Thank Banana's its Friday xxx

Banana Chocolate Mini Tarts

Now my laptop has been repaired I can finally start blogging about my favourite fruit again. 

 So why Banana's?    

As I get older my IBS gets worse and I find more foods I can no longer eat.  Instead of giving up my favourite treats I decided to research dairy free baking recipes and discovered a wealth of vegan recipes.  I was surprised to learn that mashed banana can be used as an egg substitute.  

So I started to wonder, what other goodies can be made with the humble banana.  So started my year long quest.  

First Experiment:

Iv been looking for a chocolate banana ganache recipe for a while I could not find one.  So I finally decided to come up with my own one, by adapting my basic ganache recipe.

Basic Ganache Recipe

100g  - Dairy free Chocolate

100ml - Dairy free milk or cream

A knob of dairy free butter

Place all the ingredients in a glass bowl over a simmering bowl of water.  Make sure the base of the bowl does not touch the water.  Leave the ingredients to slowly melt together, stir occasionally. 

When most of the chocolate has melted remove the pan from the hob, the remaining heat in the pan will finish the rest off.  

Once melted stir to cool down.

Uses:  Use to fill or top cakes.  

Or once cool to room temperature place in the fridge to firm up.  Can be then used to make truffles or as a dairy free chocolate spread.  

Instead of using just dairy free milk I mashed 1/2 a banana into a jug and filled with soya milk till I had 100ml.  I then blitzed it with my hand blender to make it creamy smooth.

Then  just followed the recipe as above.  I poured 1/2 into an air tight container I placed it in the freezer, then used the rest to make mini chocolate tarts.

To make them extra decadent I used cookie dough to make the tarts instead of pastry.  I rolled them out and pressed them down into my bun tin, then pricked the base with a fork.  I then chilled them in the fridge before baking.  

Once cool I poured in my chocolate banana ganache and left them to set.  There so good I had to freeze them, to save me eating them all at once.  

The ganache froze well and was great because I could just take out a little at a time to defrost then drizzle over some of my Swedish glace ice cream.  

Second experiment:

Most people in the UK have some form of roast for their Sunday dinner, not me.  That's way to boring.... 

 I found a great recipe on the Chiquita Banana's Internet site  for Sweet and Spicy baked beans and couldn't wait to test it.

I cheated slightly and used a can of mixed beans instead of just pintos.  Swapped the Worcestershire  for soya sauce, since I had some in my store cupboard.  Instead of liquid smoke I used smoked paprika, to add the barbecue taste to the beans.  

This had got to be one of my new favourite recipes.  I've had them on their own with homemade tortilla chips, which were great for scooping them up.  I also served them over cooked pasta for a hearty meal. 

It's hard to find vegan recipes that can still give you that sweet and spicy barbecue taste.  The banana's add just a touch of natural fruity sweetness mmmm.  

Next time:   I haven't made pancakes for a while, so I'm going to see if it's possible to make pancakes without using egg xxxx