Banana Blueberry Bread

The one week school holidays is over. It was a good break for all of us. The boys are back to school and I had some quite moments this morning.

I had some left over blueberries and bananas, and decided to bake something with them. After looking through the various recipes I have gathered, a banana quick bread recipe from the Australian Women's Weekly cookbook series, Great Casual Food, caught my eye. I liked the fact that it uses 1 egg and only 20g of butter!

I added in blueberries, reduced the sugar amount, used low-fat milk and turned it to a Banana Blueberry Bread. I don't know whether this could be considered low-fat, but I would certainly feel less guilty if I eat more than 2 slices at a go.


The taste of quickbread is almost similar to muffins...this loaf turned out to be very soft and fluffy, especially when it was fresh out of the oven. The sweetness of the bananas blends very well with the slightly tangy blueberries. This recipe is certainly going to be the "base" for all my future banana quickbreads...besides being low fat, it's so easy to make! I am sure it can live up to other variations such as banana-strawberries; banana-orange, banana-raisins, and of course banana-chocolate chips.

Ingredients:
(makes one loaf)

185g self-raising flour
20g butter
80g sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
60ml low fat milk
1/2 cup mashed banana (about 2)
1/2 cup fresh blueberries

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180 degC. Grease 14cm x 20cm loaf pan; line base with parchment paper.
2. Working over a bowl, toss the blueberries with about 1 ~ 2 teaspoon of flour in a sieve, and set aside. Coating the blueberries with flour helps to keep them from sinking to the bottom of the muffins as they bake.
3. Sift flour into a mixing bowl, rub in the butter with fingertips.
4. Stir in sugar, egg, milk and mashed bananas. Do not over mix, the batter should be lumpy. Gently stir in blueberries and spoon mixture into loaf pan.
5. Bake for 30 mins or until skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
6. Remove from oven, let cool for a few mins. Unmold and leave to cool completely.