Banana Bread with Toasted Walnuts and Dark Chocolate

Believe it or not, this recipe comes from a leaflet I found in the Guardian called 'quick and healthy snacks'. To me that says 'eat me'. It's a booklet done by Tomasina Miers, who just so happens to have a very wonderful Mexican restaurant (make that plural) in London and very appetising Mexican cook book. It turns out she is also a dab hand at 'quick and healthy snacks'. Banana bread is very important to me, so I'm not about to share a recipe with you that I think is under par. For the best part of my life I have loathed the banana, except in 'bread' form. As it so happens I now love banana, so the bread form is even more enticing to me. Add some dark chocolate and toasted walnuts and you have a grown up version that lasts for days and certainly fills the elevenses slot without too much guilt. The only change I have made is to add more banana, I tend to use three when Tomasina's recipe calls for only 2 medium bananas, in weight: 250g. It's great for packed lunches as well as tea time. Just don't give it to someone with an allergy to nuts.

Ingredients:


125g softened, unsalted butter

120ml semi-skimmed milk

1 tsp lemon juice

150g walnuts

250g plain flour

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1/2 tsp cinnamon

A couple of pinches of ground allspice

200g dark brown soft sugar

2 large eggs, beaten

3 very ripe bananas roughly mashed

A few drops of vanilla essence

150g 70% dark chocolate, roughly chopped

2 small loaf tins*

Preheat the oven to 180C and leave the butter out to soften. Mix the milk with the lemon juice and leave aside (this will curdle, and give it thickness). If you have good non-stick tins then all you need to do is line the bottoms with some parchment paper, keep the parchment in place with some dabs of butter.




Put the walnuts on a baking tray and warm through the oven until they are lightly toasted, about 5-8 mins then leave to cool. Sift the dry ingredients - flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and allspice - into a bowl. In another, larger, bowl, cream the butter and half the sugar until pale, light and fluffy. I am still of the wooden spoon school so just make sure you're arms are up to it.




Gradually add the eggs and a tablespoon of the flour mixture, then beat in the rest of the sugar, tha bananas and the vanilla essence. Best the remaining dry ingredients into the mixture adding the milk bit by bit.




Roughly chop the walnuts and fold into the mixture with the chocolate. Pour into the loaf tins and bake in the oven for 50 minutes or until a metal skewer comes out clean. Leave to cool in the tins for 10 minutes then turn out of the tins on to metal racks.




*I only have one small loaf tin so I split the batter into the loaf tin and into muffin trays. When you are using baking soda or power you can't really let the mixture sit for over an hour while one tin bakes. Take the muffins out (depending on size of muffins) after 20-25 or so mins.

London Food Festival

I recently went to a food festival in Earl's Court in London and it had to be one of the best days I have spent in a long time. It seems to me the only place where you can drink neat gin from 11 am onwards. I wouldn't recomend it on an empty stomach but from the moment you walk in, there are samples and cooking demonstrations galore.

A few things that I came away from the day were the above. I have already sung the praises of sloe gin and tasting the things that Sloe Motion did were so amazing. I will be making a much bigger batch this year. Edinburgh Gin may have just replaced Hendrick's as my favourite gin, it's not just whisky that the Scots do extraordinarily well. This gin is so rich in flavour and there isn't a burning throat in sight. If you can find some, get your hands on it. Conversely, their whisky is best left to their compatriots in the industry. Lastly: Love Your Larder is a way of getting all of these things which you can only get at farmers markets or foodie festivals straight to your door. Worth checking out as the guy on the stall was so lovely I only hope his fledgling business goes well.

I also went to an art fair that weekend. I'd say it was a rather good weekend.

Blue Mondays

I am not going to even begin to take credit for this. Lucy Young, protoge of the wonderful Mary Berry, is a great cook and recipe writer in her own right. Long established in the Aga community and beyond, she ensures all of her recipes cater to conventional ovens also; much to our benefit. This blueberry crumble cake is more of a blueberry-muffin-meets-shortbread than your standard cake. If you're anything like me, then you would think that is a good thing.

300g (10oz) self-raising flour

1 tsp baking powder (be sure to use just one measured tsp as if you use too much the cake will rise too much then cave in the center)

2 large eggs, beaten

Grated zest of 1 small lemon (if you are a thorough grater then you may only need half a lemon)

150g (5oz) unsalted butter, melted

200g (10oz) blueberries

For the crumble topping:

75g (3oz) self-raising flour

40g (1 1/2oz) unsalted butter, softened

75g (3oz) demerera sugar

25g (1oz) semolina (although this seems like very little, trust me it's worth adding)

You will need a deep, 20cm (8in) diameter spring form tin. Line the base with a disk of parchment and butter the sides well.

To make the cake, measure the flour, baking powder and caster sugar into a mixing bowl. Stir in the beaten eggs. Add the lemon zest and melted butter and beat again with a wooden spoon until combined. Although the recipe doesn't state it, I'm going to tell you: this is a very dry mix. It almost has the consistency of a very wet cookie or shortbread mixture so don't be alarmed if it doesn't resemble cake batter.

Spread two thirds of the mixture into the base of the tin (you may need to 'push' rather than 'spread') and scatter over the blueberries. Then spoon the rest of the mixture on top and try and leave a smooth, even surface. If there are the odd gaps, do not worry.

To make the crumble topping, mix together all the ingredients in a bowl and rub together with your fingertips to give a fine crumble mixture. Sprinkle this over the top of the cake (it will also serve to fill in any gaps that may be left showing the odd blueberry or two).

Bake in a preheated oven (160C /320 F for a fan oven) be sure not to have it too hot or the sides will go too crunchy and the center will stay gooey, too low and the whole cake will become rather hard. Bake for about 1 1/4 until golden brown and when the centre is tested with a skewer it comes out clean.

Remove from the tin and paper. Leave to cool slightly as the centre stays hot for some time, but try to serve warm. It is an amazing afternoon tea cake or post-lunch desert. I would serve it with pouring cream or cold vanilla custard.