Banana blondies

I don’t bake blondies very often, but so far the recipes I’ve made turned out delicious – Martha’s gingerbread blondies I made back in 2010 were just irresistible. When I saw Dan Lepard’s banana blondies I had to make them: not only because a blondie made of banana made me curious but also because I’d be able to use up some of my banana overload; oh, and before I forget to mention, there’s chopped praliné mixed in the batter. Praliné. In the batter. With banana and white chocolate.

Do you still need be convinced about this recipe? ;)

Banana blondies
slightly adapted from the absolutely glorious Short and Sweet (mine was bought here)

Pecan praliné:
1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon (78g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons water
¾ cup (83g) pecans

Blondies:
1 cup (200g) granulated sugar
100g unsalted butter
200g white chocolate
1 egg
2 bananas, chopped
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 ¼ cups (175g) all purpose flour
¼ teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt

Make the pecan praliné: lightly oil a small baking sheet. Put the sugar and water in a small heavy saucepan. Over medium heat, bring to the boil and let it bubble away, without stirring, until the sugar turns to golden caramel. Stir in the pecans and immediately spread onto prepared sheet. Cool completely, then finely chop.

Blondies: preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line the base and sides of a 20cm (8in) square pan with foil, leaving an overhang in two opposite sides; butter the foil.
Combine the butter and white chocolate in a heatproof bowl and place over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring until melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and mix in the sugar. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Stir in the bananas. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over mixture, then fold through with the chopped praliné. Spoon into the prepared pan and bake for 35 minutes or until wobbly-set and golden on top. Cool completely in the pan over a wire rack. Cut into squares.

Makes 16

Cherry preserves and lemon bars

Being addicted to baking it is always a joy for me to see butter and eggs in my fridge and flour and sugar in my pantry; if there are lemons, too, then I’m in heaven. :)

I had some gorgeous lemons hanging around and after making risotto and cake with them I wanted something a bit different; that was when Alice Medrich’s lemon bars crossed my mind: they are the best lemon bars I have ever tasted (also dead easy to make) and on her wonderful book devoted to cookies I found (through EYB) a recipe for lemon bars with apricot preserves... That sounded too divine not to try. Since after making Jamie’s jam frangipane tartlets there was still half a jar of cherry preserves left in my fridge, cherry and lemon bars they became – and they were insanely good.

Cherry preserves and lemon bars
slightly adapted from the wonderful Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-in-Your-Mouth Cookies

Crust:
1 cup + 1 ½ tablespoons (155g) all purpose flour
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
½ cup (113g/1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
¾ teaspoon vanilla extract

Topping:
¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
½ cup (150g) cherry preserves (or any other flavor you like)
1/3 cup (80ml) fresh lemon juice

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a 20cm (8in) square baking pan with foil, leaving an overhang in two opposite sides. Butter the foil.
Crust: place the flour, sugar and salt in a large bowl and mix to combine. Add the butter and vanilla and mix until smooth. Press dough evenly on the bottom of the prepared pan. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until fully baked and golden brown in the center.
Towards the end of the cooking time of the crust, make the topping: in a medium bowl, stir together the sugar and flour. Whisk in the eggs and vanilla. Stir in the preserves, breaking up any large pieces, then stir in the lemon juice. When the crust is ready, turn the oven down to 150°C/300°F. Pour the filling over the crust. Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until the topping no longer jiggles with the pan is tapped. Cool completely over a wire rack.
Lift up the bars using the foil and cut into bars.
Bars can be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Makes 16

Almond and passion fruit drizzle cake

One of my (many) favorite things about Donna Hay Magazine is that every now and then it carries passion fruit recipes; I love the fruit and its juice is one of my favorite beverages – back in my college days I used to drink it by the bucket, especially during exam weeks (passion fruit juice is supposed to calm people down). :)

My love for passion fruit and my current obsession for almond cakes were the reason why I chose this cake as the first recipe to try from Tamasin Day Lewis’ absolutely lovely cookbook, and I urge you to bake it, too: it’s so moist, delicious and moreish that I would have polished off the entire cake myself if left to my own devices. :D

Almond and passion fruit drizzle cake
slightly adapted from the oh, so beautiful Food You Can't Say No To (mine was bought here)

Cake:
¾ cup (170g) unsalted butter, softened
85g demerara sugar
85g granulated sugar
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
85g all purpose flour
85g almond meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons whole milk, room temperature

Passion fruit drizzle:
½ cup (120ml) passion fruit pulp
3 teaspoons granulated sugar

Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Butter a 20x10cm (8x4in) loaf pan and line it with baking paper. Butter the paper as well.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and both sugars until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs, one at a time. Scrape the sides of the bowl occasionally. Beat in the vanilla.
Sift the all purpose flour, almond meal, baking powder and salt over the butter mixture and fold together gently using a spatula. Fold in the milk.
Scrape the mixture into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Bake on the middle shelf of the oven until golden and well risen and a skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 40 minutes. Cool in the pan over a wire rack for 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the drizzle: set 1 tablespoon of the passion fruit pulp aside. Place the remaining pulp in a food processor or blender and blitz to extract as much juice as possible. Pass through a fine sieve into a small saucepan. Add the sugar and heat over medium heat stirring until sugar is dissolved. Remove from the heat.
Carefully unmold the cake and remove the baking paper. Place the cake right side up on the rack and prick it all over with a long skewer or dried spaghetti. Immediately pour the passion fruit syrup evenly over the cake. Scatter with the reserved passion fruit seeds and cool completely before serving.

Serves 8-10

Dulce de leche cheesecake squares + some great villains

I’ve already told you how much I adore Christian Bale and I think he’s a perfect Batman but after watching the trailers for “The Dark Knight Rises” – cannot wait for July to come! – I have the feeling that he’ll be eclipsed by Tom Hardy on the movie just as he was eclipsed by Cillian Murphy and Heath Ledger on “Batman Begins” and “The Dark Knight”, respectively. I love it when great actors are cast for great characters – that’s how it should always be – and Christopher Nolan has been doing a wonderful job in his movies, with just a few exceptions (Carrie Ann Moss, Al Pacino), but I feel sorry for Bale, poor thing. :)

The original recipe for these super delicious cheesecake squares called for a chocolate glaze but I did not want it to eclipse the dulce de leche flavor; after having one square I felt that omitting the glaze had been the right decision: the cheesecake tasted wonderful and very rich, it did not need any embellishments.

Dulce de leche cheesecake squares
slightly adapted from the wonderful Gourmet Today: More than 1000 All-New Recipes for the Contemporary Kitchen

Crust:
100g (3½oz) digestive biscuits
2 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
3 tablespoons (42g) unsalted butter, melted

Filling:
1 teaspoon unflavored gelatin
¼ cup (60ml) whole milk
225g (8oz) cream cheese, softened
2 large eggs
¼ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (350g/12½oz) dulce de leche

Crust: put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 160°C/325°F. Lightly butter a 20cm (8in) square baking pan then line the bottom and sides with 2 pieces of foil, leaving a 5cm (2in) overhang on two opposite sides. Butter the foil as well.
Finely grind cookies with sugar and salt in a food processor. With motor running, add butter, blending until combined. Press mixture evenly onto bottom of baking pan. Bake 10 minutes, then cool in pan on a rack 5 minutes.
Filling: sprinkle gelatin over milk in a small bowl and let stand 2 minutes to soften. In an electric mixer, with the wire attachment, beat together cream cheese, eggs, salt, gelatin mixture and vanilla until well combined, about 2 minutes, then stir in dulce de leche gently but thoroughly. Pour filling over crust, smoothing top, then bake in a hot water bath in oven until center is just set, about 45 minutes. Cool cheesecake completely in pan on rack, about 2 hours. Chill, covered, at least 6 hours.

Carefully lift cheesecake from pan using foil overhang and cut into 16 squares.

Makes 16

Ricotta and feta tart

Because Jamie Oliver’s delicious escarole and salami tart was a great dish for lunch both at my house and at the office I felt like baking another savory tart – this time I had no smoked ham in my fridge (as the original recipe called for) but a tart made entirely of cheese (there’s parmesan in the pastry!) did not sound like a bad thing. And, indeed, it was not; I just regretted not adding a handful of chopped parsley to the filling before spreading it on the pastry.

Ricotta and feta tart
slightly adapted from the always delicious and beautiful Donna Hay Magazine

Pastry:
1 ¼ cups + 1 tablespoon (185g) all purpose flour
pinch of salt
½ cup + ½ tablespoon (120g) unsalted butter, cold and diced
½ cup (50g) finely grated parmesan
2 tablespoons sour cream*
2 egg yolks

Filling:
230g ricotta – I used homemade
50g feta, crumbled
1 egg
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Make the pastry: place the flour, salt, butter and parmesan in a food processor and process for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the sour cream and yolks and process for 1-2 minutes or until a dough forms. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.
Lightly butter a 24cm round pie dish or tart pan. Roll the pastry between two pieces of lightly floured baking paper until you get a 30cm round. Line the prepared dish with the pastry leaving a 5cm border overhanging the sides of the dish. Set aside
Preheat the oven to 200°C. Place the ricotta, feta, egg, garlic, mustard, lemon zest, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix well to combine. Spread the filling over the pastry and fold the border to form the outer crust of the tart**. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden.

* homemade sour cream: to make 1 cup of sour cream, mix 1 cup (240ml) heavy cream with 2-3 teaspoons lemon juice in a bowl. Whisk until it starts to thicken. Cover with plastic wrap and leave at room temperature for 1 hour or until thicker (I usually leave mine on the counter overnight – except on very warm nights – and it turns out thick and silky in the following morning; refrigerate for a creamier texture)

** I had trouble making the pastry border, so I removed the excess pastry and cut flower shapes with it using a cookie cutter, then I placed them on top of the filling before baking the tart

Serves 4