Banana Almond Loaf Recipe

I hardly use my loaf pan because I don't make bread often. On one of these rare occasions, I decide to use it, I don't make bread. I made a loaf cake instead - Banana Almond Loaf.

This is versatile recipe - bananas goes well with all kinds of nuts in general so you can also use walnuts, pecans, etc. Remember to toast the nuts before adding into cake batter for the extra flavour.

Yogurt and oil are used to make the cake more moist and dense. Don't forget that bananas in themselves help to retain moisture in the cake.

The top is crunchy from the nuts but the cake is soft. I used plain flour but you can also use cake flour.

This recipe is based on Ann Low's Banana Walnut Bread. Tried and tested and oh so good.

Ingredients:
200g plain flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp cinnamon powder
1/4 tsp salt
2 eggs
100g castor sugar
85g canola oil
3 mashed bananas (about 350g)
2 tbsp Meiji low-fat plain yogurt
1 tsp homemade vanilla extract
100g almond flakes

Method
1. Toast almond flakes in pre-heated oven at 140 degrees for 10 minutes. Leave aside to cool
2. In a bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon powder and salt
3. In another bowl, beat eggs and sugar till thick and pale and mixture forms a ribbon when beater is lifted. This takes about 10 minutes. Add in oil, bananas, yogurt and vanilla extract. Mix well. Add in flour and mix till no flour traces remain. Add 75g of almond flakes in and mix well
4. Pour the batter into the loaf pan (I did not line my pan as I use a non-stick pan). Sprinkle remaining almond flakes on top
5. Bake in pre-heated oven of 170 degrees for 1h or till toothpick inserted comes out clean. The top should be golden brown and springy to touch

Tips
When you sprinkle the almond flakes on top, you can depress them gently into the mixture so that they will not fall off when unmoulding