Sunday, January 24, 2010

Banana Bread: Nature's wonder fruit just became a whole lot better

Banana bread - It was a favourite years ago and it's still a favourite now.  Whether you call it banana bread, banana loaf or banana cake, one thing's certain, we all love it.


There are countless variations of recipes, my favourite, is simple, fast and just about foolproof.  If you find yourself with some bananas that are overly ripe this is the perfect way to use them.  It's also possible to use thawed frozen bananas for this - just peel and wrap in cling film to freeze.  


Now you have NO excuses for throwing overly ripe brown bananas away!



Banana Bread
Required time:  10 minutes preparation, 55 minutes baking
Ingredients:
  Dry Ingredients:
     1 3/4 cups Plain flour
     3/4 cup Sugar
     1 cup Walnuts (coarsely chopped)
     1 1/4 tsp Baking powder
     1/4 tsp Salt
     1 tsp Cinnamon
  
Wet Ingredients 
     2 Eggs (lightly beaten)
     1/2 cup Rice bran oil
     3 Bananas (over ripe)
     1 tsp Vanilla extract or essence

Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius.
  2. Grease and flour a loaf tin approximately 23cm x 13cm x 8 cm.
  3. In a large bowl combine all the dry ingredients, I like to use a hand whisk for this.
  4. In a medium size bowl combine all the wet ingredients well.
  5. Lightly fold the wet mixture into the dry ingredients until it has just combined - it is crucial to FOLD and NOT MIX the ingredients or you risk making your loaf rubbery and tough.
  6. Turn the mix into the prepared tin and place on a rack in the middle of the oven.
  7. Bake for approximately 50 - 55 minutes, at which stage the loaf should be golden brown.  To test whether the cake is fully cooked insert a skewer into the thickest part of the loaf and withdraw- if it's not sticky and no dough is stuck to it, then the cake is done.
  8. Allow the loaf to cool for about 15 minutes in the pan, then remove and place onto a rack to fully cool.
  9. Enjoy...





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