Peach Cobbler or Peach upside down cake

You just got home from school and as you walk through the door you get hit by the sweet smell of your mom’s peach cobbler (or insert favourite sweet thing in there). School bag is thrown on the floor, a spoon is fetched and we are ready to go! We all have fond memories like that and mine certainly contains a peach cobbler and melting ice-cream. It is a great family dessert, it is extremely simple to make and it has very few ingredients. Because you turn it upside down once it is cool it can look very impressive if you have spared lots of time arranging the fruit in a pretty pattern so it is great for a dinner party too.  

Ingredients:

4 eggs

4 tbsp sugar

5 tbsp flour

50 grams butter

1 tsp good quality vanilla extract - It MUST be extract NOT essence!

2 cans of peaches

Method:

1. Melt the butter and put in baking tray - let it cool until it hardens. 

2. Drain the beaches and dry as best as you can, make sure any thick pieces are cut in half so they are all roughly the same thickness. Arrange the peach pieces on top of the hardened butter.

3. Separate the 4 egg yolks from the egg whites, carefully. There must be no yolk in the whites.

4. Beat the egg whites into stiff peaks adding 2 tablespoons sugar.

5. Beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until it turns a light colour and has gained some extra volume.

6. Carefully with a metal spoon fold the egg yolks into the egg whites, then add the vanilla.

7. Still using the metal spool sift the flour into the egg mixture. You need to try and keep as much air in the mixture as possible

8. Now gently pour the batter on top of the peaches covering it equally

9. Bake the mixture in a moderate oven (about 180C Fan - 200C' if no fan) for about 20 minutes - until the top is a golden colour and a toothpick comes out clean with no batter on it.   

Leave to cool completely before you turn it over, you can serve with ice cream, whipped cream or just on its own. You can also change the fruit to mangos pineapple, plums, or any other soft fruit. I would imagine halved cherries would be amazing but a little bit on the expensive side.   

I would also like to give a heads up on the cooking time. I find that 20 minutes works for me in most ovens I have however found that sometimes that has been not quite enough. so keep an eye on it while it cooks. Usually though the smell will let you know when it is ready and when it is starting to burn.

Bon Appetite!

The Humble Banana Bread

Here in the UK tea time is important, and tea time needs a good biscuit or a cake or maybe a sandwich to go with it. There are many different types of cake that you can have with your tea, from lemon drizzle, which is a big hitter for many, to marble cake, madeira cake or even the less popular but equally lovely fennel seed cake. There are flavour combinations to suit any and all. It is when you experience tea in the proper English way, that you understand why it is such a big deal. There is nothing better than a good brew and a good thick slice of cake.

For me Banana Bread is one of my most favourite of the tea time cakes. It is rich and full of flavour, tastes amazing with coffee, tea, warm milk or a hot chocolate. Thanks to the bananas it is moist and melts in the mouth. Plus my recipe has rum in it, and any cake with rum is good in my books, I love the boozy spicy flavour of dark rum, it just gives the banana bread an extra depth.

The recipe I use is from the BBC Food website and it is both simple, quick and guarantees a great result every time.

I will put the ingredients here for you but for the full recipe and method just go here.

Ingredients:

• 285g/10oz plain flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• ½ tsp salt
• 110g/4oz butter, plus extra for greasing
• 225g/8oz caster sugar*
• 2 free-range eggs
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 85ml/3fl oz buttermilk (or normal milk mixed with 1½ tsp lemon juice or vinegar)
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

The only thing I changed is the addition of 50ml of Dark Rum/Spiced Rum to it. I add it to the bananas as I mash them it. You can use rum essence if you want the flavour but not the alcohol, however that is very strong and you need to be very careful when you use it. Depending on the brand it can also leave a chemical aftertaste to your check, so use at your own peril. 

I like mine with a dollop of cool thick Greek Yogurt

Another tip that I have, which I again discovered due to poor maintenance of my baking supplies, is that if you can use *demerara sugar instead of caster sugar that will also give you an extra rich caramel flavour to your bread.

I wish there was a way for me to explain the amazing aromas currently wafting through my flat, or how hard it is for me to not start cutting into this while it’s still piping hot.

                Bon Appetit Everyone!