RECIPE | BANANA BREAD

I have been planning on making banana bread for let's say...the last 3 months? I always eat my banana's too quickly though and never manage to let them get to the brown, blackened mushy stage. Alas - coming home this Easter I was in luck! A surplus of banana's all speckled and freckled - so to my joy I decided to whip up two different variations in these cute little loaf tins I found in our cupboard.

Basic Banana Bread recipe is as follows...

Ingredients:

140g of Light Margarine (I used Flora Light)

100g of Caster Sugar

30g Honey

2 Eggs

1 tsp Vanilla Essence

1 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

2 large or 3 small-medium sized over-ripe Bananas

* I made two different types of Banana Bread - I added these extras with the mashed banana:

(1) Dark Chocolate and Nutty Granola - 75g of chopped Dark Chocolate and 50g of Granola (with a little extra to sprinkle on top).

(2) Maple Syrup, Oats and Mixed Seeds - 2tbsps of Maple Syrup, 20g of Oats, 20g of Oatbran and 3 tbsps of Mixed Seeds.

Instructions:

1.  Preheat your oven to 180 and grease and line a 2lb loaf tin (or two 1lb loaf tins) with baking parchment.

2.  Cream together the butter, vanilla essence and the sugar in a mixing bowl (preferably with an electric whisk) until light and fluffy and the mixture has turned from a yellow to a cream colour.

3.  Beat in the eggs and then fold in the flour and baking powder - add any extras at this point.

4.  Place the mixture into the loaf tin(s) and bake in the centre shelf of the oven for 40-50 minutes.