Heat oven to 200C/180C fan/gas 6. Mash 3 large black peeled bananas with a fork, then mix well with 75g vegetable or sunflower oil and 100g brown sugar.

Add 225g plain flour, 3 heaped tsp baking powder and 3 tsp cinnamon or mixed spice, and combine well. Add 50g dried fruit or nuts, if using.

Bake in an oiled, lined 2lb loaf tin for 20 minutes. Check and cover with foil if the cake is browning.

Bake for another 20 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Allow to cool a little before slicing. It’s delicious freshly baked, but develops a lovely gooey quality the day after.

In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar and salt. Add the butter and pulse again until there aren’t clumps of butter. Add the marsala wine and whole egg and pulse to mix well (if needed add more marsala wine) to bring the dough together in a soft dough. Shape into a round, cover, and let rest at room temperature for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. Heat the oil in a large deep pot for a temperature of 180c. In the meantime, working with half of the dough at a time, and keeping the other half covered. Roll the dough very thinly onto a well flowered surface. Using a 4 to 4 1/2 inches cookie cutter, cut dough into rounds. Spray lightly the cannoli forms with cooking spray, then wrap these dough rounds around each cannoli form, while brushing about 3/4 inches of one end lightly with the egg white. Press edge of the dough to the opposite side of the dough brushed with the egg white. Carefully immerse 3 or 4 cannoli at a time in the heated oil and fry until golden brown and crisp. This takes about 1 to 2 minutes. ( always check the temperature so that the oil will not burn the cannoli ) Remove from the oil using a metal tong to grasp the cannoli shells ( let oil from inside the forms drain back into the pot ) Transfer onto paper towels to drain. Fold layers of paper towels and wrap a paper towel around the shell to carefully slide from the form. Let the forms to cool and repeat process with the remaining dough circles. At this point one could store these cannoli shells in a sealed box covered with baking paper, then place the cannoli and cover again with baking paper.  

For the filling, in a bowl, mix the Irkotta, icing sugar and whole nuts. Brush some melted chocolate in the inside of the cannoli shells. Dip both sides of the cannoli shells in the melted chocolate and then in the chopped pistachios and let these to dry. Spoon the filling in a piping bag and cut the tip of the piping bag. ( about 3/4 inches down from the tip ) Fill the cannoli shells by piping the filling from both sides of the cannoli shells. Place the filled cannoli on a plate and sift the icing sugar over the ready-made cannoli. Recipe by Tonia Grima

Put the figs and 150ml water in a large heavy based saucepan. Bring to a simmer and gently bubble for 5 mins or until the figs have softened and released their juices. Add the orange zest, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and cook, stirring regularly for around 5-7 mins or until thick, skimming off any skum that rises to the surface. Remove from the heat and leave to sit for 10 mins.

Ladle the mixture into sterilised jars. Seal with the lids and leave to cool completely. Will keep for six months unopened and 2 weeks in the fridge once opened.

Tip the flour, yeast and salt into a large bowl and mix together with your hands. Stir 300ml hand-hot water with the oil and honey, then stir into the dry ingredients to make a soft dough. 
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead for 5 mins, until the dough no longer feels sticky, sprinkling with a little more flour if you need it.
Oil a 900g loaf tin and put the dough in the tin, pressing it in evenly. Put in a large plastic food bag and leave to rise for 1 hr, until the dough has risen to fill the tin and it no longer springs back when you press it with your finger.
Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Make several slashes across the top of the loaf with a sharp knife, then bake for 30-35 mins until the loaf is risen and golden. Tip it out onto a cooling rack and tap the base of the bread to check it is cooked. It should sound hollow. Leave to cool.

Peel the pears and slice the bottom part so that the fruit can stand. Place in a small pan and add the wine and the cloves. Top up with the water enough that the pears are submerged in liquid. Place on low flame and simmer until pears are cooked. When ready, place in a separate dish. The fruit can be eaten warm as well as cold. Great to be served with some light yogurt.

Chicken Filling – Cook some chicken breast and cut into small pieces. Add some mayonnaise, some soft cheese, fresh parsley, salt and pepper and mix well.

Tuna – Drain 2 large cans of tuna. Place in a food processer with a small onion, one garlic clove and a ¼ of a green pepper. Blend well. If need you may add 1 tablespoon of olive oil.

Olive and Feta Cheese – in a blender add 6 tbsp Three Hills Kunserva, 50g black olives, 30g capers and 50g feta cheese. Blend well. You may add some olive oil, or preferably extra virgin olive oil.

This is a super easy recipe and it look nice 😉However it is important that the grissini sticks are long and not broken. Also, choose good quality Italian ham known as Parma ham.

Slice each piece of ham in half and rotate it around the grissini stick. Be careful not to break any.

These party Bouchées are identical to vol au vents but much smaller. The term vol-au-vent means ‘fly with the wind” and for this reason puff pastry, a very light form of flaky pastry, needs to be used.

Filling for Party Bouchées

Ideally, it is best to prepare a basic filling, which you may separate into different bowls, and then add different ingredients and seasonings. This will give you a variety of pasty-filled boats. Do not overfill these bite-sized pastries as these pastries are normally eaten by hand and the filling may spill out of them.

Basic filling:

Place a tub of cream cheese into a bowl. Add some Hanini Creamylight, two hard-boiled eggs, cut into very small pieces, and season with salt and pepper. Mix well until it creates a homogeneous paste.

Varieties of fillings:

Tomato: Peel and cut tomatoes into very small pieces, Add to the basic mixture with a teaspoon of mustard. Mix well. Fill the pastries with the filling and garnish with tomato pieces on top.

Shrimp: Squeeze the juice of a lemon to the basic filling. Mix well. Fill the pastries with this filling and garnish with shrimps and a sliver of lemon on the top. If using frozen shrimps, follow the instructions on the packet.

Salmon: Fill the bouchées with the basic mixture. Cut the smoked salmon into very small pieces and garnish the pastry boats with a slice of lemon or caviar

Tuna: Drain the canned tuna. Mash the tuna and add to the basic filling recipe. Drizzle some drops of Pinto’s Sweet Chilli Sauce or Red Hot Sauce and mix well.

Mushrooms: Finely chop the mushrooms. In a pan melt a spoonful of butter and cook the mushrooms in the butter. Allow to cool. Add the mushrooms to the basic recipe and add some finely chopped parsley. Mix well and fill the pastry with the mixture.

Chicken: Cook the chicken and finely chop. Add to the basic filling recipe and add a spoonful of Mayor Tomato Ketchup. Mix well and fill the party bouchées.