60g/¼ cup crunchy peanut butter
60g/¼ cup butter
180g/scant 1 cup light brown sugar
100g/⅓ cup honey
2 eggs
3 large bananas, ideally quite brown*
150g/1 cup wholemeal flour
2tsp baking powder
½tsp freshly grated nutmeg
A pinch of salt
1tbsp butter, softened
* If your bananas are fresh and a pale, butter yellow, put them in the oven for half an hour or so while it heats up. They’ll go brown, and will be perfect for this recipe. Don’t forget to let them cool a little before peeling them open; they’ll be impossibly hot inside.
My favourite sandwich when I was at primary school was honey, peanut butter, and banana – Mum’s sandwiches made mine the most creative (and undeniably the best) of all the school lunches in my class. This loaf is a slightly more grown-up version of my childhood favourite; a slice works in a lunchbox, for breakfast, or for morning tea. It’s particularly good with coffee butter, if you find yourself with some leftover after eating the biscuits on p. 82.
Makes 10 slices
1. Preheat the oven to 160C fan/350F/gas 4. Grease and line a loaf tin. Melt the peanut butter, butter, sugar and honey in a saucepan. Allow to cool, then beat in the eggs. Peel and mash the bananas and then fold them in.
2. Stir in the flour, baking powder, nutmeg, and salt. Scrape into the tin, and bake for 50 minutes to an hour, until a skewer inserted in the cake comes out clean.
3. When the loaf comes out of the oven, rub the softened butter over the top. Cool for 10 minutes in the tin and then serve warm or toasted, with butter or ricotta, and a drizzle of honey.