Banoffee Pie

Banoffee Pie

I swear I’m not being paid by the BBC Good Food group to promote their website but here’s another one of their amazing recipes to get your taste buds going!

Banoffee Pie really couldn’t be any easier. It’s always so much more simple to pull off than you think and always seems to end up looking absolutely scrumptious. It’s got to be one of my ultimate guilty pleasures, I reckon I could eat at least half the entire thing in one sitting.

But like all recipes, this one needs just a little bit of fiddling with!

Instead of using Hob Nobs, I much prefer sticking to the traditional Digestive biscuit because I don’t think the ‘oaty one’ gets as crispy a finish (besides, if you’re using Digestives you can pull a fast one and buy value brand biscuits which taste just the same)!

The only other thing I really want to say is that you shouldn’t be lazy and use store bought caramel! Not only does it get too thick, making your own toffee sauce tastes better, has a much better texture and is easy as pie – pun intended – to make as long as you have the patience and the eye of an eagle.

All you have to do is slowly melt 200g of sugar in a saucepan on a low heat, whisk in 100g of butter and remove from the heat. Once you’ve let it sit for roughly ten seconds, start whisking in 100ml of heavy whipping cream and viola, you’ve got yourself the tastiest toffee sauce ever!

Good luck you Fongtastic bunch of future bakers!

If you tried making a Banoffee Pie using this recipe, tweet your results @FongtasticFood

FONGTASTIC Black Sticky Rice with Mango and Coconut Cream

Helene Ng mixed things up by making this traditional Thai dessert, black sticky rice with mango and coconut cream.

If you cooked something you’re particularly proud of, please e-mail it to fongtasticfood@gmail.com

Healthy Pizza

Everyone seems to have this odd perception that pizzas are one of the most fattening, unhealthy meals you could possibly ever eat. If you order one from a late night takeaway, this may well be the case, but there are a few simple tricks that you can put in place to make sure that your own homemade pizzas don’t add inches to the waist:

• Difficulty: Easy
• Serves: 4
• Prep: 30 minutes
• Cook: 15 minutes

Ingredients:

• 250g strong white flour
• 250g wholemeal flour
• 1 sachet dried yeast
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 250ml luke warm water
• 4 tbsp tomato purée
• handful chopped ham
• handful spinach
• handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• handful sweetcorn
• handful cheddar, grated

Method:

1. Put the flour, yeast and salt in a large bowl and mix together. Stir in olive oil and water to form a soft dough.
2. Turn out the dough onto a well floured surface and knead for approximately 5 minutes. Leave to rest in a warm place for roughly 1 hour.
3. Once the dough has risen, roll it out to a 30cm circle and bake in the oven (220°C, 200°C fan, Gas 7) for 5 minutes to crisp off.
4. Remove from the oven and spread over the tomato purée. Top with as many ingredients as you like but remember not to go overboard with the cheese! Bake for another 10 minutes.

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Lemon Meringue Pie

Lemon Meringue Pie

As you can probably tell, I’m big into puddings at the moment and the only way I can justify eating this much pudding is by making it myself. There aren’t that many healthy desserts out there but I decided that a Lemon Meringue Pie had to be one of the kindest to the waist. This BBC Good Food recipe turned out a superb looking pie that impressed everyone with it’s perfectly bronzed and spiky meringue topping.

Unfortunately, the taste test ended up being a little bit of a flop. The filling was ruined by an orange that had somehow managed to squeeze its way into the recipe. Instead of tasting like a lemon meringue pie, the orange overpowered the flavour of the lemon and transformed it into an unwanted orange meringue pie. It’s such a shame because this pie could have easily been able to match up to its stellar appearance and scrumptious meringue if only it didn’t include one of its key ingredients; the orange. Although I may have a sad face on this time round, at least I can sleep well tonight knowing exactly how to make my next lemon meringue pie the best it can possibly be.

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mousse Cake

When BBC Good Food called this Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mousse Cake ‘decadent’, they really meant it! I don’t think I’ve ever spent so much money on ingredients to make a cake before, but this might just have to be one of my very own proudest bakes.

I’m not going to lie though, this wasn’t one of the easiest cakes to execute so I wouldn’t recommend it to someone who hasn’t got that much experience (especially considering how I’m away from home and had to conjure this beast up without my beloved electronic scales, absolute #nightmare)!!!

Now on to the actual recipe review. This recipe does not, I repeat, does not, need nearly as much light brown soft sugar, cocoa powder or finely chopped dark chocolate (for the ganache) as it suggests. Unless, of course, you’re hoping to live a short but happy life. 500g of sugar is just ridiculous and I’m sure I only put in about half of this and my cake turned out fine, same goes for the cocoa and chocolate.

Chocolate and Salted Caramel Mousse Cake

My one disappointment with this cake was that I couldn’t taste the salted caramel. Even though the recipe overindulges in regards to the cake mixture and ganache, it leaves you having to spread across your caramel rather sparingly. More caramel is a definite must if you want to try baking this beauty. Otherwise, you will end up wasting your time patiently standing by the cooker to make sure your sugar doesn’t burn, for absolutely nothing.

Overall though, I have to say this was the ultimate guilty pleasure and it’s so enormous that I still have leftovers four days later (and it hasn’t even gone as dry as a boot yet)! It stays moist, it’s full of chocolate and double cream, and it’s one of the best cakes I’ve ever made. If only I knew, I would’ve saved it for Easter lunch to have with friends and family (and to show off, of course). Oh well, I guess I’ll have to finish it off all on my own!

If you baked something you’re particularly proud of, tweet it @FongtasticFood with the hash-tag ‘#proudbakes‘.

Carrot and Coriander Soup

Following on from Jay Leno‘s quote about soup not being considered a real meal, I decided I had to put it to the test by following this BBC Good Food recipe for a very traditional Carrot and Coriander Soup.

As the recipe only really contains the most basic of ingredients, (a few carrots, a potato, and an onion), you would expect the soup to end up being really bland and boring but this couldn’t be further from the truth!

Carrot and Coriander Soup

The soup was jam-packed with flavour and it was actually quite filling! I’m not going to lie though, I had to have some garlic bread with it, because like Jay Leno, I’m not a big believer in having just soup for dinner. For a second though, I might have been convinced…

The soup was absolutely delicious but I still think I would have preferred it as a starter before sitting down to a nice full plate of steak and chips. Or something like that.

I promise I’ll keep trying though, watch this space for Butternut Squash Soup, Pea and Mint Soup, Tomato Soup, and many, many more.

PS: If you don’t have a nice big fresh crusty loaf on hand to soak up the goodness, you should try this last-minute tip on how to make your own garlic bread:

If you know of any other wholesome soups that might tempt me away from “real” dinners, please tweet them @FongtasticFood

Banana Cashew Cake

The ultimate form of procrastination: baking.

Instead of choosing to get on with my ever-growing workload, I decided to bake a banana cake.

With almost 200 5-star ratings, I thought this step-by-step guide from AllRecipes would surely do the trick.

Banana Cashew Cake

I’m going to start this recipe review by calling xuthus1972, in the nicest sense of the word, a liar. From my experience, the banana cake took just over double the suggested cooking time, but boy was it worth the wait!

The cake came out looking absolutely mouthwatering, it was perfectly golden and slipped out of the loaf tin and onto a cooling rack as easy as pie (no pun intended). I’m not even going to get into how good it made my kitchen smell…

Unlike most banana cakes, this one wasn’t too heavy and had a lovely crumbly texture. My decision to also add some chopped cashew nuts really made it something special. With each individual bite, I could taste the creaminess of the banana and the nutty flavour of the cashews. The two flavours just complimented each other beautifully.

But now that I’ve finished my slice, I better get back to work … at least until dinner.

Avocado and Banana Milkshake

Avocado and Banana Milkshake

I reckon it’s time to crack out something a little bit different, a little bit strange, but very, very tasty.

Taking inspiration from some of the world’s most famous unusual flavour combinations – chilli and chocolate, cheddar cheese and strawberry jam, just to name a few – I decided to make a milkshake with a twist.

The avocados and bananas were sitting side by side in my fruit bowl and I got to thinking…

What would an avocado and banana milkshake taste like?

Because the classic banana milkshake just isn’t cutting it at the moment, obviously.

So into the blender went 2 bananas and a whole avocado, with a teaspoon of honey and a splash of milk.

Surprisingly, it worked! I think I even surprised myself, but the flavours just went hand in hand, the avocado didn’t overpower the banana and just left you with a slight tang after each and every gulp.

Besides, who doesn’t love a funky looking green drink?

If you know of any other unusual flavour combinations, please tweet them @FongtasticFood