Banana Bread with Cardamom and Cacao Nibs

Breakfast is, without a doubt, my favourite meal of the day.  When else can you eat thick slices of banana bread smothered in French butter and call it a meal?  Not only that, but you still have two other meals to dream about.  




Banana Bread with Cardamom and Cacao Nibs
slightly adapted from here

2 ripe bananas (about 250g in their skins)
2 eggs
200ml buttermilk
125ml avocado oil
325g "00" flour
200g light muscovado sugar
1 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
Pinch of salt
2 teaspoons ground cardamom
50g cacao nibs

Preheat the oven to 170C. Line a grease and line a 23 cm x 13 cm loaf pan with baking paper, or use a paper liner as I have (love those things).

Put the bananas into a small bowl and mash to a puree with a fork.  Put them to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment.  Add the egg, buttermilk and oil and mix on low to combine.

In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cardamom.  Slowly add the dry ingredients to the we ingredients while the mixer is on low.  Mix until combined.  Turn the mixer off, add the cacao nibs and stir them in with a spatula.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour, but start check at 50 minutes.  The loaf is done when a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.

Remove from the oven, set is on a wire rack and leave it in its pan to cool completely.  Once cool, remove from the pan and slice thickly.  You can eat it as is, but it's especially good toasted and slathered with good unsalted butter.