Do you remember our dear friend, the lone banana (from a previous post), who rode in on his trustworthy jersey cow to save the residents of Bananville from their own retched misery?
Hmmm, I can see some of you shaking your heads, which means you haven’t read the story, or you just darn forgot. So go refresh your memories here if you can’t remember.
Anyways, there’s news in the world of our dear banana friend. He’s still roaming the planet, saving one distraught critter at a time. And he still ambles along life’s pathways on his loyal companion– the jersey cow.
However, our lone banana friend was involved in a horrific accident and it has jeopardised his critter saving duties. Let me tell you how this dreadful accident occurred.
It was a bright winter morning in Bananaville. Being the middle of winter, the weather had been most disagreeable; rain, thunder, wind and storms. But upon this particular morning, the weather Gods had decided to shine down a piece of appreciation on the world. They drew back their gray clouds like curtains, and let the sun cast down its magical rays. All the bananas of Bananville turned their faces skywards and drank in the warmth and vibrancy of the golden sun’s rays.
“Today is a good day to take leisurely stroll on a jersey cow,” declared our lone friend.
And so that is what he did.
Out in the meadow, with autumn leaves still littering the ground, our lone friend felt at peace with the world. While in his reverie, our banana friend observed the activities of the meadow. He looked over yonder and saw a squirrel playing Frisbee with a wombat. To the left of yonder he saw a magpie beside the pond, playing backgammon with a duck. And to the right of yonder, he observed a badger reciting poetry to many other meadow-like creatures. Yup, the sun had resuscitated all of Bananaville’s inhabitants and the village was sparkling with verve and vigor.
However, all that was about to change…
The wind blew into our lone friend’s face and picked up his hat and threw it into the distance. And in this instance, our banana friend lifted his eyes skywards to trace the pathway of his air-bound hat. That’s when he saw it. At first he just noticed a long, skinny orange foot hanging from a branch of the nearest tree.
This observation got him excited too, for there was a beautiful, rare and exotic bird species known in this part of the world, that had long, skinny orange feet. These birds were known as the Rare Skinny Orange Foot Bird. There were only about 8.75 of these bird’s left in the whole entire world and our lone banana friend thought maybe, just maybe, on this glorious winter’s day, that he was going to be lucky enough to spot one.
But no, unfortunately it was not the Rare Skinny Orange Foot Bird. It was something most least expected. While it was still rare, it was anything but beautiful and exotic. It was one of the wild animals from 6 villages to the North.
Recently, on the odd occasion, they had been infiltrating Banaville. These animals were harmless, but they were maniacal and senseless. They liked to bang on things (bins, windows, doors, tables, etc.) and make useless, annoying racket. The animals also liked warm cosey nooks, so when you least expected it, you would find them in the most peculiar places. For example, they had been known to wait in empty prams while mothers played with their children in the park.
So when our lone banana friend looked up, expecting to observe the beautiful and exotic Rare Skinny Orange Food Bird, he was shocked indeed to see one of these wild animals glaring back at him with wide, bulbous eyes. And so was his jersey cow. The cow bucked in fright, and it was in this instance, that the real tragedy occurred. The cow’s buck threw off the banana’s balance, and he slid ever so slightly to the left. This slide was the beginning of a tremendous, cascading fall that saw our banana friend plummet down, with very little grace, to the meadow floor. Upon our banana friend’s landing, his eye came face to face with a rather pointy rock. In fact it pierced him right through the retina…owww!
Unfortunately, our banana friend is now our one-eyed banana friend. Yep, it’s very sad, but his eye could not be mended. The plural of eye, i.e. eyes, no longer applies to him.
There is some good that comes from this story though. While our banana friend was resting up in hospital, his mother bought him in a special treat. She had created her very own recipe to help ease the banana’s misery and pain. The treat she made was full of all the good things in life…peanut butter, cookie crumbs, cream cheese and chocolate…yum, bloody yum, yum! His mother even named her recipe after the eye-losing incident…buckeyes! Take a look at these round, truffly balls of goodness!
While this was a dreadful, harrowing incident, there were two good things that came from it:
1. The world was introduced to one of the most delicious treats on the planet…buckeyes.
2. Apparently the lady bananas go nuts for banana-men that have lost eyes in tragic, jersey-cow riding accidents xo
RECIPE – Buckeyes
So we were very lucky that our banana friend’s mum actually shared this recipe with the boys from Baked in NYC. They loved this recipe so much that they printed it in their cookbook, Baked Explorations. You can buy it here. The recipe calls for Graham Cracker Crumbs. You can get these from the American Food Store in Moorabbin. Or alternatively, you could just use Marie or Milk Arrowroot biscuits…same, same really. So here’s the recipe…and you don’t have to wait til you lose an eye to eat them or make them. They taste just as good when you have two perfectly working eyes.
- 1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
- 1 1/2 cups peanut butter – smooth
- 1 cup graham crackers (or Marie/Arrowroot biscuits) about 14 crackers/biscuits
- 3 cups icing sugar
- 145g melted and cooled butter
- 340g milk/dark chocolate, whichever you prefer
- In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, beat the cream cheese and peanut butter until combined.
- Add the graham cracker or biscuit crumbs and beat on medium speed for 10 seconds. Add the icing sugar and butter. Beat at low speed for 20 seconds to prevent the sugar from spilling over, then gradually increase the speed until the mixture is completely combined.
- Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl and beat again. The mixture will feel slightly dry.
- Line a sheet pan with baking paper. Scoop out slightly more then 1 tablespoon’s worth of filling and use your hands to form it into a ball. Place it onto the baking paper and repeat the process until all the mixture is used up.
- Put your chocolate in a heat proof bowl over the top of a pan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water. Melt the chocolate, stirring frequently, until the chocolate is smooth and runny.
- One by one, using a toothpick, dip each ball into the chocolate. Roll the ball around from side to side to cover almost the entire peanut butter centre, leaving a small part uncovered.
- Let the excess chocolate drip off and return the buckeye to the baking paper. When all balls are chocolate dipped, put them in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to set. Use your finger to smooth over the hole from the toothpick.