The best banana bread

I hated banana bread when I was little. I don't know why. My mother made a dense, dark version for my brother Francois, who loved it. Then Alice Wooledge Salmon's House and Garden Cooking with Style arrived in our house and I saw the light.

If you are like me, this will recipe will remain in your repertoire until you are no longer able to bend to shove the bread pan into the hot oven. One can only hope that, when the day arrives, someone else will make it for us. Huh. THAT's why one has children. Oops. Oh well.

This is more cake than bread, if we're being honest. I sometimes put lingonberry jam or rosehip jam (not too sweet) on it.

If you don't have wholewheat flour in the house, use all-white flour. I have substituted pecans and hazelnuts for macadamians, have added cranberries (fresh) or cherries or barberries (dried, soaked for an hour). I have used peaches and blueberries in late summer. I use more sour cream or yogurt than AWS stipulates and the milk is all mine. I also use spicebush instead of coriander, for my forage walk snack.

Otherwise this is the impossibly named lady's recipe. If you can find a copy of the out-of-print book, get it. It's wonderful. Near the top of my list for Save in a Flood.

Banana Macadamia Nut Bread

100 gr/3.5 oz unsalted butter
100 gr/3.5 oz brown sugar
2 eggs
2 ripe bananas, mashed or sliced thinly (I slice)*
4 Tbsp/1/4 cup sour cream or Greek yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
150 gr/ 5 oz unbleached white flour
150 gr/5 oz wholewheat flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda (bicarb)
pinch of salt
1 tsp toasted and crushed coriander*
1/4 cup (or less) milk
100 gr/3.5 oz macadamia nuts, roasted (substitute pecans or hazelnuts)

*Variations:

1. Instead of coriander use 3 finely chopped dried spicebush (Lindera benzoin) berries.
2. Add 3/4 cup fresh cranberries, dried cherries or barberries.
3. Sliced and diced peaches and blueberries instead of the bananas (1.5 cups, total)

Heat oven to 350'F/180'C.

Slice or roughly chop nuts. Roast them if they are raw. The texture and flavor improve.

Butter a loaf pan.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and fluffy. Beat eggs into the mixture and add a little flour if (when!) the mixture separates. Add the bananas, cream/yogurt and lemon juice, mix well. Add the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt, and mix thoroughly. The dough will be quite stiff. If it is too thick and dry, add the milk (the variable flour one uses makes a big difference: the more wholewheat the stiffer it will be). Finally, add the nuts, stir again, and transfer to the loaf pan, smoothing a slight hollow down the length of the dough.

Baking times vary, but it will be risen, brown and done in about 50 minutes. Use a sharp skewer to test the interior, if uncertain. If it comes out sticky, not done. Turn out of the pan and leave to cool on a wire rack.

Try not to eat it all at once. Fantastic for breakfast with strong coffee.