A few weeks ago we spent one Sunday evening gathering walnuts. Two big trees and under them a carpet of leaves and walnuts. Literally, it was difficult to take a step and not crush any of the nutty treasure. When harvesting walnuts the whole family should take part. It soon turned, however, out that this activity is rather unexciting and our children's help was infinitesimal. I think that lack of motivation played a large part. Unlike us, our children don't like walnuts. Nonetheless, we managed to do it and for the next few days a significant part of our big living room was occupied by drying walnuts. Now packed in transparent sacks, they are waiting for winter.

Due to the abundance of this nutty treasure, I started to look for recipes with walnuts. For the first dishes I prepared morning porridge, salads and cakes. Today, inspired by the "arabeskawaniliowa" blog, I propose a classical combination of bananas, walnuts and chocolate. This set of ingredients puts me in mind of late autumn, when it is difficult to get seasonal fruits.

Ingredients:

100g of butter

320g of sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon of vanilla sugar

3 big bananas

340g of flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Well I would like to write that I added this and that to the tart and that it is really a chocolate tart with chocolate and... chocolate with a tinge of blackcurrant. Like everything with chocolate, in my opinion this cake tastes great, and the addition of sweet-and-sour jam surprises us and emphasizes the velvety taste of the filling. A cup of strong, hot tea or a cup of flavorsome coffee is an obligatory accompaniment to chocolate tart.

I prepared the cake using a recipe from a cookery book from Lidl. By the way, I found out what ganache means. This hitherto unknown word refers to a glaze, icing, sauce or filling for pastries made from chocolate and cream. You may use it as a cake filling or for chocolate pralines.

Adult gourmands may like to flavor the glaze with a bit of strong alcohol such as rum, brandy or amaretto.

Ingredients:

tart:

100g of butter

2 egg yolks

30g of cocoa

30g of caster sugar

150g of flour

pinch of salt

6 tablespoons of blackcurrant jam

Autumn ripe pears tempt us with their shape, colour and smell. I like most of all yellow ones with ruddy cheeks. Pears, which came to Europe from ancient Persia, were an exclusive product to begin with. Native strains were grown only at the turn of the XVII and XVIII centuries.

The pear is called the fruit of love and is numbered among fruit aphrodisiacs. They go well with chocolate, nuts and vanilla.

For a romantic evening I made a very simple but grand pear-chocolate desert. You need an appropriate amount of pears for your casserole dish. You can bake every pear separately or put all of them into a bigger dish and bake them all together. The cake which I recommend today is light, fluffy and doesn't contain flour.

Ingredients:

2 pears

2 eggs

80g of caster sugar

3 tablespoons of cocoa

1 teaspoon of baking powder

Autumn is a time for plums. Nowadays there are lots of kinds of plum and it is difficult to decide which one to choose. Lucky are those who own an orchard with plum trees. They may pick the kind of fruit they like: less ripe or with so much juice that after one bite it makes your mouth water.

In Poland the most famous are peachy plums called jerozolimka, greengages and purple plums.

Choose your favorite plums and prepare like me a very simple desert: French pastry decoratively braided, filled with plums and with brown sugar and cinnamon.

Ingredients:

1 pack of chilled French pastry

600g of plums

1 tablespoon of cinnamon

4 tablespoons of brown sugar

1 tablespoon of vanilla sugar

2 tablespoons of milk

2 teaspoons of caster sugar

Starting from the first half of August, in the shops and on stands appear the first domestic plums. In September there are so many of them that I have a problem deciding which kind I should choose. Small and big, round and more ovate, violet, red and yellow. You can eat them fresh or make a lot of preserves (jams, plum stew, stewed fruits, pickles, liqueurs, plum brandy). Our favorite are big and round greengage plums, or slightly firm violet plums.

Plums have a lot of valuable attributes. They regulate digestion and protect us from free radicals. Dried plums are more valuable regarding vitamin and fiber content, but they have five times more calories than fresh fruits.

Plums have quite a lot B vitamins, so for a long time they have been well regarded for having a soothing effect on the nervous system and improving our frame of mind. That's why you simply have to make a plum cake. Either now or when the dreary autumn days arrive. Their benign impact on the nerves could be a good excuse for putting another piece of cake on your plate.

I don't like complicated cookery. In this recipe you will find a lot of ingredients, but even so, preparing this delicious cake is very simple.