Happy Stats

This week was another nice week, with lots of sunny weather. Time just flew again. Bought lots of nice things (or so I hope; they still have to arrive) on etsy and the internet, presents for friends and myself too :-)

But these things made me most happy this week:

• Seeing the kittens discover the world
• Firing a kiln and making more jewelry
• Went to a circus/dance act by Feria Musica with friends, which was nice and bit strange too
• The lost pigeon who landed in our garden was reunited with it's owner
• Making Banoffi Pie for the first time
• Trying out mattresses in the shops, was a weird sensation to lie on a slow foam mattress

Sweet Saturday - Banoffi Pie

Banoffi Pie


The first time I tasted this dessert was in Ireland. I lived there for 3 years and Banoffi Pie is one of the things I will always associate with my time there. Whenever I go back and I see Banoffi Pie on the menu I get one.


This is the first time I made it myself at home. I found the original recipe here: http://www.hungrymonk.co.uk/pages/banoffi.htm. Sometimes you find it spelled Banoffy or very often Banoffee (I guess the bananas and toffee (or coffee) in the recipe made people think it was spelled this way.


I have made my own variation, using other receipies I found as inspiration. Most of these other recipes have an easier base, using biscuits instead of a base you have to bake first. I decided to try 3 types of biscuits for the base. Shortbread, Digistives and very low countries, good old speculaas.


Ingredients

• 100 gr of melted butter
• 250 gr of crunched biscuits
• 1 can of condensed milk
• 2 table spoons of (brown) sugar
• 1 table spoon of butter
• pecan nuts
• 3 bananas
• 375ml cream
• sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon instant coffee (optional)
• chocolate to grate (optional)

In a lot of recipes you boil the can of condensed milk for at least 3 hours, keeping it submerged all the time. Once cooled you open the can and caramel comes out. Check the can every so often that it is still submerged!

While this boils you can crunch the 250 gr biscuits till the size of bead crumbs and mix with 100gr of melted butter. Put on a base, press it well and leave to cool in the fridge for 1 hour. I wrapped the base in cling-film first.  In this case I had the base divided in 3 one section for each type of biscuit I used.

The boiling of the can did not work for me, I probable have been to careful and let it simmer rather than boil. So instead I put the condensed milk than I  a pot adding 2 tablespoons of brown sugar and 1 tablespoon of butter. Bring to the boil and stir, stir, stir until it thickens and smells of caramel Leave to cool and keep stirring. Than spread the mixture over the biscuit base. I put of circle of pecan-nuts around the perimeter of the base. I let this cool more while I whipped the cream (with sugar to taste and the instant coffee). 

Slice the bananas and divide over the base, top with the cream (has a nice soft caramel color from the added instant coffee) and grate some dark chocolate on top of it.

Enjoy!

PS All bases are equally nice, the speculaas works well too :-)

Loves Lavender

We have lavender in our garden, it smells just great. It's a large variety which is very fragrant, I love to sit on the bench which is surrounded by the lavender and just take in the lovely scent and listen to the buzzzzzing of the bumble bees. The lavender attracts so many insect to our garden, the moths surprise me, since I always think of them as creatures of the night. And the bumble bees make me smile, they are so happy.

From left to right I present you:

• the Bombus terrestris or 'aardhommel' in Ducth
• the  Bombus hypnorum or 'boomhommel'
• the 2 above together
• a moth or 'motje'
• a cabbage white butterfly or 'koolwitje'

Happy Stats

My happy stats for this week:

• Plums are showing there first signs of color
• Lovely dinner with hubby for his birthday
• Munched raspberries, cherries and red currants fresh from the bush/tree
• Finally finished painting the bedroom, after a delay due to too hot to paint
• Finished putting the new floor in too :-)
• Enjoyed the cooler, nice warm weather
• Finally time to play a bit with clay too

Sweet Saturday

Today in Sweet Saturday:

Lemon and Almond Biscuits

• 155gr of melted butter
• 225 gr sugar 
• 1 egg
• zest of 1 lemon or 1/2 a teaspoon
• 6 teaspoons of ground almonds
• 170gr of self raising flour

Mix the butter and the sugar, add the egg, the zest of lemon and the ground almonds. Finally mix, in 3 steps, the flour in. Leave to cool for half an hour. Preheat the oven to 150-170°C.

Once cooled divide the dough in walnut size heaps on a buttered baking tray. Leave at least 5cm of space in between each heap, else you end up with one big biscuit ;-)
Place in the oven for 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Give away: rose ring

If you win you choose the color you like your ring to be.

How can you win? Once I've got 150 fans on my facebook page, 

I'll randomly pick a number between 1 and 150, whomever in that position on my fan list gets the ring.

So become a fan and spread the word :-)

Don't forget I still have 20% off in my etsy shop till the end of July. I'll refund you within 24h after purchasing one of my items and I always include a nice extra surprise too. 

Monday Mood

Still hot here, but with the prospect of some cool rain:

Serdomania

MGMart

Blota

Ottupura

Like moodboards, you'll find more of them at Fleurfatale's blog.