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Banana Bread Recipe
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup Butter / Margarine
- 1 cup Sugar
- 2 Eggs
- 2 cups Cake Flour
- 2 tsp Baking Powder
- 4 Bananas
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 1/2 tsp Salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180°C
- Beat butter and sugar till creamy.
- Add vanilla essence.
- Add eggs one at a time and beat well.
- Sift flour, baking powder and salt together, add to butter mixture.
- Mash bananas with a fork and add to the above mixture.
- Mix well and put into a greased loaf tin.
- Bake for 1 hour.
- Serve with butter.
- The flavor will improve if you keep the loaf in a tin for a day.
Today’s Featured Ingredient
Vanilla
Vanilla is a flavouring derived from the seed pod of a delicate orchid plant. It grows as a vine, climbing up a pole or trees. There are three species of vanilla. Originally coming from Mexico, most vanilla is now grown on Madagascar, Reunion, West Indies, Central America and South America.
Vanilla is the second most expensive spice after saffron. Vanilla is expensive because it is very labour intensive to grow.
It takes 18 months to three years from planting a cutting till the plant produces flowers. Each flower must be hand pollinated within 12 hours otherwise the flower falls off and no bean will form.
Vanilla is a tropical plant and does well in temperatures below 50 degrees. Like grapes the flavour of vanilla can be effected by the soil quality, the amount of sun and rain it gets.
In the early days vanilla was used to calm the stomach, congestion and coughs. Vanilla is used in food to brighten up a bland flavourless dish.
Most vanilla we consume now days is however artificial vanilla flavouring and very little comes from the vanilla pod.
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