Banana and Walnut Bread

Ever bought bananas and didn't get to eat them before they ripen too quickly? No fear. This recipe is perfect in this situation. Banana and walnut bread. Perfect for your breakkie and a total treat. Alternatively, it'll make a nice little (ok, not so little considering how filling it is!) snack. And if you like the smell of bread baking in the oven as much as I do, you'll enjoy this recipe. Hassle-free (read as no dough kneading required!). How good is that?! :) Enjoy!

Banana and Walnut Bread Ingredients:

1. 2C self-raising flour
2. 3 ripe bananas, mashed
3. 2 eggs, beaten
4. 3/4C milk
   
5. 1t cinnamon powder
6. 1/2t vanilla essence
7. 1t baking soda
8. 70g brown sugar
9. 80g walnuts, chopped
10. 25g seeds

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 180C.
   
2. Sift the flour and baking soda and mix well with the sugar. Add in the cinnamon powder and combine.
3. Create a well in the centre of the flour mixture and add in the eggs, milk, vanilla essence and the bananas and mix well.
4. Grease a loaf tin and pour the batter into the loaf tin.
5. Bake the batter for approximately 45mins (or until skewer comes out clean).
6. Cool the bread on a wire rack and slice when cooled.

Hint: You can also add in sultanas/raisins if you wish. You can also reduce recipe to use 2 bananas (won't have such a strong banana taste) but increase the milk to 1C.

Enjoy! :)

Bacon, Cheese and Chive Scones

The buttermilk comes in 600ml packs. Much more than I need for the raisin scones. So what can I do with the remaining buttermilk? Well, I can freeze it. Or I can make more scones! :) So I decided to tweak the recipe and make a savoury scone. Never tried a savoury scone before and thought that this is as good a time as any! The result? It's delicious! Try it for yourself! :)



Bacon, Cheese and Chive Scones

Ingredients:

• 2C self raising flour
• 1T baking powder
• 300ml buttermilk
• 1t castor sugar
• 1Tof salt
• 80g cold butter, diced
• 400g of diced bacon, cooked
• 1 bunch of choves, finely chopped (about 3/4 C)
• 100g of shredded cheddar cheese
  
• a handful of plain flour

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven at 200C.
2. Sift the self raising flour well. Add in the sugar, baking powder and salt and mix well.
3. Add in butter to the flour mixture. Rub flour mixture and butter till the texture becomes "breadcrumb"-ly.
4. Add in the bacon, chives and cheese, and mix well.
   
5. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the milk. Mix well. The dough will be very gooey/sticky at this point. Do NOT add more flour as it's meant to stay gooey/sticky!
   
6. Place the dough on a slightly floured surface. Pat it into shape (note: do NOT knead) and use a floured roller to flatten the dough.
   
7. If you have a scone cutter, use that to cut the dough into scones (do NOT twist the cutter). If you don't have a cutter like me, just oil a knife and cut the dough into pieces. I got 8 pieces out of my dough.
8. Place the dough on a piece of baking sheet close together, sprinkle the top lightly with flour and bake for about 25mins. To check, there'll be a slightly hollow sound when you tap on the top of the scone when it is done.
9. Serve with some scrambled eggs and sausage! Yummy while hot!! :)