Banana and caramel pie

One of my favourite combinations in the world is banana and caramel. I don't know what it is about the flavours that are SOOO delicious, but mmmmm. Just thinking about it makes my mouth water. A while back, one of my recipes for the newspaper I write for was a delicious banana, caramel and chocolate pie!

You WANT to try this...believe me! Unless you are like my sister and don't like the flavour of bananas...then you won't like it. Otherwise it's a MUST ;-)

To see this recipe in Swedish, click here.



8 servings

3 1/2 dl flour (350 ml)
1 1/2 dl sugar (150 ml)
1 dl cocoa (100ml)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 pinch salt
60 g butter or margarine
1 dl sour cream (100ml)
2 bananas
2 dl cream, whipped
1 tin of caramel (if you live in a country where you can't buy ready-made caramel, or you feel adventurous and want to make your own, click here to see how.)

1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl.
3. Rub the butter and dry ingredients together with your finger tops.
4. Press the dough onto a sheet of wax paper into a ball, about 20 cm in diameter.
5. Bake in the middle of the oven for about 20 minutes. Cool of a cooling rack.
6. Spread the caramel over the pie base. Top with the sliced bananas and whipped cream.

(I made 2 pie bases so that I could make a sandwich-like dessert. If you want a more filling "fika"* then this is the way to go!)

Enjoy your day!

Love, Heidi

* Fika is a well-known Swedish term for having a coffee break together with something nice and sweet!

Birthdays and celebrations!

A few week-ends ago my wonderful parent-in-laws came down to Jönköping to celebrate Emanuel's mother's birthday. We had a lovely day together, swimming and relaxing at an indoor pool in Jönköping, eating good food, and just having a great time.

Instead of making a "traditional" cake, I thought that I would try something new and exciting.



First I made a choux pastry:

I used this recipe from taste.com

* 80ml (1/3 cup) water
* 40g butter, at room temperature, cubed
* 50g (1/3 cup) plain flour, sifted
* 2 eggs, at room temperature
* Vegetable oil, to grease

1. Preheat oven to 200°C. Place water and butter in a saucepan over medium heat. Put the lid on to reduce the water from evaporating and simmer until the butter is melted.
2. Add all the flour to the butter mixture at once and use a wooden spoon to beat until well combined. Place over low heat and cook, stirring, for 1-2 minutes or until the mixture forms a ball and begins to come away from the side of the saucepan.
3. Set aside for 5 minutes to cool slightly. Add the egg to the flour mixture, beating well with a wooden spoon. Beat until the mixture just falls from the spoon but still holds its shape.
3. Pipe the pastry dough into a round circle about 20 cm in diameter on a piece of waxpaper. Fill the circle with the pastry. Bake in preheated oven for 25 minutes or until the pastry is puffed and golden.
4. Remove from oven and turn the oven off. Immediately cut the top half of the pastry off. This is important in order to release the steam and prevent the pastry from becoming soggy. Return to the (turned off) oven and leave for 15 minutes to dry out. Remove from the oven and transfer to a wire rack to cool.

That's a basic choux pastry recipe. It can also be made into small, cute profiteroles. Once the round ring was done I lifted the top half off, filled it with some vanilla cream, topped it with some blueberries and raspberries, put the pastry lid back on, topped it with some more berries and decorated it with some icing sugar.

It looked kind of like a mess, but it was charming, and tasted so fresh and lovely. It's definitely a cake that I'm going to make again!

Happy baking!

Love
Heidi

Quick and easy meals: Cottage Pie

Hello everybody!

In the last few weeks there has been an increase in the amount of readers that I have, so I want to give all you new readers a very warm welcome. And a big thank you to my faithful readers for your lovely support. I hope that you enjoy what you see. Feel free to write comments and come with suggestions and ideas!

I'm in the middle of doing my internship at the International Office at my university.I have such wonderful colleagues...well at least they feel like colleagues, even though I'm just there for a little while. So now I'm getting a feel of what it is like to be a working woman. It's fun, but quite a change of routine. I'm used to studying and being on maternity leave for the past few years, so even though I've had lots to do, my time has been much more flexible. Now I know what it is like working and coming home in the evening and having to quickly prepare a meal.

Sometimes a meal thrown together in 20 minutes can be the best...both because they go so quickly to make and also because they can be really delicious! Last night we had some friends over for dinner, so it was one of those times when I needed to throw a meal together quickly. So I made a creamy version of cottage pie. And it was DELICIOUS! Easy to make and really tasty. It's also great to make a big batch and then freeze it in smaller portions for a quick and easy lunch.



When I made it I kind of just threw together different ingredients that I had at home, but I will try and give you the approximate amounts.

This recipe makes about 8 portions:

500 g mince
1 tbsp oil
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tbsp soya
1 tsp vinegar
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
2 dl creme fraiche
2 dl cream
2 tbsp tomato puree
1 tbsp ketchup
1 bag of frozen peas, carrots and beans
Salt and pepper

1. Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the mince and fry for a few minutes. Add the crushed garlic, soya, vinegar och Worcestershire sauce and let it fry a few more minutes.
2. Add the cream, creme fraiche, tomato puree, ketchup and frozen vegetables and fry another 10 minutes. Season with salt and pepper (If the sauce is to runny, thicken with some corn starch).Put the mince into an oven-proof dish.

For the potato mash:
15 potatoes
2 dl creme fraiche
Salt and pepper
A handful of cheese

1. Peel the potatoes and boil them.
2. Mash the potatoes together with the creme fraiche. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Spread the potatoes over the mince. Sprinkle some cheese on the top and bake in the oven at 220 degrees for about 10-15 minutes, until golden brown.




What are some of your favourite quick meals to make?

Happy eating!

Love,
Heidi

Passion for life!

Last week-end I made a delicious dessert for a newspaper that I write recipes for. I was actually planning on getting it up on the blog before Valentine's Day but this week-end and week has been BUSY! But rather late then never...and there is always time to spoil the special people in your life. So if you haven't done anything yet to celebrate Valentine's Day, here's a perfect recipe that will make just about any heart melt.

Passion fruit and white chocolate dessert:



(This recipe is enough for about 2 people)

100g white chocolate
2 passion fruit (or granadillas as they are called in South Africa)
½ dl crème fraiche (50 ml)
1 egg, separated
1 tbsp sugar
2 dl cream
6 digestive biscuits, crushed
25 g melted butter

1. Melt the chocolate carefully. Let it cool slightly. Mix the passion fruit, crème fraiche and the egg yolk into the melted chocolate.
2. Beat the cream until stiff peaks form.
3. Beat the egg whites and sugar in a separate bowl, also until stiff peaks form.
Fold the cream and egg whites carefully into the chocolate mixture.
4. Mix the crushed digestives and the melted butter. Press into the bottom of 2 small bowls. Fill the bowls with the creamy mixture. Put it in the fridge for a couple of hours, or freeze, depending on which consistency you want.
*There will most likely be some of the creamy mixture over, but that freezes very well and makes a delicious ice-cream for some other occasion.
5. Decorate with fresh raspberries and a chocolate heart.

* I have a lovely friend from Öland that organised some Tupperware rings for me. I have been longing to use them to make cute individual desserts and I finally got around to it. Once they were frozen I pulled the ring off...I think that they turned out very cute. Thank you, Elin!

Hope you all have a great day!

Love, Heidi

Valentine's Day Special...part 2

Hello everybody!

I hope that you have all enjoyed the week-end! It's the start of another full of new and exciting possibilities...sometimes those possibilities are easy to see and other times they are more hidden, but they are usually always there!

There is just one week left until Valentine's Day, so I hope that you are being imaginative and thinking up fun and special ways to spoil those around you.

Here is a cute and cosy breakfast idea...perfect for a Valentine's breakfast in bed!

Egg-in-a-basket:



It's a very simple recipe.
1. Take a slice of bread and a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Cut out a heart from the middle of the bread.
2. Heat up some butter in a frying pan. put the bread and the cut-out heart in the pan and crack an egg into the hole. Let it fry on medium heat for a few minutes before turning over and frying the other side.
3. Can be served as is or together with some bacon and fried tomatoes for a real yummy English breakfast.

"There is no remedy for love but to love more."
-- Henry David Thoreau

Have a great week!

Love,
Heidi

Valentine's Day Special...part 1

Hello everyone!

Today is the first of February...we are already 1 month into the new year. Sometimes it's important to stop up, remind ourselves to make the most of the days that we have and not get swallowed up by all the stress in the busy world around us. I'm reminded of that often with my little son who is growing up so quickly. One day he will be a grown man, and I want to make sure that I enjoy every day and every different stage of his life.

It's so important in life to show your family and friends that you love and appreciate them, and what better time to do it than Valentine's Day. Obviously we should show our love and appreciation on more then just 1 day of the year, and often times those little extra tokens of love are appreciated much more when they come as a surprise, BUT I still think that Valentine's Day is a lovely time to celebrate love!

So during the next 2 weeks I will be putting up some tips and ideas about how you can spoil those special people in your life.

Here is some inspiration from some of my favourite blogs and websites to get your imagination going...

Check out these conversation heart cookies by Annie's Eats.

There's nothing more romantic than strawberries and chocolate. These one's come from Simply Recipes.



Cute cupcakes from Martha Stewart.



And finally...a lovely 3 course meal that will shower your love on whoever eats it, from The Pioneer Woman.



Lots of love to you all!

Love,
Heidi