Cool Kid Caramelized Banana Pudding

I was 'surfing the web' the other day and I came across this recipe, and I just thought to myself, "Oh. My . God. I am so hungry!" I realized how hungry I really was and that I really needed to fill the giant hole in my stomach, because I really needed something to eat. Anyway, back to the recipe. I was 'surfing the web' and I came across this caramelized banana pudding recipe, and it looked so delicious (especially on top of all my hunger), and so I told myself that I just had to make it. I mean, when you see something this delicious (imagine the most delicious thing you can imagine), how can you not resist the urge to just rush to the kitchen (I know, I know, that sounds really cheesy, but it didn't in my head!)? So, with that delicious thing in mind, think of a caramelized banana pudding, and you will realize how un-delicious that other thing you were thinking of is. So I found the recipe for this super cool kid caramelized banana pudding at My Recipes, and  while I was looking I found some pretty great other recipes if you wanted to check them out here


Ingredients:
1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1/4 cup butter
1/4 teaspoon bananas, sliced
1 cup granulated sugar, divided
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
2 cups milk
4 large eggs, separated
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
48 vanilla wafers

Method:

Cook first 3 ingredients in a large skillet over medium heat, stirring constantly, 2 to 3 minutes or until bubbly.
Add bananas; cook 2 to 3 minutes or until thoroughly heated.
Remove from heat.
Whisk together 3/4 cup granulated sugar, next 3 ingredients, and 4 egg yolks in a heavy saucepan.
Cook over medium-low heat, whisking constantly, 8-10 minutes or until a pudding-like thickness. (Mixture will just begin to bubble and will hold soft peaks when whisk is lifted.)
Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla.
Divide half of banana mixture, pudding, and vanilla wafers.
Beat 4 egg whites at high speed with an electric mixer until foamy.
Add remaining 1/4 cup granulated sugar, 1 Tbsp. at a time, beating until stiff peaks form and sugar dissolves (2 to 4 minutes).
Spread meringue over ramekins.
Place ramekins on a baking sheet.
Bake at 325º for 15 to 20 minutes or until meringue is golden.
Let cool on a wire rack for 30 minutes.

Image curtesy of Southern Living

Plum And Cinnamon Oat Slices That Are Better Than What You Buy In The Store

So, the end of the quarter is coming up in about a week and, of course, most of my teachers have decided to give me tests this week. Of course we have the vocab final on Wednesday in English, but I have known about that for the entire quarter, same thing with my vocab final in AP Geography. That makes them acceptable. My french on the other hand, not quite. She decides to give us this huge, 6 part test, with barely any warning. What happened was, apparently on Monday it was on her canvas page saying we had a test on wednesday, but then on Tuesday, it wasn't on her canvas page and same thing on Wednesday. It did not say that we had a test.But.. she gave it to us anyways, and so we had to take the test with about a ten minute warning (as if that would have changed how I studied for that particular test), but I still managed to scrape a 100% (not meaning to brag, JK, I kinda am :\ ). So then she announced that we would be taking the next four parts of it on Friday (2 days away) and so we all said out loud, "ooh, I need to study up on the vocab" and in our heads "god, why does she have to give us a stupid test that we are supposed to study for but I'm really not because I will end up watching movies on Megashare instead." So that was how the second to last week of the quarter went for me. Not too great because now I need to prepare the whole weekend for my four gimongous test that are coming up in the next week before the quarter ends. So since I had that French test, I figured, why don't I be different from everyone else and instead of watching movies, I'll make myself a little snack for all of this hard work I will soon be doing to prepare for my quarter finals, and so I riffled through my copy of Delia's How To Cook Book Two, and I came across the recipe for Plum And Cinnamon Oat Slices. So, since you will probably be studying for finals soon, let me give you the recipe so that you can concentrate better whilst studying.

Ingredients:

1 lb (450 g) fresh plums
1 rounded teaspoon ground cinnamon
10 oz (275 g) organic plain wholemeal flour
5 oz (150 g) organic porridge oats
1 teaspoon salt
8 oz (255 g) butter
4 oz (110 g) light brown soft sugar

Method:

First, preheat the oven to 400ºFahrenheit
Cut all of the plums in half, around an through their natural line, give a little twist to separate the halves and remove the stones, then cut them into thin slices.
Now place them in a bowl and toss them around with the cinnamon.
Next mix the flour and the porridge oats together with the salt in a mixing bowl, then melt the butter and the sugar in a small saucepan over a fairly gentle heat.
Stir from time to time until the butter has melted.
Now mix the melted butter and sugar with the oat mixture, starting with a wooden spoon but finishing it off with your hands so you end up with a lump of dough.
Now half the mixture and press one half into a lightly greased non-stick baking pan measuring 10 x 6 inches and 1 inch deep, pressing it firmly all over the base with your hands like a wall-to-wall carpet.
Next scatter the plums evenly over the surface.
Then top with the remaining oat mixture, again pressing down firmly.

Now place the pan on the center shelf of the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes, or a bit longer if you like the top really crispy.
Then, remove from the oven and allow to cool for 10 minutes before cutting into 15 squares (To do this make 2 cuts lengthways, then 4 cuts width ways. Don't worry if they aren't perfectly even.)
If you would like it to be round, it can also be made in a 9 inch springform pan.

Beautiful Strawberry-Buttermilk Sherbet

So I was surfing the web the other day for some pretty amazingly good recipe for sharing, and I came across this one on MyRecipes, and it caught my eye. I had never made ice cream before, or at least nothing that looks or tastes anything at all like ice cream. I thought that this would be a super cool recipe to try out, and that alls y'alls would want to see the recipe. I think that it would be a really great one to try out, but the only catch is that you need an ice cream maker. Even though you need an ice cream maker to make it into ice cream, you could probably also just freeze it in the freezer, or make it in a blender with lots of ice, or pre-frozen fruits instead of fresh fruits.  I wanted to try and make this because I have an older sister who can be kinda judge-y. I wanted to make it super-duper good, because then I would have bragging rights because she used my recipe to make scones, and so she had been saying "I made the best scones!" and so I really wanted to show her up. So let's see if this recipe helps you to impress people just like it did for me.

Ingredients:

2 cups fresh strawberries
2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Fresh mint sprigs for the garnish

Method:

 Process strawberries in a food processor or blender 30 seconds or until smooth, stopping to scrape down sides. 

Pour strawberry puree through a fine wire-mesh strainer into a large bowl, pressing with back of a spoon. 

Discard solids. 

Add the buttermilk, sugar, and vanilla to puree; stir until well blended. 

Cover and chill 1 hour.

Pour strawberry mixture into freezer container of a 1 1/2-qt. electric ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions. (Instructions and times may vary.) 

Garnish, if desired.

Image Courtesy of Schnitzel and The Trout Blog

My Very Own Smoothie

So I was thinking of what would be a good recipe to share on this blog that I am doing every week, and so obviously I am thinking of all the best recipes I have ever used to make delicious things (usually desserts), and naturally, they were all recipes that belonged to or were created by other people. I realized that I love to cook, but I have never really tried to make my own smoothie. I was just kinda messing around and putting things together that might taste good, but then I tried to make it healthy... and that was when it started to get messed up. I made it the first time in a Vitamix blender, and to be honest it probably didn't taste that good anyways, but once I had made it I put it into clear cups... and it was green. Oops. Not very appealing to 8 year olds. So I tried again, and again, but my little bro didn't like any of them. The one I made last night though, he actually liked it! It was made of mainly fruits, but it still turned out green because of the lil' bit of spinach that I threw in there. So, here is the recipe so that you can try making it yourself and tell me if you liked it!

Ingredients:

1 cup strawberries
1/2 banana
1 handful spinach
1 cup ice
1/3 cup milk (or add more if you want it creamier)
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Method:

Plug in the Vitamix to the wall.
Put all of the ingredients into the blender.
Put the lid on the blender.
Change the settings to frozen dessert or smoothie.
Turn it on and let it blend all the ingredients together.
Pour the mixture into the cups.
Voila! :)

Spring Time Lemon Yogurt Cake

So last night I was watching Cutthroat Kitchen, my favorite food network show, and they had to make their take on a lemon bar. If you watch that show, you would know that they have the ability to sabotage others to try and beat them. In the final round it will usually get pretty funny. I like it because it shows how good the chefs really are, not just how well they can cook. In this episode, there were two guys, one of whom had $20,000, and the other had $4,000. So obviously the guy with $20,000 was going to buy most of the sabotages because he had more money than the other so he could outbid him on the items. When they started making the lemon bars, Alton brought out a fake tree and replaced the loser's basket of items with the tree which had the ingredients inside little lemon juice bottles. This just got me wondering what other lemon cakes and things would be good for the 'entering March' time of year. I started to surf the web and I came across this recipe on Food Network, and it is for a lemon yogurt cake. I was, and am, really in the mood for lemon-y things at the moment, and so this recipe was perfect!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 cup plain whole-milk yogurt
1 1/3 cups sugar
3 extra-large eggs
3 tsp grated lemon zest (2 lemons)
1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract
1/2 cup pure vegetable oil
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350ºF
Grease an 8 1/2 by 4 1/4 by 2 1/2 inch loaf pan.
Line the bottom with parchment paper.
Grease and four the pan.
Sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt into a bowl.
In another bowl, whisk together the yogurt, 1 cup of sugar, the eggs, lemon zest, and vanilla.
Slowly whisk the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
With a rubber spatula, fold the vegetable oil into the batter,making sure it's all incorporated.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake fro about 50 minutes, or until a cake tester placed in the center of the loaf comes clean.
While the cake is baking, cook the 1/3 cup lemon juice and remaining 1/3 cup sugar in a small pan until the sugar dissolves and the mixture is clear.
Set aside.
When the cake is done, allow it to cool in the pan for 10 minutes.
Carefully place on a baking rack over a sheet pan.
While the cake is still warm, pour the lemon-sugar mixture over the cake and allow it to soak in.
Cool.
For the glaze, combine the confectioner's sugar and lemon juice and pour over the cake.

Image Curtesy of Barefoot Contessa

Not British But Irish Soda Bread

Since last week I gave you guys a little bit of my Britishness, I figured a would give you another recipe from my heritage, so here goes. This one's Irish. So since I happen to be British, when I make British foods they have to be perfect because I am British and otherwise I would be disgracing my country by not making the food correctly. But, since this is technically IRISH soda bread, it doesn't have to be made entirely perfectly by me on my first couple of tries at making it... right? I don't know about you, but when I originally stumbled across this recipe I was all like "What in the world is soda bread?" and what I found is that soda bread is, by definition:

"bread leavened with baking soda." 

So since we now know that it is made from baking soda, I can give you the recipe and you can try out the recipe for yourself!

Ingredients:

4 to 4 1/2 cups flour

1 Tbsp sugar

1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
4 Tbsp butter
1 cup currants or raisins
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 3/4 cups buttermilk

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425ºF
Whisk together 4 cups of flour, the sugar, the salt, and the baking soda in a large mixing bowl.
Using your hands, work the butter into the flour mixture until it resembles breadcrumbs, then add in the currants or raisins.
Make a well in the center of the flour mixture. Add the beaten egg and the buttermilk to the well and mix in with a wooden spoon until the dough is too stiff to stir.
Dust your hands with a little flour, then gently knead the dough in the bowl just long enough to form a rough ball.
If the dough is too sticky, add a little more flour, and make sure not to over knead.
Put the dough on a lightly floured surface, and shape it into a round loaf.
The dough will be quite sticky, and flakey.
Work the dough just enough so that the flour is just moistened and the dough just barely comes together.
If over kneaded, the bread will be tough.
Transfer the dough to a large, lightly greased cast-iron skillet or baking sheet.
Using a serrated knife, sore the top of the dough
about an inch and and a half deep in an X-shape (This helps to get heat into the center of the dough while it cooks).

This is what it should look like in the pan before it goes into the oven
Image courtesy of Bay Area Bites

Put it in the oven and bake for about 30-35 minutes, or until the bread is golden brown and the bottom sounds hollow when tapped.
Remove the bread from the oven and allow to sit in the pan for 10-15 minutes, then remove from pan and place on a rack to cool briefly.
Serve it warm, room temperature, or toasted and buttered, but it is best eaten when it is warm and freshly baked.
Enjoy! :)

Image courtesy of Chinese Grandma

Beautifully Buttery Buttermilk Scones (And Also A lesson On How To Make A Proper Black Tea)

So as you may know if you have ever met me, I am British, which means that I have some habits that are different to y'all Americans. First, I drink tea. Lots of it. I have kind of stopped drinking tea ever since I went on a Paleo diet. As you know, a paleo diet cuts out milk, and in my tea, I drink English Breakfast Tea from Trader Joe's (my mother's favorite place to shop for food) and I boil the kettle (something my mother also loves to shop for), and then I pour the boiling water over the tea bag, and let it brew for maybe a couple minutes (maybe a longer or shorter time depending on how strong you like your tea). Once it has brewed, take the the tea bag out and pour in the milk. I usually put in enough for the tea to turn a beige-ish color. Anyway, now that y'all know how to make a proper black tea, How about I tell you how to make a scone. Hang on a sec, first let me tell you why I chose to write about scones. So my grandma came to stay with us a couple weeks ago, yes a couple weeks ago and yes, she is STILL HERE. Anyways, she came up to me and my older sister Charlotte last weekend and said "So it is mothers day on Sunday (that is not the American mother's day, the British one), so you guys should do something nice!" So then on mother's day, that Sunday, I didn't go skiing because I had to do a spanish project for Mrs. Aplanalp and when I went home my sister Charlotte was there because she drove home from the resort (she finally turned 16!) and so she wanted to make scones. Once they were done I ate one and thought that they were really good and decided to share the recipe with you.
So after you have now read this super long paragraph where I explained maybe too many things, here is your well deserved recipe by one of my favorite chefs, Delia Smith:

Ingredients (makes about 10 scones):

2-3 tablespoons of buttermilk (plus some extra for brushing the tops)
8 ounces (225 grams) of self raising flour, plus a little extra for dusting
A pinch of salt
3 ounces (75 grams) of butter at room temperature
1 1/2 ounces (40 grams) of golden caster sugar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 425ºFarenheit.
Sift the flour and salt into a bowl and then rub the butter gently into the mixture. Do this until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs.
Next add the sugar.
Now, you will want to beat the egg and 2 tablespoons of the buttermilk together and begin to add this to the rest of the mixture using a palette knife.
Once it begins to come together, finish it off with your hands (it should be soft, but not sticky).
Once the dough has been formed into a ball, put it onto a lightly floured surface, and roll it out into a circle that is no less than 1 inch thick.
Cut out the scones by placing the cutter onto the dough and giving it a sharp tap, but make sure that you don't twist it and you just lift it up and push the dough out.
Once you can no longer cut another scone out, roll the remaining dough into a ball and roll it out so that it is 1 inch thick again.
Continue this process until it is no longer possible to cut out anymore scones.
Place the scones onto a baking tray and brush them lightly with the buttermilk and dust with  little bit of flour.
Bake them on the top shelf for 10-12 minutes, or until they are well risen and golden brown.
When you take them out of the oven, place them on a wire rack to cool.

Image courtesy of Tales From A Happy House