Banoffee meringue cake

We were having friends over for lunch and I wanted to use up some bananas that were perfectly ripe but also didn't want a heavy cake since we were having quite a heavy main. I've done a really nice banoffee pie (which I will also get up on here) but the base is quite heavy. Decided to combine a few recipes therefore and came up with this banoffee merginue cake.

This is something that really needs to be slightly planned since the meringues need time to cool slowly in the oven when they are cooked. Begin with 4 egg whites in a spotless bowl:

Whisk until stiff.

Measure out 110g caster sugar and 115g light muscadavo sugar (you can just use caster sugar if you want a white meringue or just muscadavo for a more caramel meringue).

Then add this a spoonful at a time to the egg whites whisk in each incorporation well before adding any more.

When it is all added it should be glossy and stiff and standing in peaks.

Preheat the oven to 120 degrees C fab (otherwise 140) and line two trays with baking paper. You then need to draw around the base of a 8 inch cake tin and flip over the paper and use this as a guide for spooning out your meringue mixture between the two trays. Or you can fill a piping bag and pipe the mixture into the circles.

Bake for about an hour to an hour and a quarter until they are crisp and dry and lightly coloured. Turn off the oven and leave them to cool there (I did this overnight).

When they are cool you then need to make your filling.

To make the toffee filling you can either boil a can of condensced milk in a pan for 3 hours or so and that will turn it into a caramel (keep topping up the pan with water).

Or a quicker method is to melt 50g butter and 50g light muscadavo sugar in a pan.

Gently heat until the butter is melted and the sugar has dissolved.

Then add a can of condensced milk and stir continuously until it becomes thick and golden. Be careful it doesn't burn. It will also be VERY hot.

Put one of the meringues onto a plate and then pour over enough of the toffee to coat the top (you will have extra- it is great poured over vanilla ice cream).

At this point chop up 2-3 large ripe (but not overripe) bananas and cover the caramel topping with these slices. Sprinkle with some lemon to stop them from browning.

 Then whisk 150ml double cream and cover the bananas completely.

Top with the other meringue circle.

Finally dust with icing sugar. You can keep this in the fridge for a day or so and so long as the bananas are all covered with the cream and toffee they shouldn't brown.

Simple but quite impressive!

Til soon....

Chicken tikka masala

Friday night and my husband announced he'd order us a curry. I always like the idea but usually regret it afterwards so said I'd make a tikka masala. This recipe is pretty easy and doesn't use unusual ingredients. It makes LOADS so unless you are feeding a group you have enough for dinner and to freeze several batches for another evening.

 Begin by making the tikka paste. This is really easy and much nicer than the jars you can buy. Take 5 cloves of garlic, some grated fresh ginger, 1 chopped red chilli, 2tsps each of ground coriander and ground cumin, 1 tsp each of paprika and garam masala and the seeds from 4 cardamom pods (bash them with a rolling pin to crack the pods). Add a a tbsp or so of either water or oil to bring the mixture together and then whizz it all together with a handheld food processor.

 Meanwhile heat a tbsp or so of vegetable oil with 25g butter and gently cook 2-3 large chopped onions for about 15 minutes until softened and starting to go golden in colour.

 

Meanwhile chop 2-3 red peppers and then add them to the softened onions together with the paste and cook for 5 minutes.

Keep an eye on it so that the paste doesn't catch and burn. It should be light golden colour at this stage.

 Then add your diced chicken breast. You can also use skinless and boneless thighs. With this amount of sauce you can add about 8 breasts or 12 thighs and that will easily serve about 8-10. Cook for another few minutes so that the chicken gets coated in the paste and begins to brown.

Then add 2 tins of chopped tomatoes, 4 tbsp tomato puree and 400ml of water.

Give everything a good stir and bring up to simmering point. Then cover with a lid and leave for about 20 minutes to cook through.

After this time add 150ml double cream, 150ml yoghurt and 2-3 tbsp mango chutney.

Give it a good stir and GENTLY heat it through. 

 Serve with rice, poppadoms, naan breads and of course a cool beer!

 

Any left overs should be cooled and then frozen immediately. Much healthier (and tastier!) than a takeaway and is ready in under an hour.

Til soon.....

Sticky apply pudding

This is another pudding that you can prepare in advance and just cook when you need it so works well when having friends over. Yes it uses a lot of sugar in the topping but not that much in the sponge mixture and you're not going to eat it every day and to be honest a small piece goes a long way.

Preheat the oven to 210 degrees (fan or 230 degrees non fan). Grease a shallow ovenproof baking dish (approx 11 inches).

Measure 175g self-raising flour, 1 level tbsp baking powder, 50g caster sugar, 50g soft butter, 1 large egg and grated rind of a lemon and 150ml milk or plain yoghurt into a bowl and beat until the mixture is soft and combined. Spread into the prepared dish.

Peel 3-4 apples and slice thinly. Arrange the slices over the mixture and then squeeze the lemon juice over the apples.

Brush the apples then with 50g melted butter then sprinkle over 175g sugar. It can now be covered and stored in the fridge overnight if you have prepared it in advance. Remove it from the fridge an hour before you want to cook it to bring it back to room temperature.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for about 35 minutes until the top has caramelised. Delicious with creme fraiche, ice cream or custard.

You can adapt the fruit to taste- even canned fruit such as apricot halves works well.

Til soon....

Mini meringues- literally kids play

Thankfully my girls are picking up on my love of cooking and are starting to want to help out when I am in the kitchen. Meringues is one of the things my eldest loves making so promised she could make these today to serve to our friends who were coming for lunch. They are so simple literally my 4 and 6 year old made them with just a little bit of help from me with things like the oven.

Begin with a SPOTLESS bowl and break in 2 eggs. You can use more eggs than this if you are needing more meringues- just increase the sugar accordingly.

Whisk until they are firm but not getting dry which will ruin your final meringues.

 At this point start adding in 80g caster sugar a spoonful (or good shake as below!) at a time and whisk it to combine each addition until it is all included and the meringues are glossy and stiff.

These can then either be piped onto baking sheets or just dollop tablespoons full onto the sheets. Make sure you make an even amount of meringues since you need to pair them up at the end.

Pop them in a cool oven (120 degrees or 100 if a fan) for about one and a quarter hours until they are lightly golden and can be easily picked up off the baking sheet without sticking. When they are ready turn off the oven and open the door and leave them to cool completely in there.

 

 Meanwhile whisk about 250ml double cream. You can flavour this as you like- some baileys works well for adults but for kids add some toffee saucce (a couple of tablespoons) and whisk this in as well.

Take a meringue and dollop on some cream then sandwich on another meringue. The amount we made produced 6 lovely chewy meringues which all disappeared rather quickly when placed on the table.

As I say childs play- if two little girls can do it anyone can and produce fantastic results. You can adapt it with some soft summer fruits or drizzle with some chocolate.

Til soon....

Steamed syrup pudding

Together with a sunday roast you need a stodgy pudding! This is really simple to make and yet hits the mark on a cold winter afternoon (particularly before a stroll around the park after a large sunday lunch!)

Begin by greasing a 3 pint (approx) plastic pudding bowl. Then get a metal spoon and wipe it with a little oil. Then measure in 3 tbsp golden syrup. The oil means it will just run off the spoon. Add to this the juice of half a lemon.

In a large bowl put 175g soft butter, 175g self-raising flour, 175g caster sugar, 3 large eggs, zest and juice of a lemon, 3 tbsp milk and 1 tbsp black treacle.

Give everything a good stir (or whizz it with a hand held processor) until it is all combined.

Put this into the prepared plastic basin on top of the syrup.

Put on the (buttered) lid and put in a large saucepan.

 Pour in hot water til just below the lid and put a lid on the saucepan and then leave to simmer over a low light for 2 -2.5 hours (if it is a bit longer it doesn't matter). Just make sure that the pan doesn't boil dry- keep topping up with water if necessary.

When ready to serve tip it onto a wide rimmed plate and pour over another 3 tbsp golden syrup. Serve immediately with custard/ cream/ ice cream.

A lovely traditional pudding to end your meal. Although cooking time is a few hours it takes minutes to prepare so is great for entertaining.

Til soon...