Banana Panic - 1

Photo © Rob Jones

I admit to a problem with Bananas. It’s a love hate thing. I like eating them, but for some reason I can’t eat a whole one. Add to that, that I hate waste and love a bargain and you have a recipe for disaster!

My hand has a mind of its own, and the other day in a major supermarket it lifted a bagged up bunch of bananas that were on offer. Not a handful of bananas but an armful. Many on the brink of squidgy demise. Certainly too many to eat before they went off. But so cheap - 50p.

Back where I was staying I stared at them ruefully and realised that it was time to hunt out the banana recipes. Here’s one that turned out rather well.

Banana Bread

Ingredients:
3 Overly ripe Bananas
150g Butter
150g Caster Sugar
150g Self-Raising Flour
2 Eggs
Vanilla Extract

Method
Slice up the bananas and soften them in the microwave. Then mash them up. Mix the sugar and butter together quite vigorously. Add the eggs, and then the flour. Finally add the mashed bananas. Add a couple of squirts of vanilla extract.

Preheat the oven to 150C. Butter a baking dish, .and pour the mixture into it. It’ll find its own level. Then place it in the oven and keep a watch over it. When it looks as though it’s beginning to brown on top, stick a knife in to see if it’s cooked inside. If the knife comes out clean, then it’s ready. Allow to cool. Cut into blocks and tip out of the making tin. The pieces are about an inch high.

I’ve seen recipes that include Baking Powder, but I don’t think that’s really neccessary, especially if you are using self-raising flour.

I like it with a glass of milk.

(I have so many bananas I think the next few posts will be on a similar theme.)