banana bread and chocolate-peanut butter pudding

A friend of mine is having what can only be described as a royally crap time. There’s me, moaning about not having slept since April, as if it’s such a massive deal. And there she is left holding her 3 month old while her selfish ex has decided he can’t handle having a baby and would rather take Special K and try to pull 18 year olds instead. So he’s basically upped and left her. This is someone so spectacularly gutless he didn’t even have the decency to tell her to her face, so broke up via SMS.

There are times when nothing you say can make things better, but silently sharing a bit of cake can ease things a little. I decided to make her some comforting, fudgy banana bread and chocolate-peanut butter pudding made with thick slabs of said bread, soaked through with salted choc and nut butter sauce. It turned out to be more of a spread in the end (I had to deal with an ENS* so didn’t manage to add milk to make matters less viscous) but for a little while at least, made her forget about what a lucky escape she and her beautiful son have had from a total loser.

*Emergency Nappy Situation

For the banana bread

115g plain flour

115g wholemeal flour

150g brown sugar

90g roughly chopped walnuts

2 tsp. baking powder

½ tsp. salt

6 small ripe bananas- approx 480g (the blacker the better), roughly broken into chunks

2 large beaten eggs

55g butter

3 tbsp. olive oil

1 tsp. vanilla extract

2 tbsp. syrup from a jar of stem ginger

For the sauce

200g milk chocolate, broken into chunks

2 tbsp. peanut butter

1 tsp. vanilla extract

1 tsp. salt

100ml double cream

• Line a loaf tin with greased and floured baking paper and preheat  the oven to GM 4/180C (fan)
• Mix together the flour, baking powder, salt and walnuts in a bowl.
• If you have a stand mixer, cream together butter and sugar for a good 5 minutes (otherwise a lot of elbow grease and about 15 minutes with a wooden spoon ought to do it). Gradually add the olive oil, eggs, banana, stem ginger syrup and vanilla, a little at a time.
• Gently fold in the flour mixture, being careful not to overmix and bake for 1 hr
• Cool and slice the banana bread up and layer in overlapping layers in a dish.
• Melt the chocolate in a bain marie. Add the peanut butter  and vanilla extract and mix well. Stir in the salt until it dissolves. Finally swirl in the double  cream. If you’re able to, add enough milk to form a runny sauce.
• Pour this over the bread, so it’s nicely submerged.
• Bake for 40minutes. Serve with something hot, strong and possibly alcoholic depending on the circumstances.

Cardamom Chocolate Mousse Cake

For me there are few things more rewarding than cooking for others, so I was super chuffed when those nice people at farm:shop asked me to start regularly supplying the cafe with my treats. These past few weeks have been a blissful blur of baking chard, smoked cheddar and mushroom quiches with delicate walnut and chive or nigella seed and parmesan crusts, ultra crumbly lavender shortbread, mini keema pies, feta and spinach rolls, artisan popcorn, pretzels and vats of panch phoran chutney. There’s such a buzz about hearing the lovely feedback from the customers and it’s great fun dreaming up new and exciting ways in which to cook up the latest harvest.

When a request for a cake came in, I wanted to make something decadent and “money’s worth” so decided to fox up a classic Green & Blacks’s chocolate marquise recipe. I massively heart the ruthlessly aromatic camphor of cardamom, which like its protean brethren nutmeg; means it’s just as comfortable in a rice pudding as in a biryani and makes it the perfect partner to pretty much anything cocoa based. Crushing those resinous pods to add a subtle twist to sweet dishes is something the Bangladeshi cook has been onto for centuries. As kids we grew up squabbling over clotted bowls of my mother’s legendary Bengali cardamom-infused rice pudding or “payesh”, shandesh (a ricotta, cardamom and pistachio dessert) and rasgullas (which literally means “globes of juice” and takes the form of pistachio curd dumplings soaked in a rose and cardamom syrup).

In this obscenely rich cake (you only need the teeniest slice), the cardamom is a veritable plectrum to the fruity, almost bitter notes of the dark chocolate and lingers gorgeously on the tongue. The separate cakey base and mousse may seem like a total faff, and I won’t lie – they are.  If you really can’t be bothered and you’re in the area, I would recommend getting down to 20 Dalston Lane and treating yourself to what’s left of mine.

Serves 15-20 decadent little slices

INGREDIENTS

For the base

Melted butter for greasing

300g (10 ½ oz) dark chocolate minimum 60% cocoa solids (I used 200g/7oz dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids plus 100g Maya Gold) broken into chunks

165g (5 ½ oz) butter

1 tbsp ground almonds, plus extra for dusting the tin

275g (10oz) caster sugar

A pinch of sea salt

5 large eggs

3 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed to powder

For the mousse

250g (9oz) dark chocolate, minimum 60% cocoa solids, broken into pieces

100g (3 ½ oz) icing sugar

175g (6oz) unsalted butter

5 large eggs, separated

6 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed to powder

150 ml (1/4 pint) double cream

Cocoa powder to dust

METHOD

• Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.
• Brush a 23cm (9in) springform tin with high sides and removable base
• Make the cakey bit by placing the chocolate, cardamom, sugar, butter, and salt in a large heatproof bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water until melted and amalgamated.
• Whisk the eggs and add the ground almonds and fold into the chocolate mixture off the heat. Continue to fold until the mixture thickens. Pour into the prepared tin and bake for about 30-40 minutes. Leave to cool in the tin for about 2 hours before starting the mousse.
• To make the mousse, melt the chocolate in a heatproof bowl over some barely simmering water. Remove from the heat and add half the icing sugar, stir and then whisk in the butter and cardamom. Whisk in the egg yolks on at a time. Set aside.
• Whisk the egg whites to the stiff peak stage and add the remaining icing sugar. Keep whisking until glossy. In a separate bowl, whisk the cream until stiff peaks form.
• Add 1/3 of the egg whites to the melted chocolate mix and carefully mix to blend. Gently fold in the remaining whites, alternating with the whipped cream. You don’t want to over mix or crush out the air bubbles, but you do want it to be well blended. Pour this mousse over the cooled cake base in the cake tine and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, remove the tin from the fridge about 15 minutes before serving. Dip a palette knife in boiling water, dry it and slide around the edges of the cake to loosen it from the tin and then remove the ring. Re-heat the knife in boiling water, dry it and gently smooth the sides of the mousse.
• Dust generously with cocoa powder and serve with a dollop of crème fraiche.

Profiteroles with Passionfruit Creme

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