Banana Cake

Moist banana cake, easy to make and uses up overipe bananas.

Dough:
2 eggs
200 g brown sugar
300 g banana (about 1.5 Banana)
2 teaspoons bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
130 ml vegetable oil
190g plain white flour
50g self rising flour

If you are a nut lover, once ingredients are blended add 60g chopped walnuts and blend in to the mixture.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 130 degrees. The form with a diameter of 20 cm smear butter.

Beat eggs with brown sugar until fluffy foam. Add crushed banana,  bicarbonate of soda, salt and oil and continue to mix on low speed mixer until the ingredients are combined. Sift the flour into a mass, increase speed mixer and mix briefly until the ingredients are combined.
Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes or even longer (need to check whether a stick is dry). As to cool for 10 minutes, then remove a wire rack and let cool completely.

The Cotswold Food Festival 2014

The Cotswold Show at Cirencester Park has announced a brand new attraction for 2014 - and it’s good news for hungry visitors. An entire new food festival will join the line-up on 5-6 July, allowing 100 stallholders the chance to showcase their locally produced fodder across three additional marquees at the summer event.

The festival is being supported by BITE Food Festival and a popular farmer’s market. Cotswold Table, and will bring together food and drink suppliers, as well as artisan potters and kitchen crafts. Taste of the West and its little black book of members is also joining in to help promote the West Country’s fabulous array of produce.

Crumbs No.14Aprill 2014

More info you can find on http://www.cotswoldshow.co.uk/whats-on/food-festival

Hot corss buns

Easter is the perfect time to enjoy special foods – following the traditional prayer, fasting and repentance of Lent, the Easter feast includes seasonal and symbolic Easter foods. One of the favourites in UK Easter baking is the tasty hot cross bun. Perhaps the most-loved of all Easter foods (aside from chocolate eggs of course!)

A hot cross bun is a spiced sweet bun made with currants or raisins and marked with a cross on the top, traditionally eaten on Good Friday in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, the Caribbean, South Africa, and Canada, but now available all year round.

The traditional method for making the cross on top of the bun is to use shortcrust pastry, however, more recently recipes have recommended a paste consisting of flour and water.

Ingredients 12-14 servings:

450g strong plain white flour
1teaspoon salt
1teaspoon ground cinnamon
1teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
55g butter
11/2 teaspoons easy-blend dried yeast
finely grated zest of 1 lemon
25g caster sugar
85g sultanas
25g chopped mixed peel
1 large egg
about 250ml warm milk
85g ready made shortcrust pastry




Preparation:

Grease baking sheet and set aside. Sift the flour, salt and spices into a large bowl, then rub in the butter. Stir the yeast, lemon zest, caster sugar, sultanas and mixed peel. Make a well in the centre, then add egg and enough milk, mixing to form a soft dough.

Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic. Shape the dough into a round, then place in a lightly oiled bowl, cover and leave to rise in a warm place until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough on a lightly floured surface, then divide in into 12-14 equal pieces. Knead each piece into a ball and place on the baking sheet. Flatten each ball slightly. Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface and cut into narrow strips. Brush the buns with a little water and top each one a pastry cross. Cover and leave to rise again for about 30 minutes, or until doubled in size.

Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Bake the buns for about 15-20 minutes, or until golden brown.

Belgian wafles

Brussels is located in the northern half of Belgium just above the main language border which separates the Flemish-speaking northern region and the French-speaking southern region of Belgium. The country is bordered by four countries: France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg and has a coast facing the North Sea across from the United Kingdom. Due to the country’s central location, Brussels’ transport infrastructure is highly developed and the city is easily reachable by air, train, bus, car and even ferry.

Eating out is one of the pleasures of visiting Brussels but you need to know where to eat otherwise you will fall into tourist traps. Just because a place is crowded doesn’t mean the food and beverages are good. Know where the locals go to be treated with first class service and some really enjoyable fare. Brussels people love good food, good beers and a relaxing atmosphere. If this sounds like you then you’ll fit right into the dining scene.

Waffles are a dough-based cake that is cooked on a waffle iron with different shapes to give them their distinctive shape, design and indentations. Different varieties of waffles are eaten around the world; in Belgium, the Netherlands, Scandinavia, the United States and Hong Kong.

Belgian waffles are made with thick wads of dough grilled on a heating iron to make deep, square-shaped indentations. The smell of freshly-made Belgian waffles is always wafting from the corner shops or snack food vans to attract anyone to sample some. Some home recipe variations will use baking powder instead of the yeast as a leavener, or both baking powder and yeast. Using baking powder is faster, though the tang from the yeast will be missing: some people say they prefer using baking powder because they don't like the tang.

There are two types of waffles which you will see being sold on the streets, in restaurants and casual snack shops of Brussels.

Brussels Waffles
One is Brussels Waffles (Gaufre de Bruxelles), made from batter leavened with beaten eggs. It is served with powdered sugar or chocolate.

Liège Waffles
The waffles from Liege are also widely sold in Brussels. They are popular on snack food vans and corner shops in metro stations. Liege waffles are slightly oval shaped with sugar baked into the waffle dough making them slightly chewy and very sweet.


Some history,

In 1958, at the World Fair in Belgium, a man named Walter Cleyman sold waffles within the World's Fair compound area. He served them topped with whipped cream and fresh fruit, and dusted with icing sugar. Previously, Americans had only experienced waffles with syrup on them. Cleyman sold around 400,000 waffles at the fair that year.

Cleyman won a place to sell his waffles again at the 1962 World's Fair in Seattle. To help him, he brought over from Belgium his wife, his two daughters, and his gas-powered waffle irons. He opened two waffle stands: one on Boulevards of the World, the other near the International Fountain. One was actually a large restaurant, on a corner, built in the style of a Belgian or Dutch building. 

http://www.cooksinfo.com

Pumpkin soup with apple

Ingredients 6 servings:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 onion
1 clove garlic
2 teaspoons grated ginger
1 small hot chili pepper
2 small or medium-size apples
500 g pumpkin (fresh)
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
Salt and pepper
about 1.25 liters vegetable stock
freshly ground pepper
gorgonzola or Roquefort or other blue cheese with a mold

Preparation:

Heat the oil in a larger pot with a thick bottom, add the onion and fry it. Then add the grated garlic, grated ginger and halved, pitted chili. Fry for a minute.

Add peeled, cored free and diced apples. Cook stirring occasionally for about 4 - 5 minutes.

Now add cut into pieces the baked pumpkin*. Season with salt, pepper, cinnamon and bring to a boil.

Pour the stock in such an amount that reached 2 cm above the level of the vegetables. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer for about 10 minutes on a smaller heat until the pumpkin is tender. Blend to a smooth puree, if necessary, by adding more of boiling stock.

Serve such a small amount of crumbled gorgonzola cheese with the bread.

* How to bake a pumpkin: about 2 kg pumpkin, washed and cut into about 6 parts, remove the seeds. Place on a baking tray skin-side down and place in oven preheated to 200C. Bake for about 1 hour, or until the pumpkin is tender (a fork can easily be embedded deep into the flesh). Bore the flesh with a spoon of roasted pumpkin and mix the blender to a smooth puree . Measure out the required amount.

Pumpkin time - Pumpkin Spice Latte

Goodbye flip-flops and lemonade… hello hoodies and pumpkin spice!

The sweet, creamy flavours of cinnamon and nutmeg make Pumpkin Spice just right for automn crisper days and cooler nights. Now we can have Pumpkin Spice Coffee at home, recipe below.

One of the ingridients is pumpkin.
Pumpkin Spice Latte
Ingredients 2 servings:

4 tablespoons Pumpkin-spiced syrup (recipe below)
2 double espresso
250 ml milk
whipped cream
blend of spices: grated nutmeg, ground ginger powder, cinnamon, vanilla sugar

Preparation:

Prepare Pumpkin-spicy syrup (recipe below). Brew a cup of coffee and ad froth milk. The cups of hot coffee poured syrup (after 2 tablespoons), stir and pour (from above) hot frothed milk. Garnish with whipped cream and sprinkle with spices.

Pumpkin-spicy syrup, about 180 ml:

1/2 cup water
1 tsp ginger powder
1 teaspoon of cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract or 1 tablespoon vanilla sugar
1/3 cup sweetened condensed milk (can be natural or caramel-flavored
1/4 cup roasted pumpkin puree


Preparation:

Heat the water in a pan, then add the spices: ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg and vanilla.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and cook for 5 minutes, set aside from the heat and leave for 15 minutes.

Add to the pan condensed milk and stir until dissolved (if necessary can be heated).

Add roasted pumpkin puree and mix or blend. The syrup is ready to use. Keep it in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

Cuppa with Her Majesty

During the summer, at the end of your visit to the State Rooms, you can enjoy a moment of relaxation and refreshment in the Garden Café on the Palace’s West Terrace. The café serves a selection of light refreshments, including tea, coffee, sandwiches and delicious pastries, specially created for Buckingham Palace.

After 173 years of receiving royal guests, Buckingham Palace opened its own café. From July 2010, in the café you can have tea, scones, sandwiches, cakes, meringues and even seafood salads to the 400,000 people who will come wandering through her home.

The Garden Café, to give it its proper name, will be operated by royal caterers Chester Boyd, who do all the Queen's garden parties. But those who would expect nothing less than bone china will be in for a disappointment. The special-issue blue plates and cups marked "Garden Café, Buckingham Palace" are cardboard.

Nuala McGourty, director of retail at Buckingham Palace, said* "the café expects less recycling than in other coffee shops, as customers are likely to smuggle out their cups, plates and even trays as souvenirs. "But if someone would like to take a cup home, then we're very happy to offer them an unused one,".

*Londyn Evening Standard / Tourists enjoy the ultimate British taste as Buckingham Palace opens new café