A few months ago, gripped by baking fever, I purchased Mary Berry's Baking Bible. I quickly decided to embark upon a mission to bake everything in the book, and turn myself from an occasional baker into a bit of an expert. My Grandad Ern was a Master Baker by trade; the man responsible for introducing Danish Pastries to England in fact, and I wish it had occurred to me to spend more time learning from him, rather than simply enjoying the fruits of his effortless labours. This project is almost a way of making amends for that; I'd like to follow in his footsteps (if not in my career, at least as a hobby) and continue the proud heritage of baking in my family.
I credit my friend Rachel with the idea to write a blog about my baking exploits, hoping that there will be more successes than failures as I attempt all 213 of the Queen of Baking's recipes.
So as not to bore the husband with a monotonous diet of sponges, followed by weeks of biscuits, I've decided to tackle the recipes by selecting the first bake from each chapter, followed by the second recipe and so on. I'm not going to pick and choose; I'm determined to face my baking demons and learn how to do everything baking-related, even if the consequences are disastrous!
Everything will be photographed, with comment about how I found baking it, and a husband rating (to be taken with a pinch of salt as he has a very selective cake-tooth).


Wednesday, 28 October 2015

79. Banana and Chocolate Chip Bars

Still on the lookout to bake things with the littl'un, and needing to use up some very ripe bananas, I came across this bake and thought it looked nice and simple and sounded yummy. It was made in much the same way as the apricot one I made recently: a kind of crumble mixture with sliced bananas between the layers and chocolate chips scattered on top. It was simpler because there was no cooking of fruit required as part of the process. I had the same issue with this bake as the apricot one: the mixture wasn't plentiful enough to cover the base of the tin (half is used for the base layer and the other half is pressed on top of the fruit.) Admittedly, I didn't measure the tin, but I know it's not much bigger than the 7" suggested, and I've noticed that the 'biscuit base' quantities have been sparse in other bakes. I actually discussed this with a friend (Cathy) who made Mary's Millionaires Shortbread recently and found the shortbread quantity insufficient. I've had to double up the quantities on the cheesecake recipes before. Still, these are things you find out, and I'm making notes in the book whenever I come across an issue (a bit like the Half Blood Prince, Severus Snape, in his potions book). This made the bake a bit frustrating, trying to eke out the mixture, and when it was baked, it was very thin and flimsy. It held together in squares for the first day, but collapsed on the remaining two days I had some left for. Smaller tin or more mixture next time. We also noticed that it was very sweet, so I might try omitting the sugar altogether next time to see if the banana provides enough sweetness on its own.
Baker's verdict: tasty and easy to make - I'd bake it again with some tinkerings.
Husband rating: 7/10 - lovely banana flavour but far too sweet.
Posted by at

1 comment:

  1. Linda28 March 2016 at 18:57

    They sound amazing! Thank you so much for sharing. :)

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)