Eric's Bread

I like to think I'm quite open with my food tastes, willing to try any local delicacy or dish that comes my way.

Transpires I'm not. Even the thought of aubergines makes me gip (a northern term I've learnt recently) and don't get me started on bananas.

In adult life, I realise my brain was impervious to the not so subtle stylings of messrs Popeye and Banana Man in my youth. My mum can probably testify that I never once requested these nutritious food stuffs after watching the latest episode, preferring to laugh moronically at the latest joke by Penguin (incidentally, watch this about the American food industry, the reverberations from which are felt across the west - fascinating).

Bananas have to be perfectly ripe before I even look at them. When those brown flecks appear, it's game over.

But this weekend, I thought no, you can do this, grow a pair garsh darn it and put these bananas to good use. So I did, and the below is my take on banana bread.

Ingredients

3 medium sized bananas

200 grams soft brown sugar

1 egg

75 grams of softened butter

tsp lemon juice

swift grating of nutmeg

170 grams of spelte flour

1 tsp bicarbonate soda

pinch of salt

I'm not much of a baker as I'm too pig-headed to follow recipes, but you do need to be pretty precise with this.

Start by preheating your oven to 160c and lining a loaf tin with grease proof paper as in the pic above, greasing the other sides with butter (papering all the way around is an unnecessary faff, and this way makes it easy to lift the loaf out when it's ready).

Take a mixing bowl and mash your bananas, not quite within an inch of their lives, but so the majority of the larger lumps have gone. Add in the butter and sugar, stir some more, then add in your egg, bicarb and lemon juice.

Beat the mixture, making sure it's nice and airy, then gradually add the flour to form a smooth, beige paste (sounds disgusting, tastes nice!). Add in the nutmeg and a pinch of salt, one final stir, then pour into your tin. At this point, bowl-licking is optional.





Place the mixture in the oven, and check on it after 50 minutes. I say this as we've the worst oven in history, and things take forever to cook. But banana bread can take it's time so be patient. I rescued mine (again, not doing my baking credentials any favours), as the outside started looking cremated but still had a mushy centre, by turning the oven off and letting the loaf sit for a further 30 minutes. This did the trick and left me with a rather nice afternoon treat and a rather proud girlfriend.