Mums know best.

Being home has reminded me that, yes, my Mum does know best when it comes to cooking. The number of times that I just want to ask her for a little bit of advice when I'm cooking up a culinary delight and she's not there makes me wish I'd written all her tips down somewhere. Well, I'd like to share some of her recipes with you. Plus, she's been nagging asking me if she could make a contribution to my blog for some time now, so here's her chance! She makes a pretty amazing banana bread loaf and here it is. Mum, over to you, my first guest blogger!

"I have been so impressed with Rachel’s baking blog and as I was baking this weekend, I wondered if she allowed guest writers?"       I do!!

"One of my standard bakes is Banana Loaf (no French connection – sorry!) and as we were having friends round for coffee followed by a walk I thought it would be a good thing to eat before exercise to give us energy and a bit of a healthy aspect (bananas and nuts, 5 a day?) (Actually our friends couldn’t make it due to snowy conditions so we had to eat the cake ourselves!)"

"The recipe I have is in my ‘old recipe’ file so I guess it’s from the mid-nineties. It’s from my sister-in–law, Lorraine and was given to me along with a Carrot Cake recipe – more healthy options! There is also a tip from my other sister-in-law, Anita, who introduced me to freezing ripe bananas when you have too many, so they can be used in recipes. I think the recipe actually works better with frozen bananas, perhaps because of the moisture content. That may explain why the bananas in the photo look rather black and not too appetising!"

Banana Bread Loaf    serves 10

Ingredients: 

200g Self-Raising Flour

1/4 tsp Mixed Spices

100g Butter or Margarine

400g Ripe Bananas (before peeling)

150g Caster Sugar

80g Chopped Pecans (or whatever nuts of your choice!)

2 Lightly Beaten Eggs 

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Line a loaf tin with greaseproof paper.
3. Rub butter and flour together.
4. Mash bananas and add eggs.
5. Pour the wet ingredients into the butter and flour mixture and mix. Don't over mix.
6. Add the rest of the ingredients and mix again.
7. Pour into the loaf tin and cook for 1 hour 10 minutes.
8. It should be ready when a skewer comes out cleanly but this is nomrally longer than 1 hour 10 minutes! 

"It's very easy to make and, of course, goes well with a cup of tea!"

I'd definitely recommend making this delicious banana loaf. It's made from the sort of ingredients that you tend to just have in anyway and literally takes about 5 minutes to make! Thanks Mum...you have permission to make another contribution sometime in the future!