Tag Archives: chocolate

Banana, Cherry and Dark Chocolate Spread

We found some wild cherries in the bushes near our estate, and thought we should try to use them for something other than just shoving in our faces. As it happened we had also purchased a large quantity of very ripe bananas, originally with the intent of freezing them.

First I spent some time removing the stones from the cherries. They might be small, but it’s actually not that difficult, and it’s a nice mindful process. While I was doing this the bananas (3.5 to be exact) were bubbling away in a pan with 150 g of sugar. Then I added in the cherries:

Cherries added to the banana

Cherries added to the banana

When it had simmered for quite a bit longer I took it off the heat and added about 200g of dark chocolate. Then I put it all in the blender:

Banana Chocolate Mix in the blender

Banana Chocolate Mix in the blender

Look at it go in the blender:

 

 

Finally I added 50 g. of butter and blended it again.

 

This made just a little more than we could fit in a large jar. After some time in the fridge it settled really well, and is now a firm creamy texture with lots of tasty banana and chocolate flavour. If I were to do it again, I’d probably use a bit more cherries, so their flavour would be more pronounced. But then again, we might experiment with a different fruit next time. Possibly blackberries, as it seems to be a good year for them. Here’s a picture of the full jar:

Bruges – the loot

A great weekend in Bruges came to an end yesterday. It was very hard to leave, but at least we didn’t leave empty handed. Below is a photo of the loot!

Loot from Bruges

I really recommend Bruge as a holiday destination to everyone. There’s lots to see and do, and definitely plenty to drink and eat, and not just chocolate! Saturday night we went to a very nice restaurant where we had moules frites. For starters we had some very tasty, juicy snails and a lovely creamy fish soup. Here’s a couple of photos just to show that it wasn’t all about the beer and chocolate (or food). Bruges is full of amazing historical buildings and the canals give it an extra cosy atmosphere.

A house at night by the canal

The bell tower

The bell tower - famous from the film "In Bruges" (and through hundreds of years of history)