Dark banana spice bread

Banana Bread recipe 3

How many of us faithfully follow a recipe? I realise, having had a few experiences recently of sitting down to a meal which was not quite what I expected, or wanted, that there is a reason to do so. I seem a little too fond of using cooking as a memory game, like the one with the objects on the tray covered with a cloth – one minute to study the contents, and then you have to remember what to do.

I tend to favour a recipe without too many ingredients, because I am lazy, and I mostly don’t go out and buy ingredients especially for a meal. I am a store cupboard cook by habit. I’m not trying to claim that it isn’t a well-stocked store cupboard, in fact it is over-stocked, so I can’t find things when I want them, and I seem to have a tendency to buy some ingredients over and over again: sesame seeds; lentils; prunes; couscous; turmeric, to name a few. Some dishes are inspired by this over-stocking, and banana bread is one of them. The bananas are bought after the previous bunch is eaten, and then, mysteriously, everyone stops eating bananas, and they become speckled and too ripe for the taste of anyone in my house.

Whose recipes to use? That is the culinary question. Delia's does work, but I turn to Dan Lepard - he is an award-winning baker. I bought a book about bread of his for my mother, who was an expert cook. She told me it was too complicated, which astonished me, since she was happy to make herself paupiettes de veau for a weekday lunch on her own. Breadmaking isn’t for everyone. And in this case, it isn't for me or Dan either. Banana bread is a cake.

I've been using Dan's recipe for banana bread for a little while, with some success. It is simple and delicious, although I leave out the glace ginger, which I usually find tastes rather soapy in cakes. Oh, and I add some pretty punchy spices – garam masala with extra ginger and cloves. I’m not sure why he specifies wholemeal bread flour, and one day I shall try it with just wholemeal bread flour, but for now I use half wholemeal and half ordinary white baking flour. And I often use a bit more banana and throw in some walnuts. Other than that, all credit to the redoubtable Mr Lepard. He calls it dark banana ginger cake, and it is wonderfully dark and a little bit sticky. In addition the spices in my version given it a perfume that can draw you down the corridor with its deliciousness.

As Dan says, if you don't have muscovado, use caster sugar, but replace 25g of that with black treacle.

Alternative banana bread recipe of mine here, and chocolate banana bread here, there is a lot of banana neglect in my house.

This recipe makes two loaves of banana bread.

Ingredients

200g dark muscovado sugar

350g ripe bananas (4 average sized)

125ml sunflower oil

4 medium eggs

200g wholemeal bread flour

3 tsp baking powder

2tsp garam masala (use mixed spice if you prefer)

1tsp ground ginger

½ tsp group cloves

Method

Set oven temp 170C (150C fan-assisted)/335F/gas mark 3

• Line two medium bread tins with baking parchment
• Stir the dry ingredients together in a large bowl, breaking up lumps of sugar
• Add peeled banana broken or cut into 2cm bits
• Start beating as you add the eggs and oil, and beat until you have a batter, a bit thicker than cream – there may be some lumps, but as long as they aren’t flour, don’t worry
• Pour into two prepared tins
• Bake for 40-50 minutes, “or until a careful poke with a skewer in the centre doesn't reveal any uncooked mixture lurking beneath the crust”*

*Dan Lepard

sticky caramelised chicken wings

Chicken wings can be delicious, and I've found a Vietnamese recipe that makes sure they are. You can prep them ahead, and cook them quickly in a wok. This is finger food of the most succulent, full of oriental flavour, with a lovely stickiness, to lick off your fingers, and sometimes your teeth.

12 chicken wings
2 tbsp oil
3 garlic cloves
1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp honey
2 spring onions, chopped

• Prepare the wings by cutting off the tip, then cut them in half
• Crush the garlic and chop it up with the ginger, set aside
• mix the sauces and honey in a bowl and set aside
• chop the spring onions and set aside
• heat the oil in a wok, add the chicken with the chopped garlic and ginger
• cook, stirring all the time for about 5 minutes
• add the sauce and honey mix, stir well and cook, covered, for about 10 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the chicken is lightly brown and tender
• scatter spring onions over them and serve

If you want to do these on the bbq, follow the recipe until the sauces are added, cook for 5 mins, allow to cool and then thread onto skewers
cook on bbq for 2 mins a side, sprinkling spring onion over before serving

delicious

Sticky date cake

Delicious sticky date cake, egg free, fat free

20 stoned dates

1cup milk

¼ cup water

¾ cup demerera sugar

¾ cup wholemeal flour

1 ½ tsp bicarb

Small pinch salt

Fat to butter pan or use baking parchment

Butter or line the pan. I used a  buttered 10” Bundt spring-form cake tin (round cake tin with a hole in the centre and a removable base).

Set oven to Gas Mark 5/375C

Put dates with milk and walter in a pan, and bring to the boil. Take off heat and set aside. 

When cooled put soaked dates with sugar in blender and blend to fine paste.

In pan mix together sugar and date paste with cooled milk and water.

Stir in flour, pinch of salt and sifted bicarb.

Mix well and pour batter into prepared tin.

Cook for 25 minutes – when cooked cake is firm to the touch. A skewer inserted comes out clean.

Leave to cool before removing from tin.

Makes a lovely sticky cake.

For variety add:

Handful of walnuts

Stem ginger, cut into pieces (if you add syrup reduce sugar in recipe) husband likes this, but I think it gives a strange soapy taste

chocolate brownies

There's a lot of debate about who makes the best brownies around here, and, I reckon it is me. Or Kit, now she's using my recipe. Some might say there is no way for me to know, since I am not the most chocolate focused person, preferring to spread my net wider, however I love these brownies. They have the chocolate intensity loved by many, as they are made with pure cocoa. They are good and chewy, and surely they must have less calories than their use-five-bars-of-chocolate cousin recipes.


This recipe is dedicated to all households where the cooking chocolate disappears before cooking can start.

INGREDIENTS

125g Butter/margarine
40g Cocoa powder
250g Castor sugar 
2 Eggs 
50g Self-raising flour

… add if you like
handful of chopped walnuts
handful of chocolate chunks

also apparently some people like to put in dried blueberries or sour cherries

METHOD

1 Set oven to Gas mark 5 or equivalent.

2 Grease and line 7” square line baking tin.

3 Melt fat in heavy-bottomed pan over low heat. When melted mix in sifted cocoa powder. Leave to cool slightly.

4 Whisk eggs 1 minute then slowly add sugar and keep whisking until egg mixture becomes thick. Use an electric whisk or your arm may fall off

5 Combine cocoa and fat mixture with egg and sugar mixture.

6 Fold in flour.

7 Pour batter into baking tin.

8 Cook for 25-30 minutes. Do not cut until cooled.

9 Don’t overeat.