Banana Loaf

Just had a slice of banana loaf fresh from the oven. Hmmmm..... Thinking of going for a second round....

There were 6 bananas over-ripening and beckoning me to do something. Well I was browsing Nigella Lawson's site last night when I chanced upon this recipe. I have many recipes that call for bananas but I wanted to try out this one because the comments rated it as a very moist loaf.



Recipe for Banana Loaf (from Nigella Lawson)

You will need:

100g sultanas (I used raisins)
75 ml rum (I used 50 ml rum and 25 ml water)

125g butter, melted and cooled
150g caster sugar (I used 125g )
half teaspoon fine salt
2 large eggs

175g plain flour (I used 180g)
2 teaspoons baking powder
half teaspoon bicarbonate soda

300g bananas, mashed (I used 4 bananas which yielded 360g without skin)
2 bananas, sliced for topping (I added this)

60g walnuts, chopped
1 teaspoon vanilla essence

How it's done:

1. Bring raisins and rum to a boil. Remove to cool and let the raisins absorb the rum.

2. Sift flour, baking powder and soda together.

3. Cream melted butter with sugar, salt and essence.

4. Add mashed bananas and mix till combined.

5. Add flour, mix well and then add in the raisins and walnuts. Pour into a loaf tin and top with sliced bananas.

6. Baked at pre-heated oven 170 degrees C.
For loaf tin 23cm x 13cm x 7cm, bake for 1 hour.
I used 3 disposable loaf tins and baked them for 40 minutes.

Verdict: It is indeed very moist. Despite cutting down on sugar, it is still very sweet probably due to the raisins. I will definitely use this recipe again.