RECIPE: Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s everyday banana loaf!

Winter is officially here, which means it’s the perfect time for cosy and delicious food! Our Comfort Cooking collection is full of amazing books with seasonal recipes from expert foodies like Molly Baz, Josh Niland and more. Today we’re featuring a recipe for everyday banana loaf with homemade butter from Julia Busuttil Nishimura’s classic cookbook, Ostro (which has just been reissued with an amazing new cover!).

Happy cooking!

Everyday Banana Loaf with Homemade Butter

Makes: one 24 cm loaf

I’m not saying that this loaf should be eaten every day – more that it is a simple loaf, one that can be made with the most basic ingredients and a few neglected bananas. In fact, the more ripe the bananas, the more natural sweetness they will bring to this loaf.

It is perfect eaten warm, by the slice, with a thick slather of butter. When I have excess crème fraîche in the fridge, I often turn it into butter for spreading on fresh crusty bread or, in this case, slices of banana loaf. My suggested quantity of crème fraîche for making the butter yields approximately 200 g of butter and 200 ml of buttermilk, which is a very manageable amount. You can use pure cream instead of crème fraîche to make the butter or, of course, buy some butter instead.

Sometimes, when I’m in the mood, I add chunks of dark chocolate to the batter or slice an extra (not so ripe) banana lengthways and press it into the top of the loaf before baking. Sometimes I do both.

Ingredients

2 eggs
150 g raw sugar
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil
2½ tablespoons full-cream milk
2 very ripe bananas (about 250 g in total)
150 g (1 cup) self-raising flour
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Optional Extras

2 ½ tablespoons Dutch-process
cocoa
100 g dark chocolate (70% cocoa),
roughly chopped
50 g (½ cup) walnuts,
roughly chopped
1 banana, cut in half lengthways

Butter

500 ml (2 cups) crème fraîche
pinch of sea salt

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C. Grease a 24 cm loaf tin with butter and line with baking paper.

In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until pale. Pour in the olive oil and milk and whisk to combine. In a separate bowl, mash the bananas until smooth, then mix them into the batter. Sift in the flour and cinnamon. Stir gently, being careful not to overwork the mixture. If you wish to add the cocoa, chocolate and/or walnuts, add them to the mixture now. The cocoa will need to be sifted in, but just stir the chocolate and walnuts through.

Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and, if using, top with the halved banana. Bake for approximately 45 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

For the butter, whisk the crème fraîche in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a whisk attachment. Beat until the solids separate, which will take around 7 minutes. Strain through a fine-mesh sieve over a bowl and press on the solids to release all of the liquid. That liquid is buttermilk, which you can keep to use for another purpose. Return the solids to the mixer and beat again for another 3–4 minutes to remove more buttermilk, and repeat the straining process. Fill a large bowl with very cold water and, working quickly, knead the butter in the water, squeezing out as much buttermilk as you can. Drain and repeat until the water is clear. Buttermilk left in the solids will make the butter sour, so it is important to remove as much as possible. Mix in the salt – this flavours the butter, but it also helps it keep for a little longer. It is now ready to use, or you can wrap the butter tightly in baking paper and, as long as you have removed all of the buttermilk properly, it will keep in the fridge for up to 3 weeks. If there’s buttermilk still in the butter, it will sour quite quickly and will only last for about 1 week.

—Ostro by Julia Busuttil Nishimura (Pan Macmillan Australia) is out now.

Ostro

Simple, generous food for living and sharing

by Julia Busuttil Nishimura

Since its release in 2017, Ostro has gained a legion of fans who adore Julia Busuttil Nishimura for her generous, uncomplicated, seasonal food. Julia's interpretations of dishes from Italy and the Mediterranean feel both timelessly familiar and altogether fresh and new. This is modern Australian eating with respect for the past.

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