Banana Bread

After buying an entire bunch in Aldi, I realised that I don’t actually like bananas very much… The texture just doesn’t do it for me, even if I do like the taste. The bananas sat on the side for a few weeks, and I felt super guilty for wasting them. After about 2 weeks, they were starting to smell (is there anything worse than the smell of banana!?) and had turned very black.

Cue brainwave! Banana bread!! I may be adverse to the fruit itself, but in cake..it’s a different matter! So I turned to google, found a trusty BBC Good Food recipe, and turned on the oven.

Sadly, my student accommodation oven let me down..the temperatures weren’t quite right, and the classic raw middle/burnt outside problem occurred. I covered it with foil to let it bake a little longer, and took it out before I deemed it truly ready. When removing from the tin, I accidentally broke it in half!!! Despite being a little raw in the middle (I cut this out), and the texture being quite rubbery, it actually tasted pretty good. I think next time it could be improved by the addition of more spices – I love the cloves and cinnamon my mum puts in hers.

Ingredients:

• 140g salted butter, plus extra for greasing tin
• 140g caster sugar
• 2 large eggs, beaten
• 140g self raising flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 2 very ripe bananas, mashed

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Grease the inside of a 2lb loaf tin, and line with baking paper.
2. Cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Slowly add the egg, with a little bit of the flour.
3. Add the in the remaining flour, and the bananas.
4. Pour the mixture evenly into the tin. Bake for around 30mins, until a cocktail stick comes out clean and the top bounces back.
5. Leave to cool in the tin for 10mins, then place onto a cooling rack.
6. When fully cooled, you may choose to decorate it with some water icing etc, but I think it is best eaten plain, or perhaps with some peanut butter spread on it.

Although not one of my fave recipes ever (definitely prefer my mum’s!) it was far better than wasting the bananas. I think avoiding food waste is an important component of student cooking – in doing this, you save money (plus the planet!).

Costs: from Tesco, £5.57 – definitely one of the more affordable bakes I’ve done whilst at uni. The flour and sugar last far longer than just the one cake too!