I had never tried banana bread before, but a few days ago I had the perfect excuse to make it. My mom was coming to visit and I needed to make something easy and quick but that it was still delicious and impressive. So, I looked in the fridge, and saw these 4 bananas that were definetly turning brown and almost looked disgusting. So I thought why not making something with bananas? At least i could try to save them from their terrible destiny of being immediately thrown into the garbage can. I heard that brown bananas are perfect for banana bread, because when they’re green and yellow they’re not sweet enough, whilst when they start to turn brown they become more sweet and perfect for baking. So do not throw away bananas when they’re brown. Just pop them in the freezer and take them out when you’re ready to use them for baking. And trust me, you’ll love this recipe so much that you won’t even be able to wait for them to turn brown.

This recipe is from a blog called The Brick Kitchen. If you have never heard of it, you should definetly check it out. It has amazing recipes and I can’t wait to try them all. This banana bread is super soft and moist and perfect for breakfast or as a little treat to take with coffee. Also it comes with a tweast. The recipe calls for a Mascarponce coffee cream and berries. OMG that coffee cream is absolutely brilliant. I’m definetly going to be using it for more recipes. I decided to use frozen berries and turn them into a sauce, instead of using fresh berries. Mainly cause it’s now winter and it’s hard in my country to find fresh strawberryies, but feel free to use what ever kind is easier for you to find. Now let’s get baking!

Ingredients

For the Banana Bread:

• 250 grams plain flour
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 125 grams softened butter
• 235 grams dark or regular brown sugar
• 3 to 4 ripe bananas (400g), roughly mashed (there should still be lumps left)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 large eggs
• 100 grams dark chocolate, roughly chopped

For the Mascarpone Coffee Cream:

• 250g Italian mascarpone cheese
• 4-5 tablespoons espresso coffee, cooled
• 3-5 tablespoons sifted icing sugar

For the Berry Sauce

• 200 gr frozen berries
• 2 tbs sugar
• a few lemon drops

Method:

Banana Bread

1. Heat the oven to 180°C. Line a standard-sized (23 x 13cm) loaf tin with baking paper.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Beat the eggs into the butter and sugar one at a time until fully incorporated.
3. Fold the vanilla extract, mashed bananas and roughly chopped chocolate into the butter and sugar mixture.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder over the top and gently fold it in until just combined.
5. Scrape the batter into the lined loaf tin and bake for 40-50 minutes until a skewer inserted into the center comes out just clean. If it starts to get too dark before it is cooked, cover it with a piece of tin foil.
6. Remove from the oven and leave to cool for 15 minutes.

Mascarpone Coffee Cream

1. Gently mix together the mascarpone, espresso and icing sugar.
2. Cover and put in fridge until ready to serve

Berry sauce

1. Place the frozen berries into a sauce pan. Add the sugar and the lemon juice. Let it simmer for 10 to 15 minutes or untill the berries are soft.

I hope you guys will give this recipe a go because it’s soooo good. Tag me on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook and show me your result! I also would like to remind you that on Facebook you can find the page of the blog @TheHotMesss ( I had to put three s cause Thehotmess was already taken :/)

XOXO

Francesca