A recipe handed down by my mum and the absolute best way to use those very brown bananas that you’ve been trying to persuade your family to eat for a week and no-one wants to touch. The addition of walnuts and cranberries adds a touch of bitterness and sourness which offsets the sweetness of the banana perfectly. I tend to buy cranberries when they’re in season and keep them in the freezer. They keep for months, and you can use them from frozen. In fact, I don’t think I ever use them for anything else. Perhaps I need to expand my cranberry repertoire.
- 200g plain flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 75g unsalted butter at room temperature
- 175g caster sugar
- 2 eggs, beaten
- 450g bananas, mashed. This is quite flexible – I usually use 2-3 bananas, I’m not sure what they weigh
- 100g walnuts, chopped roughly
- 100g cranberries
- Preheat oven to 160C fan (180C)
- Grease and line a 8×4” loaf tin. I dislike this job out of all proportion to the effort it takes, so I always try to delegate it
- Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt into a bowl
- Stir in the nuts and cranberries so they’re coated with flour – this means they won’t sink to the bottom of your loaf. I don’t know why. Witchcraft? Chemistry? But it works
- In another bowl, beat together the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy
- Add egg a little at a time and beat well as you go
- Stir in the mashed bananas
- Then tip in the flour mixture and stir together (don’t beat it at this stage)
- Coax into the loaf tin, make sure it gets into all the corners
- Bake for 1 to 1½ hours. Use a clean skewer to check if its done – if you poke it into the middle of the loaf, it should come out clean
Sophie cooks 
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