Banana Bread With Homemade Berry Jam & Greek Yoghurt Inspired By Lily Simpson

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The lovely Lily talked about how the Detox Kitchen banana bread is one of the most popular dishes and how people would get positively hysterical with banana-craving induced rage if it were ever removed from the menu. Those weren't Lily's exact words but I'm paraphrasing. I hope for everyone's sake, and Lily's safety, that that day will never come. But I mean why on Earth would it ever come off the menu? Banana bread just has to be one of the best things ever. It's certainly one of my favourites and definitely deserves it's place on Lily's list of Desert Island Dishes.

I've had banana bread toasted. I've had it topped with butter and toasted nuts. I've had it smothered in jam. I've had banana bread hot from the oven, torn from the loaf and it was worth the burnt mouth and fingers. Wait, what was my point here? I had one, I promise. Oh yes. But before I met Lily, I had not thought of banana bread as pudding, or as a dish in it's own right even. To me, it was a banana version of a toasted teacake; great for afternoon tea, fab for elevenses and even for a cheeky breakfast if you can get away with it. We used to go on holiday to Antigua and baskets of banana bread always appeared at breakfast and my goodness was it good. But I love the way Lily transforms her banana bread into a fully fledged dish in it's own right.

This recipe is completely inspired by Lily and The Detox Kitchen even down to the way I've styled it. It's an ode to Lily if you like. Lily is, like me, a huge fan of edible flowers. Ask any of my cooking clients, I scatter them on anything I can. I mean, they just look so gorgeous and pretty, don't they? I have started growing my own, but for bigger jobs I always go to the wonderful Jan Billington. I will probably come to regret telling you about her, but hey ho, that's the way of things and Jan deserves it.

I use my fail safe banana bread recipe for this, which has been a very popular stalwart recipe on Made by Margie and I'm going to show you how to make the most delicious and easy winter berry jam to go on the top. I love Lily's version with coconut yogurt but for this recipe I went with Greek Yoghurt which feels a little lighter somehow and I just love the rich creamy tanginess it brings. Top the whole thing off with toasted coconut flakes and my goodness you've got a Desert Island Dish of dreams.

Author: Margie

Ingredients

Scale

For the banana bread:

4 ripe bananas

45g melted butter, plus extra for greasing the tin

128g caster sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 tsp baking soda

192g plain flour

pinch of salt

For the berry jam:

500g frozen berries (better value and less faff)

1 tbsp water (use 2 if you use fresh berries)

2 tbsp caster sugar

squeeze of lemon juice

To serve:

Greek Yoghurt, full fat

Edible flowers

Toasted coconut flakes

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Instructions

Preheat the oven to 175C / 350 f / Gas Mark 4

Take a 4 inch x 8 inch loaf tin and brush it liberally with melted butter and a sprinkling of flour. This is very important if you want to be able to get the banana bread out of the tin. Which you will want to do.

Next, peel your bananas and pop them in a bowl. Using a fork, smoosh (highly technical cooking term) the bananas until they are completely mashed and look like baby food. This is why you need to use really ripe bananas, you'll know if they aren't ripe enough as you wont be able to squash them with your fork.

Add the egg, sugar, melted butter and vanilla. Give it a really good stir, making sure you break the egg yolk.

Now add the flour, salt, and baking powder and stir gently to combine.
Pour / scrape / spoon the mix into the loaf tin and cook for 45 mins to 1 hour, until a skewer poked through the middle comes out clean.

Leave to cool for about 20 minutes in the tin and then use a knife to loosen all the edges. Then carefully tip out and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

For the jam: pop everything in a pan and bring to the boil. Then reduce to a simmer and cook gently for about 10 minutes. You want the berries to melt down to a berry mash but not a pureé. Take off the heat and leave to cool.

This will keep in the fridge beautifully for a few weeks, but with your banana bread hanging around I can't imagine it would last that long.

Serve slices of banana bread with greek yoghurt and berry jam. Garnish with edible flowers if you like, and a sprinkling of toasted coconut flakes.

Now you'll have to excuse me, I'm off for another slice.