Chocolate Meringue Pie and Banana Pudding

Everyone is having babies!  And boy ones at that.  I've been wrapping gorgeous little knitted things and stuffed things all week.  I found some sheets of the most gorgeous 'little boy' wrapping paper - it is a warm ecru background, with a dark brown, 'pencil' type sketch of a little boy holding a ball.  I don't know why, but I fell in love with the design on the paper, and bought lots.  It looks pretty with chocolate and baby blue ribbon:

As the weather warms up, I sadly have to abandon a lot of my favourite cooking - thick stews, rich and creamy dishes and slow-roasted meats that heat the kitchen up too much.  Teriyaki salmon is always one of my favourite warm-weather meals.  You can make a large quantity of the teriyaki sauce, and keep it bottled in the fridge for a few weeks, easily.

To make the sauce, just combine 2 tablespoons sugar, 6 tablespoons mirin and 6 tablespoons of soy sauce in a saucepan.  Dissolve sugar, bring to boil, then add 1 teaspoon or so of cornflour (disolved to a paste with a smidge of the liquid), and boil, stirring, until thickened a little.  That's all.

Then you can pan-fry some pieces of chicken thigh or breast (1 inch pieces) and add the sauce, bubbling up around it for a minute, and serve with rice and greens.  Or, as I more often do, cook some lovely salmon fillets until barely cooked through, and serve them with rice, sauce and greens.  A sprinkle of toasted sesame seeds is always a good idea.  Teriyaki anything is always a winner with Tabitha, and most kids I know.

I baked a really rich chocolate meringue pie last week.  I can't tell you how good it was.  We had people over for dinner (paprika chicken with spaetzle - it was a chilly day), and between four of us, we mostly finished off the pie.  I had the rest on my own, in bed, the following evening!

To make this simple yet delicious chocolate pie, first blind-bake a shortcrust pastry shell:

By the way, if you normally throw out your shortcust pastry scraps, try making 'cinnamon scrap buddies' instead.  Roll out the scraps into a long rectangle, brush with a little melted butter, sprinkle over a nice layer of sugar and cinnamon, roll into a long sausage, chill in the freezer for a few minutes to harden up, then slice into 1cm 'snails'.  Bake at 180 degrees for around 10 minutes or so, or until lightly browned.

 

You then need to make a layer of chocolate pudding, and a topping of meringue.  Unfortunately, I didn't take any photos of the filling - I was cooking several things at once while I made it, and it disappeared very quickly once I served it - but here is how you make it:

In a medium-large saucepan, combine 1.5 cups sugar, 8 tablespoons excellent cocoa, 10 tablespoons cornflour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 3 cups whole milk and 4 egg yolks.  Whisk well to combine.  Over medium heat, whisking the whole time, slowly bring to a boil (around 7 minutes or so).  Once it's gently boiling, whisk quickly and boil steadily for about 1.5 - 2 minutes, until nicely thick.  Remove from heat, add 2 tablespoons butter and a tablespoon of vanilla.

If you think it's a little lumpy, press it through a mesh sieve.  Then, pour it into your pie shell and put in the fridge to set.

Once it's set (can leave it for several hours or overnight), take your 4 egg whites (bring to room temperature if you can) and beat them until soft peaks form.  Add 8 tablespoons of sugar (one at a time) and a good pinch of salt, and beat until stiff peaks form.  Spread over the chocolate pudding, being sure that the meringue touches the pastry at all edges to form a light seal.  Form peaks if you'd like.  Either blow-torch it a little, or set it a 180 degree oven for a few minutes until lightly browned.

Store in the fridge, and serve from the fridge - otherwise the chocolate pudding can get a bit melty in the hot weather!

Bananas are so cheap again!  $1.60 per kilo at the market yesterday, and they were beautiful ones too.  I've been buying kilos and kilos of bananas, and inevitably making lots of banana cake, banana yoghurt icy poles etc.

To make banana cake, I use the Stephanie Alexander recipe from her Cook's Companion book (if you don't have it, put it on your Christmas list).  Normally, I sprinkle a delicious nut-and-spice topping on the cake (also in the book) but on the weekend I added a good handful of chocolate chips instead.  Twas good.

While I had the oven on, I baked a dozen or so oversized date scones.  They freeze beautifully, and are a perfect snack for Tabitha, or morning tea for myself, heated in the oven and eaten with lots of butter and golden syrup.

Yesterday, banana pudding was on the menu.  It's in a pie dish, below, but it's not a pie, it's Southern-style banana pudding.  If you switch the elements around a little, you can make a banana cream pie, which is also excellent!  I'll tell you how to do both.  Next time I make it (in the next couple of weeks, I'm sure) I'll post step-by-step photos.

First, let me explain the difference between a classic banana pudding, my banana pudding, and a banana cream pie.

A very traditional banana pudding features homemade vanilla pudding (like a very thick custard or creme patisserie, a popular dessert in America), layered with slices of fresh banana and Nilla Wafers (a biscuit made by Nabisco, which are sadly not widely available in Australia, but which you can buy from USA foods HERE).

Basically this includes homemade vanilla pudding (a very thickened custard with egg yolks etc, see recipe below), whipped cream, sliced banana and Nilla Wafers (which are, sadly, not a biscuit we have here. Gotta pay $8 a box at USA Foods!  Or you can try using ladyfingers / Savoiardi).  A couple of layers of each (pudding, banana, wafers, pudding, banana, wafers, pudding, banana, wafers, pudding).  Then the whole lot is refrigerated for at least 12 hours (24-36 or so is better) and topped with whipped cream.

Now, that version is excellent.  It's the classic version that Elvis loved so dearly.  But when we were in New York, I tried the renowned Magnolia Bakery banana pudding.  It was incredibly light and ethereal and creamy, not at all stodgy.  I later learned this is because they fold whipped cream into the vanilla pudding!  

I didn't want to use the Magnolia recipe (they use instant pudding, and I prefer to make my own) so I tweaked a couple of recipes and came up with mine.  It's very simple and I really recommend making it - perfect over summer, a creamy, dreamy, banana custard type of dessert, perfect for BBQs.

My recipe is below...

Finally, I just wanted to add that, using the same elements as a banana pudding, you can very easily make a beautiful banana cream pie!  First, bake a shortcrust pastry shell (blind bake) or even use a crumb crust, e.g. crushed biscuits (Marie or Gingersnaps or even chocolate ripple would be divine) mixed with melted butter, pressed into the pie dish and baked until lightly browned.  Then, make your vanilla pudding (recipe below).  Layer sliced bananas into the pie shell, pour over half the pudding, layer more bananas, pour over the rest of the pudding, and leave to set in the fridge for several hours or overnight.  Before serving, top with a good amount of whipped cream OR meringue topping (using the egg whites left over from your pudding).  Serve chilled.  NOTE:  Folding the whipped cream through the pudding isn't a good idea for the pie, because you need the firm-set structure of the pudding for slicing).

Okay, so here is how you make the homemade vanilla pudding:

In a medium, heavy saucepan, combine 1 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cornflour and a large pinch of salt.  Whisk in 2 1/4 cups whole milk and 4 large egg yolks.  Over medium heat, cook, whisking non-stop, until the pudding starts to thicken and comes to a low boil, around 5-7 minutes.  Continue to whisk while it boils, until quite thick (around 90 seconds).  Remove from the heat and whisk in 1.5 teaspoons of vanilla extract, and 40g unsalted butter, a small piece at a time.  Pour into a jug or bowl and set in the fridge.  NOTE: if you are not making my version, but rather the very traditional one, you need to layer the pudding with the bananas and Nillas while it is still warm, before it has set.

If you are making my banana pudding, you will need 600ml of thickened cream, whipped with a few teaspoons of caster sugar.  Once the pudding is cold and set, add it to the whipped cream and whip them together (a minute or less in a standing mixer with the whisk). 

You can sprinkle crumbled Nilla wafers over the top of the pudding just before serving.  You will use nearly a whole box for the pudding, so save a few if you wish.  Actually, do you know what else would be awesome sprinkled on top of the pudding, instead?  Crumbled up meringues!  Either shop-bought or homemade.  Nice bit of crunch.

No pictures can convey how awesomely delicious this is.

Our lovely dinner guest last night got to take home a large serving:

Do you have any questions?  I'm sure I have made the pudding, classic pudding and pie sound more complicated than they are!  It's so easy, and any of the recipes would be perfect for casual summer entertaining.