Banana Brownies

When some friends went off on a two-week holiday, they left behind not only two cats to be looked after, but also a kitchen full of fruit and veg to be eaten. Most food was quickly consumed, but for some reason there were more bananas than could be coped with. After looking at said bananas for a few days, watching then go browner and browner (I do love bananas, but there are only so many you can eat in a week) I decided to do something about them – and so I got out my recipe books and investigated banana related recipes for inspiration. The one that took my fancy was a chocolate brownie recipe I got from a baking course at Betty’s Cookery School in Harrogate. However, it did not contain any bananas, so some modifications had to be done.

125g butter

4 medium sized eggs

300g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

125g gluten free flour mix

80g cocoa powder

6 ripe bananas (medium sized)

Icing sugar for dusting

Pre-heat your oven to 175^oC.

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. You do not want the butter to go brown, so keep an eye on it. Leave it to cool down for a little while.

Whisk the egg and sugar together in a large bowl, until the mixture is lump free. Slowly stir in the butter while stirring. If the butter is too hot or you pour it in too quickly you could end up with scrambled eggs, so take your time with this step.

Sift in the vanilla sugar, flour and cocoa powder and gently stir it in until the mixture is smooth.

Crush the bananas with a fork in a separate bowl, and when they are soft like baby-food, add to the rest of the mix.

Prepare a medium sized baking tray (I used one that is 22cm x 22cm). It can be useful to line the bottom of the tray with baking parchment, so that the brownies don’t get stuck.

Pour the mixture into the tray, and bake for about 45 minutes. The cake should be soft but firm, and springy to the touch. The ripeness of the bananas will determine the baking time, as the more liquid you add the longer the baking time.

Leave to cool, and cut into pieces. Sieve some icing sugar over the top and serve. 

Dandelions

I went for a walk in the rain today, it was a spur of the moment thing; I just decided I needed fresh air, grabbed my walking gear and set off. It's always a good idea to have a few plastic bags in one's rucksack in case of exciting foragery, but when I spotted a field full of dandelions I realised that I hadn't brought any today. So after a quick reorganisation of my bag I had to use the side-pocket instead. This was not exactly ideal, for dandelions do stain a little, but it was the best I could do, and I was not about to leave these goodies behind. I hadn't really thought that the dandelions were out yet, but the warm weather last week must have brought them out.

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Dandelion flowers make brilliant jam, and are also really good in salads. The leaves can be dried and used as herbal tea, or they can be added fresh to soups and salads. They have quite a bitter taste, a bit like rocket salad leaves.

As always when foraging, make sure you don't strip the whole area, as there are little critters, like bumble-bees, who depend on the nutrition they give. Also, when picking food off the ground, make sure you don't collect form areas where people take their dog for a walk (for obvious reasons). If on private land, make sure you have the permission of the landowner before picking. Although if you're visiting a friend, I'm sure they'll be delighted if you want to remove some dandelions from their garden.

Once I got home I placed them in a sieve and gave them a good rinse, shook the water off, and prepared to cook with them.