Last weekend was a very special time in Hong Kong.  Yes, it was some Chinese festival.  Yes, there were exciting dragon boat races.  But more importantly:  I had a two day weekend!  As it was a public holiday, my school was closed on Saturday and I got to spend a full two consecutive days at leisure.  It was good news not only for me, but also for my boyfriend.  Not, of course, because he got the pleasure of my company for twice as long, but because it gave him a break from Sunday breakfast-making duty.  When he heard the good news, he immediately suggested:  “Why don’t you make breakfast in bed this weekend?”

And so I did.  I’ve been wanting to make a banana loaf for quite a while now, so I was pleased to have the opportunity.  I weighed everything out the night before, so in the morning it was simply a matter of chucking everything into the bowl in the right order and sticking it in the oven.  It was really moist and delicious, and the dates and walnuts were an excellent addition – dates are an expensive luxury in HK, and this was the first time I treated myself in a year.

My serving suggestion:  warm from the oven, with a cheeky scoop of ice cream.  A great start to a special weekend!

Banana Breakfast Loaf

adapted from BBC Good Food

Ingredients:

75g butter, softened

80g golden caster sugar

125g plain flour

100g wholemeal flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

2 eggs

4 ripe bananas, mashed

50g walnut pieces

50g chopped dates

Method:

1.   Preheat the oven to 180C and butter and line a loaf tin.

2.  Place the flours and sugar in a mixing bowl, add the dates and nuts and mix well – coating the fruit and nuts with flour should prevent them all from sinking to the bottom of the loaf.

3.  Add the rest of the ingredients – butter, baking powder, cinnamon, eggs and bananas – and beat together until well combined.

4.  Pour into the prepared loaf tin.

5.  Bake for 50 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean.  Stand the tin on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out -you can’t beat a nice warm slice with a scoop of ice cream!