With all those bananas to use up I talked about in my last post, we are feeling a little banana-ed ( if there is such a word) out! Husband has been insisting I need to bake more banana recipes to finish off his treasures.
I decided I needed to use recipes that used a good number of bananas and as I love a loaf, made a very quick and easy banana bread the first time. It didn't have any extra goodies for flavour, and used a good dozen or more of these little finger bananas - Three to four equals around about one ordinary banana, and I did up the quantity a little. This Banana Bread was so quick and easy, I really think it is a good recipe for beginner bakers. If your kids love bananas and banana cake they will love making and eating this loaf. It is great for lunchboxes, morning and afternoon tea, and for cake stalls or when you want something to contribute without too much time and effort. Everyone will think you have been slaving away, when you have been able to go off and do something else while it is cooking in the oven and you only spent five minutes whipping up the cake batter. You may want to reduce the sugar to 3/4 of a cup rather than a cup for a slightly less sweet product. The next loaf was a Spiced Banana Bread with walnuts, cinnamon and nutmeg to cut the strong banana flavour a bit. This is truly delicious. I cut back on the brown sugar from 3/4 cup to 1/2 cup, used a good heaped tablespoon of liquid honey, and a heaped tablespoon of quince jelly.....but you could use any jelly such as apple, or apricot jam. You could experiment with adding other spices, crushed pineapple, dried fruit such as raisins or sultanas, cranberries etc I plan to once I have recovered from too much of a banana thing! I ended up making two of these Spiced Banana loaves to keep husband happy......but fortunately the bananas are all used up......I think I need a break for a while! But I was impressed with not only how easy and quick they were to mix up, but just how well they kept in an airtight container. Banana Bread is a good standby for when you need something in a hurry - so long as you have an hour for baking time in the oven.
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Husband treats our banana trees like his babies. He keeps them fed and watered, and when the time is right covers the bunches with plastic bags to keep the birds from gorging on their sweet fingers before we get to eat them. When they are ripe we have more bananas than we know what to do with, and I am instructed to use them however I can, while he does his bit by having bananas mashed with lemon juice on toast for lunch each day. They are a finger bananas and I am unsure what breed exactly. Many people are surprised we can grow and eat our own bananas in Auckland being a temperate rather than a tropical climate. We have had bananas in a precious garden not far away but they never ripened as well as these do. These are fat little finger bananas with a lovely flavour.
I made the Seriously Good Banana and Walnut Cake to satisfy husband I was using his treasures. It took about 12 bananas for this recipe , but there are still a heap more to be used up. At the moment we are giving them away when we can. |
Gail Gillespie
Brought up baking from a young age I love to make delicious cakes to share with family and friends. Much like my mother, I can be one of those cooks who measure by "eye" rather than with a measure, and invariably add in or take out ingredients depending on what is in my cupboard. However, I do also appreciate the need to follow a recipe exactly for best results, as the "pour it in" method is really for those who have done a lot of baking over many years. I use this method for new recipes. So come share my recipes and learn some baking skills if you are not confident. Archives
February 2014
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