Le Banana Bread

I have a Le Cordon Bleu cake book which contains a fab banana bread recipe. I've cooked it several times before and amend the recipe each time depending on dietary requirements or mood. For example I've made this recipe before using wholemeal flour and by reducing the sugar and even amount of bananas. Remember, the more bananas in the mixture, the more moist the bread will be.

Today I had three large dodgy bananas (I usually use two or three small ones) to get rid of which will give me maximum moisture! They don't look great, but the bread will taste great and the outcome is all I care about. I've been wanting to start cooking with rice flour and because I haven't baked with it  before, I will be using half rice and half plain flour. Plus I will reduce the sugar significantly from the original recipe, as I minimise it wherever I can and always substitute white sugar for brown. The more natural and unprocessed, the better.

Angie's Le Banana Bread
15mins prep, approx. 50mins cooking, yield is 1 medium size loaf, place in airtight container and in the fridge for storage

160g unsalted butter at room temperature

150g soft brown sugar

2 eggs

125g plain flour

125g rice flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

½ teaspoon nutmeg

3 ripe bananas mashed

1. Preheat the oven to 170°C.
2. Grease and flour the loaf tin.
3. Sift the plain flour, rice flour, baking powder and nutmeg into a bowl.
4. Cream the butter and sugar together in a mixer. Add the eggs one at a time. Then add the mashed banana and mix well, followed by slowly adding the flour mixture and mix until smooth.
5. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin. Bake in the oven for approx. 50 mins. You'll know the bread is ready when you insert a skewer into the centre and it comes out clean.
6. Take out of the oven and leave to cool for 5-10 mins, before taking out of the tin. Enjoy!