27 May 2007

More on cruise ship bananas

Apparently I was remiss in my last post about the rotten bananas that landed in my possession. Tanna wondered how many cakes I made, since the recipe I posted only used two. And we all know, two bananas doth not a bunch make. I gathered she wanted to know what fate awaited the other bananas. I could have made a layer cake..but, well, that involves frosting and frippery's shadow. I decided to go elsewhere.

Well...what Tanna wants, Tanna gets...or at least I'll satsify her curiosity. :)

The bunch contained five long, ebony bananas. By the time I got home one had... umm... ruptured--probably from jostling around in the trunk while making those manically fast lane changes on the 401. You know, the kind that usually precedes a conversation that includes "Really officer? I was going *that* fast? Oh my." So that left me with four salvageable fruit.

I could have made a banana-mango layer cake, but that means icing...and, well, frippery...and I wasn't in the mood.

So I made a banana-blueberry banana bread. Like me, what it lacks in height (it doesn't rise all that much) it makes up for in personality (tee hee). It started life as a Nigella recipe, but it's been tweaked over the years. I'm sure it started out taller, but but, you know...This is a standard recipe for me--I'll substitute fruit or decide to use vanilla instead of almond. It makes a very nice breakfast (or second breakfast) munchie.

Banana-Blueberry Bread
150g ap/plain flour
1 dspn baking powder
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
a good pinch of vanilla salt
110g butter, melted
50g dark brown sugar
2 eggs
2 medium-largish exceedingly ripe bananas, mashed
200g blueberries (frozen is fine)
1/2 tsp almond extract

Preheat oven to 170C/325F and line a 23cm x13cm/9"x5" loaf tin.

Sieve together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt. In a second bowl, mix together the butter, sugar, eggs, bananas and extract. Add the dry ingredients to the wet in thirds, stirring well after each addition. Fold in the blueberries.

Pour into the tin and bake for 60-75 minutes, or until the top is golden and passes the toothpick test.

cheers!
jasmine

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8 comments:

Shaun said...

Jasmine, dearest - Okay, well perhaps this is the banana recipe I will try! I love the combination with blueberries, which I have had in muffin and waffle incarnations. This recipe seems perfectly do-able and a delight to have on the breakfast table.

Anonymous said...

Oh banana and blueberries! I bet this cake was moist, along with being lovely and delicious. Mmmm... second breakfast...

emily said...

Sounds great! I always end up freezing leftover bananas, but plain banana bread gets boring to me . . . I'll have to give this a go.

Heather said...

Jasmine,
Welcome to the Daring Bakers!!

Heather

Helene said...

Sounds delicious! The oven temperature of 170C is closer to 340-350F than 325 which is really low for a cake.
Be sure than these go on the meny for sunday brunch!

Aimée said...

I'm all about second breakfast! Maybe I'm part hobbit...Great recipe, thanks!

Blue Plate said...

I've not tried the blueberry and banana combination, but it sounds good and you've given me an idea for the next time I bake banana bread.

jasmine said...

Hello all

Shaun, sweetie -- I hope it works out for you--really, all you need to do is add a few good handful of berries to your usual recipe, along with a splash of almond.

Gilly -- It was!

Emily -- I've never liked the texture frozen banans bring to bread...I know others do it well, but I must be dong something wrong.

Heather -- Thanks!

Helen -- Thanks...I checked it out and the straight conversion works out to 338F--smack dab between 325 and 350--it's also the standard conversion in my books and online. I suppose it's best to set it lower adn then bake longer than too high and risk burning it.

Aimee -- I am definitely part Hobbit!

BP -- I love banana-blueberry yoghurts, so it was a natural combination for me :)

j