Banoffee Pie....

Ah, Edinburgh. Suddenly it was winter, although the calendar claimed to be August. Lies. I wore a coat and scarf. Boots every day. 

One pub night in Montpellier, Georgia and I randomly decided that we were going to go to Fringe for a week in August. I think my flight was seven pounds. (Why don't we have Ryanair-or something similar- in the States? It boggles the mind.) 

 My strongest memory of Edinburgh is the night we arrived. Georgia and I were little bundles of excitement. We went to the pub where Georgia's friend Floss was working, so we could pick up her keys to drop our luggage off. A man came out of the pub, saw us outside with our cases and handed us £10. 
"Welcome to Edinburgh! Enjoy your time in my beautiful city."
We tried to give it back to him, saying we couldn't take it, but he waved us off, and disappeared back into the pub with a smile.
And what a magnificent city it is. I am sure I didn't see the "real" Edinburgh, as it is an entirely different place the other eleven months of the year, but I got a wonderful taste. I also was lucky enough to be staying with Floss, who lives there year round and brought us to plenty of fantastic places off the festival track. 
The morning after we arrived, Georgia and I set out to see some shows, but decided to get lunch first. We found a great deal- lunch for £10 a piece, with a free beer thrown in too! For dessert, we each had a slice of Banoffee pie. I'd heard of it, but barely. Georgia, who's English, and therefore familiar with how incredible it is, urged me to try it and...sigh. Banoffee pie. 
The version I made the other night was absolute perfection. It came from BBC Food, and I wouldn't change a damn thing. 
It is almost entirely sugar and butter, so not exactly something I'd recommend making on the regular, but next time you're going to a party and need to bring a dessert, give this a go. It takes under an hour, no baking is required (although you do make two kinds of caramel) and everybody will go crazy for it. 

 Banoffee Pie

BBC Food

Ingredients

Caramel Filling:

100g/31/2 oz. butter

1 can of sweetened condensed milk

100g/31/2 oz. caster sugar

Pie:

150g/5 oz. English digestive biscuits (you can find these in  a number of import or gourmet markets, Whole Foods,  or sometimes just your local grocery store. Or you can substitute Graham crackers, but try for the digestives! They're great!)

230g/8 oz. pecans

75g/3 oz butter, melted

3 large bananas, chopped

250 ml/101/2oz. double cream, whipped until relatively stiff (again, you can find double cream at gourmet or import stores- I got mine at Whole Foods- and it really is different from our heavy whipping cream, so if you can, use it!)

Cocoa Powder, for dusting

Caramel Sauce:

125g/4 oz. butter

124g/4 oz. light brown sugar

125ml/4 fl oz coconut milk 

Preparation 

Crush together your digestives and half of your pecans. Pour over melted butter and pack into a pie dish. This will be your crust.
Make your filling: in a large, preferably nonstick pan, melt your butter and sugar over low heat. Once melted, add your condensed milk and stir constantly, slowly bringing to a boil. Eventually, after boiling, the mixture will thicken, be a light golden and will smell sweet. Remove from heat, taste to make sure, and let cool slightly.
Stir your bananas into the caramel and pour into your crust.
Cover and refrigerate for about a half an hour.
Meanwhile, make your caramel sauce. Pour your coconut milk, butter and brown sugar into a small, heavy bottomed pan, and stir constantly over medium heat. It will come to a boil, keep stirring for a couple minutes, until it is slightly thick (but still saucy) and a beautiful caramel. Never stop stirring, and be sure the heat isn't too high. Caramel can turn on a dime.  The coconut milk is great- lovely touch, BBC. When it's just right, remove from heat. Set aside.
Remove your pie from the fridge. Spread your whipped double cream over, then cover with remaining pecans (or to taste.) Dust with some cocoa powder, if you'd like. You can either pour the sauce all over (I did) or keep on the side and pour over individual slices.


Enjoy every bite....

Pâte à Tartiner à la Noisette

Well! This was a big experiment and it was much more difficult than I imagined, and nearly ended in complete failure. But it didn't! It's good to remember how a cooking project gone wrong can be turned around. Persevere and succeed, my friends!

Today I attempted to translate a recipe from a French cooking magazine, (Vie Practique) and make it. Pâte à Tartiner à la Noisette is a chocolate and hazelnut spread; pretty much Nutella. I chose it as my first translation project because it looked "easy". Ha! Oh well, I learned.

Now, perhaps the French speakers out there will struggle with this less than I. I used a French-English dictionary and Google Translate  to figure the words I didn't know (which were many; my French is pretty bad) and I'm sure there were some discrepancies. Here is my translation: 

Okay, so here is my actual journey making it....

   Pâte à Tartiner à la Noisette

                                        

A few notes before we begin: I could not find powdered hazelnuts. I'm sure you can find it here in the US, but it must not be very common. Hence, this recipe will tell how to make it, but if you can find it, simply skip those steps and jump ahead in the recipe. Lucky you! Also, the original recipe calls for vanilla sugar, which I saw lots in English and French kitchens, but not so much here in the States. It's wonderful, I very much recommend you make some! Just add a split vanilla bean to an airtight jar of sugar. It will be fragrant and still subtle enough to be used in anything that requires sugar. Finally, the original recipe asks for 150 grams (over two sticks!) of margarine. I used butter instead, because I think margarine is disgusting, and I also recommend you reduce the amount by a little; during the "failure" stage of cooking this, it separated and I drained off heaps of butter. Two stick should be plenty.

Ingredients

1 heaped cup of dark chocolate

1 cup powdered hazenuts, or 1 scant cup whole hazelnuts

1 can sweetened condensed milk 

2 sticks butter 

1 tablespoon vanilla sugar

2 teaspoons hazelnut oil 

Preparation

First, make the hazelnut powder. Preheat your oven to 350 and toast the hazelnuts for about 10 minutes. Slide them into a clean dishtowel and vigorously rub them so their skins slip off. Some stubborn skins will remain on; ignore them. The idea is to get most of them off. 

 Put the skinned hazelnuts in a coffee-grinder or a food processor. I was worried it would turn into a paste, so maybe I didn't grind them as finely as I could have. But let it become a powder.

Put the oven at 410. Take hazelnut powder, and then tip it all onto a small baking sheet or a ovenproof dish. Spread evenly and pop into the oven. Let it toast for about 8 minutes. (By the way, this smelled incredible)

Make a double boiler: heat a medium pot with about 2 cups of water and when it's come to a boil, put a heat proof mixing bowl on top of it. It should be big enough that it sits on the pot without you needing to hold it. Throw the chocolate and half of the butter into the bowl and stir with a wooden spoon until melted and smooth.

 Add the rest of the butter, the almond powder, the vanilla sugar (or just plain sugar, and a splash of vanilla extract), the condensed milk, and the hazelnut oil. 

Stir constantly until it is smooth and thickened, but not for too long. The recipe says 10 minutes- that proved to be way too long for me. 

(Here comes the part where I thought it was all over...)

So, I took it off the stove and it was all separated, curdley looking,really dark and gloppy, sticky and was one unappetizing mass. I was really bummed, because it was going to be for the blog and I really didn't want my third blog entry to be something that got ruined, especially since I paid 12 dollars for a stupid bottle of hazelnut oil, etc. etc. (Yeah...expect to see a lot of hazelnut oil in the next few weeks)

So I made myself a cup of tea and was feeling sorry for myself, and suddenly it hit me: water! I poured some of the hot water from the kettle into the mess of chocolate and stirred with all my might. It was like magic. It suddenly looked like Nutella, smooth and brown and creamy. I was exhilarated. I threw it back over the heat for a minute or so just so it wasn't super watery and then poured it into glass jars, let them cool for a bit, and sealed it. 

Chocolate hazelnut spread! Hurray! It doesn't taste like Nutella, but I mean, it isn't Nutella. And besides, Nutella isn't French, it's Italian. But it's lovely, chocolately and has a nice hint of hazelnut. Would be nice on some soft bread, crepes, iced cream, or, let's be honest, with a spoon. It also would make a nice gift.  So try it out, and remember: MISTAKES CAN USUALLY BE FIXED!! Such a good thing to remember.