Long weekend + gorgeous weather = baking experiments. This time I tried out my mom’s banana and walnut loaf recipe. It’s quite simple if you have all the ingredients and mine was done in 20 minutes flat.

Ingredients:
4 ripe bananas, mashed well
100 gms walnuts – coarsely chopped
250 gms all-purpose flour
150 grams caster sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
2 eggs, lightly beaten
125 gms unsalted butter, melted and cooled
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to about 180C.

Then grease your baking dish and set aside.

Now for the loaf:
In one medium sized bowl, combine the dry ingredients i.e. the flour, caster sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nuts. Keep aside.

Then, in another bowl combine the wet ingredients which is the mashed bananas, beaten eggs, melted butter and vanilla.

With a wooden spoon, lightly fold the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients and carefully stir until the batter is thick.

Once its mixed, transfer the batter into a baking tin and put it into the oven. Bake it until the bread has risen and is golden brown in color. Insert a toothpick in the center of the loaf to check if its cooked through – if it comes out clean, then the loaf is ready.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then cut into slices and serve with some fresh cream.

I love Nigella Lawson’s show – Nigella Express. Her recipes on this show are really easy and more importantly, fast to make. One of those recipes is Rocky Road Crunch Bars. I tried it out yesterday and it came out brilliantly (if there is such a word) and is just delicious. You can find the recipe here www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/rockyroadcrunchbars_87104.shtml

The only changes I made were the quantities of the biscuits and the marshmellows – I found that I only needed about a 100gms of biscuits and 50gms of mini marshmellows. The rest was just perfect – soft and gooey on the inside and crunchy -yum! They say the real test is in the tasting so let’s see what my friends at the office will say when I take some to work (if there is any left:-).

I love coconut (probably due to me being half malyalee:-) and the taste of crunchy, sweet coconut is just heavenly so I just pretend that its not going straight to my hips! Here is my first try at making homemade coconut burfee and it came out really well! Pics will be uploaded this weekend.

Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
2 cups of fresh grated coconut
1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder
Some slivered almonds
A baking dish greased with ghee

Method:
Combine the sugar, milk, coconut and cardamom powder in a saucepan and bring to a boil over a medium heat. Then let it simmer until the mixture becomes slightly thick. This should take about 30 minutes.

Transfer the mixture to the ghee greased baking dish. Sprinkle the top with the almonds. Let it cool and then cut into any shape you desire. This can be stored for about a week (if kept in the fridge).

Today a friend asked me for the recipe for homemade pizza dough and it got me thinking to two weeks back when I made it for dinner and my husband walloped three pizzas by himself! So here’s a great recipe I learnt from my mom on how to make pizza at home with your own dough. I must admit though that I have never tried making pizza sauce – after making the dough – trust me, its just easier to slosh on some from a bottle!

Ingredients for the dough:
1 cup of warm water
3 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons of olive oil
1 teaspoon sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon yeast

Method:
Put warm water into a bowl. Add the salt and sugar and mix with a spoon. Add yeast, mix and let it sit for about 10 minutes.

Gradually add the flour and keep stirring. Then add the olive oil. When the mixture gets too heavy to mix, start kneading the dough with your hands.

Knead the dough until you have a smooth ball. If the dough cracks it is too dry. Add water bit by bit until if forms a nice coherent ball. If your dough feels more like batter, it is too wet and you need to add flour bit by bit. If you need to add water or flour, do it in small amounts.

Coat the dough with olive oil, place it in a large bowl and cover it with a wet towel or kitchen wrap paper. Let the dough rise for about an hour at room temperature, then push it down again so it deflates. Let it sit for about another hour. If you want to use it the next day, put it in a refrigerator.

Now flour your rolling board and place the dough on it. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough to the thickness you want.

Spread pizza sauce and add whatever toppings you want along with shredded mozzarella cheese. In this one, I used jalapenos, onions, red peppers and mushrooms.

Tip: Punch some holes in the dough with a fork to let the air escape before you put the pizza is in the oven otherwise you will have a bloated pizza:-)

In other words…a potato bake!:-) And its one of those classic creamy, delicious, warm French dishes that is really easy to make. Here’s how:

Ingredients:
About half a kg of potatoes, washed, peeled and sliced into medium sized sliced
200 gms of Gruyère or Emmental cheese
200 gms of fresh double cream
1 egg beaten
About half a cup of milk
Salt and black pepper
Butter

Method:
Peel the potatoes. Slice them thinly and place in water to remove excess starch
Butter a baking dish
Preheat your oven at 390F (200C).
Dry the potato slices in a clean cotton cloth. Place a first layer of potato slices in the dish. Season with salt and pepper. Then spread the cream and the shredded cheese
Repeat this process till all the layers are done (first potato; salt and pepper; cream and cheese). Try and finish with cheese
Now, beat the egg into the milk and pour this mixture over the potatoes
Bake this for about 1 hour at a temperature of 180C
Serve warm with roast chicken or a simple salad!