#letsgetfoodie3 – Flambé-ed banana muffins

14-06-201514-06-2015 Local Black Bookbanana, breakfast, cake, cooking, dessert, letsgetfoodiechallenge, muffins, recipeLeave a comment

Earlier this week, Amanda announced that the #letsgetfoodiechallenge was coming to an end. Since I hadn’t had time to put in my entry for the very last challenge beforehands, I thought I would say farewell with a bang (and flames) by creating flambé-ed banana muffins!50g butter (+ 1 tablespoon)

250 plain flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1 pinch of salt

100g caster sugar (+2 tablespoon brown sugar)

2 teaspoons honey

4 large bananas (ripe)

3 eggs

50 mL rum
Melt the 50 g butter and leave to cool.

In a frying pan, melt the extra tablespoon of butter. Slice your bananas and add to the hot pan. Cook until it reaches the texture of slightly liquid jam. Add in the brown sugar and the honey and cook for a few extra minutes.

Pour in the rum and flambé until the flame disappears (make sure your kitchen vent is off as it might set it on fire otherwise!). Pour the mix in a bowl and leave to cool.In a mixing bowl, combine the flour, the baking powder, the bicarbonate, the pinch of salt and the caster sugar.Add in the eggs and the butter and mix thoughroughly.Add in your flambé-ed banana mix and mix thoughroughly. Pour your batter into muffin tins and bake for 15-20 minutes at 180 °C.

I’d recommend you let the muffins cool down a bit before eating them, but I won’t blame you if you can’t! (I couldn’t and might have burnt my fingers a little bit taking them off the tin…)But look at how pretty they are! Can you really blame me?

#Letsgetfoodiechallenge Week 2 – Something green | Spinach Tortilla

29-05-201527-05-2015 Local Black Bookchallenge, cooking, easy, food, gluten-free, grain-free, healthy, healthy living, letsgetfoodie, letsgetfoodiechallenge, picnic, recipes, Spanish, spinach, tortilla2 Comments

In the second edition of the #letsgetfoodiechallenge, Amanda challenged us to create a recipe with something green in it.

Now I love my greens, so once again, I was a bit paralized by the choices. But since we were heading to Brighton during the last Bank Holiday weekend, and the idea of a picnic on the beach was simply too difficult to resist, I ended up revisiting one of my favourites recipes: Tortilla. Since I got some beautiful spinach at the farmers’ market that same morning, I thought I would add some in as well and cross my fingers really hard for it to work and result in something delicious. And IT REALLY DID!

Spinach Tortilla – serves 4

You’ll need: 5-6 medium waxy potatoes, 5-6 eggs (I only had 3, but more would have been better!), chopped parsley, chopped garlic (I used dried garlic), 2-3 sliced spring onions, 2 big handfuls of spinach, olive oil, salt, pepper.

Start by preping all your vegetables. Slice your potatoes up as thin as possible (without slicing your fingers though!).Slice your onions too, and wash your spinach and dry it up. Chop your parsley and garlic.In a bowl, whisk your eggs with some salt and pepper, then add in your garlic and parsley.Get a pan (one that goes into the oven would be perfect here! I got mine from IKEA) nice and hot, then add in some olive oil and your potatoes and fry those until they’re tender. Transfer to a bowl and keep them to the side for now. Fry your onions and do the same.
Next up, you’ll need to cook your spinach.
Once it’s ready, add the onions and potatoes on top and give the whole thing a good stir to combine all the elements. Pour your egg mix on top and cook for about 5 minutes. Transfer to a hot oven (180-200 °C) and cook for a further 5-7 minutes. Take your masterpiece out of the oven and eat it while it’s hot. Or get some friends together and bring it to a picnic on the beach!What’s your favourite picnic recipe?

#LetsGetFoodieChallenge Week 1 – Decadent Salted Caramel & Chocolate Tart

12-05-201512-05-2015 Local Black Bookcaramel, challenge, chocolate, dessert, food, letsgetfoodie, letsgetfoodiechallenge, recipe, tart17 Comments

In case you didn’t know already (aren’t you following me on Twitter?), the lovely Amanda recently created the #letsgetfoodiechallenge with the objective of challenging her fellow foodie bloggers to come up with creative ideas around a set theme.

And the first set theme couldn’t have been better picked if I had picked it myself! It was all about chocolate! Saying I was excited would be a bit of an understatement… I men, CHOCOLATE, could there be anything better?!

Cake + Whisky | Salted Caramel & Chocolate Tart With my parents visiting last week, I thought it was about time I re-visited an old favourite of ours: the chocolate tart, which I made following one of my dad’s cousines’ recipe. And I might have made it even more decadent with the addition of a layer of salted caramel sauce. I don’t really know why I did that… I suppose I felt like there wasn’t enough butter and cream inthere already! 😜

Salted caramel & chocolate tart

Pastry:
125g salted butter (soft but not melted!)
250g plain flour
100g sugar
2 egg yolks
1 pinch salt

Whisk the egg yolks and the sugar together until fluffy and white (-ish). Add in the salt and the flour and mix with your fingers until it turns into really thin crumbs. Add in the butter and work the dough until it all comes together.
Roll in a ball, cover with cling film and keep in the fridge for about 1/2h. When the pastry is cold enough, roll it out and put in a buttered and floured mould. Cover with baking paper and rice and bake at 200°C for 20 minutes. Remove the baking paper and rice and bake for a further 5-10 minutes.
Allow your pastry case to cool down before filling it.

Salted caramel sauce:
200g sugar
50g salted butter
200g single cream

Pour the sugar and a bit of water in a pan over high heat and cook until it turns into caramel (if you undercook it, it will re-cristallised so make sure you do!), then add in the butter and mix thoughroughly with a wooden spoon. Pour in the cream and mix. Let it cool down before pouring on the pastry case.

Chocolate ganache:
200g baking chocolate
200g single cream
2 egg yolks
30g butter

Pour the cream in a pan and bring it to a small boil. Take it off the heat, then mix your chocolate through. Add in the butter and cream and mix thoughroughly.

Once you’ve assembled your tart, pop it in the fridge for 1h or until you’re ready to serve. Even better would be to let it rest for an entire night in the fridge, but i’ve never been that strong myself.

What’s your favourite chocolate dessert? And most importantly, have you joined us for the #letsgetfoodiechallenge yet?

Cake and Whisky

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#letsgetfoodie3 – Flambé-ed banana muffins

#Letsgetfoodiechallenge Week 2 – Something green | Spinach Tortilla

#LetsGetFoodieChallenge Week 1 – Decadent Salted Caramel & Chocolate Tart