Banana Loaf and End-of-July Musings

The most important thing in life is to count your blessings. The end of July and the beginning of August have been… wholesome. Living in a small town in a small city is less claustrophobic than it is mind-numbing, and as someone whose origins come from a cocktail of cultures I need spice.

It is tough to find things to do in the countryside, especially during the summer when first of all students are scarce, and secondly when the weather is abysmal. England has gorgeous coastlines but unless you want to lose your toes, they are uninhabitable for the main part.

So for me, July ended mainly solo, exercising, gymming and visiting the horses at our neighbouring farm. Luckily it was followed by this stack of blueberry buttermilk pancakes and videogames, because the isolation of Durham really does require escapism to Mushroom City.

I even decided to break into the world of unintentional self-inflicted domestication, which is both entertaining and, perhaps, healthy in small doses. Living in a house with a bunch of serial banana-buyers called for me to utilise the pitied Overripe Ones, so I baked Banana Loaf with cranberries, walnuts and orange.

As someone who is not keen of the baked products which bananas usually inflict, my subtle recipe is entirely successful at making Banana Loaf an actually edible delight.

My recipe is a combo of a selection of recipes so feel free to adapt, substituting any ingredients that you want or need to. Of course, if you live with someone who has a nut allergy, eradicate the walnuts entirely.

Ingredients:

Dry:

175g self-raising flour
½ tsp baking powder
150g brown sugar
3 medium-sized ripe bananas
50g cranberries
50g chopped walnuts

Liquid:

2 eggs, beaten
Juice of ½ an orange
150ml sunflower oil

Icing:
75g icing sugar
A splash of water
Grated orange rind to decorate

Recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Line a loaf tin with baking paper (it’s very aesthetic).
Mix dry ingredients in a bowl, starting with the flour, powder and sugar, then adding the bananas, and then the nuts and berries.
Combine the liquid ingredients and then add to the dry mixture.
Stir well and then spoon into the tin.
Bake for 45 minutes to an hour; it is ready when a knife pulls out from the centre clean.
When cool, cover with icing and orange rind. Voila.

August I believe has great potential. I had a busy time during the second year of my undergraduate degree, followed by a lot of fun in June, and August… is the time to really rekindle that motivation and playfulness, independently.