Finally Back, Small Recap. Dorie's Cocoa-Nana Bread

It feels like I haven't been blogging in months. I just clicked on the link then only to find it has been since June.

All that was left after a day...

Some exciting news! Finally opened my own Pilates Studio. Everything is quite busy at the moment which is great but not so great when you love cooking and cannot seem to find the time these days.

Quite a bit has been going on lately and I often use cooking as a stress release. Some people meditate. I simply cannot. There is something so comforting about baking. Maybe its the concentration needed to bake something with 20+ steps that in the end leads you being so consumed in the recipe the simple thing on your mind in the first place has somehow now disappeared...

Being always on the go I sometimes find it hard to make a decent breakfast. However one of my favourites is a protein shake blitzed up with a frozen banana. When I go to the supermarket I will always stock up when they have a special on those big bags of blackened bananas. Usually $1 for 2kg! Steal.

However due to the small space of my freezer, I somehow was left with quite a few banana and no recipe inspiration coming to mind. A few months ago I recently bought myself Dorie Greenspans Baking Book and weekly will check the blogs doing Tuesdays With Dorie, or TWD.

Something that caught my attention was Dorie's Cocoa-Nana Bread. At first I turned up my nose at the combination of chocolate and banana considering they are too very different flavours... if you are thinking this too, change your mind RIGHT NOW! Seriously an amazing loaf cake. Very dense, very moist and very easy. At first I was worried I had overcooked it as the centre was still quite gooey. The recipe reads to let it cool but being the impatient person I am I began to ate it and thought it was - just okay.

After coming home from teaching 6 hours this morning I had a piece, only to find that 'just okay' had now become, 'Wow I cannot believe I made THIS at that hour of the night'. (For a Pilates Instructor with very early morning starts, I seem to have a strange addiction to the middle of the night).

If you are bored. Have some bananas and are looking for something a little different. I would definitely give it a go.

For the recipe see Dorie Greenspan: From My Home To Yours. Or alternatively google, Dorie Greenspan Cocoa-Nana Bread.

I also thought I would include some snaps of what I have been cooking over the past few months considering I doubt I could ever go a week without cooking something insanely naughty...

Torta Caprese

In celebration of my mothers birthday I made her favourite cake, a Torta Caprese. Intensely chocolately with a gooey texture inside like a brownie with the outside browned slightly and crisp like meringue. Its gluten free which makes it that little bit richer for the fact its packed with almond meal (yum).

Sorry about my poor quality photos, thats what you get with a 2 megapixel camera phone and a shakey hand.


RECIPE
By Sophie Grigson, from Wicked by Delicious Magazine.

200g unsalted butter
200g dark chocolate
4 eggs separated
170g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
250g almond meal
Icing sugar and cocoa powder, to dust
Serve with icecream

Preheat oven to 150 degrees C. on fan forced oven. Grease and line 24cm springform cake pan with non stick baking paper.
Melt butter and set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, process chocolate or coursely chop making sure chocolate still retains a little texture.
Place egg yolks, sugar and vanilla in a bowl and beat until pale and thick. Fold in chocolate, butter and almond meal. (The mixture should be very thick)
In a separate bowl, whisk the eggwhites until soft peaks form. Gently fold the chocolate mixture into the egg whites in three lots using a big metal spoon.
Spoon into the cake pan, level the surface and bake for about 50-60 minutes (my oven cooked it in around 40) or until just firm to touch.
Set aside to cook in pan then remove.
Serve dusted with cocoa and icing sugar and with a scoop of vanilla icecream.

Enjoy.