In true British style, the weather has turned from glorious sunshine (see last weekend's photos at the beach) to grey skies and a whole lot of rain. Being outside is not appealing (although that has not stopped the crowds in London lining up to see all of the Queen's Jubilee processions), and being cosy and warm inside with a cup of coffee and a slice of cake in hand is very much more appealing. So, my line of thinking on a grey Saturday morning went a little like this:
After reading about the idea for a Summer Manifesto, I started to think about what I might like to do this Summer (I am still just a little bit hopeful that England will see Summer this year...please, oh please). The first thoughts that came to my mind were about food and I didn't get to thinking beyond what I might like to cook, bake and make this Summer because I ended up baking Strawberry and Banana bread.
Maybe it was because I had just been reading through some recipe books that my first thoughts were about the foods I might eat, or perhaps it was just that I like to think about food. Not so much meals, but what I might bake next. If you ask John, he will tell you that when it comes to thinking about our next meal, I am not very good. What he might not know is that at any one time, I can have numerous baking recipes running around my head, just waiting to be made. If we only needed to eat sweet things, perhaps I would be the one who did most of the cooking instead of John.
Back to the food I was thinking about. Summer fruits. I love their flavour and I love their colour. Especially red. As I set about getting ready to bake, I thought about how red iugredients seem synonymous with Summer in my head. When it comes to clothes, I don't own many red items, but red shoes? I would happily wear red shoes every day if only they worked with more colours. But seriously, there is something very attractive about red food, especially strawberries and raspberries.
After hunting around for a recipe, I came across one from Joy the Baker for Strawberry and Banana bread.
This was the perfect recipe for a number of reasons:
1) I had 3 incredibly ripe bananas that John was going to dispose of if I didn't make something with them.
2) I had strawberries in my fridge leftover from cooking with my children at school that were a little bashed and bruised from children and car journeys but still perfectly delicious
3) This recipe uses yoghurt and I have 2 buckets of the delicious creamy white stuff. (I buy it by the bucket these days and love that when we finish a bucket, I've got a useful storage solution for school)
As Joy has already written out the recipe on her blog, I won't repeat the method here, but for the benefit of my English readers who might want to try it out, I will convert the ingredients for you from cups to grams to save you that job.
ingredients
140g light brown sugar
70g strawberries
500g plain flour
1tsp baking powder
3 bananas
170g butter
70ml plain or greek yoghurt
{the rest of the ingredients don't need converting!}
This is not the quickest banana bread recipe ever, but if you have time, the method is enjoyable and satisfying - I would happily bake this bread again for no other reason than the wonderful aroma of browned butter that filled my kitchen. And the addition of strawberries to banana bread? Sheer brilliance.
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