Tag Archives: holiday

Banana Bread Lamingtons – Easy Holiday Dessert

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These banana bread lamingtons are a delicious spin-off of the traditional vanilla squares rolled in chocolate and coconut. Real lamingtons are delicious, but being a big fan of banana bread, I would say this banana/choco/coconut combo tastes even better!

For the banana bread recipe, I used the original Starbucks recipe they use to make their banana bread that retails for $5 a slice! I made a few slight alterations, baked it in a rectangular cake sheet, cut into squares, dipped in chocolate, and finally rolled the banana bread suqares in coconut. Voila! An easy dessert to make that looks impressive, and tastes absolutely delicious!

Lamingtons are a traditional Australian dessert named after Lord Lamington, who served as Governor of Queensland from 1896 to 1901. Historians say that Lord Lamington actually did not like lamingtons and reffered to them as “those bloody poofy wooly biscuits”. Maybe he would have liked our version better! 

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*If you would like to share my recipe and photos please provide proper credit and a link back to this original post. Thanks!   

Banana Bread Lamingtons – Easy Holiday Dessert

Banana bread lamingtons rolled in chocolate and coconut!

Ingredients:

For Banana Bread
 
  1. 2 cups white flour
  2. 1/2 cup of granulated sugar
  3. 1 tsp baking soda
  4. 1 pinch of salt
  5. ½ cup vegetable oil
  6. 2 tbsp buttermilk
  7. ½ tsp vanilla extract
  8. 1 egg
  9. 3 ripe medium sized bananas
For Chocolate Frosting
 
  1. 150 g dark chocolate
  2. 150 g unsalted butter
  3. 100 g sugar
  4. 2/3 cup milk
  5. 200 g shredded, unsweetened coconut
Directions:
 
To Make Banana Bread
 
  1. 1. Preheat oven to 325F. Grease a rectangular sheet cake pan and dust with flour.
  2. 2. Combine dry ingredients: flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt. In a separate bowl, combine vegetable oil, buttermilk, vanilla extract, 1 egg and bananas. Make sure to mash the bananas well and not leave any chunks.
  3. 3. Pour batter into cake pan and bake for about 45 minutes depending on the size of your pan and the thickness of the batter. Keep checking with a toothpick until it comes out clean.
  4. 4. Remove from oven and allow to cool in pan for 10 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack and cool for another 20 minutes. Again, transfer cake onto a cutting board and cut into approx. 2 inch x 2 inch sized squares. Place on a baking sheet and into the freezer overnight.
To Make Chocolate Frosting
 
  1. Using a double boiler, melt chocolate and butter. Add sugar, mix until smooth and then add milk, stirring constantly.
To Assemble
 
  1. Dip each banana bread cake square into chocolate; making sure each side is well coated. Then cover in coconut, allow to chill/rest in fridge for about an hour before serving.

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Easy Post Holiday Leftover Recipes for Hog Roast

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Put your holiday leftovers to good use with our deliciously easy ideas!

It’s no secret that a great party includes a delicious hog roast. This is the kind of food great for a party that smells great, tastes fantastic and of course, it looks spectacular when you are cooking it. Most people love a hog roast and it’s easy to see why!

You can make your own roast at home with modern spittingpig hogroast machines that can cook a whole hog or other roasted meats easily. Load up the meat onto the spit, turn it on and voila – it doesn’t get any easier! A roasted hog goes a long way, which means lots of meat left over. There is no need for any of it to go to waste with these easy solutions:

Let Your Guests Take Some Home

Slice the meat up, wrap it up in foil, and send your guests home with delicious leftovers for the next day. If you made stuffing, send them home with this too! From a food safety point of view, make sure they are keeping leftover pork in the fridge, to keep them safe during the holidays.

Cold Pork Salad and Sandwiches

Another great alternative is to slice up the leftover meat and serve it later as part of a salad. Alternatively, you can serve it sliced with a stack of bread, wraps or buns alongside some butter, a selection of sauces and maybe some stuffing. Your guests can make themselves a delicious sandwich if they get the nibbles later in the evening.

Pulled Pork Pizza

Pulled pork makes a wonderful pizza topping to replace pepperoni, bacon, or chicken. You can shred the pork and mix it with thyme, Taleggio, and lemon-dressed rocket pizza dressing. Fast and delicious!

Chinese Pork Wraps

My favourites are Chinese style wraps; just take a handful of pulled pork from the freezer let it defrost. Warm it through quickly in a frying pan with a little oil and a pinch of five spices them serve it with Hoi-sin sauce in wraps with sliced spring onions and cucumbers. If you want to save on calories, you can also make lettuce wraps which are DELICIOUS without the guilt!

Curries, Goulashes and other Beautiful Dishes

Pork in chunks is fantastic in curries, stews and goulashes. It makes wonderful pies and pasties. You just need to freeze it in a way that makes it easy for you to grab a portion and defrost only what you need.

The great thing about this style of party food is that you can dress it up or dress it down. Serve it simply with applesauce in a bun or serve it more formally as part of a roast dinner. Whatever is leftover, just make sure to use your imagination and combine it with your favourite foods. Pizza, wraps, salad, and goulash, taste a whole lot better with a dash of home roasted pork!