By Kit Delamain AKA @mrkitskitchen
Banana Bread will always have a special place in my heart, the hearts of my many housemates, and apparently, the thousands of amateur bakers created by two national lockdowns. Banana bread doesn’t give you essay deadlines. Banana bread doesn’t threaten the NHS. And this banana bread will never, ever make you work in cyber. This is my recipe; rich, decadent, and just a little bit floral, it’s like an edible hug, made of delicious, heart-disease-inducing ingredients. Please, please, try making it.
Ingredients
285g plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
110g butter, plus extra for greasing
225g caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed (with an optional extra one for decoration)
85ml milk with a squirt of lemon juice in it (Cow or otherwise)
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp of powdered cardamom (or the seeds of 6-8 pods, battered with a hammer-like implement)
A dessert spoon of treacle
200g dark chocolate, chopped into small chunks
Preheat the oven to 180C
With an electric whisk, or a wooden spoon and the strength God gave you, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
Add the eggs, one by one, to the creamed mixture, beat well before adding the next. Split batter is not happy batter.
Next, whisk in the mashed bananas, treacle, milk, cardamom and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture, one at a time, in that order.
Sieve the flour, salt and bicarbonate of soda in the bowl, and gently fold in. Next the chocolate.
Heavily butter a 2lb loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin.
Carefully cut the banana length-wise down the middle; place each half, seed sides up into the top, and press down gently, so it is firmly in the batter. An extra sprinkle for maximum caramelisation wouldn’t go amiss.
Transfer to the oven and bake for about an hour, or until well-risen and golden-brown.
Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool.
Consume with ravenous aplomb.
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