Banana Toffee Pie (Banoffe pie)

When you come across the same dish in 4 different blog, all in a single day, then think no more. Its the great baker in the sky telling you that its time you made that dish. And hey, who am I to question the great baker's plans? and so I made the Banoffe pie, which is simple banana and toffee mashed up together, much like in this dessert. Its decadent, its rich and its most definitely yummy. Its true that you cant eat too many helpings cause it is frankly a sickly sweet recipe and you can get satiated with one slice but thats only a problem, if you are just making this pie for yourself. One the other hand if it is for a dinner party, then you wouldnt know where the dessert disappeared! Here are the things you need,

• 4-5 medium ripe bananas
• 400 mils of double cream
• 1/2 cup sugar and 3tbsp butter
• 3 tbsp water
• 1 tin condensed milk
• 250 grams of digestive biscuits
• 125 gram butter

Method:

1. In a blender/food processor, mix together the digestive biscuits and butter until they form coarse crumbs.
2. Press the biscuit crumbs onto a springform tin to form the base. Remember to press the crumbs on to the sides of the tin. 
3. Refrigerate for 1/2 an hour
4. In the meanwhile, on low heat melt together the sugar and water. Stir until all the sugar is dissolved.
5. Then raise the heat to medium and leave the sugar undisturbed for 5 minutes or until it begins to caremelize.
6. Now quickly add the condensed milk and butter and whisk until the toffee sauce thickens.
7. Then remove the rested pie shell from the fridge and pour half of the sauce all over it, including the sides. 
8. Refrigerate it for a further half an hour.
9. Now chop the bananas into medium sized slices and whip the cream to form still peaks
10. Fold the bananas into the cream
11. Spread the cream evenly over the biscuit and toffee base
12. Pour the remaining toffee sauce over the cream and refrigerate for another 1/2 an hour.
13. Then dig in!

You could omit steps 4,5,6 and make toffee sauce another way. All you need to do is remove the label from the tin of condensed milk and then immerse the tin in a pot water and place that pot on low heat (simmer) for about 2 and half hours and then when you crack open the tin of condensed milk, voila! its toffee sauce! :) While, this is a far easier process it is a lot more time consuming. So, choose your method according to your convenience. The result is just the same though!

Also, one way to reduce the sweetness of the dessert if its a tad too much for you would be to use, just ripe bananas instead of medium or overtly ripe ones. This way, the lack of sweetness in the bananas will help even out the overall sweetness of the dessert.

For the base, try using salted butter instead of unsalted butter, as the saltiness of the biscuit plus the butter forms and interesting clash with the sweetness of the toffee sauce.

 Remember to wear stretch pants ore PJs when you eat the dessert. Why you ask, you will know! This dessert might even make you wish for spandex! :P

Apple Tart

I had never tasted an apple tart. Until yesterday! Yup. Always shied away from it and picked another dessert. It was instinctive. Nothing about an apple tart yells out to me and still all my friends and my family swear by it. They claim, you cannot go wrong with it. Its a safe dessert. And so, yesterday when I found my fruit basket dangerously over stuffed with apples, I thought it was perhaps time to tackle the apple tart monster! Grab it by its horns and devour it to submission. Well, atleast that was the plan but alas, its just not my monster. Know what I mean? I made the tart shell from scratch, lovingly made the fillings, waited to get it baked and the result..it was blah in my mouth. Don't get me wrong, apparently the dessert was delicious. It had to be cause my Mum who always says no to dessert went in for seconds and there is no more tart left but still to me it was blah.

I always feel that a good dessert has to overwhelm you. There should something about it that explodes in your mouth. It could be the flavours, its subtlety, a surprise element, anything but it has to impress you and that's where I felt my apple tart failed. Atleast to me. Well, no more apple tarts for me and like I said, I'll never get around this monster but thats just cause, this is just not my monster. Nonetheless, if you like apple tarts then here are the things you need,

For the shell,

• 250 grams of flour
• 125 grams of cold and cubed butter
• 1 tbsp of water
• a pinch of salt

For the filling,

• 3-4 large apples sliced along the length
• 25 grams of butter + 25 grams of sugar
• 250 mils of cream
• 100 grams of sugar (or more if you like it really sweet)
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

1. Mix together the all the ingredients for the tart shell and press them together. Do not knead as it can make the shell a little tough. Press them well, between cling films and refrigerate for atleast 2 hours.
2. Then roll it out to desired thickness and line your tart tray with it. Trim of the excess from the edges.
3. Now, cut the apples lengthwise and line the prepared shell with it.
4. Mix together the butter and sugar and brush all over the apples well. Alternately, you could dip the apples in this mixture first and then line the tart tray with it.
5. Now in an oven preheated to 220 degree Celsius, bake the tart for 10 minutes.
6. Then reduce the temperature to 200 degree Celsius and bake for further 20 minutes.
7. In the meanwhile, whisk together the cream, sugar, egg and vanilla extract.
8. Once the tart has been baked for the required 20 minutes, remove from oven and pour the cream mix all over it until the apples are submerged in it.
9. Now return the tart to oven for another 10 more minutes.
10. Remove and serve while slightly warm.

Sorry about the really really bad photos. Lack of inspiration plus the lack of a good camera can do this to us! :(

Crumbly silky chocolate pie

The first thing I read today morning was a post by Tara of Butterdish and everything about the post touched me. It was moving and inspiring and it made you wanna bake, not for yourself but someone else. This chocolate pie was a result of that post. Agreed, the post asked for a peanut butter pie but due to certain reasons, I just could not make a trip to the supermarket and so had to make do with what was in my pantry. Well, the pie turned out B E A U T I F U L. It was just like its name, crumbly, silky, chocolaty and felt velvety in the mouth. I wish I could have shared a slice with you, just so that you would know that I am not fibbing. You must try this!

Here are the things you need,

For the crust:

• One 250 gram packet of Bourbon biscuits
• 50 grams of butter

For the filling:

• 2 squares of chocolate bars (approx 250 grams)
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 tbsp gelatin
• 1/4 cup cold water
• 1 tsp vanilla essence
• 1 tbsp zest of orange (for a tangy-ness only) 
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 eggs, separated (not divorced, only separated..sorry sad joke, I know)

Method:

1. Mix together the biscuits and butter together in a food processor.
2. Now tip the mixture on to your tart tin and press it in so that it spreads evenly. Make sure it covers the edges of the tin too
3. Refrigerate the crust for about 30 minutes.
4. Now, mix the gelatin in cold water and allow it to  rest for 15 minutes
5. Boil 1/2 a cup of water and mix the chocolate in to.
6. Once the chocolate is fully melted, add the gelatin and bring the mixture to a simmer.
7. Keep stirring until all the gelatin has dissolved.
8. Now add 2 egg yolks to the mixture and mix
9. Then add the vanilla essence.
10. Take off from heat and allow the mixture to cool. 
11. Now, whip the egg whites with the sugar until it forms still peaks.
12. Fold the cooled chocolate in to the mix and pour into the tart tin.
13. Refrigerate for 1-2 hours.
14. Serve! Yum!

Stuffed Bananas

Ok, so we haven't done sweet in a while and so today I thought we would make something yummy, sweet! Wanted something exotic and not the everyday cookie, so I ended up making these flavoursome, most definitely sweet stuffed bananas.  I admit its not an everyday treat, but on those days when you feel particularly exotic or wanna surprise your guests with a luxuriant dessert, this is the way to go. Very few ingredients required but the product is particularly lovely.

Here are the things you need,

Medium ripe bananas - 3-4
Grated coconut - 1 cup ( I prefer freshly grated coconut to the desiccatied variety because the juices from the freshly grated ones impart such a different flavour to the dish)
Cardamom powder - 1/2 tsp
Granulated Sugar - 3 tbsp
Broken Cashew nuts - 1/4 cup
Raisins - a handful
Butter - 2 tbsp
Oil - For frying

Steam the bananas until tender, but not overtly tender and then mash it.

Divide the mashed bananas into fist size balls and keep aside.

Heat the butter and toss in the nuts and raisins and roast them.

Then add the cardamom powder and the coconut and fry it until the coconut loses more than half of its juices.

Turn off the heat and then add the sugar. Combine it well.

Now, take a banana ball and flatten it using your palm, scoop in some of the coconut mixture to the center and seal off the edges.

Then fry it in oil until lightly brown

I've chosen to do a missile like style while shaping the banana balls, though you may chose the style you like.