Phew, what a week.
Absolutely manic at work at the moment (which is a good thing really – better than having no work), and No. 2 son has been an absolute tinker recently. Here’s when he’s woken up and required some intervention (milk/water/change/snuggle):
- Mon: 04:30
- Tue: 02:00
- Wed: 02:00
- Thu: 06:50 (hooray!)
- Fri: 00:00
- Sat: 06:30 (hooray!)
What this doesn’t include is all the times he’s woken us up and not required intervention – for instance at 4.30 this morning, when he woke up, chatted and bashed around in the cot just enough to wake us up, then went back to sleep.
I’m not complaining (really) – I know we’re very lucky to have a baby. To be fair he is teething, and we still haven’t quite got around to moving him into his own room, so the non-interventional disturbances are our fault really. He’s actually pretty good ‘normally’ (although I’m wondering if ‘normal’ is a sanity-preserving myth I’ve invented). He’s in bed by 18:30, and usually asleep within 5 or 10 minutes, and we usually don’t have to do anything again until 06:30 / 07:00 the next day.
On a happier note, I’ve been inspired by Lorraine Pascale to put foody photos on here. She says that she photographs everything she bakes, and I thought that would be a fun little project. I don’t know if she meant literally everything – I’m chosing to only photograph interesting or noteworthy creations. So you’re unlikely to see baked potatoes with tuna and sweetcorn on here. That said, it might be interesting to photograph every meal I take for a week….
Anyway, you’re hopefully already seen my Treacle Tart, so now I present with you banoffee pie. I sadly forgot to photograph it before I took out the first slice, but I still think it looks good.
Oh go on then – have the recipe too!
Banoffee Pie
Serves 6-8
This is a great “store-cupboard” pudding, as the main ingredients last months, and bananas and cream are pretty easy to get hold off if they’re not in.
Ingredients:
- 200g digestive biscuits
- 100g butter
- 400ml can condensed milk or caramel dulce de leche.
- 3 bananas
- 250ml double cream
- 25g dark chocolate
- 10ml orange juice (optional)
You will need a 23cm / 9in loose-bottomed tin or pastry dish (I quite like it served in a fluted dish as pictured).
Method:
- Crush the biscuits (I put them in a freezer bag and bash them with a rolling pin) into small pieces. Think breadcrumbs rather than sawdust, but try and demolish any large chunks.
- Melt the butter.
- Combine the biscuits and butter, and then press into the base and up the sides of the dish. Pop in the fridge.
- If using condensed milk
- Put the can in a pan of boiling water (NB don’t open the can!) and boil for 2 hours. Make it sure the can is always covered in water, otherwise it will explode. This process caramelises the milk and sugar inside the can – do it for long enough and you end up with fudge!
- Remove the can, and allow to cool a bit (cold water may help).
- When cool enough to handle, carefully open and pour/spoon the contents over the biscuit base, and spread evenly.
One website I saw suggests boiling several cans at once, as they will store for ages once caramlised, but the advent of
caramel
tins lessens the usefulness of this option.
- If using
caramel
, just open the can and spread on the base. - Chill until cold (about an hour or so).
- At this point, if you didn’t make the base in a serving dish, carefully take it out of its tin and put it on a serving plate.
- Slice the bananas, and spread evenly over the base. I think it’s nice not to run them all the way to edge, but up to you. If you are not serving straight away, it is probably worth brushing the bananas lightly with orange juice to stop them going brown.
- Whip the cream to firm peaks, then spread over the pie on top the bananas. Again I quite like a bit of texture, so I don’t smooth it out too much.
- Now melt the chocolate, and drizzle over the cream.
- Chill until required. Mine didn’t mind being covered in cling-film either (but obviously don’t press it down on the cream!!
- Keeps for a few days in the fridge, but tastes better the fresher it is.
I would like to acknowledge the Co-operative magazine, for inspiring me with their chocolate and ginger banoffee pie recipe (even though I didn’t follow it), and The Banoffee Pie page for re-assuring me that I wasn’t mad to boil an unopened can of condensed milk for hours!