Banana Solutions

Problem... 10 rotting bananas and only one person in the house who eats bananas.

Solution... Banana Loaf.

Do you have a banana problem in your house too!? This recipe might help...

You will need...

270g of soft brown sugar

2 eggs

200g of mashed bananas

280g plain flour

1 teaspoon of baking powder

1 teaspoon of bicarb of soda

1 teaspoon of cinnamon (I got to use the cinnamon that I got from Zanzibar for the first time!)

140g of butter (melted)

What you do...

1. Pop your oven onto 170*C

2. Beat the eggs and sugar together until nice and smooth

3. Beat in the mashed bananas

4. Add flour, baking powder, bicarb of soda, and cinnamon to the mixture and beat until well combined

5. Pour in the butter and mix well again.

6. Put the mixture into a loaf tin and pop it in the oven for around an hour

yummy, chocolaty, goodness

You know that feeling when you just what to bake. Create something yummy and then enjoy eating it. Well the other day I had that exact feeling. 


A friend made these flipping gorgeous brownies for me and my housemates a few years back when we were at university, and I remember asking for the recipe. She'd emailed it to us, but until 2 days ago this recipe had been sitting in the documents of my laptop, not being anything more than a typed page. 


And so when I got this desire just to bake something, I decided to root out this brownie recipe and give it a go. And not to big myself up or anything, but my end product was pretty darn good! ...and that's even after I forgot to put in the extra chocolate drops and nuts (whoops!). The tin is pretty much empty now...or at least it will be as soon as I finish this post because I'm going to go and eat the last piece!

For those of you who love to bake I thought I'd pop the recipe on here for you...enjoy :)


Stuff you'll need:

90g (3oz) plain chocolate (I used normal milk chocolate)
150g (5oz) butter & extra for greasing
125g (4oz) plain flour
15g (1/2oz) coco powder
300g (10oz) soft light brown sugar (I just used granulated because we had no soft brown sugar in the house!)
1 pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 tea sp of vanilla extract/ essence
½ table sp baking powder
100g Chocolate chips (you could use nuts instead of choc chips if you prefer)


What you need to do:
1. Preheat oven to 180oc (350 F/ Gas mark 4). Grease & line baking tine with grease proof paper 
2. Break chocolate into a bowl & add the butter, Melt the butter & chocolate over a sauce pan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally.
3. Remove and allow chocolate to cool slightly. Sieve the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder and salt into a separate bowl. 4. In a third bowl beat the eggs, then add sugar and vanilla extract. Stir the ingredients until just combined.
5. Fold the beaten chocolate into the beaten egg mixture. Then fold the flour mixture in, there should be no lumps. Fold in the extra chocolate chips or nuts at this point too.
6. Put the mixture into the tin, smooth top & bake for 25minutes. It sometimes takes longer so check using a knife and make sure it comes out clean.
7. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.
8. Make a brew. Grab some brownie. Sit down, relax, and enjoy.