chocolate chip banana bread and homemade Nutella

A few nights ago I dreamt that Mary Berry asked me to find a Scrabble board. I didn't question her, after all she is a baking legend and has as much authority as the Queen. I dutifully drove to my house, found the box and drove back to give it to her. She was delighted and gave me a massive hug.

I have no idea what any of that signifies, but I took it as a sign to bake something from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. Looking at the sad bananas on the kitchen counter I knew it had to be banana bread, which is basically a big, comforting hug for your tummy.

This is my favourite type of recipe: throw everything in a bowl, mix for 2 minutes, pour it into a tin, done. My only addition was a bag of milk chocolate chips as I'm a sucker for banana and chocolate combinations. There's no other flavourings in the batter to interfere, just banana and milk chocolate joy.

Ok, now I'm going to address what you actually came here for..... I made my own chocolate and hazelnut spread. From scratch! Boom. Like A Boss. Totes Amazeballs. *Insert other hip lingo I feel too uncool/ashamed to use*

Admittedly it's grittier than Nutella, probably because my tiny blender isn't good enough to blitz the hazelnuts any finer. I would say it's closer in texture to peanut butter spread.

This is when I have to admit that I actually hate peanut butter with a passion. Sorry. I think it's a combination of the gritty, stick-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth texture with the salty, oil-iness. Bleugh. However I like the flavour of this spread, it's hazelnut and chocolate after all, so I'm willing to overlook the peanut butter-type texture. The grittiness is less of an issue when the spread is warmed up (it sets once it's cool) which is how I enjoyed it with my banana bread.

If you love peanut butter I doubt any of this will be an issue though.

Other than the boring task of rubbing off the roasted hazelnut skins it's an easy spread to make so go ahead and make some for yourself! Slather it on some toast, warm banana bread or just shove it straight in your mouth. All good options.

Chocolate chip banana bread
Recipe (barely) adapted from Mary Berry's Baking Bible. Previously baked here.

100g (4oz) softened butter/margarine
175g (6oz) golden caster sugar
2 large eggs
3 small bananas, mashed
225g (8oz) self raising flour
1 level tsp baking powder
2 tbsp milk
100g milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan 160C/Gas 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin with baking parchment. Put all the ingredients except the chocolate chips in a large bowls and mix together for about 2 minutes until smooth and well combined. Stir in the chocolate chips before pouring the mixture into the prepared loaf tin. 

Bake in the middle of the oven for roughly 1 hour until well risen, firm to touch and skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to finish cooling.

For the homemade Nutella I followed this recipe from Not Quite Nigella using Green and Black's milk chocolate. I also halved the quantities to suit what I had. My only suggestion would be to take care when adding the salt. I didn't think I added much but I could definitely taste it, possibly too much! 

nutella chocolate chip cookie dough no churn ice-cream!

Well if I thought my last post had a long winded title this one is even more ridiculous. But yaaaay, ice-cream!

After seeing Kate's no churn ice-cream a couple of weeks ago I knew I had to make some too. The recipe suited me perfectly: satisfyingly simple and plain enough to pimp up with extra flavours.

Naturally Nutella had to be added to the ice-cream party. Nutella *and* chocolate chip cookie dough? Take that, Ben 'n' Jerry's!

Unlike Kate I used an eggless cookie dough recipe as I tend to feel wary about eating or serving a sizeable amount of raw egg mixture. Folk are probably going, "woah woah woah, don't you always scrape the baking bowl like every greedy baker?" Yup, I do. I'm aware I contradict myself as I could still get salmonella from a small amount of raw egg mixture, but in my head it seems more acceptable and less risky.

The cookie dough chunks actually taste similar to those found in Ben 'n' Jerry's ice-cream which is great and the ice-cream itself is super chocolatey, rich and almost mousse-like when it softens. My only complaint is that it tastes a little bit powdery so the amount of cocoa powder in the recipe could be reduced. Perhaps I would add more Nutella too. After all, when is adding more Nutella ever a bad thing? 

I don't think this beats proper ice-cream, but for something quick, chocolatey and cheat-y this is very satisfying. It doesn't crystalise either which is great, although it is a beast to get out of the freezer tub!

(Note to self: invest in a proper ice-cream scoop.)

Nutella chocolate chip cookie dough no churn ice-cream

Recipe is a combination of BBC Good Food (via What Kate Baked) and The Noshing Bride

cookie dough:

1/2 cup packed brown sugar (I used light muscovado)

2 tbsp softened (slightly salted) butter

few drops of vanilla extract

1 1/2tbsp milk

1/3 cup plain flour

1/4 cup milk chocolate chips

Combine the butter and sugar and mix for about a minute. Stir in the vanilla, milk and flour before adding the chocolate chips. (I actually wanted a slightly stiffer mixture so I added more flour.) Clingfilm and set in the fridge for half an hour to firm up.

ice-cream:

1/2 a 397g can of sweetened condensed milk

600ml double cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

3 tbsp cocoa powder

1/4 cup nutella spread

(any remaining chocolate chips!)

Whisk the cream until a thick consistency similar to clotted cream. In a separate bowl combine all the other ingredients (except the chocolate chips) before mixing into the cream. Stir in the chocolate chips and scrape the mixture into a freezer container/loaf tin and cover with a lid or clingfilm. Freeze until solid. I left mine in overnight.

Nutella cupcakes

I don't know why it has taken me so long to try this recipe but it was worth the wait. Words cannot describe how deliciously chocolatey and nutella-y these are. I can see myself baking these again this week because they are that good. If you love nutella, please refrain from eating it all (like I usually do) and use it in this recipe. You will love it!

I took these to work this week for my coworkers as I'm leaving my job on Thursday. They can't be too upset if I give them cake before I go. Some may say I am mad to leave even a poorly paid job in this rubbish economic climate to become a full time artist, but I feel ready for a change and it'll be exciting.

I can't decide what I like best about these cupcakes. The smooth icing, the fluffy sponge, or the thick dollop of nutella in the centre. I was so pleased that the sponge turned out so big and fluffy as the last couple of times I used Hummingbird cupcake recipes the sponges came out a bit stodgy.

If you fancy making these (which you should!) the recipe can be found in the first Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook or you can find it through Helen's blog. I can now see why this is one of her favourite recipes.

Do you like the new blog header? I fancied a change but unfortunately I am completely useless when it comes to photo editing. Does anyone know why the image is slightly blurry? I do very basic editing (colour balance/lighting/cropping) through Windows Photo Gallery and added my text this time through Picnik. I saved it at as high a quality as possible (least amount of compression) but I'm still not 100% happy. Then again I thought my last header was a bit blurry too! Any suggestions or tips will be greatly received!