banana | The Glen House

It was Daddy’s birthday at the weekend, so I was on the hunt for something tasty that he could have with a cuppa to celebrate. I knew I couldn’t go down the normal chocolaty, sugary, creamy route because he’s not into that sort of thing, so instead I looked for inspiration using fruits and spices.

Birthday loaf

I adapted a recipe from Rachel Allen’s lasted book ‘All Things Sweet’; the Banana, Ginger and Golden Syrup loaf looked perfect. This is how I made the loaf…

ingredients

Ingredients:

110g unsalted butter

50g caster sugar

100g golden syrup

25g ginger syrup from jar

2 eggs

125g plain flour

2 tsp baking powder

4 balls stemmed ginger

2 bananas, mashed

mix

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line a 2lb loaf tin. In a bowl, cream the butter and sugar until soft and add in the golden syrup and ginger syrup. Beat the eggs in, one at a time- the mixture will look “sloppy” as Rachel mentions. Sift the flour and baking powder into the mixture and fold in.

banana and ginger

Finally chop the ginger and mash the bananas and add into the mixture. Pop the loaf into the oven for about 45 minutes until golden brown.

ginger

A really simple tea time loaf, perfect with a cup of birthday tea!

birthday loaf

Melissa xx

It’s been raining. I don’t know why I’m suprised, this is Ireland after all! The rain has been pounding down hard for the last few days and the river that runs infront of The Glen House is rising fast. The ground around the house is slippy and soggy, everything is just a bit yucky.

What was needed was something comforting to go with a cuppa while the wood burning stove was blazing. With 4 ripe bananas sat in the fruit bowl, the answer was staring me in the face! I love banana bread, but I really love banana bread with the addition of dried fruit and nuts.

I pulled out a tried and tested recipe from Nigella’s book ‘How to be a Domestic Godess’; I swapped the walnuts for pecans and hey presto, rum, raisin and pecan banana bread!

Ingredients :
100 g sultanas
75ml rum
175 g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
125 g unsalted butter (melted)
150 g caster sugar
2 large eggs
4 very ripe bananas (mashed)
60g chopped pecans
1 tsp vanilla extract

Put the sultanas and rum in a small saucepan and bring to the boil.

Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.

Preheat the oven to 170ºC.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, combine well.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas.

Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the pecans, drained sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.

Scrape into a loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm) and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1¼ hours.

When you think it’s ready, place a skewer into the centre and it should pull out clean. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.