6. When they are ready,cover them back up and preheat the oven to 200c/fan 180c/400f/gas mark 6.
7. Pour 2 litres of water into a wide pan and bring to the boil. Once boiling, stir the honey through. This will add shine and flavour to the finished bagels. Working in batches of 2 at a time, drop the bagels into the boiling water. They will be a bit squidgy to pick up, so the trick is to do so without misshaping them too much. Leave to boil for 15 seconds each side. Remove them from the water with a slotted spoon and place them back onto the baking sheet as you go.
8. Once they have all been boiled, brush the bagels really well with the beaten egg so they are nicely covered. Then, scatter over your choice of toppings. Each bagel will take about 3/4 of a tablespoon of topping in total, whether individual or mixed. I used the remaining bran saved from sieving the wholemeal flour.
9. Finally bake the bagels in the over for 25-30 mins or until they are golden brown and sound hollow when tapped underneath.

If I had to sum this recipe up in one word it would be: sticky. Despite the stickiness and the time donated, this is totally worth baking. They are delicious and perfect for any breakfast or lunch! As I said at the beginning, I have never made any kind of bread product before so im very pleased with the results. As long as you are organised and have read the recipe a few times you shouldn't go wrong. I found using the KMix was a workout in itself, let alone kneading the bread by hand. I have definitely learnt one thing, bread dough REALLY sticks to greaseproof paper! I certainly wont be using it as much next time, I would suggest just using a floured surface for every stage of the recipe. I also found it much easier to boil one bagel at a time. I tried one bagel this morning for breakfast, I had it slightly toasted with cream cheese and smoke salmon. It was delicious and surprisingly filling!! 

Bourbon Biscuits

These biscuits were once again made to see my team through the night shift and they were delicious! I couldn't recommend these more with a cup of tea! The recipe came from Ruby Tandoh's cook book 'Crumb'. Ruby advises 'These biscuits will lose some of their crispness after several hours, so if you wont be eating these all at once, reserve some of the biscuit halves and butter-cream to fill them when you're ready. The butter-cream should be kept in the fridge.' Ruby's recipe uses orange zest to flavour the biscuit and the butter-cream, however I decided to leave this out.

Ingredients

For The Biscuit:                                                               For The Butter-cream
240g Plain Flour                                                              100g Unsalted Butter
4 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder                                          2 Tablespoons Cocoa Powder
140g Unsalted Butter                                                       150g Icing Sugar
100g Caster Sugar                                                          
300ml Milk or Water

Recipe

1. Sift the flour and 4 tablespoons of cocoa powder together into a large bowl. Rub in the 140g butter using your fingertips, working lightly and speedily until no visible flakes of butter remain. Stir in the caster sugar, then sprinkle on the milk or water (I used water), Use a butter knife or similar to 'cut' through the mixture, blending the liquid with the dry ingredients until the whole lot has begun to come together in small clusters.
2. Press the dough into one piece, wrap in cling-film and refrigerate for 30 mins. Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180c/fan 160c/gas mark 4 and line a large baking tray with baking parchment. 
3. Depending on how chilled the dough is after it time in the fridge, you may need to let it soften just slightly before rolling. The dough will crack if too hard and stick if its too soft. Roll out on a lightly floured surface to around 25x30cm. Cut into rectangles approximately 8x3cm, although the precise dimensions don't matter as long as all of the shapes are more or less the same size.
4. Transfer the shapes to the lined baking tray and bake for 12 mins. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack.
5. Wile the biscuits are cooking/cooling, prepare the butter-cream. Beat the 100g butter, 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder until smooth then add the icing sugar a little at a time. The mixture should be smooth and soft enough to spread or pipe.
6. Spread or pipe the butter-cream onto half of the cooled biscuits, sandwiching the remaining biscuits. Chill in the fridge for 10 mins if they need any extra help serving.

When cutting out the biscuits, I found 8x3cm made quite big biscuits, next time I would probably do 6x3cm sized biscuits. Also don't spread the butter-cream too generously as too much can be quite sickly. This was a fairly simple recipe however it is slightly time consuming but totally worth making!