Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s Banana Bread

Makes: 1 loaf

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

• 75g of dried apricots (the squidgy ones that come ready to eat)
• 75g of sultanas
• 1 lemon
• 100g of unsalted butter, soft but not melted
• 125g of caster sugar
• 2 large, free-range eggs
• 3 large, ripe bananas
• 200g of self-raising flour

A loaf tin measuring about 13 x 23 x 7cm, baking parchment or loaf tin liner, chopping board, sharp knife, grater, mixing bowl, wooden spoon, fork, plate, sieve, large metal spoon, wire cooling rack

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 160C/Gas Mark 3. Line the loaf tin with baking parchment or, even better, us a loaf tin liner

2. Chop up the apricots so the pieces are roughly the same size as the sultanas. Grate the zest of the lemon.

3. Cream the butter and sugar in the mixing bowl with the wooden spoon until they’re well blended. Break in an egg and beat it into the mixture completely, then beat in the other egg. Add the dried fruit and lemon zest.

4. Mash the bananas well with the fork on a plate and add them to the bowl. Stir well.

5. Sift the flour in the bowl and carefully fold this into the mixture with the large metal spoon, making sure you don’t leave any ‘pockets’ of flour.

6. Scrape the mixture into the prepared tin and gently level the top with the back of the spoon. Oven gloves on. Put the tin in the oven and bake for about an hour--but check the cake after 50 minutes. It is ready when you can insert a knife into the middle and it comes out completely clean. Leave the cake in its tin on a wire rack to cool for about 15 minutes, and then turn it out of the tin and peel off the paper.