Banana Brownies

When some friends went off on a two-week holiday, they left behind not only two cats to be looked after, but also a kitchen full of fruit and veg to be eaten. Most food was quickly consumed, but for some reason there were more bananas than could be coped with. After looking at said bananas for a few days, watching then go browner and browner (I do love bananas, but there are only so many you can eat in a week) I decided to do something about them – and so I got out my recipe books and investigated banana related recipes for inspiration. The one that took my fancy was a chocolate brownie recipe I got from a baking course at Betty’s Cookery School in Harrogate. However, it did not contain any bananas, so some modifications had to be done.

125g butter

4 medium sized eggs

300g granulated sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla sugar

125g gluten free flour mix

80g cocoa powder

6 ripe bananas (medium sized)

Icing sugar for dusting

Pre-heat your oven to 175^oC.

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan. You do not want the butter to go brown, so keep an eye on it. Leave it to cool down for a little while.

Whisk the egg and sugar together in a large bowl, until the mixture is lump free. Slowly stir in the butter while stirring. If the butter is too hot or you pour it in too quickly you could end up with scrambled eggs, so take your time with this step.

Sift in the vanilla sugar, flour and cocoa powder and gently stir it in until the mixture is smooth.

Crush the bananas with a fork in a separate bowl, and when they are soft like baby-food, add to the rest of the mix.

Prepare a medium sized baking tray (I used one that is 22cm x 22cm). It can be useful to line the bottom of the tray with baking parchment, so that the brownies don’t get stuck.

Pour the mixture into the tray, and bake for about 45 minutes. The cake should be soft but firm, and springy to the touch. The ripeness of the bananas will determine the baking time, as the more liquid you add the longer the baking time.

Leave to cool, and cut into pieces. Sieve some icing sugar over the top and serve.