Banana Bread

So, I decided I wanted to try making bread.  I haven’t attempted it yet (I’m scared of using yeast and leaving the dough to do whatever it is that you leave it to do) however, Simon (the boyfriend) liked this idea so off we went and purchased a loaf tin.  I had bananas to use up, so I found this old recipe that I salvaged from a magazine years ago and we gave it a go.  Easy peasy too.

Makes 2 loaves.      Ready in 1 hour 10 minutes.

1 ½ cups flour
1 cup wholemeal flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
pinch of salt
2 eggs, lightly beaten
395g can sweetened condensed milk
50g butter, melted
2 tablespoons golden syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 ripe bananas, mashed

Preheat the oven to 160˚C.  Line the bases of two 21cm x 11cm loaf tins.  Combine the flours, baking soda and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Beat together the eggs, condensed milk, butter, golden syrup, vanilla essence and banana in a separate bowl.  Add to the flour mixture and mix gently until well combined.
Spoon into the loaf tins and bake for 50-55 minutes or until golden brown and a cake tester inserted in the centre come out clean.  Cool in the tin before turning out.

Now, apparently these loaves are great iced in tangy lemon icing.  We were too impatient to wait and make some!  Mix together 2 tablespoons butter (melted), the juice of a small lemon and 1-2 cups sifted icing sugar together until smooth.  Add more juice and sugar as needed.  Ice the loaves and leave for 30 minutes to set.

Simon has fallen in love with our new loaf tin and has made a fantastic looking lemon loaf without me :(  I will try and get him to make one again in the weekend because a) I love lemony things and want to try it, and b) so I can share it with you!

Oh, and thank you Simon for taking the photos for this post and of the cupcakes at The Cake Stall in the previous post :)