Banana bread with chocolate & hazelnut paste

I've been very busy the last two weeks, I haven't really had time for blogging. Today is the second day of my holiday. It's snowing very hard and I'm really thinking that if it doesn't stop soon we'll be drowning in the snow. And last two days the temperature has been minus 20 °C degrees - being outside is like wandering on the northern pole! The only reasonable thing to do is to stay inside and to bake this lovely, warming and melting in the mouth banana bread. It's a very healthy and good for you recipe (if you don't count the chocolate, but actually dark chocolate is healthy!), it includes a lot of healthy vegetable fats, and no sugar used, only natural sweeteners. I used various flours to make this bread packed with important vitamins and minerals and of course fiber.

So when the weather gets cold and frigid, I advise you to bake this banana bread, enjoy it with a cup of hot tea and sit by the fireplace under a warm blanket - soon you'll forget all about the winter and it's wretchedness. And if you don't have a fireplace, you can always imagine.

Ingredients:

For the banana bread:

3 ripe bananas

125 g seedless dates

2 eggs

0,5 dl rape oil

0,5 dl soymilk

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp himalaya rose salt

1/2 dl minced hazelnuts

1 dl quinoa flakes

1 dl soyflour

1 dl wholewheat flour

1 dl buckwheat flour

2 tbsp honey

For the chocolate & hazelnut paste:

3 dl minced hazelnuts

1 dl melted dark chocolate

dollop of rape oil, to make this paste fluid

1. Heat oven into 200°C degrees. Boil some water, soak the dates for 5 mins to soften them a bit. Chop the softened dates into tiny bits.

2. Beat the eggs into a foam. Add the dates, add oil. Mash two of the bananas.

3. Mix together all the dry ingredients. Combine the dry ingredients with the egg-mixture and the mashed bananas, add soymilk.

4. Fold a long shaped bread mould with parchment paper, pour the batter on it. Cut the third banana into slices, put into a line on top of the batter. Spread honey over.

5. Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, try with a stick if it's ready. Remove from the oven.

6. Mix together the minced hazelnuts and the melted chocolate, add oil to make a smooth paste.

7. Serve the banana bread with the chocolate & hazelnut paste.

Hazelnut toffees

These pretty little hazelnut toffees are one of the all time favourites, and perfect Christmas presents. They are very easy to make and I really enjoy pouring the toffee mixture into those small coloured metal cups. These toffees remind me of my childhood, and how toffee was a special treat then. It's nice to make these at Christmas time and memorize the good old days. 

Ingredients:

makes about 40 toffees

2 1/2 dl white sugar

2 dl cream

1 1/2 dl milled hazelnuts (you could use almond too)

25g butter

1. Pour th sugar into a big kettle and let it get a nice light brown colour. Be careful not to fry it too long. Add the cream and let the caramel bubble up. Cook until the caramel thickens and it simmers with big bubbles. The caramel's temperature should be 120°C so that it will harden properly. 

2. Add the butter and the milled nuts, mix well. Pour into small aluminium cups, put in the fridge overnight. Store in the fridge.