Recipes

Chocolate, banana and hazelnut galette
If you're a chocolate-lover - or buying a present for one - you're going to want to get your hands on a copy of Sue Quinn's The Little Chocolate Cookbook which is full of really original and delicious recipes including this chocolate, banana and hazelnut galette.
As Sue says "Antony and Cleopatra. Meghan and Harry. Gin and tonic. Chocolate and banana. Some couplings are just meant to be. This is a quick and delicious dessert you can make from pantry ingredients. Perfect with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a cloud of whipped cream on top."
Serves 6
200g/7oz plain [all-purpose] flour
60g/2¼oz caster [superfine] sugar
50g/1¾oz ground hazelnuts
pinch of salt
125g/4½oz cold unsalted butter, chopped
2 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 Tbsp runny honey
100g/3½oz dark chocolate (60–70% cocoa solids), roughly chopped
3 medium ripe bananas
1–2 tbsp demerara [light brown] sugar, for sprinkling
1 egg lightly beaten with a splash of milk, for egg wash
First, make your dough. Using a fork or balloon whisk, whisk the flour, caster sugar, ground hazelnuts and salt together in a bowl to combine. Transfer to a food processor, add the butter and pulse to a breadcrumb consistency. Add the egg yolks, a little at a time, pulsing between additions, to make a shaggy dough. Tip out onto a work surface, knead briefly and shape into a disc. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F/Gas mark 4 and place a baking sheet inside to heat. Warm the honey in a small pan and set aside.
Roll out the dough between 2 pieces of baking paper into a circle roughly 35cm/14in in diameter. Carefully peel off the top layer of paper. Using a bowl, plate or pan lid as a guide, mark out (but don’t cut!) a circle roughly 22cm/8½in in diameter in the centre of the dough. Using a sharp knife, cut out a circle 32cm/12½in in diameter around the marked-out circle; there should be a 5-cm/2-in border between the marked-out circle and the edge of the pastry.
Scatter the chopped chocolate within the border of the marked-out circle. Thinly slice the bananas and arrange neatly on top of the chocolate. Brush the bananas with the warmed honey and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon of the demerara sugar.
Fold the border inwards, pleating and gently pressing to form a neat edge as you go. Brush the dough with the egg wash and sprinkle with the remaining sugar. Quickly slide the galette on its paper onto the hot baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes until golden and crisp underneath. Serve immediately.
What to drink:
A sticky Rutherglen muscat would be perfect with this.
From The Little Chocolate Cookbook by Sue Quinn (Quadrille, £10) Photography ©Yuki Sugiura
See also Rosie Sykes' Chocolate Banana Tahini Brownie

Espresso and Hazelnut Cake and Fairtrade Coffee
As you've probably noticed we're currently in the middle of Fairtrade Fortnight. Encouragingly sales of Fairtrade produce and products were up 12% last year making sales in the UK worth £1.32bn in 2011, compared to £1.17bn in 2010, according to this recent piece in the Guardian.
To celebrate here's a delicious recipe from the Fairtrade Everyday Cookbook (£16.99 Dorling Kindersley) from Ruth Rogers and the late, great Rose Gray of London’s famous River Café. I suggest accompanying it with a cup of freshly brewed Rwandan or Ethiopian Fairtrade coffee from my favourite coffee company Union Hand-Roasted (available online at www.unionroasted.com.)
Ingredients
Serves 6
Preparation time 20 minutes
Cooking time 50 minutes
200g (7oz) butter, plus extra for greasing
400g (14 oz) hazelnuts, shelled
2 tbsp espresso used making Fairtrade coffee
200g (7oz) Fairtrade 70% dark chocolate, broken into small pieces
6 medium eggs
220g (7 3/4 oz) caster sugar
Method
Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F/Gas 5.
Using the extra butter grease a 25cm (10in) cake tin and line with parchment paper
Roast the hazelnuts in the oven until brown. Let cool, rub off the skins and grind the nuts to a fine powder.
Make up espresso, using Fairtrade coffee.
Melt the chocolate with the butter and coffee in a bowl over barely simmering water. Cool, then fold in the hazelnuts.
Separate the eggs and beat the yolks and sugar in a mixer until pale and doubled in size. Fold in the chocolate.
Beat the egg whites until stiff and then carefully fold into the mixture. Pour into the tin.
Bake in the oven for 50 minutes. Cool in the tin.
Tip: Turn the cake upside down out of the tin to serve. You could dust it with some icing sugar if you like.
NB: This would also be delicious with a coffee or hazelnut liqueur such as Kahlua or Frangelico
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