Banana cake with chocolate, almonds and spice.

Is banana cake the most tolerant cake in the world?

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This is my everyday cake. The cake I bake to have a sweet bite with my coffee. It has a lot of bold flavours without getting overtly sweet. There are many reasons to make banana cake. First of all it is extremely easy to make, even easier than brownie because it is almost impossible to bake too much in the oven. It is brilliant leftover food with the best result using overripe bananas. The sweetness of the bananas makes it possible to use less sugar. Finally, it is tolerant.

If you have food allergies, banana cake is a cake that is just as good without flour, dairy, nuts or eggs. Of all allergies egg allergy seems to me as one of the hardest to live with. What is breakfast without pancakes or eggs? What is a cake without the chemistry of the egg? By accident (I forgot eggs one time I was baking) I discovered that banana cake without egg works just fine. This is because the bananas do the same thing as the egg: They bind the cake.

My banana cake is not all about tolerance. It is also delicious with a rich flavour and delicate texture. Again, the bananas play a substantial role. The cake is moist while caramelized and crunchy on the outside. I have baked and baked to find the perfect taste, and to me it is the addition of coconut palm sugar, almond flour, chocolate chunks and a subtle hint of spices. I use coconut palm sugar instead of refined sugar to achieve a more caramelized taste and because it is has a low GI index. If you are allergic to chocolate and nuts, just omit them. The banana cake still retains a lot of flavour.

Looks may be deceiving. Banana cake with chocolate. Perfect with coffee or tea.

This makes one little loaf tin or a little bundt pan.

Banana cake

75 g / 2,6 oz butter
3 small or 2 big overripe bananas
1 egg (optional)
75 g / 2,6 oz coconut palm sugar
75 g / 2,6 oz almond flour (or wheat flour)
50 g / 1,8 oz flour (gluten-free or wheat flour)
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom
1/3 tsp ground cloves
a pinch of salt
40 g / 1,4 oz dark chocolate (70 %), chopped

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/320F. Place parchment paper in a loaf tin or a little bundt pan.

2. Melt the butter and allow to cool a bit.

3. Mash the bananas with a fork in a bowl. Add the melted butter and egg and combine until blended.

4. Add the sugar, flour and the rest of the dry ingredients and stir to combine. Pour in the tin and bake for about 30-45 minutes.

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Rice pudding, Scandinavia’s favorite Christmas dessert.

Sprinkle stardust on your rice pudding and serve Scandinavia’s favorite Christmas dessert.

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Rice pudding is an old Scandinavian dessert dating back to the latter part of the 19th century in Denmark. Scandinavia has always had a love affair with porridge, so the leap was not very big from porridge to dessert. Rice pudding is made in Norway, Sweden and Denmark for Christmas. The dessert consists of rice porridge mixed with vanilla and whipped cream and served with a red sauce. Adding whipped cream makes the rice pudding very creamy. All three countries put a whole almond in the rice pudding, and the one who finds it receives a gift, often a pig made of marzipan.

When it comes to the sauce, the three Nordic countries choose their separate roads. Norwegians are quite down to earth and serve a red sauce based on berry juice thickened with potato flour. Swedes often serve their pudding with oranges and candied peel. The Danes elevate the dessert to a meal to remember. They embrace a sauce made of cherries called kirsebærsovs.

The easiest way to make the cherry sauce is to use a glass of preserved cherries. I always preserve cherries in the autumn in a flavoured syrup made with cinnamon stick and lemon peel. On Christmas Eve the only thing I have to do is thicken it with maizenna and add lemon juice to balance the sweetness. This way you are making slow fast food that has had several months to develop its wonderful flavour. But if you have no preserved cherries in your pantry, you can always use frozen cherries (as I have done in the recipe below).

Rice pudding is leftover food. At our house we eat rice porridge on the day before Christmas Eve. The next day the porridge is transformed into the most delicious dessert. This desserts gets even better the next day, so go ahead and make porridge the day before.

Rice pudding is called ris a la mande in Denmark, ris a la Malta in Sweden and riskrem in Norway.

Rice pudding (makes 6–7)

1 portion of creamy rice porridge (you find the recipe here)
300 ml heavy cream
1 tbsp sugar

1. Make the rice porridge. Place in a bowl. Allow to cool rapidly in cold water.
2. Remove the vanilla pod. Whip the cream with the sugar and add the porridge. Mix well. Place in the refrigerator (for some hours or until the next day).

Red cherry sauce

300 g / 11 oz cherries (frozen is fine)
75 g / 3 oz sugar
250 ml water
1 stick cinnamon
1 star anise
a little squeeze of lemon or orange juice
1–2 tbsp corn starch (maizena)

1. Add cherries, sugar, water and the spices to a pan. Bring to boil for about 30 minutes on low heat. I like to keep the berries whole, hence I pick them out after 15 minutes.
2. Adjust the taste with some lemon- or orange juice. Thicken the sauce with maizena while the sauce is still boiling. Add the maizena (gradually to control the thickness) while you are stirring.
3. Add the cherries to the sauce and allow to cool. The sauce is even better the day after. Remove the star anise before you serve it.

Stardust (almond brittle/croquant)

75 g / 3 oz sugar
125 g / 4 oz chopped almonds

1. Put a piece of parchment paper on a big chopping board. Heat a frying pan on medium heat.
2. Place the sugar in the pan and shake the pan to distribute the sugar evenly. The sugar will after a while start to melt into caramel. Do not stir the sugar. Be patient. Watch out, as the caramel easily burns. You might experience that the sugar melts faster in some areas, if so, shake the pan to move the sugar about.
3. When the sugar has turned into mediumbrown caramel, add the chopped almonds. Remove the pan from the heat and place the brittle on the parchment paper.
4. Finely chop the brittle and keep in a jar. It can be stored for several months.

Serve the rice pudding with almond brittle on top and the cherry sauce on the side.

More dishes for Christmas?

Creamy rice porridge
Heavenly fruit salad with clementines
Nordic cinnamon cookies
Traditional Norwegian Christmas and gingerbread nuts
English fruitcake

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Roasted plums with cookie topping.

These roasted plums must be the easiest and best dessert I can think of. They combine wonderful Nordic plums with Italian flair for cooking.

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It has always puzzled me when people say they do not know how to make desserts. Or even worse, they do not like desserts. I cannot imagine life without desserts. I cannot imagine a good meal without a sweet ending. It does not have to be something advanced. I will be happy as a kid with a small cookie or some fruit and ice on my plate. Or even better, all of them.

Ingenious simplicity

Like I love dessert, I love Italian food. Though I love Italian food, for long their desserts disappointed me. I have always rated Italian desserts as quite poor compared to French or American desserts, but that has changed. Italian desserts may be easy, but it is the simplicity that makes them ingenious. The tiramisu with its coffee liquor, egg yolk-cream and lady fingers. The panna cotta with its cooked cream and vanilla. Or the magnificent semifreddo which is a whole lot easier to make than classic ice cream. Though easy to make they rival the best desserts in the kitchen.

Roasted plums with ice cream and plum juice from the oven tray.

Easy and versatile dessert

There is a dessert even easier which I discovered in an Italian cookbook, roasted figs with biscotti. Here the figs are roasted in the oven with a topping made of biscotti crumbs, cream, sugar and lemon peel. It is just as easy as it is adorable. 15 minutes to make. 15 minutes in the oven. It is a promise from me to you.

Roasted plums is also a versatile dessert. Use your best homegrown ingredients to make it. In August-September plums are abundant in Norway, so I substitute the Italian figs and biscotti with Norwegian plums and biscuits (havreflarn). You can also use peaches and oatmeal cookies.

Love your leftovers

I used to throw away lots of food or put it in the freezer. Sometimes my freezer was crowded with ten different cakes, most of them dying a slow and cold death, never to be eaten no more than once. Today I try to be more conscientious and utilise my leftovers. Leftovers are the hidden treasures in a chef’s pantry. I always keep leftover cookies in my pantry as a result of my penchant for venturing into new cooking projects. But instead of ending in the garbage, my old cookies come in handy in new desserts. For this recipe my old oatmeal biscuits are perfect with tender and juicy plums.

Roasted plums with cookie topping (makes 3-4):

7 small plums (the plums should be slightly firm and not overripe)
50 g / 1,8 oz cookies, preferably oatmeal cookies (or havreflarn)
1 tbsp palm sugar (or brown sugar)
1 tsp (white) sugar
25 ml / 0,8 oz heavy cream (light cream will also do)
1 organic lemon

I add palm sugar because it is healthier than white refined sugar and has a rich caramel flavour.

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4. Divide the plums into half and remove the stone carefully. Arrange them skin down in a baking tray.

2. For the topping: Put the oatmeal cookies in a plastic bag and crush them with a rolling-pin or your hands. Mix the crumbs together with the sugar, cream and zest of one lemon.

3. Squeeze some lemon juice on the plums and then, with a teaspoon, place the topping on each plum.

4. Bake for about 15 minutes in the middle of the oven. Use a spoon to check if the plums are finished. They should be soft but still hold their shape.

More Italian desserts?

Tiramisu (gluten-free)
Panna cotta with strawberries

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Eton mess with strawberries, cream and meringue.

I am sorry tiramisu and crème brûlée. I am messing with someone else. In the summer I long for strawberries and Eton mess.

How many English desserts have you heard of? Britain has many delicious desserts, yet I dare say few people outside Britain has ever heard of them. The British dessert is the shy guy in the corner never being asked to dance.

Typical British dessert

Eton mess is probably the most typical British dessert after strawberries and cream. It has traditionally been served at the annual cricket match between Eton and Harrow, two of Britain’s most prestigious boarding schools. There are only four boys-only boarding schools in Britain. Eton and Harrow both belong to this exclusive club. Eton College was founded in 1441 and is situated near Windsor which is home to Windsor Castle. At Eton boys from 13 to 18 years old attend before entering Oxford or Cambridge.

Eton’s arch-enemy is Harrow School from the town of Harrow in northwest London. While Eton has educated 19 prime ministers, authors like George Orwell and the poet Percy Shelley. Harrow may not equal Eton in the number of prime ministers, but Harrow has educated the greatest of them all, Winston Churchill. Eton and Harrow are called public schools – a confusing term that might make you believe these are ordinary schools when they indeed are private schools.

Fagging was a tradition at public schools until the 1980s

Fagging is a system where younger students (called fags) act as servant to older students. The author Roald Dahl who also attended public school recalls in his autobiography ”Boy” how he in the winter had to warm the toilet seat for older boys at Repton. Roald Dahl had to choose between two boarding schools, Repton and Marlborough, and in his familiar style he chose the former because it was easier to pronounce. Public schools also had a tradition with punishment, e.g. flogging day at Eton, a tradition that was not ended until 1984.

No wonder the boys needed respite!

A jolly good cricket game and a jolly good dessert. Eton mess consists of strawberries, cream and meringue mixed into a ”mess”. You can use many types of summer fruit but strawberries is the most traditional choice. Try it also with slightly poached rhubarb or crushed raspberries.

Eton mess is the perfect dessert: It is easy, delicious and clever. In many dishes like custard, ice cream, mayonnaise, béarnaise or spaghetti carbonara, you only use the egg yolks which means that you have to throw away half the egg. Instead of wasting food, whip the whites with sugar to make meringue. Eat immediately or store in a box for later and you will have a delicious dessert in no time. Once the meringue is done, Eton mess is as easy as whipping cream. In Norway meringue is known by the name ”a girl’s kiss” (pikekyss).

Eton Mess (makes 3)

3 big meringues or 6 small ones
1 punnet strawberries (500 g / 17 oz strawberries)
300 ml / 10 oz double or heavy cream (similar to Norwegian 38 % kremfløte)
1 + 1 tbsp sugar

Meringue (makes 6 big meringues):
2 egg whites
100 g / 3,5 oz sugar

1a. Start with the meringue. Preheat the oven to 130C/260F/Gas 1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Tip the egg whites in a clean bowl. Beat them on medium speed with an electric whisk for about a minute. Then continue whisking while you add the sugar, a spoon at a time, incorporating the sugar before you add the next spoon. Do not over-beat. When finished the mixture should be stiff enough to make “soft peaks”.

1b. Scoop of a heaped spoon and with another spoon place the meringue on the baking sheet. Bake for 1 hour and 30 minutes. The meringues should be chewy on the inside and crispy on the outside. They will keep in an airtight tin for several weeks.

2. Wash and hull the strawberries. Purée ¾ of the strawberries in a blender with one tablespoon sugar. The remaining strawberries should be used as garnish so cut them in half and mix with the rest of the sugar.

3. Break the meringue into large pieces. Whip the double cream and fold in the meringue. Finally, fold the strawberry purée into the meringue-cream to make a marbled effect. Spoon in individual serving bowls with the remaining strawberries on top.

More desserts?

Panna cotta with strawberries

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