I made scones a few nights ago for morning tea the next day, and oops, read 250 gr of butter instead of 175 gr, and also when measuring the sugar, I thought I was being clever measuring it by weight and just pouring from the large bag, and well, I put in more than I should have, and couldn't recover any as it was a bit blended with the flour!! But I ended up with pretty nice scones, a one-off never to be made again. I've since found a recipe calling for a lot less butter (even without my mistake), and after I tried it once I'll see if I can sub some of the butter with apple sauce.
So, the other week, browsing I found a recipe for Toblerone Cheesecake from the Philadephia Cream Cheese site. I didn't take a picture of my pie, but it was nice!!! Really nice. I made mine with half Light and half regular cream cheese, and used Xylitol instead of sugar. Minor changes, but unnoticeable and every little bit is better than nothing at all. If you don't have ground almonds, I suggest using more cookie crumbs, or coconut, or ground "other nuts" that you like.
Then I decided to finally try something I've been wanting to do for ages: boil a tin of Condensed Milk. It's easy. I've been warned it's dangerous and all but if you stay nearby and watch it, and make sure it doesn't boil dry and that the tin is always covered, it works. I'll do it again (but be warned, it can be dangerous!). I made a Banoffee pie with it... what is a Banoffee pie you ask, well it's a Banana-Toffee pie (also seen as Banoffi Pie, but I prefer the Portemanteau look of banoffee). Apparently made in Australia the first time.
I made up my own recipe as I didn't have everything every recipe needed...
Caramel:
The night before, while making dinner and up until finishing the dishes I boiled a tin of Sweetened Condensed Milk. I didn't use the "light" version because I thought for the first time better try with the real thing. So I used a deep enough pot, boiled water, put the can in (actually I put in the can while the water was still not too hot) on its side, and boiled, and then let boil for 2 hours adding water whenever the level was getting too low. You shouldn't really have any part of the can exposed. When that was done I put mine in the fridge after it had cooled down some, because I wasn't sure I could do the pie the next day, but I had to warm up the caramel. I really should have stuck the tin in warm water for a while, while I made the crust or something. But I'll know better next time!
I made a crust using:
1 pack of Chocolate Ripple cookies, crumbed (and since we ate a couple, I ended up with 225 gr of cookie crumbs to which I added 25 grams of coconut - I stick the cookies in the blender and pulverise them)
125 gr of butter, melted
Add melted butter to the cookie crumbs and press in the bottom of a spring form mould. I always line the bottom of mine with baking paper. I need a 20cm (8") mould but all I have is a bigger one, so your pie is thicker or not depending on your mould.
Stick that in the fridge for about an hour.
When that's cool enough, slice bananas (most recipes say 2, I used 3 as my pan is big, and I wanted the bottom to be covered). I just made sure there were bananas almost everywhere and that I didn't see too much of the crust. Then you pour your caramel over that, spread around a bit, and refrigerate again. Mine was still a bit stiff, so it didn't spread everywhere but frankly, it did not matter :)
Whip 300 ml of whipping cream when the caramel has cooled (I'd say half an hour ought to be enough, unless your caramel is still quite warm when you pour it on top of the bananas, then you should probably wait 1 hour)... and top that pie... I added a dusting of Cacao because I thought it would look nicer. I put it back in the fridge for a bit, while we ate dinner.
I find running a plastic knife, or a spatula, around the edge of the cake helps when removing the circular bit of the spring form mould. I don't like using a real knife because I don't want to scratch the mould!!
Anyway, a really fun dessert to make, and it was nicer than I'd imagined it would be, and quite simple when you think about it (time consuming, but only because of all the boiling and cooling). Don't know when I'll make it again but it would be a nice summer dessert (provided it doesn't sit in the sun for long!)
So, ingredient recap:
1 tin of sweetened condensed milk (our tins are 395 gr, they used to be 400 gr I think)
125 gr butter
250 gr cookie crumbs (use whatever you like, digestive, scotch fingers, etc) or 225 gr cookie crumbs and 25 gr dessicated coconut
2-3 bananas
300 ml whipping cream (if you like the whipped toppings, no reason you can't use that)
optional: Cacao or cocoa for dusting, or shaved chocolate, or whatever will make it look pretty to your eyes.
* * * * *
There's another way for making the caramel filling if the idea of boiling a tin scares you:
Source: http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/2350/banoffee+pies
Caramel filling
1 x 395g can sweetened condensed milk
70g (1/3 cup, firmly packed) brown sugar
50g butter
To make caramel filling, place condensed milk, sugar and butter in a medium saucepan over low heat. Cook, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon, for 10-12 minutes or until caramel thickens (do not boil).
