Hey Borough…
I love Borough. Borough is just my type of heaven, it’s got the market, the southbank, the Tate modern, the shard, and it’s where Richard’s flat used to be before we moved in together. One day, when we make our millions, we’ll live there!!
We used to nip out early on a saturday and stroll around the market, buying fruit and veg, me dragging Richard to the cheese stalls for free samples and maybe sneakily buying some… Richard does not like cheese! Which, to someone who is from a family of cheese lovers, is a little odd!
So, as my back and leg had been playing up and I had to come home early from work on friday, I wanted to get out and have a bit of a walk this weekend. The Merge festival is on and I wanted to go back to the market, so we jumped on a bus to Borough! We’d normally spend the day there, drinking cider, pottering about, eating all the goodies the market has to offer… but, at the moment, because of my leg I can’t drink, or walk very far. We settled for smooties in the sun and a small walk around the market stalls instead. As much as I love borough market, if you don’t get there early on a saturday, it’s heaving! So I’d recommend either going in the week, or early as possible on Saturday morning, especially if you want to buy anything!
The smoothies were delicious, and after getting all the ingredients we could, we decided to head home and attempt some earl grey banana bread! (and watch the England/Australia rugby game, the less said about that the better…) This banana bread did not go to plan, we used the new Jamie Oliver Everyday Superfood’s recipe, and found it quite difficult! Banana bread should never be difficult, thats the beauty of it! http://www.jamieoliver.com/shop/cookbooks/
Has anyone else attempted it? Let me know if it works for you, and what you did to make it work!! I’m clueless to what we did wrong!
As I’m ridiculously stubborn when it comes to such things, we (I) decided to switch to Mary Berry’s recipe (From The Great British Bake Off Big Book Of Baking) and reattempt today. But adding the pecan’s and dried dates from Jamies recipe. Which turned out great! I totally recommend this recipe, although it’s not as superfoodie or as good for you as Jamie’s, atleast it actually rose in the oven and baked!
INGREDIENTS
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125g unsalted butter, softened
150g light brown muscovado sugar
2 medium eggs, beaten to mix
250g plain flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
good pinch of salt
3 small bananas
50g dried pecans
50g dried and de-stoned dates
1 x 900g loaf tin, greased with butter
HINTS
Heat the oven to 180˚c/160˚c fan/350˚F/Gas 4. Blend the dried pecans and the de-stoned dates together in a blender, and leave for later.
Put the butter and sugar into a large mixing bowl and beat well with a wooden spoon or electric mixer until fluffy. Scrape down the side of the bowl then beat in the eggs a little at a time. (Dont worry if the mixture starts to curdle slightly).
When all the eggs have been added, sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into the bowl. Gently stir in with the wooden spoon until the flour has almost gone, then mix in the blended pecans and dates.
Mash the bananas in a seperate bowl with a fork– they should still be rather lumpy than a smooth puree. Add to the bowl, and stir in. Transfer the mixture to the tin and spread evenly.
Bake in the oven for about 1 hour until golden and a wooden cocktail stick inserted into the centre comes out clean. Leave to firm up in the tin for about 15 minutes before lifting out on to a wire rack to finish cooling. Once cold, wrap the bread in foil or greaseproof paper and eat within 3 days.
I’m really happy with how this recipe turned out, especially as the Jamie one was such a fail! I’m planning to take it as a treat for work lunches this week. (really hoping it will last more than 3 days!) Also, as it’s bananas I can just about kid myself that it’s healthy….
What’s your favourite banana bread recipe? Where do you think we went wrong with the Jamie recipe? Feel free to comment and share your favourite Autumn bakes!
