Banana Bread

Dear Readers,

One of my pet peeves is wasting food. I am always looking for ways to use leftovers and stale (not expired or unhealthy) ingredients. Using over ripe fruits for making cakes and desserts is a great way to avoid wastage. I usually freeze bananas once they are over ripe and then use them in smoothies and banana bread or even banana ice cream - just put the frozen bananas in a food processor and pulse. Voila, you have smooth, creamy banana ice cream - it's that simple! So don't throw away over ripe bananas, no matter how black they've become they can still be used to create some delish goodies.

Banana Bread is one of the simplest baked treats out there and also one of the most comforting. When I first moved to Australia as a student, I used to live in a matchbox sized student apartment with no oven.The fact that my housemate and I loved desserts, would be an understatement. We really bonded through our love for chocolate and cheesecakes, you should have seen our grocery bills at the time. It was during this time that I fell in love with banana bread, I especially loved it dipped in chocolate - they way they serve it at Max Brenner (Chocolate and dessert place) Eventually we moved out of the student apartment and moved into an apartment with guess what- an oven! I used to bake a lot of banana bread then (bananas are cheap and I love the fruit) and still do. I  have modified various recipes and think I finally have a winner. This banana bread is aromatic, sweet, with a hint of spice and absolutely delicious dipped in chocolate or on its own. Give it a go, I am sure you will love it too.

Love,

Cookie

Recipe                                                                                              Print Recipe

(Adapted from The Big Book of Baking)

yields one loaf

Ingredients

225 g Self Raising Flour

50 g Brown Sugar

100 g Caster Sugar

2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

11/2 ts ground Nutmeg

1 tsp Vanilla Extract

2-3 ripe bananas, mashed

5 tbsp Vegetable oil

100 ml Butter milk

2 eggs

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C. Grease and line a 900 g loaf tin. In a large bowl, sift the flour, sugar, salt and spices. In another bowl mash the bananas with the Vanilla Extract and butter milk. Now add the whisked eggs and oil to it. Add the wet ingredients to the dry and mix well.

Pour the batter into the loaf tin and bake in the pre heated oven for about an hour. To test the loaf, insert a skewer into the centre. If it comes out clean, it's done if not bake for another 10 minutes and test again.

Loaf tin ready to be baked

Remove from oven and invert it onto a cooling rack. Once it has cooled down, slice it and serve.

Banana Bread Loaf

Sliced Banana Bread

Enjoy!

Tips: 

How to Make your own Buttermilk:

If you do not have buttermilk at home, you don't necessarily have to buy it. You can easily make your own at home. Add 1 tbsp of vinegar or lemon juice to one cup of milk and let it stand for 10-15 minutes. Buttermilk is ready.