Banana and Honey Loaf

I absolutely love fresh fruit. The taste. The colour. The vibrancy. But unfortunately that love sometimes leads me to overbuy fruit. As was the case recently with a very large (much larger than one might expect for our little household) bunch of bananas just on the verge of turning from green to yellow. They seemed a great buy, particularly as their shelf life would be relatively long given that they weren’t yet quite ripe. I put some of the bananas out on the counter with the other fruit and the rest in the cupboard. Then we went away for the weekend. And by the time we came back and I remembered the bananas it was hard to remember them as partly green. In fact, they were heading far too rapidly towards brown. Still, when life throws you over-ripe bananas…bake something! I originally planned to make my Mum’s banana bread but when I realised I didn’t actually have her recipe I got creative. This banana and honey loaf is possibly the healthiest thing this blog has ever seen (though I won’t say will ever see…). It is a bit of a cross between a cake and bread and is great for breakfast. This recipe makes enough batter for a small loaf tin (the base of one I used is 6 x 3.5 inches and the sides tapered outwards quite a bit towards the top). The cup measurements are based on a 250 ml mug. If you want to make it a bit more exciting, add in a handful of frozen blueberries, a handful of nuts or a handful of chocolate chips. I added frozen blueberries to mine.

What you’ll need:

1 egg

2 dessertspoons of honey

1 1/2 small bananas, mashed (about 1/2 cup of mashed banana)

1 1/2 cups self-raising flour

Pinch salt

What to do:

1. Pre-heat the oven to gas mark 5 and grease the pan.

2. Beat the egg with an electric beater.

3. Beat in the honey. To get it off the honey off the spoon easily, first dip the spoon into boiling water.

4. Beat in the bananas (yes, I know this picture is extremely visually unappealing).

5. Sift the flour and salt into the mixture and fold in. If you add any extra ingredients, now is the time to add them.

6. Put the batter into the tin and spread it into the corners – the batter will be quite sticky. Bake the loaf in the middle of the oven for 20-30 minutes until browned on top. The loaf won’t be springy like cake. A skewer should come out mostly clean, with perhaps a bit of moist batter on the end.

7. Remove from tin and cool. If you want a crispier crust, put the loaf back into the oven on a baking tray (not in the loaf pan) for a few minutes.