Italian Breakfast Banana Bread

You know the story.  Bananas going ripe.  Must make banana bread.  Especially as the weather is getting cooler.  I did have a day of "I'm totally going to freeze the remaining bananas for smoothies" but then I got over it.  Next time, I promise.  In the meantime, there's Nigella's Italian breakfast banana bread.  Which can be consumed at any time of day, thankfully.

Ingredients:
150mL flavourless vegetable oil
3 medium bananas, very ripe (about 400g with skin on, 300g without)
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
pinch salt
2 eggs
150g caster sugar
175g plain flour
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
4 teaspoons instant espresso powder

Method:
Place a baking sheet in the oven, and preheat to 170C.  Line a loaf tin with baking paper or lightly oil it.
Mash the bananas with the vanilla and salt, then beat in the oil.
Beat in the eggs, one by one, followed by the sugar.
Mix the flour with the bicarb and espresso powder, and beat these dry ingredients into the runny batter.
Pour the batter into the prepared loaf tin, then pop it into the oven, on the baking sheet.  Bake for 50-60 minutes, or until slightly coming away at the sides and bulgingly risen.  A cake tester should come out clean, barring the odd crumb.  Leave for at least half a day before slicing into it.  Really.

I made this one evening, so my whole house smelt deliciously of baking the whole evening.  It is really quick and easy to whip up, too.  Mine didn't rise 'bulgingly' though, and after leaving it in the oven overnight (yes I turned it off) it had sunk a little, so it was wider rather than higher.  No matter - it was still deliciously moist and banana-y.  Nigella recommends chocolate spread (yum! - but not a good thing for me) or mascarpone sprinkled with  cinnamon.  I went with quark sprinkled with cinnamon.  Yum.  And I was really really good - I sliced the leftovers and put them in the freezer for later.  Sorry for all the smug vibes permeating the blogosphere.

Whaddaya Call It?

I'm reminded here of the movie, The Castle.  The mum serves dessert to great acclaim.  "Whaddaya call it, love?" asks the dad.  "Icecream", she replies.  "Yeah but whadja do to it?" he asks.  "Scooped it out of the punnet". 

This isn't quite icecream, although it does fit into the dairy category.  With a tub of quark needing to be consumed within 3-4 days, I needed a variety of uses.


A scoop of quark (maybe 1/4 cup), a heaped teaspoon of cocoa, 2 teaspoons of jam.  It will probably last me at least 2 nights for dessert, but it is really yummy.

New Food - Quark

I have often seen Quark in the general store when I'm ordering extras with the fruit and veg box, and never before been game enough to order it.  A friend has just started eating it and said it was the best stuff, so I thought I'd give it a go.  The apparent selling point of "it's just like cottage cheese" was quite a deterrent (having loathed that as a child, I tried it again last year - still foul), but a reassurance of "but it's so much nicer, not lumpy at all" made it better.  Plus it's meant to have some good stuff in there for your brain.  And who can go past that name?  Quark quark quark...

Looking at the nutrition information, there was a bit of a reorganisation of my plans for it.  10. 8 g protein and a whopping 9.6 g fat means I'll count it as a fat, not a protein.  (I had ordered the skim version but they were out of stock, and as I'd never had this before I didn't mind the substitution).

When I started eating it, my tastebuds-brain connections went a bit haywire but by the end of the meal they'd settled somewhat.  In taste it reminds me more of mascarpone than anything else, rich and creamy, so it will be a healthy dessert option for now.  Unless I get creative and do a dip or something. 

Do you eat quark?  Any recipe suggestions?