Jamie Oliver’s Banana and Honey Bread

 

Finally, "real" banana bread

The last time I made Jamie Oliver's Banana Bread, it turned out to be firstly not a bread and secondly not really Jamie Oliver's.

It was not a bread because it really was just a quick-mix cake. (But in US, they would call still it a banana bread.. though the rest of us would call it banana cake...)

It wasn't Jamie Oliver's recipe, but rather a recipe on his website, under the Community section, which meant someone else contributed the recipe.

And even though the banana cake was nice, I really wanted to make a "real" banana bread.

Well, today I made "the real thing". I'm in a very bread-making mood this week and this is my third one.

I adapted from Jamie Oliver's Banana and Honey bread recipe.. (This recipe really does belong to him this time around...)

The original recipe is here but I adapted it a little - I didn't change very much but I wanted less sugar and more fruit in my bread.

Ingredients
• 500g strong bread flour (I used a mixture of very strong bread flour and regular bread flour)
• 315 ml iced water + bananas mixture (start with 3 very ripe bananas, blended and top up with water)
• 3 tbsp honey
• 10g dried instant yeast
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp fine sea salt
• Additional banana and almond slices for topping

What I did
1. Mix all the dry ingredients
2. Add water-banana mixture and honey slowly as you knead
3. Knead until dough is silky and elastic. The dough is quite tough.. I ended up adding a little bit more water, about 30ml more but I think a lot also depends on the flour used. I kneaded it until a small piece of dough that I take out can be stretched fairly thinly across
4. Lightly flour top of dough, cover in cling wrap and proof until double in size
5. Divide and shape to 6 round balls and place them rather closely together, so that after they proof they'd stick together
6. Proof for 90mins or until double in size
7. Drizzle with 1 tbsp honey, top with sliced bananas and almonds
8. Bake at 190 deg C for 20 mins

I decided to proof for a longer time for the second proof because The Husband has mentioned to me before that the second proofing is actually more important for the bread to be soft and fluffy.

Incidentally, it is also what Jamie Oliver says in his basic bread recipe- "This is the most important part, as the second prove will give it the air that finally ends up being cooked into your bread, giving you the really light, soft texture that we all love in fresh bread. So remember – don't fiddle with it, just let it do its thing.”

The bread turned out fine - but it is a very dense and heavy bread. Whilst I think it might be that I should have proofed for an even longer time, I suspect that is because of the flour that was used for this bread..

But it is a yummy bread and will be my breakfast for the rest of the week..

Banana and Honey Bread - yummy!