Banana and Chocolate Chip Blondies (or not)

On surfing around the blogosphere last week I came across this recipe for banana chocolate chip blondies. The blondies I had made previously were awesome even if I do say so myself and I fancied another foray into blondie land. I was initially torn between the dermiepie recipe and this recipe for banana blondie cake. I ended up making the demie pie recipe but with the same kind of results as the evil shenanigans one, but not quite as good!

Ingredients:

95ml or 1/2 cup sunflower seed oil
63g or 1/3 cup raw sugar (After trying to research this I still have no real idea what it actually looks like. I used Billington's Molasses sugar)
125g or 2/3 cup (light) brown sugar
95ml or 1/4 + 2 tbs milk of your choice (I used oat)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract
175g or 1 1/4 cup plain flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 a banana cut up into the batter
about 70g 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped up chocolate

Method:

1. Mix the oil and two types of sugar together really well.

2. Add the milk, vanilla essence and almond essence to the sugar and oil mixture. 

3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, baking powder and chocolate chips. 

 4. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, add the oil mixture and stir.

5. Add the bananas to the mixture.

 6. Pour into a greased, lined brownie pan and bake at 175 Celsius for 25 minutes.

This is how mine turned out. Not chewy at all as the original recipe maker describes but more a dense cakey texture so not really a blondie in my book. The almond extract is quite strong and is the predominant flavour. The banana doesn't really come through. Worth a go though!

Brick Lane Weekend - Part 2

We wandered around picking up our treats and ended up in the food market at Spitalfields. There were so many delicious smells. We did two laps of the food stalls before deciding what to have. Mr VST went for some noodles with tofu and vegetables. It was really tasty. I tend to avoid tofu because it seems to only taste nice once it has been deep fried! I think the tofu in this meal had been fried and it was really good.

The one at the front, left hand side

I went for a Thai pumpkin curry. It was pretty hot but really tasty. I can't get enough pumpkin, butternut squash etc. The curry also had cauliflower in it and some other veg. There were some stalls selling vegan cup cakes, waffles and crepes which I was really tempted by but I was so full up I couldn't manage anything else. After lunch we decided to head home.  

We had already picked up a spinach and feta flatbread, some olives and a slice of banana cake for a picnic on the way home. The flatbread was really tasty, like a cross between bread and a thick pancake with a slight bit of spice and packed with spinach and feta. Lovely. We also had some very moreish feta stuffed, herby olives.

Feta and Spinach Flatbread

Feta stuffed olives

We also had a thick slice of banana cake but unfortunately we ate it before I could take a photograph. It was thick and sweet and packed full of bananas. 

What a lovely way to spend the weekend.