the Special Banana Bread Recipe

The special banana bread recipe is only sometimes special because the secret special ingredient comes at a price (well at least here in Hong Kong) - walnuts. After much research online this bourgeois ingredient of baked goods seems to be quite the commodity in terms of pricing world wide. Considering China is the biggest growers and distributors/sellers of walnuts internationally (more than the USA by 40%), the question is why do Hong Kong supermarkets only sell American walnuts at top prices?

So besides the ethics of ingredients, here is the special banana bread recipe!!!

Ingredients:

1/2 cup of butter

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 mashed ripe bananas

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp of baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup of walnuts (the special banana bread ingredient)

In a big mixing bowl melt butter and cream with sugar. Add eggs one at a time and beat until smooth. Mash up and add bananas.

In another bowl stir flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together. Add this to the banana mix slowly. Then mix in the special ingredient if you feel rich! Pour into a bread pan and bake in the oven for 35 - 40 mins at 180 degrees celsius. Baking time does vary from oven to oven so do the toothpick test in different places! The time above allows the banana bread to remain moist inside but firm.