What do you do when you find these sitting at the bottom of your fruit bowl?
If you're a normal person, you say yeuch and bin them. If your slightly odd and tight as only a Scottish mum of three greedy children can be, you devise weird and wonderful ways to use them up. I settled on Banana Bread.
Banana Bread is straightforward enough to make but you needn't have all the ingredients in your cupboard. As with any recipe, don't go buying an ingredient especially for just one dish you don't know if you'll make again, improvise and use what you have. In this case, Dark Rum is required, which I have...I have every conceivable alcoholic beverage in my drinks cupboard, some so old I could probably sell them as antiques. Before I found the Dark Rum however, I spotted some Malibu...white rum..and would have used this or some whisky instead.
The alcohol is used to soak into the sultanas...I didn't have any so used raisins...and despite the alcohol content, it can be served to children as the amount is small and the fruit acid soaks up the alcohol making it plump and sweet.
Banana Bread (Nigella's Recipe from How to be a Domestic Goddess)
100g sultanas (or raisins)
75ml dark rum or bourbon
175g plain flour (Used some self-raising too as ran out)
2 teaspoons baking powder
Half teaspoon Bicarb of soda (Um...I forgot to put this in....)
Half teaspoon salt
125g unsalted butter, melted
150g sugar
2 large eggs
4 small, very ripe bananas (approx. 300g without skin) mashed
60g chopped walnuts (didn't have any so didn't use)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Loaf tin, buttered and lined...a paper insert would be pretty but I used parchment paper.
Put sultanas or raisins in saucepan with rum and bring to the boil. Take off heat, put lid on and leave for up to an hour to soak and then drain.
Preheat oven to 170oC/gas mark 3.
Put all dry ingredients (except sugar)into a bowl and mix.
In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat well. Beat in eggs one at a time then add mashed bananas. Then stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract.
Add the flour mixture a third at a time, stirring well each time. Scrape into loaf tin and bake in the middle of oven for 1-1 and a quarter hours. I checked mine with a thin skewer (or toothpick) after 1 hour...it should come out cleanish...and it did. If not, put back in.
Leave to cool. This is one that really needs to cool as it needs to set a bit.
Serve with whatever you like...butter, jam or Nutella. I had jam as did Brian, Lucy ran away screaming, Fraser was out with Sam and Kieran and there is enough left for breakfast. Hurrah!
Edited to add: winners of the wee competition, gifts have been sent! Let me know when you receive. Tammi, yours will go next week as I only just got your address. Thank you peeps!
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