banana breads

boozey banana & almond on the left and dark chocolate & banana on the right:

i had a large bunch of very ripe bananas so the obvious thing to do was make banana bread, right? or cake. whatever you call it, it tastes the same - delicious.

for the first, i made a standard banana bread using a nigella recipe (found here http://www.nigella.com/recipe/recipe_detail.aspx?rid=222). i didn't have any rum or bourbon so used cider brandy instead which tasted very nice indeed.

i also substituted almonds (hand crushed with skins not the roasted flaked kind). i thought it would taste more boozey than it did so i might use more alcohol next time.

the batter resembled mashed banana more than cake mix so i added a bit more flour and it turned out just right.

for the dark chocolate banana bread i used this recipe (http://www.joyofbaking.com/breakfast/ChocolateBananaBread.html). i used cocoa (i love the old caddy) and chopped up green & black's organic dark chocolate instead of chips. i also didn't use any nuts.

 

this resembled much more traditional cake mixture since it uses more flour.

i then left them to cool in the tins after they'd baked, sampled a piece (or two) of each cake and wrapped the rest in cling film and foil for the freezer.

(excuse the quality of the pictures - though not at all bad for an iPhone and fairly dim lighting - don't have my DSLR with me here. but i still love the hipstamatic polaroid photos...)