Oh my! How long haven’t I blogged.
But let’s not get there. Work has caught up quite a bit hence all I wanna do after I come home is to grab my-now-favourite books (yes, with an s), crawl under the bed and read till whee hours into the morning.
To get things started again, here’s a little recipe for a simple banana loaf / cake. Another of those impromptu baking session, came back home, saw some overripe bananas hanging, there, “let’s make a banana loaf”
This was made on NYE actually (uh, yeah… ) and made a pretty good New Year’s breakfast. Of course, it can be made anytime, whether there are any special occasions or not. I added a Kentucky specialty; bourbon whiskey. They were sent over by Stella. You can use rum if you don’t have bourbon at hand, if you wish.
Channeling some inner domestic goddess, I had to go for a Nigella recipe. I remember this was one of my earlier bakes from her book “How to be a Domestic Goddess”. Of course soon, after that I made a couple of times with over ripe bananas, and I dare say, most of the time, I actually DON”T follow the recipe. …… Well if you’re expecting me to say it’s the best ….. I won’t because to me, the best is always the next one. Plus, taste is subjective. period.
- 175ml plain flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp sodium bicarb
- ½ tsp salt
- 125g melted butter
- 150g caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 4 very ripe bananas (about 300g)
- 60g chopped walnuts
- 75ml bourbon or dark rum
- *100g sultanas
- 1 tsp vanilla
- *I didn't add sultanas into mine, but if you wish, soak sultanas with bourbon and bring to a light boil. Remove from heat, cover and let it macerate. Drain and discard liquid.
- Preheat oven to 170 C. Line a loaf tin.
- Put flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a bowl, combine well with a whisk.
- In a large bowl, mix melted butter and sugar and beat till blended. Beat in eggs on at a time, then the mashed bananas.
- Then, add in the walnuts, *sultanas, if using, bourbon and vanilla extract.
- Add flour, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.
- Scrape into tin and bake for 30-45 mins (depending on size of tin, may take to 1 hr)
- When it's ready, an inserted toothpick should come out cleanish.
- Leave in the tin on a rack to cool.
- *Eat with a dollop of ice cream if you wish 😉
Taste even better the next day 😉
