Heston Blumenthal’s sweet and savoury banana and bacon cookies

Both Craig and I are huge fans of Heston and his scientific approach to cooking. We have his Heston at Home cookbook and have made these banana bacon cookies before. This time I decided to convert them for the Thermomix. They are a great combination of sweet and savoury with a biscuit crunch.

I wouldn’t use an ice-cream scoop for the dough next time as they were too big – eating one was like a meal! They also do spread out quite a lot some ended up merging at the edges. Not a big deal, just something to watch for.

Original recipe available here: http://www.waitrose.com/home/tv/heston_blumenthal/heston-s-bacon-bananacookies.html

Thermomix directions

1. Add flour, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and salt into TM bowl and mix for 5 seconds, speed 3. Remove to a separate bowl.
2. Add butter and sugar to TM bowl mix for 30 seconds, speed 5. Scrape down bowl, add butterfly attachment and mix for 30 seconds, speed 3. The mixture should be light and fluffy.
3. Remove TM measuring cup and put TM on speed 1. Add one egg and increase speed slowly to speed 5 until all mixed – 5 to 10 seconds. Reduce again to speed 1 and repeat for second egg. I reduce to the lowest speed as I’ve had a bad experience with an egg shell falling into the bowl.
4. Remove butterfly. Add the sifted flour to the creamed butter, sugar and egg mixture. Mix for 30 seconds, speed 5. Add the banana and bacon and mix on reverse soft speed for 30 seconds.
5. Using an ice-cream scoop or spoon, portion the dough into balls (approximately 40g per ball). Place them on a parchment-lined baking tray, roughly 10 cm apart.
6. Place the tray in the oven for 8-10 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown and crispy at the edges. Remove the tray from the oven and allow the cookies to rest on the tray for a few minutes before placing on a cooling rack.
7. Enjoy your banana bacon cookies!

For other treats ideas click here.