We are thrilled our youngest daughter, Sophie, is forever walking around with a Be-Ro Home Recipes book (eternal thanks to Chinese Grandma) and requesting to bake. She’s so keen and enthusiastic. We are looking forward to the day she can bake unsupervised and serve us up some of her gorgeous banana tea bread for afternoon tea, complete with a cuppa. Well, she’ll have to earn her keep one day and pay us in kind for all the taxi services we have ahead of us!
The recipes are simple, clear and work every time. There’s no fancy ingredients that take an age to find on the supermarket shelves. The recipe book fits into my handbag with minimal fuss (and in the palm of Sophie’s hand). I have a few fancy recipe books on our shelves (all gifts) and though they are beautifully illustrated and, on the occasion I open them, filled with mouthwatering recipes, I’d much rather stick to the simple stuff.
So here it is, Sophie’s mouthwatering Banana Tea Bread (recipe, with thanks, from Be-Ro):
225g Self Raising Flour (we used wholemeal flour)
1 x 1.25ml bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
75g butter
175g caster sugar
2 medium eggs, beaten
450g bananas weighed with skin, peeled, mashed (Mashing is Sophie’s favourite!)
100g walnuts, chopped
1. Heat oven to 180°C, 350°F, Gas Mark 4. Grease and line the base of 1 kg loaf tin.
2. Mix together flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt.
3. Cream the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy, add the eggs a little at a time alternately with the flour.
4. Stir in the remaining flour, bananas and walnuts and place in prepared tin. Bake for about 1 1/4 hours. (Sophie’s very good at stirring too – keeps her busy for a while!)
5. Cool on a wire rack.
