Friday, December 28, 2012

Butch’s Sweet 26th




I got 2 weeks vaca this Christmas! Woohoo. And I had this little surprise. We planned to go to Nanay Trining’s house for lunch. I’m not sure he knew that I have a plan.

I woke up super early to cook. Nicole helped me with the Pininyahang Chicken. I made some banoffee pie and peach float for dessert. Hello sweets again!

Then we prepared some balloons on a mug and designed it with a blue wrapper and ribbon. This is so girlie. haha!

Bannoffee Pie

It’s Butch’s  Birthday so I made this. :) Thanks to Tita Mita for teaching me how.

Ingredients:
200 grams unsalted butter
2 tablespoons golden syrup, or substitute Karo Dark syrup
250 grams (8oz.) Marie biscuits, crushed into fine crumbs
100 grams dark muscovado sugar
400g (13 oz.) can condensed milk 300 ml.
Nestlé cream, chilled in fridge overnight or more
3 bananas
Juice of 1lemon
Plain dark or milk chocolate, grated or shaved (using vegetable peeler), to decorate

How to:
Melt half the butter and golden syrup in a saucepan over very low heat, add the biscuit crumbs and mix well. The mixture will be moist. Place inside the lined spring form pan and press evenly over the base and up the sides almost to the top of pan. Make sure the thickness is even all over. If the crumbs won’t reach the top, don’t worry. I even out the crumbs with a spoon, to avoid bulges. Chill in the fridge while making the rest of the pie.

Heat the remaining butter and the muscovado sugar in a non stick frying pan over low heat, until butter has melted and sugar has completely dissolved. Add the condensed milk and cook, stirring continuously until mixture smells of caramel and becomes thick, around 4-5 minutes. Use wooden spoon for stirring if possible. Take the pan off the heat, leave to cool for 1-2 minutes, then pour into the chilled biscuit pan. Allow to cool completely, then chill for at least 1 hour.

Just before serving, open the Nestlé cream, pour into a mixing bowl, whip with either a wire whisk or an electric mixer until it forms soft peaks ( made when you raise your whisk or mixer, and peaks that curl downward are formed). Slice the bananas lengthwise, then into half circles. Mix 2/3 of this into the whipped cream, and top the caramel layer with this. Spread evenly; arrange remaining banana slices on top, then sprinkle shaved chocolate all over. Chill until needed. To remove from pan, loosen sides of pan by passing a plastic spatula carefully all around between the crumb and wall of pan, and slide off. Then, insert spatula ( to avoid scratching the teflon coating of the pan) between the paper lining and the pan base. Loosen all around, then slide a wide platter under, and move the pie onto the platter. You will need an assistant to do this.
You can make this in a regular Pyrex square dish, but cannot lift the pie to a platter, and have guests scoop out the amount they want onto their plates, which is just fine.

For Banoffee ice cream sundae, make the toffee sauce but cook just 2 minutes so that it is runnier, then leave to cool. Layer the sliced bananas in 6 glasses with 2 scoops vanilla ice cream on each, 6 pcs. crumbled brandy snap biscuits (or any crunchy biscuit like hojaldres) and a drizzle of the sauce, reheated if very thick. Sprinkle the top with chocolate curls. You can be creative with the layering.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Holidays 2012

We spent our Christmas together and New Year too! He gave me this watch this Christmas. woohoo! LOVE is spelled TIME.