Banana and Pecan Bread

This is adapted from a Doris Brett recipe. Everyone who bakes has their perfect banana bread recipe, but I’m not quite sure that this is mine. It’s delicious, moist and uses plenty of bananas (which is an important element in making banana bread – usually it’s done to use up overripe bananas that have been sitting in the fruit bowl for days). The subtle lemon flavour goes with the bananas nicely. This loaf turned out a little heavy, but I think that’s my fault – I used baking powder, rather than baking soda, and didn’t increase the amount used accordingly. I shall just think of it as an extra-moist banana bread, rather than an overly heavy one.

1 cup white sugar
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups mashed banana
1/4 cup natural yoghurt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons mixed spice
2 teaspoons lemon rind
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
2 cups white flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
cinnamon sugar

Preheat the oven to 180C. Cream the butter and sugar together. Add the eggs, banana, yoghurt, baking soda, mixed spice and vanilla essence, and stir well. Lightly stir in the flour and pecans, until reasonably well combined. Too much stirring here, however, makes the bread go a little rubbery.

Pour into a greased and lined loaf tin, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for an hour, and serve while warm.