Blog

KB is back in town, KB is back in tooowwwn (sang to the tune of Thin Lizzy’s “The Boys are Back in Town”. It’s 2020 and it’s time I got back to blodgging. The plan is to share a couple of recipes a month, some old favourites, some new. Some sweet, some savoury. Might even do a tutorial here and there for the keen bakers out there. Each post will be kept short and sweet with easy to digest information and a delicious treat at the end of it for you!

On instagram I got asked what my favourite cake to eat was. I don’t eat cake that often because it’s not my favourite of the sweet treats, I prefer tarts and pastries if you were wondering. Oh and buns and doughnuts! BUT, if I do eat cake, I cannot resist banana bread. I like it to have bits of banana in it still, possibly some nuts, a bit of fruit perhaps, toasted with a cup of tea. Thanks! 

This is my go to recipe that I have added a streusel topping, because life needs more crumble in it in my opinion. I use brown butter as I think it should be used in all cakes whenever possible. Below I will tell you a little more about brown butter and how to make it. Feel free to swap the almonds in this recipe for your favourite nuts or leave them out if they’re not for you!

Brown Butter

Brown butter or , beurre noisette, has a deep nutty flavour. The process of heating the butter browns the milk solids and cooks off any water. Browning butter is an easy enough process. Place your butter in a largish saucepan and heat until brown! I suggest using a larger saucepan as when the butter melts it tends to bubble and can easily overflow if you are not watching it. I have had many a disaster using a saucepan that is too small and cleaning up greasy butter from your cooker is not a joyous task! Using a stainless steel pan or one without a non stick coating is best as you don’t lose the delicious browned milk solids.. Heat the butter over a med – high heat for 5-8 mins (depending on how high you have it) until you see the colour of your butter change from yellow to a caramelly brown. Your butter may seem quite frothy so you might not be able to see the colour of the butter underneath but you will see flecks of the browned milk solids rising to the top. Stir occasionally. 

Once the butter has browned you should immediately transfer it to a heatproof bowl as it will continue to brown in the hot pan and you don’t want burnt butter for this cake! DO NOT put it in a plastic container as it will melt, and yes I have done that! Make sure you scrape the pan and get all the brown bits. 

Bananas 

Brown butter can be stored in the fridge until you need to use it. Note that it will not become as hard a block of butter when it sets.

It is common knowledge that ripe bananas make the perfect banana bread. Yellow bananas aren’t quite as sweet, flavourful or soft. If you want to make banana bread but do not have ripe bananas there are a couple of tricks. Firstly, freeze them! Put unpeeled bananas in the freezer until the skin has blackened, this will take a few hours. The process of freezing softens the fruit and ripens it. However, you won’t quite get the same flavour as bananas ripened at room temperature. To use the bananas, simply let them defrost at room temperature (in a bowl as they expel water), peel and use. If you have ripe bananas and are not ready to use them they can also be frozen. I often buy bananas to ripen at room temp and freeze so I always have some to hand to bake banana bread! Another way to use yellow bananas before they have ripened is to macerate them with sugar. The sugar draws out liquid from the fruit by breaking down the cell walls. The liquid forms a syrup which adds to the sweetness of the fruit. As liquid has been removed from the fruit, it is softer making it easier to mash. To macerate bananas for this recipe, peel and cover with the amount of sugar listed in the ingredients plus 50g (you’ll need a little extra sugar as the bananas are not over ripe). Make sure the bananas have sugar all over them. You will start to see the liquid coming out and it’s best to let this process to continue for a at least of 2 hours. Your bananas will then be ready to use. But remember, don’t add more sugar!

Recipe

Serves: 10-12
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cooking Time: 1 hr
Difficulty: 2/5

Equipment
med – large saucepan
small mixing bowl
large mixing bowl
2lb loaf tin (lined)

Ingredients
185g unsalted butter
4-5 ripe bananas (about 300-350g peeled weight)
125g caster sugar
3 eggs
225g plain flour
3 tsp baking powder
2 tsp ground cinnamon (heaped)
70g almonds (chopped)
Streusel Topping
75g plain flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
60g unsalted butter (cold, cubed)
100g demerara sugar
30g flaked almonds

Method

1. Brown butter and set aside to cool (see above for instructions).
2. Preheat oven to 180c/160c fan.
3. Make the streusel; mix together flour and cinnamon in a small mixing bowl. Add butter and rub to form pea sized pieces. Stir through demerara sugar and flaked almonds. Set aside*
4. In a large mixing bowl mash the bananas. Add sugar and cooled brown butter and mix well
5. Add eggs and mix until fully incorporated.
6. To the wet mix add; flour, baking powder and cinnamon. Stir until combined. Fold in chopped almonds.
7. Pour cake mix into prepared tin and sprinkle streusel on top
8. Bake for 50-60mins until skewer comes out (mostly) clean**

Best served warm or toasted with butter!

Top Tips
* Is your streusel clumping together because your butter has got too warm? Pop it in the fridge for 20 mins to harden and then crumble over the cake mix before baking.

** You don’t want the skewer to come out completely clean as it will mean the cake is over baked a bit of moisture/grease is good!

KB x