Boozy Oversimplified Banana Bread/Cake

I have a really complicated relationship with the Cavendish banana.  I can barely choke one down- the overly starchy soft texture that coats your teeth is just awful.  I know they are essential when on the trail- I can really push myself to eat half of one when my leg cramps start up- but I consider the banana more enemy than friend, even when it is magically making my cramping mucles feel like new again.

And don't get me started about artificial banana flavor. 

Somehow, banana in baked goods is really pleasing- any rage or anger about bananas pretty much melts away.  I realize it's the un-ripe yellow-skinned banana that is repulsive to me.  When the skins turn black and the innards turn to mush is when I come to terms and actually like banana.  It's rather a crap time trying to eat one in the leaky state, but the sweet, heady ripeness that borders on rot is just hedonistic.  

This is why I generally have a bunch plus a handful of loose bananas in the freezer- I love a good 'nana bread.  I've played around a bit with different versions over the years, and this is really the simplest thing to whip up in the kitchen.  I found that I don't like walnuts or dried fruit or anything else to roughen up the bread.  Feel free to add to your heart's content- about 60-100 grams of walnuts or sultanas would do nicely if you are into that sort of thing.  The recipe that I've adapted from the most comes from Nigella Lawson.  She soaks dried fruit in rum before adding it to the cake.  I took it one step further and added a shot directly to the cake.  I'm not a rum drinker and rarely have it on hand, so I reach for the giant bottle of scotch from the shelves of the duty-free shop.  

Finally, last summer while I was hiking across the Lake District on the Coast to Coast trail, I stayed at a great B&B.  It was a renovated farmhouse with bits of the ruined abbey down the street "borrowed" in the building process.  They had a fabulous breakfast spread and correctly identified banana bread as banana cake.  It has eggs, flour, and sugar in it.  Sounds like a cake to me!  Yet still, we insist on calling it bread either out of habit or stubbornness or misguided attempts to sell this as healthy because it's filled with banana goodness, and to sneak in a slice for breakfast without hesitation.  

Also:  cream cheese.  It's the best thing for this.  

Recipe:  Banana Bread  

1oz shot of rum or whisky

175 grams (1 1/4 cup) white flour (I have mixed in some wheat flour in mine)

2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

125 g (1.2 cup) unsalted butter, melted, plus a bit more for greasing

150g (3/4 cup) sugar

2 large eggs

4 overripe bananas, peeled and mashed into a puree 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract (or the seeds scraped from half a pod)

Preheat the oven to 170c.  Grease a loaf tin, and then line with parchment paper if you feel the need.

Put the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and soda, salt) in a medium bowl and sift together.  In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended.  Add the eggs one at a time, and then the pulpy mashed bananas, vanilla and booze.  Once a homogeneous mass, add the flour mixture a little at a time until it is blended.  

Scrape the bowl into your loaf pan.  Bake in the centre of the oven for about an hour- a toothpick will come out clean and the house will smell of comfort and calories.  Let cool slightly and serve with a healthy wedge of cream cheese or clotted cream.