Going Bananas!

I am forever buying a bunch of bananas and forgetting all about them, and they end up looking like this...

Jeremy Beker

My usual solution is to throw them in the bin. But for some time now, ever since my obsession with a beautiful version of it I used to buy at school from an independent sandwich shop, I have wanted to try and make banana loaf (it seems the word 'loaf' often confuses people; perhaps bread or cake will avoid that?). I knew that you had to have pretty damn ripe 'nanas for that.

So, I left a bunch of bananas on the shelf and 'forgot' about them; this time I wanted them to look like the above picture. In fact, the riper the better; the riper they are, the more banana-ery taste they will produce. And the result...

Just perfect. So moist and just the right amount of banana-ery-ness.

Fancy having a go? I used the BBC Good Food recipe, Banana Breakfast Loaf, but it can obviously be enjoyed at any time of the day. *wink* But I've typed the recipe out here, just for you.

Banana Breakfast Loaf

Ingredients

• 75g butter, softened
• 110g golden caster sugar
• 125g plain flour
• 10g wholemeal flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 eggs
• 4 ripe bananas, mashed
• 50 g pecans, each snapped in half (optional)
• To finish: 1 lemon, juiced, mixed with 1 tbsp golden caster sugar (optional)

Note: I didn't have golden caster sugar or wholemeal flour, so used Demerar and plain flour, respectively.

Method

1. Heat the oven to 180C / fan 170C / Gas mark 4.
2. Beat the butter, sugar, flours, baking powder, eggs and banana together.
3. If applicable, stir in the nuts.
4. Spoon into a lined and buttered 450g loaf tin.
5. Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean.
6. If using, spoon over the lemon sugar.