Banana Bread

“Yes, sir, but the Librarian likes bananas, sir.”
“Very nourishin’ fruit, Mr Stibbons.”
“Yes, sir. Although, funnily enough it’s not actually a fruit, sir.”
“Really?”
“Yes, sir. Botanically, it’s a type of fish, sir. According to my theory it’s cladistically associated with the Krullian pipefish, sir, which of course is also yellow and goes around in bunches or shoals.”
“And lives in trees?”
“Well, not usually, sir. The banana is obviously exploiting a new niche.”
“Good heavens, really? It’s a funny thing, but I’ve never much liked bananas and I’ve always been a bit suspicious of fish, too. That’d explain it.”
― Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Well, ladies and Gents, as you can see I have taken a break from my more recent posts about it being Debs season etc. and gone back to posting baking recipes. Recently I have found myself  with a free house most days which has resulted in me baking. Quite a lot. And considering I have seventeen more days until college starts something tells me that this baking spree isn’t going to end anytime soon. Now my mother has a habit of buying bananas by the truckload which is strange considering I am actually the only person in my house who eats bananas. Occasionally my Dad will have one on his cereal but that’s the absolute extent! Ireland is also experiencing something that only happens once every couple of generations. The sun. Yes the sun is shining and its glorious. Unfortunately this means our untouched bananas our going black very quickly. The result being many loaves of banana bread. I found this amazing recipe on the Pioneer Woman website (link here:http://thepioneerwoman.com/) which I am OBSESSED with. I added some walnuts and orange glacée icing for a little something extra but you can leave it plain if you want. The original recipe calls for a Bundt pan or it makes two loaves. Now lets make banana bread!

8oz of butter

1-1/2 cups + 2tbsp of sugar

3 eggs

1-1/2 cups of mashed banana

4 cups+2 tbsp. of flour

1 tsp. of baking soda

1-1/2 tsp. of baking powder

1-1/2 cups of sour cream (if you cannot find sour cream I make a cheap substitute by mixing 1 cup of natural yoghurt with 1/2 cup of milk 1tbsp. of vinegar then leaving to sit)

glacée icing made using the zest of one orange and the juice of half an orange

1) Preheat the oven to 180. Grase and line whatever style tin you are using.

2) Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. In a separate bowl mix together the dry ingredients.

3) Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the bananas and mix until fully incorporated.

4) Add the flour mix and gently fold. If you are adding walnuts now is the time to add them. I used about 180g from a 200g bag. I then used the remaining walnuts to decorate the banana bread.

5) Now mix in the sour cream until it is fully incorporated and pour into your tin.

6) Bake in the oven for 1-1/2 hours or until risen and golden and a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the middle of the cake.