banana bread
28 Oct 2019
I'm always on the hunt for a good banana bread recipe. I've had the every day banana bread from Ostro by Julia Busuttil Nishimura bookmarked for such a long time. With 2 over ripe bananas in the fruit bowl, the time had come to give the recipe a try.
Of course I tweaked the recipe a little as is my way. I swapped out some of the flour and used a little almond meal instead; reduced the quantity of sugar a little and added some chopped pecans to the mixture.
The batter was very soft and probably didn't need the milk that's in the original recipe. I decorated the cake with a sliced banana and a few chopped pecans. As the batter was so runny, the banana sank to the bottom of the tin during the cooking process.
I can't begin to tell you how good this smelt when it came out of the oven and it's so moist when sliced. Julia suggests eating this warm by the slice topped with a thick slather of butter.
Here's the recipe for you which makes a small loaf. For all my recipes I use a 250 ml cup, a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.
Banana Bread inspired by the recipe in Ostro by Julia Busuttil Nishimura
Ingredients
2 eggs
2/3 cup raw sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
100ml extra-virgin olive oil
2-3 very ripe bananas (about 250g in total)
¾ cup self-raising flour
Pinch of sea salt
¼ cup almond meal
50 mls milk if required
50g pecans, roughly chopped
1 banana cut in half lengthways (optional)
Method
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a small loaf tin with butter and line with baking paper.
In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla until pale. Pour in the olive oil and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas until smooth and then mix them into the batter. Sift the flour and salt into a small bowl. Stir through the almond meal then add to the banana mixture. Stir gently, being careful not to overwork the mixture. Stir in 2/3 of the chopped pecans. If the mixture is looking a little dry, add enough milk to make a soft batter.
Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and, if using, top with the halved banana then sprinkle with the reserved pecans. Bake for approximately 50 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Place on a wire rack for 15 minutes before unmoulding.
How delicious does that look and it tasted pretty good as well. Next time I bake this, I'm planning to change the proportions a little and leave out the milk as I want the sliced banana to remain on the top of the loaf after its baked. I'm not sure the pecans in the cake batter were such a good idea, so next time I think I'll just use them as a topping. Expect to see version two of this banana bread some time in the future.
See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.
Bye for now,
Jillian