You know the feeling when you want to bake something nice and simple or quick and you can’t decide on a recipe or you can’t find one. For this reason I started a folder with my favourite fool proof recipes, and banana loaf is one of them.

And as today was one of those days when you can’t stop thinking about all sorts of scenarios and things seem gloomy, I decided rather than worrying, I would make use of my time in a better way and do something productive and enjoyable. I find baking, or simple cooking always helps to distract me and ease off the anxiety.

Maybe we should go back to basics and make or create something from scratch more often…

Serves: 12 slices

Ingredients:

3 medium-sized ripe bananas

1 tsp lemon juice

100g muscovado sugar

75ml olive oil

5g butter for greasing the baking tin

150g self-raising flour

100g buckwheat flour (optional; if you prefer use 250g of self-raising flour only)

2 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg

½ tsp baking powder

3 eggs

75g chopped walnuts

30.5 x 10.7 x 14 cm loaf tin or similar

Method:

Preheat the oven to 190°C/375°F ten minutes before baking. Grease the bottom and the sides of the baking tin with butter.

Mash two of the bananas in a large bowl, add the lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar and mix well.

Add olive oil and the eggs and mix again.

Sift both the flours and baking powder into the mixture stir the mixture well and finally add the chopped walnuts.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin. Cut the last banana length-ways and arrange over the mixture.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 50-55 minutes, or until well risen and golden brown.

Enjoy with a nice cup of tea or coffee.