Banana Bread

The first time I had banana bread was at Tamarama Beach, just around the corner from Bondi Beach in Sydney, and I think I will always associate the blue water, the white sand and the bright morning sun with this fruit bread. It took me 4 years to try and make my own, and I haven't yet managed to produce a loaf with the flavour and texture I remember from the Tamarama beach bar, but I think what I have is pretty good.
The recipe takes ca. 300 grams of flour, and using plain flour yields a lovely moist spongy loaf. I have given an alternative mix that provides a wholesome, nutty bread with a light crunch. I suggest you experiment with finding the right balance between plain, whole wheat flour etc. to suit your own taste. You can of course also choose your own mix of nuts, but I find the crushed hazelnuts go really well with the banana, and especially in the plain flour version they also give the bread a nice texture.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 ripe bananas (425 g)
• 2 eggs
• 1 dl sugar
• 1/2 dl vegetable oil or melted butter
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 2 dl (120 g) whole wheat flour
• 1 dl (20 g) wheat bran
• 1 dl (40 g) ground flax seed
• 2 1/2 dl (150 g) plain flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 80 g crushed or chopped hazelnuts
• 1 good handful of chopped walnuts
  

How to:

1. Preheat the oven at 175 degrees Celsius.
2. Line a bread baking tin with baking paper.
3. Crush (or chop) the hazel nuts. I put them into a strong plastic bag and smash them with a rolling pin. This produces a good mix of fine to coarse pieces, and very fine hazel meal.
   
4. Mix the flour, salt and soda in a bowl.
5. Mash the bananas with a fork.
   
6. With the electric handmixer, mix eggs and sugar till fluffy, then add oil, vanilla and mashed bananas.
7. Add hazelnuts and walnuts, and fold in the flour mixture.
   
8. Pour batter into the baking tin and bake for ca. 1 hour at 175 C. The bread is done when a skewer comes out clean.

This recipe is still quite sweet and cake-like, I have to admit. To get a less sweet, more bread-like result, reduce ingredients to 1 egg, 1/4 dl veg. oil, 2 tbsp sugar, and no vanilla.
If the batter is a bit dry, add some (butter) milk.

Walnut muffins

Ingredients (makes 12)

• 250 gr (wholewheat) flour
• 2 tea spoons baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 200g caster sugar
• 75 gr walnuts roughly choppped
• 1 tea spoon vanilla essence
• 100g butter, melted and cooled
• 3 eggs
• 200ml milk

How to

1. Preaheat the oven to 180°C and line a 12-muffin tin with paper cups.
2. In a bowl, mix the dry ingredients: flour, baking powder, salt and caster sugar.
3. In another bowl mix the vanilla essence, butter, eggs and milk (until smooth).
4. Pour the liquid mixture over the dry ingredients and mix well.
5. Divide the batter between the 12 muffin paper cases.
6. Bake for 20/25 minutes (or until a skewer inserted in the centre of a muffin comes out clean.)
7. Allow to cool in the tin and unmould.

Bom apetite :)

Wet chocolate cake (Dina's cake)

This cake has the 2 characteristics a dessert should always have: is easy/quick to do and tastes great! All the credits of this recipe go to Dina!

Ingredients

• 200g dark chocolate (I like to use one that has above 70% cocoa)
• 200g butter
• 200g flour (self raising or, alternatively, add 2 teaspoons baking powder)
  
• 150g sugar
• 4 eggs
  

How to:

1. Pre-heat the oven 200 degrees
   
2. Melt the chocolate with the butter and set aside
   
3. Beat the eggs and the sugar until thick (it will look pale and moussey)
4. Gradually add the flour
5. Finally, add the chocolate mixture
6. Pour into a baking form and bake for 15 min (in the end should be wet)

A note about taking this cake from the baking form: because it is a wet cake it will be easy if you use a silicon form or a springform pan. If you do not have one of these let the cake cool down for a few minutes before you try to take it out.

Chocolate Cake

This recipe is one of the fantastic desserts that my friend Paulo always take to dinners at my place (of course his mother is the author :)). Thank you Paulo :)

You will need:

1) For the cake:

• 1 cup chocolate powder
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup warm water
  
• 1/2 cup oil
• 2 cups white flour
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 5 eggs

(cup = tea cup)

2) For the sauce:

• 10 spoons of milk
• 5 table spoons chocolate powder
• 3 table spoons sugar
• 2 table spoons butter

Now:

1. Pre heat your oven 180 degrees and grease a cake form.
2. Beat the eggs and the sugar until thick (it will look pale and moussey)
3. Continue mixing adding in this order: the oil, the water, the chocolate and the flour (with the baking powder mixed in).
4. Pour into the form and bake for 30-35 min (the top of the cake should be firm, you can test if its cooked with a toothpick. Just insert it into the middle of the cake. If the toothpick comes out clean, the cake is done.)

For the sauce:

1. Put all ingredients into a pan and mix everything (if you think the mixture looks too thick add a bit more of milk)
2. Heat the mixture until hot

To finish: make some small holes in your cake (use a fork or a tooth pick) and cover with the sauce (this process should be done with both the cake and sauce hot).

Enjoy! (I like to eat it with a lot of whiped cream :))