I have a compulsion when it comes to cookbooks. Like a Bowerbird who is drawn to bring shiny things into their nest I have the same need to add to my ever growing cookbook collection.
I love browsing the recipes inside for inspiration, I love looking at the beautifully styled photos, and I love reading about what inspired the author. One of my recent cookbook purchases was [amazon_link id=”1742572154″ target=”_blank” ]Wild Sugar Desserts[/amazon_link] by Skye Craig.
Unbeknownst to me Skye appeared on the Australian Tv show Masterchef. As a foodie and a food blogger how did I not know this? Well, you see, I’ve never watched a version of Australian Masterchef. Are you shocked? I know most people are when it comes up in conversation.
As a huge fan of the original British version of Masterchef I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the Australian version.
I know it perhaps sounds odd, but I’m one of those people that likes things a certain way, and I loved the original formula with John Torode and Greg Wallace. I loved the way they interacted, with Greg’s love of great produce and desserts and John with his cooking knowledge.
I loved the way they agreed to disagree on different competitors and didn’t involve the competitors getting bitchy behind each other’s backs. And I loved the way the show was simply about cooking and it wasn’t commercial (admittedly I haven’t watched the recent seasons so I don’t know if this changed). So, after having seen a couple of my favourite international Tv shows, such as Project Runway and Iron Chef, ruined during their Australian conversion I just couldn’t bring myself to watch it.
I’ve heard it’s good, my Mum always raves about it in fact, and I know that appearing on Masterchef has made household names of a lot of talented cooks, which is a wonderful thing but I still can’t bring myself to watch it. The fact it’s on commercial tv doesn’t help either as we pretty much only watch Foxtel in our house.
So, on the weekend I was wanting to do some baking and some overripe bananas were staring back at me from the counter begging to be used. When I have overripe bananas I usually make banana bread, and the banana bread I make is a recipe from a CWA cookbook my Nan gave me when I first moved out of home. Whenever I make it it always reminds me of the banana bread my Mum and Nan used to make, so I’ve been faithful, but with my latest cookbook acquisition waiting to be put to use I flicked through and came across Skye’s Killer Banana and Chocolate Bread. The decision was made as the combination of banana and chocolate is too good to refuse.
I did make a few changes to Skye’s Banana Bread recipe though. I replaced the walnuts with chopped hazelnuts and the sour cream with some delicious honey Greek yoghurt. The resulting bread is deliciously moist and full of banana goodness.
So tell me, do you dislike remakes of your favourite tv shows? And are you a British Masterchef fan who enjoyed the Australian version?
Banana, Hazelnut and Chocolate Bread
Ingredients
- 6 ripe bananas - 3 mashed and 3 sliced
- 225 g of self raising flour
- 1 tsp of baking powder
- 100 g of butter
- 90 g of caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 90 g of Greek yoghurt
- 110 g of 70% cocoa chopped into chunks
- 1/3 cup of hazelnuts roughly chopped
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180 celsius (350 fahrenheit) and grease 1 large loaf tin.
- In a large bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment cream the butter and caster sugar until pale. Add the eggs one at a time and mix well before adding the banana and vanilla.
- Switch off the mixer and sift in the flour and baking powder and fold through using a wooden spoon or spatula. Add the banana slices, chocolate, hazelnuts and yoghurt and fold through until just combined.
- Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and then trim a piece of baking paper to size and place of the top of the loaf. Bake for 30 minutes before reducing the temperature to 160 celsius (320 fahrenheit) and baking for a further 30 to 40 minutes, or until a cake tester comes out cleanly.
- Remove from the tin and place on a wire rack to cool.
