Super-charged banana loaf

I made up this recipe when my young son refused to eat a wide range of foods, so this banana loaf is loaded with eggs and other hopefully healthy goodies. The recipe makes three small loaves.

300 ml sugar
180 g butter or margarine (Flora or the like)
6 jumbo eggs
7 to 9 ripe bananas, mashed
4 cups self-raising flour
salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup sultanas, rinsed in warm water and drained
1 cup chopped nuts (walnuts are good)

Cream the sugar and butter and beat in the eggs until well blended. Stir in bananas, nuts, sultanas. Mix flour, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon and then slowly add to the wet mixture, stirring all the time until the dry ingredients are absorbed.

Bake in three small greased and lined loaf tins, at 180 deg C for 50 minutes. Cool on a rack for a few minutes before turning out of the tins.

Mealie Bread

500 g flour
5 ml salt
30 ml baking powder
pinch of cream of tartar
45 ml sugar
30 ml melted butter
2 eggs
200-250 ml milk
1 can cream-style mealies (corn)
a dash of nutmeg

Combine dry ingredients. Beat together butter, eggs and milk, then add to the dry ingredients. Mix in mealies (corn) and nutmeg. Turn into a greased loaf pan and bake at 180 deg C for about 55 minutes. Turn out and cool on wire rack.

Optional: add 100 g grated cheddar cheese to the mixture and toss in 15 ml each of chopped fresh parsley and chives.

Serve hot with your barbecued meat and a fresh garden salad. Enjoy!

Scrumptious apple and walnut tart

Today I thought it might be a good idea to start sharing some of the family's favourite recipes. I like to improvise, and here is one of my rather more successful concoctions:

Apple and Walnut Tart

Crust: 
2 sheets of ready-rolled frozen sweet shortcrust pastry. I'm lazy, so I use the frozen stuff, but you can make your own if you prefer. Bake blind at 180 deg C for about 10 minutes, remove the baking paper and beans (or whatever you prefer to use for blind baking) and bake another few minutes until the crust looks nicely light brown.

Filling:
5 apples - I use Royal Gala, a sweet variety, peeled, cored and finely chopped
1 banana - ripe, but not over-ripe, mashed with the back of a fork
About 3/4 cup chopped walnuts (use up to 1 cup if you like it to be more nutty)
Finely chopped candied lemon peel, to taste. I use the peel from about 1/2 large lemon.
1/2 cup soft brown sugar
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 cup brandy (this is not optional - go buy some brandy if you don't have any in the house!)
1 TBSP fresh lemon juice
1 TBSP corn flour mixed with about 2 TBSP cold water

In a small bowl, stir together the banana, walnuts, lemon peel and juice, cinnamon, brandy and about half the sugar. Leave it standing for about an hour so the candied peel can soften a bit.

Cook the apples with the remaining sugar in a bowl in the microwave oven  (at high power in bursts of 2 to 3 minutes) until the apple is cooked.

Add the banana and nuts mixture, stir and cook another 3 minutes on high in the microwave.

Add the corn flour, stir well, and cook for another 2 minutes on high in the microwave. Stir again to mix well and then pour into the pie crust and smooth down evenly.

Bake in the oven at 180 deg C with the fan on for another 5 to 10 minutes, but keep an eye on it; don't let the crust burn. This is to let the filling settle nicely and to blow off any excess moisture from the apples.

Yum! Enjoy. Serve plain, with vanilla ice-cream or with thickened cream. And coffee!