Gogo's Banana Bread

I know I've been quiet the last couple weeks and I'm sorry for that. But its just been nuts. Between testing the ready-made meal business, catering events, attempting a correspondence course online and my actual day job, its all been a bit hectic. So this weekend I decided to take a step back and catch my breath. No. Cooking.

Yeah right.....

I managed a solid 2 hours of couch potatoeing before I got cold turkey and made a dash for the kitchen. The intermittent weather in Jozi inspired me to bring out an old favourite...My Gogo's banana bread.

Ingredients

• 3 ripe bananas (the riper the better. Think brown, mushy bruised guys)

• 1/3 cup melted butter

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• Pinch of salt

• 1/2 cup sugar (I don't like using too much sugar in my bread, but this is entirely to your taste preference. If you want your bread to be a bit sweeter, go for 3/4 to a 1 cup)

• 1 egg (beaten)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 2 tablespoons buttermilk

• 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C

• Grease a loaf pan (I prefer spray and cook, but butter is also great)

• Mash the bananas with a fork in a mixing bowl until they are smooth (I like to leave them a little bit textured, again, this is to your taste preference)

• Stir the melted butter into the bananas mix

• Mix in the baking soda, salt, sugar, egg and vanilla extract

• Finally, add the flour until your mixture is blended and smooth

• Pour the batter into the loaf pan and bake for 30-40 minutes (all ovens vary, but my gas oven generally requires a minute bake)

• To test whether your bread is cooked, insert a skewer or knife into the centre of the bread. If it comes out clean, your bread is cooked!

• Leave to cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then remove and serve warm with glorious lashings of butter!

Variations

• I love to add roughly chopped walnuts to my banana bread. It adds such wonderful texture

• Cooking this for your kids or wanting to up the anti? Why not add half a cup of chocolate chips? Your welcome....

• This mixture cooks just as nicely for banana cupcakes. To make cupcakes, take your cooking time down to about 20-25 minutes.

I hope you experience the pleasure I get both from cooking and eating my Gogo's banana bread. There's something indescribably special about cooking something that comes from a place of such love. Food does that for me. It grounds me and always takes me back to the special people in my life.

Tori

xxx