Key Lime Tart

Key Lime Tart

(recipe to follow)

Bananas for Breakfast....With a Dash of Chocolate!

Banana Chocolate Chip Muffins

Ingredients:
3 very ripe bananas
125ml vegetable oil
2 eggs
250g AP flour
100g brown sugar
dash salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
150g dark or milk chocolate morsels (I used Ghirardelli bittersweet)

Preheat the oven to 350F and line a 12-bun muffin tin with muffin papers.

Mash the bananas and set aside. Pour the oil into a bowl and beat in the eggs. Place the flour, sugar, baking soda and baking powder into a large bowl and mix in the beaten-egg-and-oil mixture, followed by the mashed bananas. Fold in the chocolate morsels and then scoop equal quantities in the prepared muffin tin. Bake approximately 20 minutes.

Fruit Salvation

What to do with fruit that is about to spoil?? It's so expensive and you have to use it quickly or it will go to waste. It's a love/hate relationship I have with fresh fruit! So today I decided to use up a few things about to go to waste in the fridge and made a blueberry, strawberry, almond cream and puff pastry tart. Colorful and delicious while avoiding fruit waste...

Pink Macarons

I tried a new method for macarons today. Instead of the more involved Italian meringue method where you cook the whites with boiling sugar syrup, I opted for the French meringue method. Here you basically whip the whites to stiff peaks and then fold in your almond flour, etc. These were easy enough but didn't grow sufficient "feet." The bottoms were cooked nicely and they tasted great. I may try again and see if I can get better results as they are so much easier this way. Just a few pics of the experiment...

Yellow/Buttermilk cupcakes with Strawberry Buttercream

Recipe

Ingredients: (this makes 24 cupcakes)

3 cup pastry flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup butter, softened
3 tsp vanilla bean paste/vanilla bean extract/vanilla bean seeds (I went with vanilla extract)
1 3/4 cups super fine sugar (I used regular sugar)
4 large eggs
1 1/4 cups buttermilk

How-to:

Preheat oven to 350F. Line muffin pans.
In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt.
In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar and vanilla bean paste for 4 minutes, until light and fluffy.
Beat in the eggs one at a time until thoroughly combined.
Add 1/3 of the flour mix, then 1/2 of the buttermilk, then 1/3 of the flour mix, then the rest of the buttermilk, and finally the remaining 1/3 of the flour mix, making sure only to mix for a few seconds after each addition (you don’t want to overmix). Make sure to scrape down the side of the bowl as well.
Scoop the batter evenly into the muffin pans, making sure not to overfill it because they will rise a lot.
Bake for 20 to 22 minutes. Rotate the pan halfway through to ensure even baking.
Let the cupcakes cool in the pan for 5 minutes before removing them and letting them cool completely on a wire rack.
Only when they are completely cooled proceed to top them off with the icing of your choice. I went with a strawberry buttercream made with the Italian meringue method. These are delicious!!!

Delicious Tart

I whipped this up last minute as I had some fruit in the fridge that I didn't want to go to waste. Of course, I had to add some chocolate....

This is a strawberry, kiwi, whipped milk chocolate ganache tart in a buttery pate sable crust. It's a simple recipe that looks impressive and tastes equally so!

And the obligatory shot of Dom the Pom looking as cute as ever!