Weight Watchers Banana Bread

Let us call a cake a cake. Banana 'bread' is cake. It is unashamedly cake. It's not even straddling the fence between cake and bread like say Brioche or Stollen. It is a cake. Someone suggested that perhaps it's called bread because it is baked in a loaf tin. But the problem with that argument is that so many other cakes are baked in loaf tins. Most of the pound cake family is baked in loaf tins and we don't go round calling them bread willy nilly.


You might be wondering why I'm so hung up on whether it is called banana 'bread' or 'cake'. What's in a name eh? I'll tell you. You call something 'bread' and in my opinion, that means it is fine to eat several slices of it for breakfast. I mean, I've only just come to accept that despite the fact that muffins are called 'muffins' instead of 'cake', there ain't no hiding the fact that they're fatty cake fully of chocolate chips and toffee and banana and all sorts of other calorific goodness naughty stuff and hence, I should avoid them for breakfast. 


Which is why I love this recipe. While it is called a bread, it is actually a cake. It doesn't taste diet-y even though it only contains about half the butter and sugar of this other recipe, it is easy to make and a great way to get rid of very ripe old bananas and best of all, I can eat a slice or two for breakfast!


Recipe adapted from Weight Watchers UK


Propoints per slice - 5
Makes 12 slices


Ingredients
5 sprays cooking spray, calorie controlled
200g self raising flour
1/4 tsp bicarbonate of soda
75g butter, softened
75g dark brown sugar
1 level tablespoon honey
2 eggs, beaten
2 medium ripe bananas, mashed
100g sultanas
1 tsp vanilla


 - Spray a 450g loaf tin with cooking spray. Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180C/350F
 - Combine the flour and bicarbonate of soda
 - Cream the butter for 2-3 minutes until light and fluffy. Add the sugar and beat for another 2 minutes. 

Add the honey and beat for 1 more minute 
 - Add the eggs and vanilla and beat for 2 more minutes
 - Fold in the flour until combined. (Do not beat)
 - Fold in the mashed bananas and sultanas. 
 - Spoon into the tin

Bake for 45 minutes - 1 hour until a skewer inserted comes out clean. (Check after 45 minutes and using your judgment, every 5 or 10 minutes thereafter)
 - Turn out and cool on a rack
Note
Very ripe bananas are best for all banana breads as they have a natural sweetness and mash easily

Chocolate Banana Bread

I'm afraid I won't be weaving a funny anecdote about my banana bread making experience. Nor will I be facing any challenges in the process, or overcoming any obstacles to make the best darn chocolate banana bread EVER! Nope, my life is not always that exciting. You'll find this hard to believe but sometimes my baking adventures aren't adventures at all! So here goes:

Once upon a Sunday morning during that time of year known as summer to the rest of the world (it's true other UK dwellers, it's not just a myth! Some countries have sun and warmth for more than just 1 month of the year!!), that time of year where my usually empty diary finds itself choc-a-bloc, I found myself at home unexpectedly one weekend. Me, three ripe bananas and a craving for some home-baked goodness! Naturally, my mind went to banana bread, and even more naturally, my fingers flicked through the pages of Nigella's 'How to be a Domestic Goddess'. Ta daa... there it was; Banana Bread! And then my eyes spied at the bottom of the page a variation; Chocolate Chip Banana Bread. Even better. But due to extreme laziness, I couldn't be bothered to go out and buy chocolate chips so I met Nigella's recipe halfway and settled for chocolate banana bread. As I was in a 'quantity over quality' type of mood, I made two loaves with the recipe and while they were very good, it would have been much better if I had made just one and had those perfectly tall, square slices that a good loaf cake produces. 

The recipe below is for banana bread with the chocolate chip variation included at the bottom. Enjoy!

Ingredients

100g sultanas

75ml bourbon or dark rum

175g plain flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125g unsalted butter, melted

150g sugar (I used brown)

2 large eggs

4 small, very ripe bananas (about 300g weighed without skin), mashed

60g chopped walnuts

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

23 x 13 x 7cm loaf tin, buttered and floured

Makes 8 - 10 slices

1 - Put the sultanas and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil. Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.

2 - Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3 and get started on the rest.

3 - Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well. 

4 - In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract.

5 - Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. 

6 - Scrape into the loaf tin and bake in the middle of the oven for 1 to1 1/4 hours. When it is ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.

For Chocolate Chip Variation: Replace 25g of the flour with good cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and add 100g of dark chocolate cut into smallish chunks. You can also use chocolate chips.