This take on a banana & walnut loaf was pressed into my hands by a kindly host in France many years ago. A takeaway from a trip that put slabs of this amongst early mornings & settling beneath the stars.
It’s a cake masquerading as a loaf, perhaps hopeful of luring those to the table who usually shirk the sugary stuff. Moistened by dairy, flavoured with sticky brown bananas and sweetened further with demerara, it catapults me back to dusky evenings on her terrace in rural Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the landscape gently falling away and the hum of birds I didn’t recognise shouting their bon nuits from the trees. She tugged the walnuts needed from a sturdy little tree in her vast gardens, still damp and soft in their gnarled kernels. The bananas need to be impossibly soft and brown she advised, if the end result is to mimic hers.
I make this loaf often, sometimes for nostalgia, other times for a picnic. It’s a safe bet mostly, unless the Aga is being stroppy. Give it a try and I hope you too can taste a tiny pocket of the french countryside captured in its damp sponge, a full sun not yet cranked up to the heat of summer nonetheless encouraging the first pot of tea to be taken outdoors with a buttered slice for company.
Banana and Walnut Loaf
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* 375g plain flour * 125g sugar - I use Demerara sugar
* ½ tsp baking powder * ¾ tsp bicarb of soda * a good pinch of salt
* 125g softened butter * 75 ml buttermilk/sour milk or just use 5 tbsp of milk or 3 of creme fraiche
* 250g bananas, mashed * 2 eggs * 1 tsp vanilla extract * 150g chopped walnuts
Turn on the oven to 180°C. Line a largish loaf tin with greaseproof paper, acknowledging this is as much a part of the recipe as that which follows.
Sift together the dry ingredients. Soften the butter with the paddle blade attachment of a stand mixer until soft and creamy. Add the milk, yoghurt or creme fraiche (or a mix of milk & creme fraiche) followed by the eggs and vanilla extract.
With the blade still gently turning add all the dry ingredients apart from the walnuts, and combine. Remove the bowl from the mixer stand and fold in the nuts. Spoon the mixture - which should be of a thick but dropping consistency - into the prepared loaf tin.
Bake for thirty or so minutes (a skewer inserted into the middle should come out clean albeit with a few crumbs clinging)
Turn out of the tin and allow to cool. I don't ice it, but if you wish, you could use a simple sugar & water icing.
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