Hey Bernice!

There have been several requests come my way for a good banana bread recipe. Whilst I have tried a few recipes, I wouldn’t have called them ‘good’, and certainly wouldn’t recommend them. So I responded to the requests with ‘leave it with me‘, which left me with the potentially difficult and time-consuming task of finding a good recipe. This can prove tricky unless I start every conversation with ‘Hey, do you have a good banana bread recipe?‘.

Lucky for me a recent visit to mum’s proved very fruitful (excuse the pun!). I arrived and offered ” a cuppa tea, and a slice of the banana bread. I made it weeks ago, but it freezes really well” – Bingo! So I did the taste test, and was suitably impressed – whilst also imagining what a slice fresh from the oven would be like.

So here it is… I don’t have the source for this recipe, knowing mum (or clipper mum as we affectionately call her – due to the constant stream of articles she ‘clips’ from the newspaper and posts to family regularly) it will be from a newspaper or magazine.

Banana Bread

1 1/2 cups plain flour, sifted
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon of salt
125g unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 eggs (lightly beaten
3 very ripe bananas, mashed with a fork
1/4 cup of milk, soured with a squeeze of lemon juice

• Preheat the oven to 170C.
• Grease a loaf tin and line the base with baking paper, leaving some paper overhanging the two long edges of the tin.
• Place the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda, salt, butter, sugar, eggs, bananas and milk in the bowl of a large food processor. Mix until the mixture comes together and is smooth.
• Spoon it into the prepared tin and bake for about an hour, or until the bread is firm to the touch and golden brown.
• A skewer inserted into the centre should come out clean.
• Allow to cool for 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack.
• Use the bits of overhanging baking paper to help remove the cake from the tin.
• The bread can be sliced an eaten as is (especially when still warm from the oven, or toasted and serve with butter, or for something a little more elaborate, sweeten some smooth ricotta cheese with honey (mixing it together well), and spread it on the toasted bread (Yum!).
• This bread can be frozen, ensure that it is wrapped securely before freezing.

You are forgiven if you think I have an obsession with bananas (being my second banana related recipe), but when the request came in to recommend a good recipe the challenge to find one was simply too tempting.

Bernice