Banana Bread

 

It was almost midnight and I was dead tired after a fantastic trip to Visoko, a small town nearby Sarajevo. I had seen a lot and I wanted to crown the day by something special. I noticed the ripe bananas on the counter and I remembered how much I had wanted to try the banana bread for the last few weeks. I used John Barrowman's recipe on BBC Food and the bread came out exactly the same as it was shown in the photograph on the website. The recipe was easy and gave a perfect result. My contribution to this wonderful bread was two teaspoons of ground cinnamon. Early in the morning, the inspirational smell of cinnamon and bananas filled the whole house while the others were fast asleep. The taste? My colleagues in the office devoured their slices with an expression of pleasure on their faces this morning. The banana bread made my day.

Ingredients

285 g plain flour

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

110 g butter, plus extra for greasing

225 g caster sugar

2 free-range eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

85 ml buttermilk (or normal milk mixed with 1 1/2 teaspoon lemon juice or vinegar)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 180C.

2. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.

3. In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.

4. Add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well. Fold in the flour mixture.

5. Grease 20cmX12.5cm loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin.

6. Transfer to the oven and bake for an hour, or until well-risen and golden-brown.

7. Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before servings.