You can use only dates, only figs or maybe experiment with apricots or other moist dried fruits. Your bananas should be really ripe, with spotty skins and maybe a few black bits.
Ingredients
- 125g butter
- 150g caster sugar
- 1.5 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 1 egg, beaten
- 3 very ripe bananas, mashed (4 if small)
- 190g self raising flour
- 60ml milk
- 150g dates, chopped into chunks
- 150g semi-dried figs, chopped into chunks
- walnut pieces for decoration
- a little demerara sugar to sprinkle over
Method
- Pre-heat the oven to 150 C (fan).
- Grease and line a 2lb loaf tin.
- Melt the butter, sugar and vanilla in a saucepan over a medium heat.
- Remove from the heat. Add the bananas and mix well.
- Add the egg, mix well.
- Stir in the flour and milk.
- Mix in the dates and figs.
- Pour the mixture into the loaf tin.
- Decorate with walnut pieces and sprinkle over a couple of spoons of demerara sugar to give a golden crunchy topping.
- Into the oven and bake for 35 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean and there is a golden brown crust. Cooking time can vary according to the quantity and moisture content of the banana and fruit, sometimes up to 45 or 50 minutes.