Banana Split Jars

It's that time of year again. Shake out that tartan blanket. Check your stock of Tupperware. Up to the loft to find the picnic hamper. Get ready to wiggle your toes in the sand and brush grass off your sandals.

It's picnic season.

This year I'm on a mission to banish soggy sandwiches and flabby quiche, to make picnic food glamourous. And I had a little help with these Banana Split Jars from Fruitdrop.

Like the ever popular veg box schemes, Fruitdrop want to make our workplaces healthier. My office has just moved a bit deeper into the city and it annoys me that its easier to grabs bags of crisps, chocolate and sweets than it is to find fruit. I'm hugely guilty of snaffing Malteasers at my desk but for the past week and a bit, I've had a stash of delicious fruit that make me feel like a snack saint with a Fruitdrop office fruit box

These banana split jars are the perfect way of using up just ripe bananas and strawberries. Here's how I did it...

Ingredients

Makes four servings

200ml of double cream
1/4 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla powder
1tbsp icing sugar

150gr Madeira cake (or another firm sponge)

2 firm bananas
125gr strawberries
Splash for orange juice


Chocolate covered cocoa nibs or grated chocolate
Glacé cherries

Method

1, Whip the cream, vanilla and icing sugar together to medium soft peaks. Transfer this into a piping bag.
2, Cut up the Madeira cake and slice the strawberries and bananas. If your not going to eat the jars straight away, toss the banana slices in a little orange juice to stop them browning.
3, In freshly washed jars, layer up your bananas, strawberries, cake and whipped cream.
4, Top with the chocolate covered cocoa nibs and a glacé cherry.
5, Firmly affix the lid and you're ready to picnic.

Storage
Fresh cream. We don't want that laying in the sun for too long. I refrigerated mine before packing in a cool bag with an ice pack for transportation.

Disclosure
I received a Fruitdrop box of fruit and compensation for my time and ingredients. My photos, recipe and views expressed are my own.

Roasted Banana Cake

Our freezer decided to defrost itself on Sunday.

There's were some casualties (rest in sweet peace Ben & Jerrys) but the salvageable parts had to be cooked. I made pies, pasties, stews and more. The oven was on and off, almost constantly. I decided to take advantage and roast some bananas that were also threatening to turn just over ripe.

Roasting really transforms the rich, caramelly notes of the bananas and surprisingly gave this cake a lighter texture.


My recipe calls for melted butter. Roast your bananas, throw in that butter to the still warm pan, give it a little wiggle to submerge the creamy little chunks in that intense banana syrup and then leave the whole lot to cool. Labour saving. I'm into that. Especially when I have to figure out what to do with another packet of half defrosted meat...

Ingredients

Banana Cake
3 whole, unskinned, bananas
1 cinnamon stick, snapped in half
100gr butter, room temperature and chopped into chunks
1tsp baking powder
260gr self raising flour
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 Ndali vanilla powder (or 1/2 tsp good vanilla extract)
100gr caster sugar
60gr dark brown soft sugar
2 eggs
2tbsp milk

Glace Icing
150gr icing sugar
1-2tbsp water

Method

1, Preheat your oven to 200 o/c and arrange your bananas in a heatproof bowl. Add in the cinnamon stick and roast for 10-15minutes until brown, bubbling and swimming in their own sweet liquor. Drop the oven temperature down to 170o/c and grease/line a deep 7 inch cake tin.
2, Carefully remove from the oven and slide in the butter. Give it a little wiggle to immerse the chunks in the banana-y syrup and leave to one side so that the butter melts and the bananas are cool enough to handle. Peel and discard the skins along with the cinnamon stick and mash the flesh into the melted butter.
3, Sift together the baking powder, flour, cinnamon and vanilla powder together and whisk in the sugars to keep it airy and light.
4, Beat the eggs and milk into the now cooler banana mix and add into the dry ingredients. If you are using vanilla extract instead of vanilla powder, simply beat this in with the eggs and milk too.
5, Gently fold to combine until you have a smooth batter and pour into your prepared cake tin. Smooth the top and bake for 35-40 minutes until golden brown and an inserted skewer comes out clean.
6, Remove from the tin and cool on a cooling rack.
7, Make the icing by stirring the icing sugar with water until you have a thick paste. Spread over the top of your fully cooled cake and leave to drip down the sides.

Brown Butter Banana Bread

Our decorations came down early. Baubles wrapped carefully, pinecones buffed between layers of bubble wrap. Ribbon wreaths carefully laid down with ornaments snuggled in their hollows.

I admit, the cottage felt empty. The cats are visibly annoyed that the tree has been cut into three, bagged and awaiting a trip to the Christmas tree farm in the sky.

Maybe the emptiness influenced the things that started to come out of the kitchen. A big hearty vegetable gratin, a burgundy beef stew with horseradish dumplings and this banana bread. Smells filled the void. The smell of browning butter has been my favourite one to envelope the empty space.

Based on this recipe

Ingredients
75gr butter
120gr golden caster sugar
225gr plain flour
2tsp baking powder
Small pinch of salt
2 eggs
4 ripe medium sized bananas

Method
Preheat oven to 160o/c
1, In a small saucepan, melt the butter and then simmer it, very gently until it takes on a golden brown hue. Nutty and fragrant, not black and bitter, is what you're aiming for. Pop this to one side to cool a little.
2, Sift the sugar, flour and baking powder together in a large bowl.
3, In a smaller bowl, mash the bananas until you have a chunky paste, and stir in the eggs and the browned melted butter.
4, Add the wet ingredients to the dry ones and fold gently to combine into a smooth batter.
5, Pour into a well greased 1lb loaf tin and bake for 40-50 minutes until rise, golden and an inserted skewer comes out clean. Transfer onto a wire cooling rack. Sneak a warm slice.

Banana Honey Flower Breakfast Cakes

Cake? For breakfast?

Well, its more of a muffin…

I’ve been trying to actually eat breakfast before I leave for work or on my way to work. Normally, I wake up late, get ready in a hurry which involves trying to find something suitable to wear to work, throwing on some makeup, tripping over the cats, making sure I have my keys, tripping over the cats, taming my hair which is a bit Diana Ross-esque first thing and then shooting out the door trying to justify to myself that I can get to the office in 13 minutes (no chance…)

Lack of breakfast doesn’t get me until about 10.30am when I’m slumped over my keyboard fumbling at a can of diet coke and something unhealthy… Bad move…

Ingredients:-

250gr flour (made with 125gr of wholemeal and 125gr of plain flour)

2tsp baking powder

80gr brown sugar

4tbsp of honey

4 bananas (mashed, these are best if they are very ripe!)

2 eggs

100ml of melted margarine

2tbsp water (or milk. If I have any left after making a curry, then coconut milk is brilliant)

Method

1, Preheat oven to 180 degrees (gas mark four) and line a 6 hole muffin tin or grease a six flower silicon mould (I am in love with my silicon moulds…)

2, In one bowl, sift the flour and baking powder together and then add in the gritty bitty bits your left with in the sieve in as well. Stir in the sugar gently,

3, In another bowl add the rest of the ingredients, these should all be wet.

4, Mix the wet ingredients into the flour/sugar mix and gently combine with a large metal spoon. Don’t over mix or they will lose all the precious air they are holding and become dumpy and stodgy!

5, Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until cooked through.

6, Remove from the oven and set aside for a couple of minutes before turning onto a wire cooling rack. Sieve a little icing sugar over the top! Store them in an airtight container and grab as rushing out the house!