The banana coconut loaf I made on Saturday is almost finished - it was that popular. So I have had to bake again to make sure we have enough for the week. Today, Monday, is a holiday here in Auckland, New Zealand and for me the perfect activities when I have some spare time are baking and photographing. I have made the same base vanilla cake you can find here, which comes from Carol Lovett's e-book Indulge and then I devised a wonderful banana mousse for the topping and used a few leftovers for the filling between the layers. The banana mousse is made from only 4 ingredients and can be used by itself as a dessert. For the filling, I whizzed together in my trusty mini food processor the lemon curd left over from my lemon meringue tarts, and the leftover coconut topping and strawberry puree from the banana coconut loaf and it made an interesting tart pink mixture which contrasts beautifully with the sweetness of the bananas. Now, I know that the blueberries I have placed on top … [Read more...] about Banana Mousse Cake – grain, nut, dairy and refined sugar-free
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Banana, Chocolate, Cranberry & Coconut Muffins
I have just joined the Chocolate Party! It is a great group of food bloggers who bake with chocolate and each month they decide on an extra compulsory ingredient. This month, it is cranberries. I am on a mission to reduce my intake of sugar and that might seem a little contradictory with joining the Chocolate Party but I did say 'reduce' not 'eliminate'. These muffins I made are completely without added sugar except for what is in the chocolate. I found the recipe at The Life of Clare blog and thought they mightn't be sweet enough but was willing to give them a try. In fact, the bananas are enough and that makes these muffins sugarless apart from the chocolate content. How amazing is that? And they taste good! You might have noticed that I am using a new recipe set up, Ziplist. If you click on Save in the recipe, you then create a free account. After that, each time you click on the save button, you add the recipe to your personal recipe box. You can also create a shopping list … [Read more...] about Banana, Chocolate, Cranberry & Coconut Muffins
White Raspberry Chocolate Cookies
I have made these cookies before here but this time I changed the dried fruit and chocolate ingredients. I consider it one of my best granola bar/cookie recipes to date and so, when I was sent a bar of Whittakers' white raspberry chocolate, I decided to make them again and incorporate some of the bar. I say “some of the bar” because by the time I got around to do the baking, Adriano and Dario had almost demolished the bar. They swear I hadn’t said to keep their hands off it, but I know better. Whittakers sent me the chocolate as part of a promotion to advertise that 20% of the profits of this newly developed flavour go to Breast Cancer research. I agreed because I wanted to eat the chocolate and it was certainly no hardship to include it in a recipe. The 20% to breast cancer is a fortunate by-product since this is truly a cruel killer of women. Get your checks ladies and stay out of the statistics. As for the recipe, I doubled it to make sure we wouldn’t run out of them during … [Read more...] about White Raspberry Chocolate Cookies
Pasta, Mushroom and Walnut Salad
This is a quick, easy, tasty and nutritious meal when you are short on time. On Saturday we are off to Italy - I might have mentioned that half a hundred times - and there's lots to do and the evenings (after work) are not long enough to get it all done. And on that note, I'd better get this recipe in and then move on to other things. Sorry about the short post. This is not a low Fodmap recipe. Pasta, Mushroom and Walnut Salad Print Author: Suzanne Perazzini Serves: 4 Ingredients 1 cup pasta 3 tbsp olive oil 150g button mushrooms 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar ¾ cup walnut pieces, lightly toasted 2 cups baby spinach ½ cup grated Parmesan Salt and pepper Method Cook the pasta according to the packet instructions. Drain and toss with a little olive oil. Rinse and wipe the mushrooms and slice them in thirds if large or keep whole if they are small. Heat 1 tbsp oil in a saucepan and cook the mushrooms until tender. Just before … [Read more...] about Pasta, Mushroom and Walnut Salad
Chocolate Chip, Raisin Cookies – Morning Tea Baking
I have done the morning tea baking on a Saturday this week. I found the recipe with a few changes at Chocolate Covered Katie's blog. (This is not a low Fodmap recipe.) I added raisins because I love them and I also doubled the recipe because the quantities of the ingredients looked a bit small. In fact, I should have quadrupled it because I ended up with only 12 cookies and that won't last us the week. Katie made them smaller and sandwiched them together with a slice of banana in between. If you have counted the cookies in the photo, yes, there are only eleven. Guess where the twelfth is. They taste good, by the way, but don't overcook them. I also baked a carrot cake this afternoon and it tasted superb, as do most carrot cakes. Unfortunately I can't show you it because it is a recipe I produced for a french company I supply recipes and photographs to. Fortunately I made two smaller cakes because I messed up on my first attempt to ice it. It was a layer cake so I sliced it in half … [Read more...] about Chocolate Chip, Raisin Cookies – Morning Tea Baking
Potato Dauphinoise
Tonight potato dauphinoise is the side dish I cooked for the family. I didn't want to boil some spuds and plonk them down on the plate or they would have looked at me sideways. They are used to good food and the classic meat and three veg doesn't go down well around here. And that's fine by me. I love variety and get bored if I have to cook the same things twice. That's why a family that is fussy about quality and this blog work well together. This is a simple dish which takes little preparation and then it cooks while you prepare the rest of the dinner. It could be made in one large dish but I prefer individual dishes. That way I could use a smaller one for me and still feel like I had the same food without stretching my waistband too far. In the photo you will notice that the front one is much smaller. Adriano had two of the big ones and Dario the other. This recipe is not low Fodmap. Potato Dauphinoise Print Author: Suzanne Perazzini Serves: 4 Ingredients … [Read more...] about Potato Dauphinoise
