Banana Icecream

Puree 300g banana’s in a blender or food processor with 1 eggyolk and 130g caster sugar. Stir the banana puree into 200ml milk and 200ml double cream. Chill the mixture in the fridge. Turn the Icecream maker on and fill it with the banana mixture. Follow the instructions of the ice cream maker and leave it on for about 30 minutes. If the mixture is still to soft put it in a well sealed plastic container and put it in the freezer for another 30 minutes. Than you can really enjoy your selfmade ice cream!

Banana Caramel Blondie

Ingredients: 100 grams butter, 250 grams golden caster sugar, 100 grams white chocolate, 100 grams caramel (Nestel), 2 eggs, 200 grams flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 2 bananas,

Preheat the oven at 170 degrees. Melt in a pan 100 grams butter, 250 grams golden caster sugar, 100 grams white chocolate and 100 grams caramel until you have a smooth mass. Let it cool down a bit. Meanwhile beat 2 eggs. Mix the eggs with the caramel mass. Add 200 grams flour, 1 teaspoon baking powder and 2 sliced bananas. Stir it well. Put the caramel mass in a brownie baking tin lined with baking paper. Place the brownie baking tin approximately 45 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow the blondies to cool and cut in pieces. Enjoy!

Peanut Butter Banana Cream Pie

This is my favorite pie of all time. No joke. It’s so quick and easy but tastes like it took 3 days to make. Easy to make it dairy free as well… just substitute tofutti cream cheese for regular cream cheese, you’ll never know the difference! (Who would’ve thought Cool Whip has no milk in it?)

Peanut Butter and Banana Cream Pie

Makes 8-10 servings (or less if you go back for 2nds or 3rds… hehe)

INGREDIENTS
1 cup vanilla wafer cookies
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons melted butter or margarine
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup (4 oz.) cream cheese
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 oz. frozen whipped topping
1 1/2 cups (2 whole) sliced bananas
1/4 cup chocolate sundae syrup

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350Ëš F. To prepare crust, place cookies in a food processor and process until finely ground. Add 1/3 cup brown sugar and melted butter; pulse 2 or 3 times or just until combined. Press into bottom and sides of a 9-inch pie plate coated with cooking spray. Bake for 10 minutes; cool completely on wire rack. (Or, do it the easy way and buy a pre-made Nilla wafer crust).

To prepare filling, place 3/4 cup brown sugar, cream cheese, peanut butter, and vanilla in a bowl; beat with a mixer at medium speed until smooth. Fold in whipped topping.

Arrange banana in bottom of prepared crust. Spread peanut butter mixture over banana; drizzle with syrup. Cover and freeze 8 hours; let stand at room temperature 15 minutes before serving.

Banana Split Cupcakes

You heard me right. Banana Split Cupcakes. These give the almond ones a good run for their money. There is just enough banana flavor in there to taste delicious, but not so much that you feel like you’re eating a banana whole. The frosting is fluffy and the chocolate drizzle is the ultimate finish.

And since they have banana in them, you can easily justify eating these for breakfast. I mean, they’re basically just banana bread, right? :)

Banana Split Cupcakes

Makes about 16 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 ½ cups plain soymilk
2 1/8 cups flour
2 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/8 cups sugar
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
½ cup canola oil
1 ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
½ cup shortening (crisco)
½ cup margarine
3 ½ cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
¼ cup soy milk
2 ounces semisweet chocolate, melted
1 teaspoon corn syrup
3 tablespoons soy milk

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350º. Line muffin cups with paper cupcake liners. Lightly spray liners and top of pan with cooking spray. This will prevent the tops of the cupcakes from sticking to the pan when they rise. Set aside.

Combined apple cider vinegar and soymilk in small bowl. Stir well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).
In a bowl, mash banana with canola oil until incorporated. Add extracts and mix well.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the curdled soymilk and banana mixtures to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth (try not to overmix it). Mix in chocolate chips.

Fill each muffin cup with ¼ cup of batter. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.
For frosting: With electric mixer, beat margarine and shortening until fluffy, 3-5 minutes. Add powdered sugar 1 cup at a time and continue to beat until all the sugar is incorporated. Add soymilk and vanilla and continue to beat for another 5 minutes. Spread generously on cupcakes.

Melt chocolate in the microwave by heating for 20 seconds, stirring, heating for another 20 seconds, until melted. Add soy milk and corn syrup and stir. Drizzle chocolate over frosted cupcakes, top with a cherry and/or chopped nuts and sprinkles, and enjoy.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Does anyone ever go through a whole bunch of bananas? I feel like whenever I do buy them (for smoothies or whatever), I can never finish them before they turn a lovely shade of speckled black. But ever since I can remember, I’ve never thrown these black bananas out. Instead, when they are just past the point where you’d want to eat them sliced over cereal, well, that’s when they are just starting to get good. Yup, whenever I see two lonely black bananas on the counter, I just know. It’s banana bread time.

But not just any banana bread. There will be no nuts contaminating this loaf of love. Nope, this banana bread is speckled with mini chocolate chips.

Yes, chocolate chips. Breakfast doesn’t get any better than that!

But be warned, after eating this, you’ll find yourself hoping your bananas turn black! You’ll find yourself scouring the banana display at the store for the yellowest bananas, in hopes that they will ripen the quickest. When speaking of this banana bread, black bananas are pure gold.

Chocolate Chip Banana Bread

Makes 1 loaf.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup butter or margarine, softened
2 eggs
2 tablespoons milk or soymilk
1/4 cup water
1 3/4 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 very ripe bananas
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350ËšF. Grease and flour 1 large loaf pan. In large bowl, beat together all ingredients. Bake for 55 to 65 minutes, or until top is dark brown and cracked, and a toothpick inserted into the bread comes out spotless (unless you hit a chocolate chip, of course).

Caramelized Banana Tart with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce

Valentine’s day is always a special time of year for us here at Love and Olive Oil. Not just because we love being in love, but also because February 16th is the anniversary of our very first post. Yes, two years ago to this day, we said “hello, world!” and let you all in to our daily deliciousness.

A lot of things have changed since then – we’ve cooked in three different kitchens in two different cities, given up dairy, learned a bit about photographing food, done battle with cooked sugar, puff pastry, and roasted chicken, eaten dozens of cupcakes, and oh, yeah, got engaged (can’t forget that)… a lot happens in two years.

Just recently this little blog of ours has seen some major increases in visitors. So welcome, to those of you just discovering us, and welcome back, to those who’ve been following us for years (Hi mom!). It’s all of you that keeps us going. You’d be surprised how much of what we make and how we make it is influenced by all of you (no, Taylor, we’ve already posted about that pasta, let’s find something new).

So, you see, we always have a lot more to celebrate on Valentine’s day than just our relationship. And what better way to celebrate a food blog’s birthday than with, well, food (duh?).

If it was up to Taylor, we’d eat nothing but chocolate cake. Very tall chocolate cake. Every day. For the rest. of. our. lives. But me, as good as that chocolate cake was, I need a bit more variety (not with regards to you, Taylor dear. Just the cake).

Which is why this dessert was so perfect. Different. Not too rich. Not too tedious. This dessert is just right.

I didn’t have tartlet pans, and didn’t really want to buy them. I did have an 11-inch tart pan, and it turns out this recipe translates perfectly into one large, perfectly crisp and caramel-y, fragrant and fruity tart.

Didn’t have Port wine either. And didn’t want to get it, because I knew Taylor (as I don’t really care for wine) would feel obligated to finish off the bottle before it went bad (minus the scant 2 tablespoons I needed for the recipe) all by his lonesome. Poor guy. ;) That, or we just didn’t want to brave the Pinot-crazed lovers at the liquor store. So we used brandy instead. Amaretto would be good too. Heck, use whatever booze you’ve got. It is Valentine’s day, after all.

Caramelized-Banana Tart with Bittersweet Chocolate Sauce

Makes six tartlets or one 11-inch tart. Recipe from Epicurious.

INGREDIENTS
Crust
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/2 cup hazelnuts, lightly toasted, ground
1 teaspoon finely grated orange peel
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup all purpose flour

Filling
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, divided
6 medium-size slightly under-ripe bananas, peeled, each cut on diagonal into 1/2-inch-thick slices, divided
1/2 cup sugar, divided
6 tablespoons warm water, divided

Sauce
2/3 cup whipping cream
1/3 cup whole milk
(or substitute 1 cup soy creamer for dairy free variation)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ounces bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
2 tablespoons tawny Port, Brandy, or other liquor

vanilla ice cream

DIRECTIONS
For crust:
Using electric mixer, beat first 6 ingredients in medium bowl to blend. Add flour; beat until moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap in plastic; chill 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Divide dough into 6 equal pieces. Press 1 piece evenly onto bottom and up sides of each of six 4 1/2-inch-diameter tartlet pans with removable bottoms. Bake crusts until deep golden brown and cooked through, about 25 minutes. Cool crusts completely in pans on rack. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and store at room temperature.)

For filling:
Melt 2 tablespoons butter in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat until beginning to brown. Add half of bananas to skillet in single layer; cook until bananas brown on bottom, about 45 seconds. Using thin spatula, turn slices over; sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over bananas. Cook until sugar dissolves and turns golden, occasionally swirling pan, about 3 minutes. Turn banana slices over; add 3 tablespoons warm water and continue cooking until caramel thickens slightly, swirling pan, about 2 minutes. Arrange banana slices in each of 3 tartlet crusts; spoon any caramel from skillet over. Clean skillet, then repeat procedure with remaining butter, bananas, sugar, and water. (Can be prepared 2 hours ahead. Let stand uncovered at room temperature. Warm in 350°F oven 10 minutes before continuing recipe.)

For sauce:
Bring whipping cream, whole milk, and unsalted butter to simmer in small heavy saucepan. Remove saucepan from heat and add chopped chocolate. Whisk mixture until smooth. Stir in tawny Port. (Sauce can be made 2 days ahead. Cover and chill. Warm over medium-low heat.)

Top each tartlet with scoop of vanilla ice cream. Drizzle each tartlet with Bittersweet Chocolate-Port Sauce and serve.

Turkis Caramel Banana Cupcakes

After our delicious Valentine’s day dessert of caramelized bananas, I’ve had caramel and banana on the brain. It’s such a rich and satisfying combination, one that I thought would translate perfectly into cupcakes.

However, I had a dilemma. A sugar dilemma. My fear of sugar may have delayed these delicious cupcakes longer than necessary. A few bad experiences with cooked sugar and I’m scarred for life. So no way was I going to attempt to make my own caramel for these cupcakes.

Eventually, though, I decided that there was no need to actually make caramel, when there are plenty of commercial ice cream sauces available. Simply open the jar, drizzle, and done. No cooked sugar needed. Perfect!

I also picked up a little bottle of caramel flavoring, again with the idea of avoiding cooking caramel myself. I added a few drops of the potent stuff to the batter. Nothing intense, but just enough to give the cake that much more depth of flavor.

My buttercream separated just a bit… I got overzealous with the softening of the butter, and once butter has been partially liquefied, well, you really can’t un-do it. I have realized, though, that I had been putting way too much sugar in my buttercream. Using a higher proportion of butter to sugar, adding more soymilk, and then whipping the heck out of it makes a much lighter, fluffier, and slightly less-sweet buttercream. I’m getting better at it, but I’ve still got a ways to go before I’ve mastered the ‘perfect’ frosting.

Caramel Banana Cupcakes with Easy Caramel Buttercream

Makes 20 cupcakes.

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 1/2 cups plain soymilk
2 1/8 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 1/8 cups sugar
1/2 cup mashed ripe banana
1/2 cup canola oil
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract

For Frosting:
1 cup butter or margarine, room temperature
2 1/2 cups confectioners’ sugar
2 tablespoons soymilk
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2-3 tablespoons caramel topping

DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350º. Line muffin tin with paper cupcake liners.

Combined apple cider vinegar and soymilk in small bowl. Stir well and set aside (the mixture will curdle).
In a bowl, mash banana with canola oil until incorporated. Add extracts and mix well.

In a large mixing bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Add the curdled soymilk and banana mixtures to the dry ingredients and stir until smooth.

Fill each muffin cup with 1/4 cup of batter. Bake for 20-22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.

Let cool in the pans for 5 minutes, then remove and place on a wire rack. Cool completely before frosting.

For frosting, whip butter with electric mixer until fluffy. Add sugar, 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well after each addition. Add milk, vanilla, and 2 tablespoons caramel, and beat 3-5 minutes until thick and fluffy. Add more sugar if needed to achieve proper consistency. Spread or pipe onto cooled cupcakes. Drizzle with remaining caramel and enjoy!