Tuesday 5 August 2008

Come Mr Tally Man telling me Banana . . .


*Come Mr Tally Man telling me Banana . . . daylight come and we want to go home.*

What do you get when you cross bananas . . .

with chocolate???



You get the most scrumpdidlyumptious banana bread on the face of the earth, that's what!!!



Welcome to the August o5, 2008 edition of Tuesday's with Dorie, the weekly meeting of bakelicious minds that get together one day a week and bake the same recipe from the same book, Baking, from my home to yours , by the lovely Ms Dorie Greenspan. Every week, I tell myself the same thing . . . it can't get any better and every week, it amazingly does! I have pretty much loved each and every recipe that I have baked from out of this book thus far, well all except for the Choux pastry and that was not the pastry's fault . . . it's always been my nemesis and remains thus . . .



This weeks recipe was a delicious banana bread . . . the "Black and White Banana Loaf "on page 232 to be precise as chosen by the lovely Ashlee of A Year In The Kitchen.
Oh Ashlee, Ashlee . . . what you did to me . . .

Can y'all just imagine two gorgeous flavours . . . sweet and creamy banana . . . rich dark chocolate . . . all combined and baked into one luscious loaf? This lovely loaf was the epitome of gorgeousness.

After reading through the hints and helps thread on the TWD page, I decided to make a few modifications right off the bat. First of all as some of the ladies were having a problem with a batter that was too runny, I decided to use some bananas on the small side, rather than large ones and I cut the amount of milk in the recipe in half, having decided that if the batter was too thick I could always add the other half if need be. BINGO!! I ended up with a batter of the perfect consistency.



Another problem some of the ladies seemed to be having was in getting the two batters, Chocolate and Banana, to swirl together perfectly. Here's how I got around that problem. First I put a layer of just the plain banana in the bottom of my loaf pan as there was more of the plain batter than the chocolate. Then I proceeded to layer the different batters into the loaf pan in a checkerboard pattern, making two separate layers in all, and having reversed the order in the second layer from the first. (I hope I am making sense here!) After I got it all layered in the pan, I just gently swirled them together with a round bladed knife and abracadabra abrakazam !!! I had the perfectly swirled batter.



I banged it into the oven and went to check it after half an hour only to discover that I had accidentally set my oven onto the fan oven, instead of the normal, so I quickly switched it to normal . . . whew . . . disaster averted!!! (and then I covered it loosely with foil) Thankfully no damage was done, and I ended up with a lovely, moist, beautifully swirled banana loaf!!! What do you think?



A few days later I decided that it would make a lovely banana pudding . . . with scrumptious cubes of the banana loaf in the bottom, sliced banana on top, then a layer of some luscious vanilla pudding, and to top it all off a lovely dollop of softly whipped cream and a few slices of banana for a garnish. I forgot the chocolate sprinkles, but they would have been the piece de resistance!



To have a look at the recipe, hop on over to Ashlee's page, where she will be posting it at some point later today. In the meantime, why not take a gander at the blog roll and see what all the other bakers have done with this recipe! Each and every week, these lovely ladies manage to amaze me with the results of their efforts!



Next week's recipe will be the Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream on page 434, as chosen by Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity . . . the perfect excuse for me to dust off my ice cream maker! I can't wait!

In the meantime, here's the delicious recipe for the vanilla pudding I used to make my Chocolate Banana Pudding Dessert with!



*Vanilla Pudding*
Makes 4 servings

2 1/2 cups half and half (or whole milk)
2/3 cup caster sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract (or 1 vanilla bean if you have it)
3 TBS corn flour
2 TBS softened sweet butter

Place 2 cups of the half and half (or milk) into a saucepan along with the sugar and salt. If you are using a vanilla bean, add it now. (split it in half lengthwise and scrape the seeds into the mixture, dropping in the pod as well) Heat over medium low heat, just until the mixture begins to steam.

Whisk together the cornstarch and remaining cream or milk. Blend together well, until very smooth. Remove the vanilla pod from the cream, if using and whisk in the cornstarch mixture. Continue to cook over medium low heat, stirring until the mixture begins to thicken and is just about to boil. This should take about 5 minutes. Immediately reduce the heat to low and cook, stirring for 5 minutes or so until thick. Stir in the butter and vanilla extract if using.

Remove from the heat and pour into a bowl (or 4 individual bowls if you like). Put plastic wrap directly on top of the pudding to help prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate until well chilled. Serve within the day along with some whipped cream for a garnish.

42 comments:

  1. If there are a lot of typos in this comment, it is because my face is smushed against the monitor trying to eat this food. Oh my!

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  2. Great tips about reducing milk and using smaller bananas. Loaf looks delish! Great job!
    Clara @ iheartfood4thought

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  3. And see, I had no problems with the batter being runny. So odd. Good tips though.

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  4. How I long to get back in the kitchen! We're having to BUY cake for the time being so Keith is standing behind me drooling at this recipe. I'm not drooling of course (I tell fibs on Tuesdays).
    love, Angie, xx

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  5. Oh wow, I love your pudding idea! It looks truly delicious :)

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  6. Great job! I love how you made it go with the vanilla pudding! Your loaf looks awesome.

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  7. dammit. i shld have read the comments! reduce the milk and use smaller bananas! argh. no wonder my batter was too moist!

    Yours look gorgeous and its no wonder you enjoyed it so much.

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  8. You're a culinary genuis! I think it's so cool you can come up with all these unique ideas. I couldn't have thought of combining banana bread with banana pudding. I need to get rich quick so I can fly over to England, pop my butt down in the cottage and never leave! The Babies and I would be too plump and happy to come back to Texas!

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  9. Banana is a taste I have a hard time with, have since childhood--just not my favorite. The only way I can eat banana is banana bread or muffins...and with chocolate--so much the better! Your checkerboard solution for the swirl is great! Hubby would love this vanilla pudding...mmm...Happy Day, dearest friend--Love you heaps! ((BIG HUGS))

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  10. Your swirl is amazing! Great think on reducing the milk as well!

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  11. your loaf looks fantastic! and i'm glad you liked my pick :)

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  12. This banana loaf look absolutely wonderful and yummy!! Maybe I eat the PC Marie.
    And the pudin look so nice and beauty too, as ever, all you make dleicious Marie, God blessing you! xxxxGloria

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  13. Wow, that looks fantastic! Going shopping tomorrow - remind self to pick up some bananas! Thanks, Marie for a great post as always! Much love - Raquel XO

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  14. I'm with Blonde Duck, I want to come sit in your kitchen. It looks good and a great idea to use with pudding. Not that mine lasted long enough to do anything else with it. Two guys in the house - one with a huge sweet tooth. Great Job!

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  15. BTW love the cottage pic. Is that YOUR cottage. Where in GB?

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  16. Your marbling looks so perfect! And the thought of pudding is making me hungry!

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  17. I love your banana loaf. Just perfect!

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  18. Wow- a gorgeous loaf and pudding? You get the second yummy miler award.

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  19. Wonderful loaf! I am happy it all turned out so good for you!

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  20. Your marbling is magnificent. And then the pudding variation to top it all off!

    Nancy
    The Dogs Eat the Crumbs

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  21. Your swirls are perfect, I love the pudding idea too, Thanks!

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  22. That pudding looks great combined with the loaf! Your marbling looks perfect. Thanks for all your kind comments, Marie!

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  23. Looks delicious! Great job. What a great idea to put it together with banana pudding.

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  24. Your slices look so perfectly domed and marbled. Nice that you enjoyed it!

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  25. your loaf looks great!! I love your idea of cubing it and add vanilla pudding. That looks so yummy :)

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  26. This post made me chuckle - my husband loves banana bread so much and I don't so I rarely, almost never, make it. He's such a flatterer that now he has a neighbor AND our cleaning lady making banana bread and bringing it to him! He tells them both theirs is the best he's ever had! Of course one of them got the recipe from the other so they're just alike. :) Blessings, marlene

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  27. It looks wonderful Marie! Great info on the marbling. Nice job!

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  28. 8 foot 7 foot 6 foot hut! Sorry couldn't resist. Anyway, your puddign looks delicious!! So clevar of you to make that in addition.

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  29. Yummy...this vanilla pudding is going to end up on the menu for my little children...they are going to love it, so will Jo-Jo!!!!

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  30. Your banana loaf looks so tempting. I always enjoy reading your blog....it's very uplifting!

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  31. Great tip on the swirling, and nice end use!

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  32. Your recipes look so yummy. Blessings!

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  33. Mmmmm - and now you're giving me ideas! Banana bread croutons dipped in a vanilla dip. Ooof. I love seeing all the different marbling/swirling results.

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  34. your bread is so gorgeous! i did the same thing with mine - checkerboard blobs of batter in the pan - but i didn't think to put the layer of banana batter in the bottom. such a good idea.

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  35. What a beautiful job!! You made me want to go bake another loaf!

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  36. I'm drooling on my keyboard. BTW your blog is gorgeous.

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  37. That banana bread pudding looks to die for. Here in the southern US, everyone loves banana pudding. I think they consider it a vegetable. When I make this for them they are going to LOVE IT!!
    Hugs, Rhondi

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  38. Awesome job! First of all, the bread looked amazing. And then, the pudding to use up the extra bread? Genius!

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  39. Your photos are fabulous, and do you really live there? I'm impressed that you still had enough cake a few days later to make the pudding -- ours disappeared for breakfast the morning after we had it for dessert!

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  40. Beautiful marbling, and the banana pudding looks fabulous! Great idea!

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  41. Hi Marie,

    Your banana choc loaf look so moist and lovely!! I plan to make one soon (not this week cos busy preparing my husband's 50th birthday). I was just wondering about your comment about your oven ie. you accidentally set it to fan instead of normal? I've always baked using fan (forced).. so, I'm just wondering that if I've been doing this wrongly??

    Angela KL

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