No Fuss Banana Bread

Since returning back from my trip to Jamaica last February I have immersed myself in lots of traditional cooking and rediscovering my roots through food. Growing up in England, our culture can get lost so spending time reading my nanna’s old recipe books and speaking to family about how to cook different dishes has really rekindled my love of cooking, eating and sharing Jamaican food with friends and family. As a child I would often spend weekends with my grandparents and my nanna would cook traditional Jamaican fare - my favourites were and still are plantain, fried dumplings, cornmeal porridge, Saturday soup, chicken with rice and peas. Some foods were definitely an acquired taste such as avocado pear, Guinness punch and carrot juice but are flavours that I enjoy as an adult.

During my down time I have taken to researching the foods of Jamaica and recipe testing for my cake menu. The following recipe has become a favourite of mine and everyone I give a slice of this cake to has enjoyed it so I figured I would share this recipe with everyone. I have reworked it slightly so that it is a quick and easy one bowl mix. I use a stand mixer to put this together but you can use a hand mixer. I have also tried using plant based, dairy-free alternatives to butter and milk and this works perfectly well too. If you don’t have a loaf pan, any other cake tin or oven proof dish is absolutely fine. I would recommend lining your cake pan with greaseproof paper to ensure that you can remove the cake in one piece. After cooling I cut up the cake and enjoyed a piece with a cold glass of Guinness punch.

Banana Bread, taken from ‘Traditional Jamaican Cookery’ by Norma Benghiat

Method

Pre-heat oven to 180/ gas mark 4.

Cream the butter and sugar till pale and glossy.

Add the egg and bananas and mix till incorporated.

Add the flour, baking powder, salt, nutmeg, mix well until incorporated.

Mix in the milk and vanilla extract. The mixture should be thick but not stiff. At this point you can add chocolate chips or nuts.

Pour mixture into greased loaf tin or other cake tin.

Bake for up to 1 hour, check after 40 minutes by sticking a knife into the cake. Your cake is done if the knife comes out clean, not done if there is cake mix on the knife therefore bake .

Ingredients

250g sugar

125g butter/ dairy free spread

1 egg

3 over ripe bananas

300g plain flour

3 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp nutmeg/ cinnamon/ mixed spice

125ml milk / dairy free milk

1 tsp vanilla extract

I’d love to hear about your food memories as a child, let me know in the comments!