I made banana bread! (This is actually a very common occurence in my house because we always forget to eat our bananas and then we have no choice, but I still like exclamation marks)

I love cooking. For some people it’s just a chore but for me it’s an art (although there is a lot of science to it too). I love experimenting, and mixing things up in unexpected ways. And sometimes it ends terribly, but usually that’s part of the challenge – trying new things and finding ways to make something that tastes (or looks) terrible into something mouth watering and amazing.

Anyway, so I’m not really a big fan of banana bread. I don’t understand why so many people do seem to enjoy it so much. But we always seem to leave our bananas uneaten for too long at my place, and then the only things we can do with them are banana fritters or banana bread. Mom makes the banana fritters, I do the banana bread.

This is the recipe I put together last time – it’s not exact because I don’t actually use a recipe, I just keep adding things that I think will go well together until it looks and tastes like I imagine it should: keep in mind that it’s really not typical banana bread because I don’t like how the usual stuff tastes. Mine always needs to be nutty and rich and moist and not too banana-ey. And I’m totally boasting here but I can say that everyone who’s eaten it has liked it.

REALLY STUPIDLY EASY BANANA BREAD

• 200g sweetened dried figs, finely sliced
• 2 eggs, lightly beaten
• ½ cup brown sugar
• 3 generous squirts of honey
• 2 tablespoons butter, melted
• 1½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1½ cups self-raising flour
• 1 cup wholemeal bread flour
• 2 T almond meal
• 1 cup milk (substitute cream for part of the milk, if you have it)
• 3 ripe medium bananas, mashed
• ½ t salt
• 2 t vanilla
• Chopped almonds or walnuts (but not both!)

1. Beat the butter and sugar and then, beating in between, add the honey, eggs, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, milk, and bananas
2. Stir in the nuts (walnuts to taste, if you’re using them – if you’re using almonds don’t put them in), flours and almond meal
3. Put into greased loaf tins, and top with figs and chopped nuts (be as generous as you like if you’re using almonds, if you’re using walnuts don’t put them on top)
4. Bake at 180C in a fan forced oven until golden, about half an hour

ps. When I’m not in too much of a hurry and I want to make it even more awesome, I mix 1.5T of brown sugar with 1T of melted butter until dissolved (usually over a stove to make it faster) and brush the banana bread with this as soon as it comes out of the oven

October 19, 2009 | Categories: Yumminess =) | Tags: banana bread, delicious, easy, figs, flavourful, moist, recipe, rich, simple, unusual | 1 Comment