Definitely-going-onthe-menu banana bread

Banana bread is such a crowd pleaser and is extremely versatile – chuck in a few nuts, chocolate chips, fold in some fresh blueberries, you name it. When I came up with this recipe I said to myself, ‘If I ever open a shop, café or a pop-up this will be definitely going on the menu.’ Super simple and crazy tasty.

MAKES 1 X 900G LOAF

110g unsalted butter, softened 225g golden caster sugar 2 large eggs 4 ripe bananas, mashed 90ml buttermilk 1 tsp vanilla extract 285g plain flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda ½ tsp fine sea salt

TO SERVE fried banana slices and homemade ice cream (see the book for my favourite recipe)

♥ PREHEAT YOUR OVEN to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4 and grease and line a 900g loaf tin.

♥ FOR THE BANANA LOAF Cream your butter and sugar together in a large bowl, using a hand-held or freestanding mixer, until light and fluffy. Crack in your eggs, tip in your bananas and pour in your buttermilk and vanilla and give it a good mix. Sift your flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl then fold it carefully into your cake mixture.

♥ SPOON THE MIXTURE into the tin and bake for 45 minutes-1 hour, until golden brown and well risen. Remove from the oven and leave to cool in the tin for 10-15 minutes, then turn out on to a wire rack to finish cooling.

♥ WAIT! You can’t eat it yet! Leave it until it’s cold. Yes, you heard me, or should it be, you read me?

♥ LEVEL UP & SERVE Cut your loaf into slices no thicker than 2.5cm and toast ’em – under a grill or in a toaster – until they’re golden and have a crispy surface, like bread basically. Now you need to serve these pretty much straight away. Place some fried banana slices and a scoop of ice cream on each slice.

♥ I ALSO LIKE MINE with squiggles of homemade caramel sauce (see the book for the recipe).