Midnight Banana

Little Miss has been going to sleep early lately. Probably, because she refuses to nap. And so when the urgent need to eat something sweet got hold of me yesternight, I had to find a recipe that doesn't require use of electric gadgets. Found one and since I tweaked it to the point of making a different recipe altogether, I share it here.

It's a dairy- nut- and soy-free banana bread. It' really sweet, so feel free to use less sugar. Personally I like my cakes sweet.

INGREDIENTS:

• 3 ripe bananas, mashed
• 1/3 cup olive oil (not virgin, the lighter the better)
• 1 cup brown sugar (I substituted some of the sugar with maple sugar)
• 2 eggs, beaten (by hand - I used a beater but can be done with fork)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice (optional)
• 1 teaspoon baking soda (NOT baking powder)
• 1 1/2 cups + 1 tbl spelt flour (can be all-purpose flour or any flour, really)

METHOD:

Preheat the oven to 170 C (325 F). With a spoon, mix oil with the mashed banana. Add sugar and beaten eggs. Mix. Sprinkle baking soda and cinnamon onto the mixture and stir. Mix the flour in. Stir just enough to incorporate the flour into the batter. Do not over-stir, the batter is supposed to be lumpy. Pour the batter into a loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to an hour. Let it cool before taking it out of the pan. If you want the cake extra-moist, wrap it in aluminium (or put into tupperware loosely wrapped in wax paper) and put in the fridge. It's better the next day (if you can wait, that is).

It works perfectly in muffins, mini-loaves, cup cakes, just adjust the baking time accordingly (30 minutes for small cup-cakes).

You can use 1 egg and 3-4 bananas. You can substituted melted butter for oil. You can add walnuts or chocolate chips. Vanilla extract instead of cinnamon. Etc etc... 

Enjoy!