Banana & Roasted Hazelnut Loaf

In keeping with my "waste not, want not" philosophy (also called "cook more, eat more"), I needed to use up the bananas lurking in the fruit bowl.  There were 4 when I last looked, but knowing The Hubs & his sneaky habit of eating the food I want to cook with, I bought a few more on the way home from work.  And that was a fortuitous decision because the sneaky sod had eaten, not just one but TWO of my manky brown bananas... the brat.  That meant I had to try to mash up two hard yellow bananas which require arms of steel, not arms of jelly after a night out with the girls the evening before.

Oh well, I persevered as I knew the end result would be worth it, and it was going to be the last thing ever cooked in my old oven, so I sent it out in a blaze of glory

Banana & Roasted Hazelnut Loaf

115g softened Butter
175g Light Brown Sugar
2 large Eggs
4 medium Bananas, very ripe
100g Roasted Chopped Hazelnuts
225g Self-Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Ground Ginger
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Preheat the oven to 170c/Gas Mark 4 and line a 2lb loaf tin, either with a loaf liner or greased baking paper

Cream the butter & sugar together until light & fluffy.  Add the eggs one at a time, mixing well.

Time to add the bananas & hazelnuts, mixing well.

Finally, sift in the flour, cinnamon & ginger & fold through.

Pour the mixture into the loaf tin & bake for 60-70 minutes until a skewer comes out clean.

Bye Bye little oven... you served me well!