Banana Tea Bread

I had my eye on the banana bread recipe in 'How To Be a Domestic Goddess' for a while before I got round to baking it. The original recipe required rum or bourbon, which I don't keep, so I went on the Nigella forum asking for suggestions for a replacement. One forumer in the Middle East replied that until she got her alcohol licence she just soaked the sultanas in tea. "Of course!" I thought. I have a tea loaf recipe that I've made time and time again which requires you do the same and the tea gives it a lovely flavour. Using tea instead of rum/bourbon makes this a very affordable recipe and I confess to actively checking out the reduced section of the supermarket for reduced overipe bananas purely to make this.

And the all-important factor is that my two men love this. I like it toasted with butter as breakfast, JT gets it just plain at any time of the day and Daddy likes a slice buttered in his lunchbox. It would make a great dessert too, slightly re-heated with a scoop of ice-cream.



BANANA TEA BREAD

Ingredients:

100g sultanas
A cup of strong hot black tea
175g Plain Flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar*
2 large eggs
4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed
60g chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and floured or with a paper insert

Serving Size : Makes 8–10 slices

Method:

1. Put the sultanas into a smallish bowl and pour over the hot tea. All the sultanas should be covered. If there's not enough tea just add some more boiling water. Set aside while you go ahead with the rest.

2. Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3.

3. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.

4. 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 walnuts and vanilla extract. Drain the sultanas and stir them in too. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.

5. Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1–11/4 hours. When it’s ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.



*I have made this with caster, granulated and brown sugar and there is little difference. I found that using granulated provided a slightly cumblier texture.

Fennel Bread

Well, the bread making experiment continues and yesterday it was Fennel Bread. This was provoked by two things: (i) the desire I have to use up some close-to-expiry fennel seeds and (ii) the urge to try out a supposedly very simple bread recipe (http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/ ). I must confess I was a sceptic about the bread recipe. You’re always told to treat bread dough with care, commonly, “Treat it as you would a woman…..” This recipe seemed too simple to be a success but a success it was! And the fennel was wonderfully aromatic. Now perhaps in a few years time when I have mastered the art of bread making at home I will look back and think this is a poor alternative to the loaf that comes from a perfectly kneaded , elastic dough but as yet I’m not that discerning. Warm, soft with a crispy crust, it was the perfect accompaniment to my baby version of spag bol and both daddy and my little one loved it!

Fennel Bread

Ingredients:

One 7g sachet yeast

1 tbsp table salt

3 cups of room temp. water

6½ cups of plain flour
1 tbsp fennel seeds lightly crushed

Method:

1. In a large bowl mix all the ingredients together using a big wooden spoon (the mixture will be quite tacky). Cover with cling film and leave out for about two hours to rise (or store immediately in the fridge for a long rise).

2. Pre-heat oven to 230° and place a roasting dish (or some other metal dish that will hold a cup of water) in the bottom of the oven. Grease and then dust with flour two 2lb loaf tins.

3. Divide half the mixture into each tin (no kneading required). Make sure you keep dusting dough with flour while shaping so doesn't stick. Putting it into a loaf tin requires minimal shaping so I just floured my hands and the top of the dough before I took it out of the bowl.

4. Let it rest for about half hour or until it's a bit puffy. It won't double in size but it puffs up really well in the oven.

5. Dust the top with flour (and a few more fennel seeds if you wish) then slash the dough down the middle. Immediately place in the oven and as you do so throw a cup of hot water into the roasting dish in the bottom of your oven and quickly close the door.

6. Bake for about 50mins-1hr. Check by removing a loaf from its tin and knocking the bottom with your knuckles. If it sounds hollow it’s ready.