Contact the Elderly and the Banana bread

The aftermath of my tea party

In May this year I hosted a tea party for some elderly people from my local area.  If you are unfamiliar with Contact the Elderly they are a national charity that organises regular events, tea parties and such for older and more vulnerable elderly people throughout the UK.  As they say on the website, for people who live on their own Sunday can be a particularly lonely day and if all I have to to is give up a few hours of my time then I am more than happy to do it.  As a host it was my responsibility to entertain these lovely people and put on a bit of a spread.  

I baked for two days.  I loved every minute because I love baking.  My boyfriend was delighted because there were loads of leftovers.  Not that what I cooked was terrible but because I cooked way too much.  No banana bread can be seen in the picture though.  That went.  All of it.  As it seemed like the most popular recipe I thought I would give you all the recipe too.  

Banana bread

Ingredients

280g of Plain Flour
1tsp of Baking Soda
1/2tsp Salt
120g Soft unsalted butter
225g Caster Sugar
2 large eggs
80ml whole milk
1 &1/2tsp vinegar
4 medium bananas mashed
1tsp Vanilla extract

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180C and grease your loaf tin (20cm x 12.5cm is best but slightly bigger or smaller should have no ill effects on the outcome)
2. Combine the milk and vinegar in a bowl or jug, leave to curdle. (About a minute or so should do this but I do it when I'm starting the process so I have it when I need it)
3. Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl
4. Add and combine the eggs, vanilla, bananas and milk to the butter and sugar.
5. Add your dry ingredients, flour, baking soda and salt.
6.  Combine these ingredients until you see no flour in the mixture.
7. Pour your mixture into the tin and place in the oven to bake 1 hour, or until a tester comes out clean.
8.  When cooked turn out of the tin carefully and leave to cool for as long as you can.

You can also add chocolate chips to this recipe (dredging the pieces in flour before you add them to the mixture will stop them from sinking to the bottom) which would be delicious but I like it on it's own with a cup of YORKSHIRE tea.  

This is an easy yet impressive recipe.  A real lip-smacker.