yummeelicious

I had a moment of inspiration on Sunday, helped along with the power of ‘googling’ rice pudding and bananas. What started out as a plan to make rice pudding for the boys ended up being far more complicated, time consuming and nowhere near ready for them to eat before bedtime. Needless to say they were still lovely the next day.

Although there is alot of chilling time, these are very simple to make and can be made with little ‘helpers’ as very little cooking and no baking is involved.

Filling

Add 200g of pearl rice, 1Litre of milk and teaspoon of vanilla extract into a large pot. Bring to the boil then allow to simmer for approximately 45 minutes or until the rice is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed by the rice.

When the rice is cooked, add 2 chopped bananas, 50g caster sugar and stir over medium heat until fully combined and allow to cook for 2 minutes.

Stir in one egg yolk and 60g unsalted butter until the egg is combined and the butter is fully melted and incorporated.

Transfer to a bowl and chill for at least 2 hours.

Assembly

Line a 12 hole muffin tin with cupcakes cases.

Place a packet of sponge finger biscuits in the food processor with 90g of softened unsalted butter. Pulse until you have a breadcrumb consistency and the biscuit  crumbs are coated in the butter.

Add two teaspoons of the biscuit crumb to each cake case, pressing firmly with the back of the teaspoon to ensure the crumb is compressed and fully covering the base of the cases.

Place in the fridge for 1 hour to chill.

Melt 200g of chocolate and pour over the biscuit bases until the biscuit base is fully covered and the chocolate is roughly the same depth.  Return to the fridge for one hour to chill.

Once the chocolate has chilled and hardened again, fill the cupcake cases to the top with the rice mixture, compressing with the back of a spoon.

Return to the fridge to chill for 1 hour.

These little treats have a  lovely banoffee taste to them. They are best taken out of the fridge 30-60 minutes before eating as the chocolate layer hardens and makes for fantastic jaw breakers.

A perfect little treat!

For the second weekend in a row, I have baked a non-summery cake. Again, it was dictated by what my 3 year old requested but given that the weather has been even worse this week, I think I can be forgiven. Also, I am still on my mission to not buy any more baking ingredients until I have used up what it is taking up about 50% of my available food storage space which I have achieved again this week.

I use the term bread in the title loosely to be honest. My 3 year old actually asked for “Banana Cake” and I think that’s more what it is! Any resemblance to bread is purely accidental.

Place 115g of walnuts on a baking tray and place in a 190oC oven (170oC for fan) for about 10 minutes. Keep an eye on them because they go from golden brown to burnt quite quickly. Remove and leave to cool a little before chopping into small pieces.

Also at this point melt 115g butter and leave to cool. Then mash 3 ripe bananas – this is easiest done by a 3 year old with the potato masher.

Sift and combine the following dry ingredients – 250g Plain flour, 150g Light brown sugar, 1 tsp Baking powder, 1/4 tsp Baking soda, 1/4 tsp Salt, 1tsp Cinnamon.

Beat 2 Eggs and add the cooled melted butter, mashed bananas and 1 tsp Vanilla extract.

Carefully fold the dry ingredients into the banana mixture, being careful not to over work it to ensure your bread/cake will be light and fluffy. You dont want a smooth mixture.

Pour into a 1lb loaf tin which is greased and “floured” and place on the middle shelf of the oven for 45 minutes or until golden brown and your cake tester comes out clean.

Cut into ridiculously large slices and eat! Yummeelicious!

WARNING: This cake contains nuts and is seriously addictive. One slice is just not enough!