Happy Birthday to me…

I am 41 years old today. It feels so strange to be saying that. I feel like I am meant to say that “I feel old” but the truth of the matter is that I do not feel old at all. It might perhaps be because I am ignoring my grey hairs or I somehow feel like I have not really lived yet,who knows. All I know is that I am two decades behind my chronological age and I am not quite ready to acknowledge that I am a woman in my forties. The answer to all that internal turmoil is of course to bake. Here there is no monopoly on age.

There have been three bananas sitting in my fruit bowl for some days now. Not only were they sitting there, they were in fact asking to be eaten. I have had not made a banana loaf for some time, so today seemed like perfect timing.

So inbetween the little errands I ran and my afternoon snooze, I baked a little banana loaf.

Ingredients
3 ripe bananas
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp cinnamon
180g rye flour
2½ tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
160g dark muscovado sugar
2 eggs, beaten
4 tbsp melted butter, plus extra to grease, slightly cooled
50g walnuts, roughly chopped

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 170C.

2. Put two-thirds of the peeled banana chunks into a bowl and mash until smooth. Roughly mash the remainder and stir in gently. Add the cinnamon and the vanilla.

3. Mix together the eggs, sugar and melted butter in a bowel. Fold in the banana mixture. Add the nuts. Finally add the flour, baking powder and salt.

4. Pour the mixture into a loaf tin lined with a greased baking sheet and bake for 60 minutes. If you place clean knife or a toothpick into the middle and it comes out clean the the loaf is ready. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on to a rack to cool completely.