Birthdays and Bread


Hello Hello again.

It's 11 at night and I'm feeling pretty (that's a nice way of saying it) tired but sort of at peace as I type in this silent night. I feel the days have shifted rather slowly, but at the same time quickly, no? Right now in this case, it has gone by a little too quickly that I missed a chance to post on my birthday! (and it's already half the term, yeesh)

As you student readers can probably relate, the middle of the school term can be rather hectic and on my birthday the misery happened. An English assignment was due the day after my birthday. Yep, it was pretty tumultuous trying to toss up between committing to my schoolwork or my Birthday (blogging wise - I was determined to celebrate). Sadly, it was the schoolwork.

Then...there was the weather. There had to be a cyclone on the weekend of my birthday. Mind you, I am COMPLETELY fine (living near the city has its perks) but it was full on pouring for almost the entirety of the two days. And being the stubborn person I was, I nevertheless still wanted to celebrate doing something for the matter. And so I did. Almost anyway. And I had to do it the day before my birthday. I baked a cake (Recipe here - it was amazing). Went to the movies and watched Kingsman (hellsyeah! It was awesome, highly recommend) and indulged in succulent, yummy pizza with the fam and some friends. Plus, there was presents! You can say it wasn't totally depressing and horrible. (the people and presents definitely made up for it!)

Sadly though, I didn't get to take any photos; for the fear of drowning my precious camera. And so, I decided to make up for it. (Birthday week it is!) So the next weekend, I baked a little something I thought that I might share. Just something light, small, comforting...and of course delicious too.

Oh would you look at those spotty ripe bananas...


B.A.N.A.N.A. B.R.E.A.D.

Yeh! I don't know about you but my family and I are crazy about bananas (maybe not my mum, but she loves it in cake/bread version). And as you can see from the pictures, I turned 16! (Gosh I'm getting old). Banana bread may be unspectacular to some, especially for a 16th, but in my preference, banana bread definitely overrules any fancy cake any day. Ya just don't diss banana bread. I'm not gonna lie. It WAS DEFINITELY delicious, fluffy, light, banana-ey, crisp out of the oven - and oh the smell. It is so overwhelmingly warm and sweet. It makes you just want to curl up on the couch with a good book. And no, I'm not exaggerating.

Birthday Banana Bread (Possible Vegan)

Yields: One Loaf (20 x 10 x 6 cm)

Ingredients

5 small-medium ripe bananas (Almost Black is the best)
2 eggs
1/3 Cup Coconut Oil
2 tbsp natural yoghurt
1/2 Cup Light Cane Sugar (or alternative solid sugar)
Dash of Vanilla Extract

2 Cup Flour (I used 1/2 white 1/2 wholewheat spelt)
1 Tbsp Baking Powder
1/2 Tsp Cinnamon (Add other spices if you desire)
1/2 Tbsp Maca Powder (Optional)

Chopped Walnuts + seeds (Optional - I used about 1 cup)

Preheat oven to 180 degrees and line/grease your baking loaf pan. Using a beater, whisk eggs lightly. In a medium-large bowl, mash bananas well, into liquid-lumpy form (you may want to use the whisk if you're lazy like me). Add in the rest of your liquid ingredients - coconut oil, light cane sugar, yoghurt and vanilla extract. Sift in the dry ingredients - the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and maca powder if you like. Mix until JUST mixed through, it should end up thick and almost-dough looking. If it looks a bit wet, sift in more flour. Fold in the egg whites - until just mixed, and then fold in your chopped walnuts/seeds and pour in baking tray. Bake in the middle for about 45mins - 1hr (mine took about 50mins). 

Notes:

Omit the egg if you want a vegan version, and add an extra tbsp of baking powder instead. The sweetness of the bread really varies on how ripe your bananas are and how sweet your sweet-tooth is. For mine, my bananas were pretty ripe and I think the taste was just sweet enough for me, but if you have an extra sweet tooth feel free to go to the further 1/2 cup of sweetener. You can also incorporate whole-wheat spelt flour or just have normal (organic kind is best!) flour if you can't find spelt flour - note that white flour gives it a more fluffy + light texture, so if you want to add in wholewheat, I suggest to go 1/2 and 1/2. Also, sift in the flour slowly, you may find that you'll need less as you don't want it too dry (though add more if it looks too wet). Maca powder is a great superfood, but is not needed - more info on the benefits it here. And lastly, sub with olive oil or any neutral oil if you don't have coconut oil. Otherwise bake!


 - So, I thought.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Potato, Coffee + Generally Food obsessed Brisbane Chick.

1 comments

  1. This just looks so lovely, and you sound like you had such a wonderful time, Clarissa! Happy belated birthday and many happy returns :)

    PS I still don't understand why it's M18 here (Kingsman) :/

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