Banana Bread

I find banana bread so comforting and cosy. It's not really a bread but it's not really cake either, it's somewhere in the delicious middle. A slice or two works great for a weekend breakfast with a big mug of tea, an afternoon nibble with a coffee or an post dinner treat on the sofa. I love eating it still a little warm from the oven, just as it is. My dad likes to eat banana bread with butter, which I find slightly sacrilege, but each to their own I guess! This is the Avoca recipe from their 1st cookbook, which I love and peruse through all the time. I only slightly adapted to the recipe to suit my taste, I use an organic wholegrain spelt flour and lessen the amount of sugar specified because if your bananas have been sitting on the kitchen table and getting very dark for quite a while the natural sugars will give plenty of sweetness.

This is a really simple recipe to put together and is can easily be adapted to your taste. To make it a bit more decadent you could add in some chopped nuts, walnuts or pecans would work really well, or maybe some chocolate chips or even peanut butter chips (my sister has recently become obsessed with these). You could also add in more spices if you liked, nutmeg and clove would be gorgeous along side the cinnamon.

I would really recommend using a wholegrain flour (I like spelt best but regular wholegrain is delicious too) instead of plain flour as it gives the loaf a nutty flavour, nicer texture and also makes it a bit healthier. I like to reserve a spoonful of sugar from the recipe to sprinkle on top of the loaf before it goes into the oven so it gets a lovely crunchy top. Although you may not associate banana bread with spring, with the awful weather Ireland is getting at the moment (rain, hail and snow storms in March!) it makes a gloomy day a bit brighter.