Honey Banana Bread
Swapping honey for sugar in a banana bread sounds simple and it isn't, which is why so many of them come out heavy and dark on the outside while still being raw in the middle.
Two things are going on. Honey is wetter than sugar, so the batter needs adjusting. And honey browns considerably faster, so the loaf colours long before it's cooked. Neither is difficult once you know, and this recipe accounts for both.
Ingredients
Makes one loaf
3 very ripe bananas, about 350g peeled
½ cup Coastal honey
⅓ cup neutral oil, or melted butter
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
1¾ cups plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp salt
Optional: ½ cup walnuts, roughly chopped
For the honey butter
100g butter, softened
2 tbsp Jarrah honey
A pinch of flaky salt
Method
Heat the oven to 160°C fan, or 175°C conventional. That's lower than a standard banana bread on purpose. Honey browns faster than sugar, and at the usual temperature the crust is dark well before the centre is set. Line a loaf tin.
Use bananas that look past it. Heavily spotted, almost black, soft enough to mash with a fork. Underripe bananas give you neither the sweetness nor the flavour, and this is the single biggest factor in how it turns out.
Mash the bananas properly in a large bowl. Leave a few lumps.
Whisk in the honey, oil, eggs and vanilla until combined.
In another bowl, mix the flour, bicarb, cinnamon and salt.
Tip the dry into the wet and fold until it just comes together. Stop while it still looks slightly under-mixed. Overworking develops the gluten and the loaf goes tough. Fold the walnuts through now if you're using them.
Pour into the tin and bake for 55 to 65 minutes, until a skewer comes out with a few moist crumbs.
If the top is browning too fast, lay a sheet of foil loosely over it at the 35-minute mark. With honey this is likely rather than possible.
Cool in the tin for ten minutes, then turn out onto a rack. Let it cool completely before slicing or it'll fall apart.
The honey butter
This is where the good honey goes.
Beat the softened butter until pale and light, then beat in the Jarrah honey and the salt. That's it. Spoon it into a small jar or roll it in baking paper and chill it.
Spread it thickly on a warm slice. The butter melts, the Jarrah loosens, and you get the toffee and malt exactly as it came out of the jar.
Why two honeys, again
Coastal does the baking. It's mild, floral and cheap enough to use half a cup of without thinking about it.
Jarrah stays out of the oven entirely. An hour at 160°C would flatten it into ordinary sweetness, which is a waste of a $17 jar.
It's the same rule as the salmon and the traybake. Cook with the everyday honey. Finish with the good one. In a bake like this the finishing has to happen on the plate rather than in the tin, which is what the honey butter is for.
Keeping it
Wrapped, at room temperature, for three or four days. It's better on day two once the flavours settle.
It freezes well in slices. The honey butter keeps a fortnight in the fridge and is worth making a double batch of, because it's very good on toast, crumpets and hot cross buns.