Banoffee but not as you know it! Banana & Coffee Bundt Cake

Did you know that 15^th November is National Bundt Cake day? One of my fellow bloggers Mary of The Food Librarian is posting a different Bundt cake recipe every day in the run up to 15^th. It’s an amazing (not to mention delicious) feat to undertake and she has done similarevents in previous years. Seeing so many Bundt’s got me wanting to bake my own and join in the baking fun and so I give you my Banoffee Bundt Cake!

 

Banoffee is instantly associated with banana and toffee, but I have often wondered ‘why does it have to be toffee?’ Banana and coffee combined would also be Banoffee, although I admit slightly less conventional. Some people may not like the sound of banana and coffee together, but let me assure you it works. Bananas are naturally very sweet and although often associated with other sweet toffees and caramels, they go equally well with darker, more bitter flavours – who doesn’t love bananas and dark bitter chocolate together? Well coffee works just the same!

 

This recipe is jam-packed full of banana, 4 whole large bananas in fact. It also contains no butter but instead relies on a little oil and Greek yoghurt, not to mention all that banana, for moistness. This also means it would be very easy to make this cake dairy free if needed, by simply using a non dairy yoghurt (check your dark chocolate is dairy free too, most good ones are).

 

The cake has quite a close texture, dense but not stodgy or heavy, more like a pound cake. It’s moist and tender from all the banana and not overly sweet, as there is not too much added sugar, the main sweetness coming from the bananas themselves. I wanted the banana flavour to really shine and so resisted my urge to pile in the spices and instead used only a little vanilla and some dark chocolate chips, which I always adore in banana cake.

The coffee element is present as a coffee glaze, which adds both sweetness and then a slight smoky bitter coffee note which works surprisingly well with the sweet banana and gooey dark chocolate chips. It makes it just that little bit more sophisticated and adds a note of interest.

 

There is something homely and comforting about banana cake, I ate one slice and promptly went and cut myself another. As this recipe quite low in fat I didn’t feel too guilty. Feed it to your friends and see if they can work out what the Banoffee twist is! I plan to submit this post to Mary for her Bundt cake round-up. Will you be baking a Bundt cake for National Bundt Cake day? What would be your chosen flavour?

(Banoffee) Banana & Coffee Bundt Cake

Ingredients

400g (3-4 large) overripe bananas, peeled weight
2 eggs
70ml vegetable oil
125g soft brown sugar
80g dark chocolate chips
90g thick Greek yoghurt

1 tsp vanilla

240g white rice flour

40g potato starch

20g tapioca starch
1 tsp baking powder

½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Coffee Glaze

1 tsp instant coffee

1-2 tbsp water

150g icing sugar

Banana chips to decorate

Method
Preheat the oven to 180C. Oil a 9-10inch wide Bundt tin and set aside.

Mash the bananas with a fork until very soft and mushy.
In a clean bowl, whisk together the eggs, oil and sugar until combined and starting to go slightly paler and bubbly, about 1 minute.
Stir in the banana mush, yoghurt, vanilla and chocolate chips.

Sift the baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, rice, potato and tapioca flour over the batter and fold together using a spatula until a sloppy but thick cake mix is formed.

Pour the cake mixture into the tin and bake for 45-50 minutes until well-risen, golden brown and cracked along the top. Test the middle is cooked using a skewer, but be careful not to hit a chocolate chip.
Leave to cool in the tin for 20 minutes before turning out on to a wire rack to cool completely.

Coffee Glaze

Dissolve the instant coffee in 1 tbsp water. Add the icing sugar and mix together well until a thick, yet pourable icing is created. Add a few more drops of water if necessary to create the desired consistency. It should be spreadable without being runny.

Drizzle the icing over the top of the inverted, cooled cake, letting it slowly drizzle down the sides of the cake.

Decorate with a few crushed banana chips if desired.

Eat and enjoy.

The Cake Slice January 2013: Banana Cake with Coffee Walnut Buttercream

I was intrigued when this cake was voted as this months bake. Banana and walnut cake is a classic and so is coffee and walnut, but banana, coffee and walnut was not something I had come across before.

The cake was a plain banana cake, with the coffee and walnut coming in via a smooth meringue based frosting to which you add a nutty coffee spiked puree. I love meringue based buttercreams like this as they are silky smooth and creamy without the usual grittiness you can sometimes get from the more traditional butter and icing sugar buttercreams.

The recipe made a triple layer cake which was far too much for me, so I halved the recipe and baked them as cupcakes instead. You can see from the photos that the walnuts on top of my cupcakes look suspiciously like pecans, which is because they are! Having just bought a bag of pecans I decided to use those instead of walnuts in the buttercream, the flavour combinations still worked together well.

Things got off to a bad start when my digital scales ran out of batteries half way through weighing gout the cake ingredients. It needed a big rectangle battery which I didn’t have. I improvised with a coffee mug and tried to work out American measurements which seemed to work ok. I then didn’t have a sugar thermometer for measuring the temperature of the meringue for the buttercream, and to top it all when I added my nutty coffee concoction to the fluffy mounds of frosting the buttercream split and went very runny. Argh!

I put the buttercream in the fridge for several hours and thankfully it seemed to come together but not quite as light and fluffy as it should do. It tasted divine though, so silky, it just melted in the mouth. I really liked the boozy coffee nutty flavour too (yes there is booze in the buttercream too!)

The cake part however I found slightly disappointing. The cakes were quite dense and closely textured and only had the faintest flavour of banana. I made sure to use ripe bananas too. The super soft and creamy frosting made up for the slightly bland cake though. The cakes were quite moist, but by the following day I found them to be a little dry.

I’m pleased I tried the recipe but I wouldn’t make them again. I love the idea of the boozy nutty coffee cream though, so will try and use these flavours together another time. Click here to see the other Cake Slice Bakers banana cakes

Banana Cake with Coffee Walnut Buttercream

(Recipe from Vintage Cakes by Julie Richardson)

Banana Cake
375g gluten free plain flour

1½ tsp baking powder

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda

3 ripe mashed bananas (around 270g peeled weight)

170ml buttermilk

240g butter

420g caster sugar

1 tbsp vanilla extract

4 eggs

Coffee Walnut Buttercream
120g toasted walnuts (I used pecans)

50ml corn syrup (I used golden syrup)

50ml Bourbon (I used amaretto)

2 tbsp instant espresso powder

6 egg whites

260g caster sugar

¼ tsp cream of tartar

440g butter, cut into small cubes

2 tsp vanilla extract

Banana Cake
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and line 3 x 8inch round cake tins.

Mix together the flour, salt, baking powder and bicarbonate of soda and set on one side. In a small bowl mix together the mashed banana, vanilla and buttermilk and set to one side.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well between each addition.

Add the flour mixture in three batches, alternating with half the banana buttermilk mixture in-between each flour addition.

Divide the batter evenly between the three cake tin and smooth out the surface.

Bake for 28-30 minutes until the cakes spring back when lightly pressed. Allow the cakes to cool in their tins for 30 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Coffee Walnut Buttercream
Start by making a nut paste. Puree the toasted walnuts in a food processor until they begin to form a paste. Add the corn syrup, bourbon and espresso and puree until combined. Transfer to a small bowl and set aside.

Now make the buttercream. Lightly whisk the egg whites, sugar and cream of tartar together in a large heatproof bowl. Place the bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and continue to whisk until the mixture becomes white, thick and sticky. It should read 55C/130F on a sugar thermometer.

Remove the bowl from the heat and whisk using an electric mixer, until the mixture has tripled in volume, become glossy and holds a stiff peak. Reduce the whisking speed and continue to beat until the mixture is cool to the touch.

Once cool, keep whisking while slowly dropping in small cubes of the butter. Keep beating until it is all combined.

Add the vanilla and your pre-prepared nut espresso mixture and beat thoroughly to combine.

It can now be used to decorate your cake or covered with clingfilm and left in the fridge for up to two days. If refrigerated, bring the mixture back to room temperature before lightly whisking and using.

Assembly
To assemble the cake, lay one of the cakes, top side up on a serving plate. Spread over around one-fifth of your buttercream and top with another cake layer. Spread this with another fifth of your buttercream and top with the final cake layer.

Use the rest of the frosting to cover the top and sides of your cake.

For a neater finish, allow only a thin crumb coat of buttercream to the outside of the cake before placing in the fridge of firm up for 30 minutes. Then cover the cake with a thicker layer of buttercream.

Store in the fridge. Makes 1 x triple layer 8inch cake.

Notes:
I halved the cake recipe above and ended up with 10 cupcakes. The cake mix doesn’t rise much, so you can fill the paper cases almost to the rim.

I then used only a third of the buttercream recipe to decorate my cupcakes. I also substituted pecans in place of the walnuts.

My buttercream split when I added the nut espresso mixture, but I placed it in the fridge for two hours and then gave it a quick mix before using. It wasn’t perfect, but it did hold together

Coffee Swirl Cake with Choc Chips

I had three egg whites sitting in the fridge needed to find a purpose and hit that old problem – what can I make with them? The things that instantly spring to mind are pavlova and macarons, but not being a meringue fan these didn’t appeal. A quick sort through my recipe archives and I discovered the perfect recipe – a buttermilk loaf cake made using 3 egg whites – perfect!

Rather than stick with a vanilla cake, I decided to incorporate a little coffee and turn it into a vanilla coffee swirl cake. As I didn’t intend to frost the cake I also scattered in some dark chocolate chips and pecans, plus a little extra sprinkled on top. I love this combination in a cake, the chocolate turns all soft and melty and the nuts become nicely toasted.

During baking, the top of the cake forms a dark, slightly chewy crust, while the middle stays soft and tender. At first I was a little worried I had over baked it, but the cake inside was fine and I loved the contrast between the toasted chewy top and the moist crumb within. The crumb texture is quite close, probably due to the eggs whites and buttermilk, but the cake is not heavy or dense, and in fact it’s all too easy to eat.

I loved how each slice was slightly different, depending where in the vanilla-coffee swirl it was cut. The chocolate chips and pecans added little hits of texture and flavour when you happened to bite into one and worked well with the coffee. A great way to use up leftover egg whites!

This cake is also my entry to this months We Should Cocoa. A chocolate challenge event created by Choclette of Chocolate Log Blog and Chele of Chocolate Teapot. Each month they challenge bakers to get create with chocolate plus a mystery ingredient, which this month is…Coffee!  This month’s challenge is being hosted by Lucy of The Kitchen Maid. I’ve been meaning to participate in this event for months, so now I’ve finally done it! Click here for more info on how to take part.

Coffee Swirl Cake with Choc Chips

Cake
100g butter
200g caster sugar
3 egg whites
1 tsp vanilla extract
180g buckwheat flour*

60g brown rice flour*
1 tsp gluten free baking powder
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp xanthan gum
220ml buttermilk

2½ tsp instant coffee granules

4 tsp hot milk

Topping & Centre Sprinkles
50g chopped nuts – I used pecans

70g dark chocolate chips

Method
Preheat the oven to 170C. Grease and line the base and sides of a 9x5 inch loaf tin.
Mix all the sprinkle ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.

Dissolve the coffee in the hot milk and set aside.
Start by whisking the egg whites until they becoming opaque and fluffy, but don’t yet hold a peak.
In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the egg white and vanilla and mix gently.
Sift over half the flours and the xanthan gum and fold in gently, followed by buttermilk and then the remaining flour along with the bicarbonate of soda and baking powder.
Pour half of the batter into the loaf tin and scatter over half the sprinkle mix.
Add the coffee mixture to the remaining batter and mix briefly to combine. Spread the coffee batter into the tin and top with the rest of the sprinkle mix.

Use a tablespoon to delve down to the bottom of the tin and make one folding motion, so that some of the vanilla batter from the base of the tin comes to the surface and swirls with the coffee batter. Do this once more at the other end of the tin. Do not over mix.
Place the tin on a baking tray and bake for 50-55 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.
Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack and leaving to cool completely before slicing to reveal the swirls of vanilla and coffee cake.
Eat and enjoy.

Store in an airtight container or freeze in slices on day of baking

* Note: This cake also works with 240g of ‘normal’ wheat flour or a combination of your own GF flour mix without any problems

The Cake Slice January 2012: Tiramisu Cake

Tiramisu means ‘pick me up’ in Italian which is just what The Cake Slice Bakers and I needed after all the heavy food over the Christmas period. This cake looks creamy, and it is, but it’s also surprisingly light. A hit of strong espresso syrup and a dash of rum help give it a wake-up boost that’s very welcome during this cold and dreary January.

Tiramisu is usually served in a large serving dish with diners being given a scoop, but here it has been made just that little bit daintier by layering light and fluffy genoise sponge with coffee syrup and a velvety smooth mascarpone cream to create a sliceable cake.

It’s a little sweet, a little bitter and a little boozy, making for one satisfying dessert. There are quite a few steps involved but they are all relatively easy and once the components are made, it came be put together in a matter of moments. It also benefits from being made in advance which can be a bonus when you’re trying to organise a meal or get-together and don’t want too much to do last minute.

My only criticism is that I didn’t soak my top layer of sponge in enough espresso syrup, so it stayed pale rather than coffee brown. However, that’s my own fault and it did make the cake a little easier to slice as it wasn’t so soft. It still tasted delicious, so no harm done.

Click here to see The Cake Slice blogroll

Tiramisu Cake
(Recipe adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle)

Genoise Sponge
100g plain flour (I used Doves GF flour)
6 eggs
150g caster sugar
½ tsp grated lemon zest
1½ tsp vanilla extract
85g butter, melted and cooled

Espresso Syrup
240ml hot espresso or strong syrup
50g caster sugar
½ tsp vanilla extract
½ tbsp dark rum (my addition)

Mascarpone Cream
6 egg yolks
1 tbsp water
450g mascarpone cheese
3 tbsp dark rum (I only used 1½)
1½ tsp powdered gelatine (I didn’t use this)
180ml double cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Genoise Sponge
Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease the base and sides of two 9inch tins. (I used one tin and cut the cake in half after it was cooked)
In a glass bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar to combine, then set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water and whisk constantly until the eggs are warm. Remove from the heat and beat with an electric mixer until the eggs are thick, foaming and tripled in volume, about 8 minutes. Beat in the vanilla and lemon zest.
Sift a third of the flour over the eggs and fold in gently using a spatula or metal spoon. Sift in the remaining flour, in two batches, folding in gently between each addition.
Drizzle the melted butter around the edge of the bowl and fold in gently.
Divide the batter between the two tins and bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly golden and springy to the touch. (Bake for 25 minutes if using only 1 tin)
Allow to cool for 2-3 minutes before removing from the tins and leaving to cool completely.
While the cakes are baking, prepare the cream and syrup.

Espresso Syrup
In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients and stir together until the sugar has dissolved. Set aside to cool.

Mascarpone Cheese
In a glass bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and water. Place the bowl over a saucepan of gently simmering water and whisk constantly until the mixture thickens and becomes hot to the touch, around 5-7 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat, scrape into a small clean bowl and leave to cool.
Beat the mascarpone cheese until creamy and smooth, using an electric whisk. Gradually beat in the cooled egg yolk mixture, mixing until combined.
Place the rum in a small bowl, sprinkle over the gelatine and leave for 5 minutes. Place the bowl in hot water and stir constantly until the gelatine has dissolved. Whisk this mixture into the mascarpone. (I just added the rum without the gelatine and it worked fine).
In a separate bowl, whisk the cream and vanilla together until just starting to form soft peaks. Fold this through the mascarpone mixture and place in the fridge until required.

Assembly

Trim the cake layers until you have removed all the outer rim of the darker crust from the sides. Brush the top side well with the espresso syrup and place, top side down, inside a 9 inch cake ring that has been placed on a serving plate. Brush the other side with more espresso syrup.
Use half the cream to over the top of the soaked cake, allowing it to go down the sides too until completely coated.
Brush the second cake layer with more syrup, place in the ring mould and brush with any remaining syrup.
Cover the cake with the remainder of the cream. Place in the fridge to chill for 4 hours or overnight.

To Serve
Run a knife that has been dipped in hot water around the rim of the cake and carefully remove the ring mould.
Dust the top with cocoa powder and a little grated chocolate before serving.
Store any leftover cake in the fridge.

Espresso Ice Cream with Coffee Caramel Ripple

My mother is not a great ice cream lover, but one ice cream flavour she would never say no to is coffee. She likes her coffee dark and strong, with just the tip of a spoonful of sugar. I decided to make her her ideal coffee ice cream, an ultra strong coffee base with a ripple of coffee infused caramel streaked through the middle for that hint of sweetness.

When making the ice cream at the weekend, I didn’t have a lot of time to spare and so decided to do a slight cheat by using a tub of premade custard rather than making my own custard base. This way there was no extra custard chilling time required. Freezing foods can lessen their flavour, so I made sure to make the ice cream base extra strong to ensure the flavour shone through. It actually ended up being too strong for my liking, not to mention caffeine packed (one spoonful and I was buzzing for hours!) but my mum adored it and that’s what mattered.

To add a little sweet relief from the intense bitter coffee flavour, I concocted a coffee caramel which I drizzled in at the end to create a ripple effect. I wasn’t sure this would work but it tasted great, sweet and intense all at the same time. I bet it would be fantastic drizzled over a slice of cake. I added it right at the last moment during freezing, as I wanted the ripple effect to remain. Well that was the idea, but it didn’t really work that well.

My caramel was still a little warm when I added it, meaning the ice cream started to melt and ended up being softer than I would have liked (hence the rather melted appearance in the photos) but it still tasted gorgeous!

There was no mistaking the flavour of this ice cream. It was rich and intense. Quite bitter with the odd contrasting streak of sweet sticky caramel. The ice cream itself was wonderfully smooth and creamy.

Mere spoonfuls are all that’s required to achieve an instant caffeine buzz. On a hot day I think it would make a great end to a meal served in small espresso cups rather than cups of actual hot coffee. Just make sure it’s for adults only unless you want the children bouncing off the walls for three days straight! It really packs a coffee kick!

Espresso Ice Cream with Coffee Caramel Ripple

Espresso Ice Cream
400g bought fresh custard
300ml double cream
15g instant coffee or espresso powder
100g caster sugar

Coffee Caramel Ripple
70g caster sugar
10g instant coffee or espresso powder
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp milk

Method – Ice cream
Heat 100ml of the double cream in a small bowl in the microwave. Add the coffee and stir until dissolved, followed by the sugar.
Mix the custard, remaining cream and coffee mixture together and place in the fridge for 30 minutes while you prepare the caramel.

Coffee Caramel

To make the espresso caramel, warm the milk in the microwave and stir in the coffee. Leave to rent and dissolve completely.
Meanwhile, mix the sugar and water together in a small pan. Heat gently, until the sugar has dissolved into a clear liquid. Swirl the pan a couple of times if needed, but do not stir it.
Once you have a syrup, increase the heat slightly and allow the syrup to bubble slightly and turn golden brown in colour. When it has reached your desired colour, remove from the heat, add the milky coffee mixture. Be careful as it will spit and splutter slightly.
Stir together and leave to cool into a thick caramel while you churn the ice cream.

Churn the coffee ice cream until very thick, before drizzling in the caramel at the last moment in order to create a ripple effect (my caramel was still a little warm and melted the ice cream at bit).
Serve at once or transfer to a container and freeze until required.

An Evening of Coffee & Ice Cream

I have spoken recently of my longing for an automatic ice cream maker and it seems as though the ice cream gods have been listening as last week I was invited to attend an evening of coffee and ice cream run by Gaggia – an Italian company who make great coffee machines and also…a professional automatic ice cream maker!

Feeling very excited I turned up at a secret location in London (La Cucina Caldesi Cookery School) where I met up with two other bloggers – Dom from Chocoblog and Kevay from Kevay Eats, who I’ve had the pleasure of meeting before.

We were introduced to a top barrister, Paul, who took us through the finer points of coffee growing, the importance of grinding and how to make the perfect cup of coffee. This was really interesting and I picked up lots of hints and tips. What Paul doesn’t know about coffee isn’t worth knowing!

Did you know that despite popular belief that keeping coffee in the fridge will keep it better this is actually not true – not in terms of brewing the perfect coffee anyway. It’s the oils in the coffee that contain the flavour and so keeping them in a cold place will make them harden and not release their flavour so effectively when used – imagine what would happen if you tried to keep your olive oil in the fridge. Also, taking the coffee in and out of the fridge every time you use it will keep altering the humidity and temperature within the bag, creating moisture, which will probably actually speed up the rate of deterioration. It’s best to just squeeze the air out of your bag of coffee and keep it in a cool dark cupboard instead.

Paul also explained how when using freshly ground coffee its important to only use the first shot, around 30ml to get the best purest flavour. An espresso shot amount. If you want a larger or weaker cup of coffee than an espresso, don’t simply leave the water running through the machine for longer, as this draws the bitterness out of the coffee resulting in a poor tasting coffee. Instead, just dilute your espresso shot with clean hot water or milk. To prove this to us he made an espresso shot of coffee, which produced a rich darkly coloured liquid with a thick crème head that smelt rich, slightly sweet and smoky. He then took another shotfull, which turned out much weaker in colour, with no crème head and smelt strongly like stale ashtrays – not pleasant. If you had used a large cup and left the water running you would ruin your first run of fabulous coffee by adding the stale ashtray into it. Try making a cup yourself both ways and you’ll see what I mean (sorry the photos a bit blurry).

We then got to experiment with the machines ourselves making espresso’s and cappuccinos.

Buzzing with caffeine we then moved onto ice cream. This was run by Jo Pratt who is a food stylist, writer and presenter. She was lovely and very easy to talk to. She showed us how to make two different batches of ice cream using the new automatic Gaggia Gelateria which doesn’t need any pre-freezing. One was a divine salted caramel ice cream and the other a delicious fresh strawberry and marshmallow ice cream.

The salted caramel one was divine – unbelievably smooth and so creamy. Just like the gelato I remember eating in Italy a few years ago. I’m not normally a caramel fan, as it often tastes just of sugar, but this one had such a depth of caramel flavour, sweet yet with a salty note. Jo also showed us how to make some cinnamon roasted pecans to accompany the ice cream. These were divine and I couldn’t stop munching them, were fabulous with the ice cream.

The strawberry ice cream was made with fresh pureed strawberries. This resulted in a pale, yet naturally pink tinted ice cream and the flavour…WOW! It was so fresh and summery and obviously strawberry flavoured. Goodness knows what shops put into their strawberry ice cream, but they never taste like this.

Then oh joy of joys, we were presented with an ice cream machine and a table of ingredients from which to create our own ice cream flavour – eeeeeeee!

I created a cinnamon (obviously) ice cream with fresh blueberries and crumbled pecan nuts. It was so much fun watching it churn in the ice cream machine and as I hadn’t added any additional liquid ingredients to the ice cream base, my ice cream was ready in about 20 minutes! You can’t beat that for speed. It ended up wonderfully thick and creamy. The cinnamon flavour was really pronounced, but I think next time I would cook the blueberries a bit of sugar as they stayed restively whole and went a bit hard. My ice cream was also lacking a bit of sweetness, I’ve learnt you have to over sweetened the mix as the sweetness flavour lessens after it’s frozen. I’ll know for next time.

Kevay created a delicious, yet incredibly alcoholic ice cream using chocolate liqueur, kahula coffee liqueur, chocolate chunks & toasted pecans. Whoa! This tasted almost of pure alcohol, but would be fantastic served in shot glasses with a dessert at a dinner party. Not one for children or the afternoons though.

Dom made a caramel ice cream with chocolate chunks, pecans and Grand Marnier liqueur. I really liked the combination of the chocolate and orange liqueur.

Everyone gabbed spoons and went round tasting all the different ice creams. Ooff I ate so much! I couldn’t decide which was my favourite and kept having ‘just one more spoonful’ of each just to check. I think in the end Jo’s strawberry ice cream (minus the marshmallows) was my favourite. It was so fresh and fruity.

The evening ended with Paul making some coffee cocktails and some amazing coffee art on the tops of some frothy coffees. Much more impressive than the usual cocoa dusting.

It was a fabulous evening and I went home buzzing thanks to a concoction of coffee, alcohol and copious amounts of ice cream. I was so overly stimulated, and different ice cream flavours kept floating into my head, that I didn’t sleep a wink that night but it was so worth it! I am longing to have my own ice cream maker even more now. The extra exciting news, that had me jumping up and down in delight, is that Gaggia are going to loan me the Gelateria for a couple of weeks to see if I can create some new ice cream flavours!!! How cool is that?!

Below are the recipes for Jo’s caramel and strawberry ice creams, with (hopefully) some of my own to follow shortly.

Strawberry Mallow Ice Cream

150ml milk
2 large egg yolks
½ tsp vanilla extract
125g caster sugar
150ml double cream
250g fresh ripe strawberries
75g mini marshmallows, or larger ones, chopped

Pour the milk into a saucepan gently bring to the boil.
Beat together the egg yolks, vanilla extract and roughly half of the sugar until they are pale and creamy. Stir in the hot milk, return the liquid to the saucepan and stir continuously over a low heat until it thickens and just starts to coat the back of your spoon (it should be the consistency of double cream). Make sure you don’t boil the custard because it may separate and curdle. If you feel it is getting too hot, remove from the heat and just continue stirring until it thickens.
Remove the pan from the heat, stir in the cream and leave to cool slightly.
Meanwhile, place the strawberries and remaining half of caster sugar in a food processor or liquidiser and blend until smooth. Push through a sieve to remove any seeds. Stir into the cooled custard along with the marshmallows.
Place in the ice-cream machine and churn for 30 minutes, until thick and frozen.
Note: If you don’t have time to make your own custard, then simply use 250ml of bought ready-made custard and stir in 200ml double cream before adding the pureed strawberries and marshmallows.

Caramel Ice Cream with Cinnamon Pecans
The pecans are a delicious serving suggestion, but are equally good eaten on their own.

Caramel Ice Cream
150g caster sugar
200ml milk
4 large egg yolks
200ml double cream
large pinch of salt

Pecans
200g pecans
½ egg white
½ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch of salt
75g caster sugar

To make the ice-cream, place half of the sugar in a saucepan over a low heat, and gently heat until the sugar dissolves and turns to a deep golden colour. To ensure even colouring, swirl the pan a couple of times throughout. Once the sugar has caramelised, leave to cool for about 5 minutes before adding the milk. Return the pan to the heat and bring to the boil, stirring until the caramel dissolves into the milk.
Meanwhile, beat together the egg yolks, salt and remaining half of sugar until pale in colour. Stir in the caramel milk, then add the cream. Leave to cool completely before pouring into the ice-cream machine and churning for 30 minutes, until thick and frozen.

To make the pecans, pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan ovens/gas 6.
Lightly whisk the egg white until it is frothy. Add the pecans, cinnamon, salt and sugar. Mix until the nuts are evenly coated before transferring to a baking tray lined with baking paper. Spread into a single layer, and bake for 8-10 minutes until they are crunchy. Cool for a few minutes before breaking any that have stuck together.
The pecans are now ready to scatter over the top of the finished ice-cream.