Banana Turnovers - A (very) Random Recipe

For this month's Random Recipe Challenge, Dom at Belleau Kitchen paired us up with another blogger so we could each choose the other's recipe.  I was paired up with the lovely Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog fame who randomly chose Dr. Oetker's German Baking Today, a cookbook which has been lingering unused (and unloved) on my bookshelf for the last 6 years. This book was actually a wedding present from some family friends in Germany.  I have flicked through it on several occasions thinking I should make something from it but when it comes down to it I like my cakes to be a bit more ooh-la-la than oom-pah-pah. Choclette picked page 173 which led me to a recipe for Banana Turnovers in the in the 'cheese and oil cake mixture' (are you understanding me more on why this book just doesn't invite you in....) chapter. I do love the fact that this blog challenge does what it says on the tin - to me you can not get a more random recipe than this.  Now if I was looking at a cake menu Banana Turnovers would not be up there on my list of choices. But, I am the first to criticise those who pah pah food before they've even tried it so I was happy to give them a go.  


When I first read the recipe I was a bit stumped as to where I would find curd cheese, one of the ingredients (cheese and oil chapter remember!) as I know my local Sainsbury's doesn't sell it.  It was a lovely lady in Harrods foodhall (I don't have delusions of grandeur - I work right next to it) who told me that it is just kwark cheese or in otherwords fromage frais.  So it turns out my local Sainsbury's does sell it.  I had high hopes for this recipe as I made the dough (with my new non smoking hand mixer with dough attachment!) - it was soft and pillowly.  That's where the hopes ended.....  The recipe says it would made 9 turnovers - I managed 5 and a half but the first 3 were write offs.  I rolled the dough too thinly at first so they split a little when cooking. I left the dough a bit thicker on the last 2 and a half and they turned out significantly better.  The final result - well they didn't look as pretty as the ones in the book but the last batch were OK.  I just don't think I'm a fan of cooked banana really (too baby food) so that doesn't help but Mr CB's response was not even lukewarm. You know it isn't good when someone turnsdown your turnover.....


The Recipe


300g plain flour
3 tspns baking powder (the recipe called for 1 packet so this was a bit of a guess)
75g caster sugar
3 drops vanilla essence
pinch of salt
125g fromage frais
100ml milk
100ml cooking oil (I used rapeseed)


For the filling:
2 bananas
4 tspns apricot jam
4 tspns lemon juice


For the coating & topping:
1 egg beaten
flaked almonds


1. Preheat the oven to 180c, gas mark 4. Line a baking sheet with baking parchment.
2.  Sift together the flour and baking powder into a large bowl. Add all the other cake ingredients and mix together with a hand mixer using the dough hook.  Don't knead for too long as you don't want the mixture to go too sticky.  
3.  Place the dough on a floured surface and make it into a cylinder shape.  Roll it out into a square shape around 36cm x 36cm then cut it into 12cm squares.  
4.  Mix together the apricot jam and lemon juice and brush each square with this mixture, leaving the edges clear. Put a piece of banana diagonally onto the square and brush again with the apricot mixture.  Brushes the edges with the egg wash and then fold over and seal.  Brush the turnovers with more egg and sprinkle with almonds. 
5. Bake for about 15-20 minutes.

Mother's Day Chocolate & Banana Loaf

Happy Mother's Day to my Mum and all those other Mums out there for tomorrow! This Chocolate and Banana Cake hasn't been made because I'm obsessed with recipes with featuring the yellow fruit, despite the fact that previous recipes might indicate otherwise! I've chosen to make it as I heard about an initiative Breakthrough Breast Cancer are running for Mother's Day. This amazing charity has linked up with the author Jane Green to release a free downloadablerecipe book to encourage people to get cooking for for their Mums. The recipe book is definitely worth a look with some great things to cook (I'm particularly liking the sound of Moroccan Chicken with Tomatoes and Saffron Honey Jam). All the recipes in the booklet come from Jane Green's new novel The Love Verb. If you don't know her books, Jane is one of those writers who manage to write unputdownable, miss your train stop, type of page turners. This book is based on when she nursed her best friend through breast cancer and helped her family by cooking for them. Her friend very sadly lost her fight.

I obviously wanted to a baking recipe so chose this cake - I've never tried the combination of chocolate and bananas together in a cakes and was a little sceptical, as was Mr CB, but he proclaimed the recipe a success - just have to see what my Mum thinks now!

The Recipe

175g plain chocolate (I used Green & Blacks 70% Dark)

225g unsalted butter

220g caster sugar

3 eggs, beaten

100g plain + 2 tbsp (the measurements are converted from US so I meant to weigh the total g but forgot)

1 tsp baking powder

2 tbsp cocoa powder

3 ripe bananas, mashed

Cream Cheese Frosting:

300g cream cheese

150g icing sugar

zest of 1 lemon

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Melt the chocolate, either in a bowl set over a pan of simmering water or in the microwave. Beat the butter and sugar together until pale and fluffy. Gradually mix in the eggs.

3. Mix the dry ingredients together and mix into the beaten mixture. Add the bananas and melted chocolate and combine well.

4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 45 mins - 1 hour.

5. Once cooled, spread the cream cheese frosting over the top. Make the frosting by mixing the 3 ingredients together well.

Beautiful Banana Loaf

Happy New Year! I've no idea where this recipe originally comes from - I've been making it for years. I usually make it when I have left over bananas that are going too brown to eat (seems to happen a lot - not to self to buy less bananas maybe....). My friend, who lives in Sydney, likes to eat her banana bread toasted with butter. Anyway this is a healthyish recipe for January (she says while eating a Chocolate Orange while typing.....)

The Recipe

75g plain flour

75g wholemeal flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp mixed spice

100g butter, softened

100g caster sugar

2 large bananas, mashed

2 eggs, lightly beaten

100g pecan or walnuts, roughly chopped (I just give them a bash to break them up)

1. Preheat oven to 180c. Grease and line a loaf tin.

2. Sift together the flours, bicarb of soda and mixed spice, tipping any bran into the bowl.

3. Beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in bananas & eggs, then stir into the flour mixture with 75ml boiling water. Stir in the nuts.

4. Bake for 1 hour.

Banana & Walnut Cupcakes

The cupcakes have a muffin like texture to them - the topping is very sweet but is nicely counter balanced by the actual cake. I found this recipe in The Cupcake Book by Susanna Tee.

The Recipe

225g plain white flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

1/4 tsp bicarb of soda

2 ripe bananas, mashed

115g butter, softened

115g caster sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

2 eggs

4 tbsp soured cream

55g walnut pieces, roughly chopped

Topping

175g butter, softened

350g icing sugar

some walnut pieces, roughly chopped

1. Preheat oven to 190C/375F/Gas Mark 5. Line a cupcake tine with 14 paper cups. Sift together the flour, baking powder and bicarb of soda.

2. Whisk the butter, caster sugar and vanilla extract together in a large bowl until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs, then stir in the mashed bananas, soured cream and walnuts. Fold in the flour mixture.

3. Put the mixture into the paper cups and bake for about 25 mins until risen and firm and golden brown. Leave to cool in the tin for about 10 mins before transferring to a wire rack to cool properly.

4. For the frosting, beat the butter until light and fluffy, then sift in the icing sugar and mix well together. I added a little bit of vanilla extract too.

5. Decorate the cupcakes when cool with the icing and chopped walnuts.