The ultimate bacon sandwich and Toffee and Banana Muffins

Hey there blogosphere!! Me again!!

I'm currently outside in my glorious garden looking at a perfectly blue sky and enjoying a burning sensation on my shoulders.

I've been doing some experimental baking and I've also got a little tutorial for you.

It's come to my attention that the bacon sandwich is being massacred around the country and I feel it's now my job to rectify the situation. Now, I'm pretty sure you guys don’t need a recipe for a bacon sarnie but what I do feel you need is the proper instruction in building your creations. Nobody wants soggy bread now, do they?

Now, for my ultimate bacon sandwich there needs to be 5 things: 4 rashers of bacon,  3 closed cup chestnut mushrooms, ketchup, brown sauce and bread.

Now here is the first issue - the bread. Yes, sliced is easier and takes no slicing but for the ultimate sandwich I feel a roll/cob/bap (delete as applicable)is required.  And for extra indulgence, a cheesy topped roll/cob/bap.

So, cut your chosen vessel open and on one side squirt a spiral of ketchup, and the brown sauce on the other.

 Now fry your bacon (I prefer un-smoked but that's just personal preference) to crispy perfection. Set on a warmed plate in the oven to keep it hot. Next, thinly slice your mushrooms and fry them in the bacony juices. Once they're crisp it's time to assemble.

Mushrooms contain a lot of water and so putting them directly onto your bread is sandwich suicide. So, start with a piece of bacon, then half the mushrooms and then the other piece of bacon. Squish the brown sauced lid on top and voila!! Repeat with a second roll/cob/bap and BAM - breakfast is served.

So now, to baking. I had a bit on an epiphany when I was in bed last night that what I really wanted to eat was banoffee pie but without all the whipped cream (it feels less fattening without all that on it) and so I did a bit of poking around till I came up with this gem of a recipe for banana toffee muffins.

You'll need:

3 very ripe bananas

1 tin of carnation caramel

Pinch of sea salt

125ml sunflower/vegetable oil

2 large eggs

250g plain flour

100g caster sugar

1/2 tsb bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp baking powder

100g chopped pecan nuts (optional but they add a nice crunch. you could use chocolate chips if you want)

Pre-heat the oven to 180oC (160oC fan assisted) and line your muffin tins with paper cases.

Mash the bananas and add half the tin of caramel and the sea salt. Mix well and set aside.

Beat the eggs into the vegetable oil until frothy.

Sift the flour, baking powder and bicarb of soda into a bowl, add in the oil and egg mix with another table spoon of the caramel and the mashed banana mixture. Fold in the pecans. Ensure all the flour is incorporated into the mixture.

Spoon desert spoons if the mixture into the paper cases. Top each cake with half a teaspoon of caramel and using the end of a teaspoon, swirl the caramel into the top of the batter. Bake for 15-20 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

As soon as they're out the oven, coat the back of a teaspoon with caramel and spread lightly over the tops of each muffin. This will melt and sink in leaving the cakes sticky and moist.

Pretty gorgeous right? I'm planning on giving these cakes to my mum to take to work with her for her colleagues ( and my old primary school teachers) to taste and hopefully they'll come and leave some comments on this post so you can all see how delicious they are!

I'll be back soon with more recipes!!

Much love, Bloggers!! xx