Mission banana

The Boyfriend coaxed me into making him a breakfast treat - on an ordinary weekday! How did he do that, you wonder? Here's what happened: two bananas had been sitting in our fruit bowl for a while. At first, they behaved nicely but after a while, they started to dress in leopard print and their smell became overpowering. Action was needed. "You could take a banana to work tomorrow", I said to the Boyfriend in a chirpy voice. He flatly refused saying that these bananas would have to be cleverly disguised if he was to eat them. Not one to shy away from a (cooking-related) challenge, I decided to make a banana bread.

What I had in mind was a real bread, made with yeast and not the cake-like kind made with baking powder. I only had a recipe for the latter and couldn't find what I wanted on the internet. I vaguely remembered a Jamie Oliver recipe for banana bread, but I didn't have that either so I improvised and hoped for the best.

I took:

- 400g white flour
- 20g of fresh yeast (half a cube), dissolved (add a little sugar and stir)
- 8cl milk
- 50g butter, melted
- half a lightly beaten egg
- 3 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 banana, mashed
- 1 teaspoon brown sugar mixed with 1 teaspoon cinnamon for sprinkling.

I put the flour in a large bowl and made a well in the centre. I added all the ingredients and stirred to bring everything together. Then I kneaded the dough until it formed a soft and shiny ball. It remained a bit sticky, but I was afraid that adding more flour would make my bread too dry. I left the dough to rise for an hour, then formed eight buns which I placed in a pie tin, about 1cm apart. I wanted them to expand a little so that they would come together and form a loaf. I eggwashed (oh, how I love that expression) the buns with the remaining egg, sprinkled some sugar and cinnamon on top and baked them at 220° for 10 minutes and then at 180° for another 20 minutes.

The result was quite pleasing, I thought. Not too sweet, which makes the banana bread suitable breakfast fare - in my opinion, at least. Funnily enough, while the smell of the banana was unmistakeable while the bread was in the oven, the taste was not as strong as I would have thought, but very discreet. It went down a treat with the Boyfriend - and myself. Mission completed.