Monday 21 April 2014

Espresso Banana Bread











Banana Bread with built in caffeine fix. Now we're talkin'.


Espresso Banana Bread
slightly adapted from Nigella Lawson's Nigellissima

150ml grapeseed oil (or any flavourless vegetable oil such as canola or sunflower oil)
3 medium bananas, peeled and mashed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
150g light brown sugar
175g cake flour (If you don't have cake flour, use plain flour)
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Pop a baking sheet into the middle rack of the oven and preheat it to 170 C.

Line a 21cm x 11cm loaf pan with baking paper. I got some loaf pan liners from a local store. They just slip straight into the pan, no cutting or shaping required... I'm in love with them.

Put the mashed bananas and vanilla extract into a bowl and stir them together. Add the salt and oil and beat them until combined.

Beat the eggs in one at a time and then add the sugar and beat it in also. (There's a lot of beating going on.)

In a separate bowl, combined the flour, baking soda and espresso powder. Add these to the banana mixture and stir to just combine. The batter will be quite runny.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan and pop it onto the heating baking sheet in the oven. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the middle of the cake comes out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. You can eat it as soon as it cools, but is even better the next day. You can serve it just on it's own or spread generously with Nutella or mascarpone and dusted with cinnamon.

15 comments:

  1. Just wondering what cake flour is and what can you substitute for grape oil?
    Looks delish!!

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    1. Hey Michelle. Cake flour is a low protein flour. It gives cakes and pastries a finer texture. I buy the Lighthouse brand from the supermarket. You can use plain flour and still get great results. You can substitute canola oil, sunflower oil or safflower oil instead of grape seed oil which I also buy from the supermarket. Any flavourless vegetable oil will do.

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  2. It's a banana kind of day! :) This looks amazing, Jen, especially with that Nutella on top!

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  3. Looks divine!! Love the combo and of course, the Nutella!

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  4. Well, of course anything with a built-in caffeine hit is going to be a winner in my books - and I love banana bread. Now, I'm going to hoard our bananas just so I have an excuse to try out a GF version of this bread :)

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    1. I always end up with sad bananas in my fruit bowl, My two boys wont eat them as fresh fruit. Put them in bread, a cake waffles, pancakes and they'll eat them though. It's weird because Clint and I love them.

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  5. Hi Jennifer, I adore banana bread and will definitely have a go at this one. Helpful to know about the substitute for grape seed oil and flour and never thought about trying it with Nutella. I've got some great Mayver peanut and coconut paste that would probably be just the thing too!

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    Replies
    1. I've added a few notes in the recipe for other readers to give them the alternatives as well. Mayvers spreads are a favourite of mine. I've used the Peanut and Cacao Spread, but didn't know they had a Peanut and Coconut Spread. That sounds wild. They would be great on the bread too. Enjoy!

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  6. Wow! That's such a good idea. Will definitely have to try this version next time!

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  7. I'm a huge lover of all kinds of banana bread, and adding coffee sounds delicious (I'm already addicted to a smoothie form of this combination from a local cafe. So good!). Definitely going to give this a go! I've missed so much goodness here over the last week... I need to get baking! x

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