hazelnut & buttermilk banana loaf...

I have written of banana bread here before. This butter-less banana bread is the nutty type and easier again if such a thing is possible... and with minimum washing up, my favorite kind of loaf! It's what to make when you are being badgered into baking something but don't want to spend the rest of the evening cleaning up after it. If you have children over the age of three they can also do a lot of the work themselves, which is fair, as it is they who have done the badgering.

As with all banana bread, the very best bananas to use are the kind that are so old and blackened that they look like they have been in a house fire. The buttermilk keeps this very moist and can be replaced with natural or hazelnut yogurt in a pinch. The hazelnuts are best toasted before being added to the mix. It is not essential but it does release their inner nuttiness.

Ingredients
2 eggs
80 ml buttermilk
120 ml vegetable oil
225 g mashed bananas (about two large ones)
300 g golden caster sugar
220 g all-purpose flour
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
55 g chopped hazelnuts (toasted)

Directions

Preheat oven to 165 degrees C. Grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan. In a large bowl mash the bananas. Add the buttermilk, vanilla and oil, beat in the eggs. Stir in the sugar. Sift the flour, baking soda and salt onto the mix and mix well. Finally stir in the hazelnuts and pour into prepared loaf pan. Bake for one hour and twenty minutes or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Cool and serve with a spoon of cream, unsweetened as this is quite a sweet loaf. A drizzle of icing or syrup, a few banana chips and hazelnuts for extra crunch.