Thursday baking - Nigella's banana bread

I've been a bit remiss with my blogging of late, but now I'm back, with two posts in a week!

This banana bread recipe comes from Nigella Lawson's How to be a Domestic Goddess. You can find a copy of the recipe here. My go-to banana loaf recipe is this Banana chocolate chip loaf. However this Nigella recipe has become a welcome addition to my selection of recipes for using up those overripe bananas that seem to pile up in my house. The walnuts and whisky soaked raisins are a nice addition and put this a cut above standard banana cakes/loafs/bread (apart from the tin, I'm not sure what the differences is in recipes for banana cake/loaf or bread?).

The first time I made this recipe, I added the specified 1/2 teaspoon of salt, and then discovered I didn't have any unsalted butter, so just used salted butter. Although it was still delicious, I felt like it was just a bit too salty (no one else seemed to notice though). The next time I made it I left out the salt altogether and just used salted butter. It turned out perfect. It keeps well for several days.

A few of our favourite things...

Miriam: Somehow this week, I hadn't given any thought to what my 'favourite thing' would be... so with the deadline fast approaching, I found inspiration in my handbag, in the form of an envirosax. The nifty bags are sturdy (but light), comfortable to carry and fold into a compact wee package perfect for popping in your handbag - I seem to find a use for mine on an almost daily basis. They also make great gifts!

Libby: I love walnuts in all their sweet and savoury applications - lightly toasted and sprinkled on salads, tossed through pasta, in cakes, stuffed inside fresh dates and atop afghans... After making the mistake of buying imported walnuts and finding them bitter and rancid I stick to NZ grown walnuts. These KerNelZ nuts from A Cracker of a Nut are consistently good. I store them in the freezer to keep them fresh and "toast" a small handful directly from frozen in the microwave (two minutes on medium power) as needed.

Becs: I love this Bay of Plenty Asparagus and Spinach Soup with fresh cream from the Naked Locals range. Usually I get bored eating a whole bowl of pureed soup, preferring those with more texture, but this soup is lovely. Restaurant quality I reckon, and perfectly seasoned, unlike most bought soups that are heavily salted. Sarah (the nutritionist) was horrified at the fat content, but then we discovered that the nutrition panel strangely states one pack to be a serving...hmmm I don't think I could put away half a litre of soup!

Thursday baking - Gateau aux Noix

Our challenge to bake our way through A Treasury of NZ Baking...

I decided to make this cake for us to eat on Easter Sunday. I loved the simple, sophisticated look of it in the book, with the glossy chocolate icing and perfect walnut halves, and I really like the texture of cakes with ground nuts in them instead of flour. With fresh walnuts being in season and therefore plentiful and cheap at the moment, it seemed like a good time to make it.

My only quibble with the recipe was the ingredient list stating '2 slices of white bread' were required, from which you are instructed to make the breadcrumbs that go into it. Libby recently gave me a copy of 'The Pedant in the Kitchen', an amusing little book, the author of which would have a field day with this instruction. While I wouldn't usually consider myself a pedant in the kitchen, this lack of precision was a bit annoying. The kitchen scales were out to measure the other ingredients so why couldn't the breadcrumbs just have been listed by weight too?! Anyway, I used some baguette as we otherwise only had Vogels, and used 8 slices, figuring the small rounds would equate to '2 slices of bread'. In hindsight it was probably a few too many breadcrumbs, as although the cake was moist it was a little crumbly.

Pedantic comments aside, this cake was quite delicious. The flavour of the lemon zest came through quite strongly which was nice. The chocolate icing added richness, but overall the cake tasted rather elegant and understated, just as it looks.

Week Two: Gateau aux Noix (Peta Mathias)

Cake

2 slices of bread
150g butter, soft

100g sugar

4 eggs, separated

zest of 1 lemon

150g walnuts, ground

pinch salt

25g sugar (extra)

Icing

100g dark chocolate
30g butter

walnut halves

Preheat oven to 150c. Toast the bread in the oven till dry, then grind up in a food processor.

Grease a 23cm round cake tin, dust it with flour, and line the base with baking paper.

Cream the butter and first measure of sugar, then beat in the egg yolks one by one, beating in well.

Stir in the lemon zest, breadcrumbs and walnuts.

In another bowl whip the egg whites and salt until they form stiff peaks. Add the extra sugar and beat for another minute. Fold this into the cake mixture and pour into the tin.

Bake for 45 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and the sides of the cake pull away slightly from the tin edge. Cool in the tin.

To make the icing gently heat the chocolate and butter together and mix till smooth.

This cake will keep for 4 days.