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.