Danishes

I know I've been very quiet for a while, and I don't have time for a long story or full recipe today. But in a few days' time, I'll have the recipe for these danishes ready.

I hadn't made danishes for a very long time, so when I had to make some for an order, I thought it would be such a drama to make. It definitely is time-consuming, but in the end, no drama at all! So once I've taken some good pictures of the process, I'll post the recipe. In the meantime, here are some photos.

Oh, and here's what you can do with the leftover dough scraps:

To be continued soon!

Chocolate banana cupcakes with peanut butter frosting

Most of the things I’ve been cooking and baking lately haven’t been very photogenic. Like casseroles and soups and wraps. All tasty but not so good for pictures, so I haven’t posted about any of it. I do realize that doesn’t make much sense since my photos are all pretty awful regardless of how photogenic the food may or may not be. But the thing is, I do have photo standards, even if you can’t tell by looking at the photos on this blog.

Little cupcakes

Thankfully, though, the photos of these cupcakes turned out fine (by my standards, remember!). They are also so, so good, like a Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup in cupcake form. But with banana, so maybe not like a Reese’s. Either way, I highly recommend them.

Cupcake closeup

Chocolate banana cupcakes

If you replace the milk with coconut milk, the cupcakes are vegan, which is good to know if you ever need a vegan chocolate cupcake recipe.

Makes 12, although I used slightly smaller cupcake liners and made 20.

1/2 c milk 

1/2 c ripe banana (about 1 banana)
1/3 c canola oil
1 t vanilla
3/4 c sugar
1 c cakeflour
1/3 cup cocoa powder
3/4 t baking soda
1/2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat oven to 170 C. Line muffin pan with paper liners.

In a small bowl, mash the banana with a fork. Whisk in the milk, sugar, oil, and vanilla until incorporated. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of dry ingredients and pour in banana mixture. Stir until just smooth, being careful not to over-mix.


Pour into liner, filling each with 3 tablespoons of batter for normal-sized cupcakes. The liners should be no more than 2/3 full, so follow that guideline if you're using smaller liners like I did.

Bake 18-20 minutes for normal-sized cupcakes, or 15-18 minutes for smaller ones. Cool completely on a wire rack before topping with peanut butter frosting.

Peanut butter frosting

This frosting works very well on top of the chocolate banana cupcakes, but it’s even better eaten by the spoonful, straight out of the mixing bowl. The recipe makes a bit too much for the cupcakes but that’s so you have leftovers for eating straight.

3/4  c smooth peanut butter

1/4 c butter, softened

2 t vanilla

Pinch salt

2 c sifted icing sugar

Milk as needed

Place the peanut butter and butter in a mixing bowl or bowl of a stand mixer. Beat the two together for a minute or two until thoroughly combined and smooth. Add the vanilla and salt and beat again to combine.

Now add half of the sifted icing sugar and beat on high for two minutes, until mixture is completely smooth. Add the rest of the icing sugar and beat on high for a further 2 minutes until smooth. Add a tablespoon or more of milk and beat to thin out the consistency, if needed.

Crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies

Big chocolate chip cookies, crispy on the edges, chewy and dense inside, loaded with chocolate bits and full of a caramelly flavour, are an iconic treat in America. I grew up overseas, going to an American school, and so most of the parties of my childhood featured chocolate chip cookies alongside the crudités and ranch dip. Many a snowy weekend afternoon was spent making chocolate chip cookies with my sister, using the classic Nestle Tollhouse recipe. I would eat so many of the cookies still melty and gooey from the oven that I would inevitably feel ill. But of course I’d have more cookies after dinner.

So please imagine my horror, combined with terrible disappointment, the first time I was confronted with what passes as a chocolate chip cookie in South Africa. Tiny shortbready biscuits – not cookies, there is a world of difference – with little specks of chocolate. I know chocolate chip shortbread is good, but: 1) it’s not good when you expect a proper chocolate chip cookie, and 2) these alleged chocolate chip biscuits aren’t even real shortbread, they’re less buttery (and therefore less delicious, in my opinion).

Who's afraid of salmonella? Not me!

Since then, I’ve had to make my own chocolate chip cookies at all times, to prevent the shock of an impostor when I want the real thing. And because chocolate chip cookies seem to be necessary quite often, and I’ve lived in this country for more than eight years now (!), I’ve had to make a lot of batches, to the point where I became bored of using the same recipe every time. A few years ago I started to experiment with recipes, going so far as to try the infamous New York Times recipe developed by David Leite after months of research on what constitutes the ideal chocolate chip cookie. It was indeed a very good recipe, but not good if you need the cookies in approximately 37 minutes, which tends to be the case with me. So I kept searching and trying out recipes, until I became stuck on Smitten Kitchen recipe for crispy, chewy chocolate chip cookies. So, so good, and exactly as the recipe title describes them. No doubt I’ll eventually get bored again and move on, but for now, this is my go-to recipe when the need for proper chocolate chip cookies strikes.

Crispy chewy chocolate chip cookies

It’s difficult to know how many cookies this recipe makes, since I eat so much of the raw dough when I make them (salmonella be damned). And also so many of the warm cookies, before I even have time to count. More than 24, definitely. Probably closer to 36.

2 c cake flour

½ t baking soda

1 t salt

¾ c butter, melted

1 c packed treacle sugar

½ c white sugar

1 tb vanilla

1 egg

1 egg yolk

2 c dark chocolate chunks (I use chopped dark chocolate, usually Bourneville)

1 cup chopped nuts of your choice - optional

Sift together the flour, soda, and salt. In another bowl, whisk the melted butter and sugars. Add the egg, yolk, and vanilla and whisk until light. Add sifted ingredients and blend, then add chocolate chips, and nuts if using, and blend. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper and drop tablespoonfuls of dough 3 in apart. (At this point, I like to sprinkle each cookie with a generous pinch of Maldon salt. I like the salt with the sweet, but maybe I just need all the salt to offset – slightly – the massive amounts of sugar I consume when I bake these cookies)

Bake at 165 C for 10-12 minutes, and remove from the cookie sheet to a cooling rack.