Banana and Walnut Loaf

I have been feeling pretty under the weather and I wanted to bake something comforting.

This banana bread did the trick.

I don't know why, but for some reason I never seem to be able to get banana bread right at all.

It always seems to sink when it comes out of the oven for me.

This one, which I adapted from Lorraine Pascale's Baking Made Easy book, came out perfectly.

I haven't figured out why this batch turned out ok and my other banana bread endeavours didn't, but this will definitely be the recipe I work from in the future.

I used dark brown sugar, which I think gave the loaf a lovely rich, deep flavour. You may choose to use caster sugar or light brown sugar, which is used in the original recipe.

I like to eat mine slavered in butter, how do you like to eat yours?

Continue reading for recipe

Makes one loaf.

Ingredients:

• Handful of walnuts
• 100g softened butter
• 150g dark brown sugar
• a few drops of vanilla extract
• 3 eggs
• 150g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 heaped tsp baking powder
• 2 overripe mashed bananas

Preheat oven to 170C and grease and line a loaf tin. 

Place the walnuts in a dry frying pan set over a medium heat and toast for a few minutes until they are emitting a lovely fragrant nutty smell.

Beat the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Add in one of the eggs and the vanilla extract and beat well. Now add the flour, salt, cinnamon, baking powder and 2 remaining eggs and beat again until well incorporated. Slowly mix in the bananas and fold in the pecans.

Dollop the mixture into the prepared tin and place in the preheated oven for 55-60 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

You can leave to cool, slightly and serve warm or else leave it to go completely cold. Either is divine.

This cake keeps really well for 3-4 days if stored in an airtight container.