Recipe: Banana bread!

No need for a mixer in this recipe! Clean-up is easy too, if you want, you can mix everything in one mixing bowl.

The best bananas to use for banana bread are those that are over-ripe. The yellow peels should be at least half browned, and the bananas inside squishy and browning.

Ingredients

· 2 to 3 very ripe bananas, peeled
· 1/3 cup melted butter
· 1 teaspoon of baking soda
·  Pinch of salt
· 3/4 cup sugar (1/2 cup if you would like it less sweet, 1 cup if more sweet)
· 1 large egg, beaten
· 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
· 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 175°C, and butter a 4x8-inch loaf pan.

2) In a mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until completely smooth. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas.

3) Mix in the baking soda and salt. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg, and vanilla extract. Mix in the flour.

4) Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan. Bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour at 175°C, or until a knife or toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

5) Remove from oven and let cool in the pan for a few minutes. Then remove the banana bread from the pan and let cool completely before serving. Slice and serve. (A bread knife helps to make slices that aren't crumbly.)


Enjoy your banana bread!

Tom

Bananas in Europe

Hello!

I'm Tom and I'm going to tell you more about bananas in Europe.
So to start, did you know that over 60 per cent of European bananas are produced in Spain? Neither did I!
Spain was Europe's largest banana producer in 2016, with a total of 417,176 tonnes, according to data provided by the Directorate General for Agriculture and Rural Development of the EU.
Of the total banana volume marketed in Europe, which amounted to a little over 6 million tonnes, 11.3% is of EU origin!
The Canary Islands accounting for more than 60%, followed by the French Martinique and Guadeloupe 36% and by the Portuguese Madeira 3%.

Another little fact is that one of the biggest banana plantations in Europe is located in Iceland.
Despite the fact that Iceland’s climate is not ideal for growing bananas, Iceland probably has Europe‘s largest banana plantation. Located in a greenhouse in the village of Reykir in South Iceland, the Icelandic banana production is managed by the Icelandic Agricultural University. The annual harvest is admittedly quite low, only 500-2,000 kg of annually.

This is where they grow the bananas in Iceland.

Bananas were first produced in Iceland in 1941. Using cheap geothermal energy to heat the greenhouses and cheap electricity to provide illumination during the darkest months, it was possible to grow bananas in the middle of the North Atlantic. Import duties on imported foodstuffs and fruit meant the Icelandic bananas were competitive, and Icelanders consumed domestically produced bananas until the late 1950s. Since 1959, however, all bananas sold in stores have been imported.

The claim that Iceland has the largest banana plantation in Europe has been disputed by fact checkers. But because it is an excellent story, it has survived any attempts at correction. One of the arguments used by the pro-Iceland as Europe’s largest banana producer camp is that Spain, the largest European banana producer, actually grows bananas on the Canary Islands, which are part of Africa, rather than Europe.

The banana plantation in Reykir is operated by the Icelandic Agricultural University which has been growing bananas at its research station in Reykir since the 1950s. The bananas have remained completely isolated since then, safe from contact with plant diseases, including the Panama Disease which is currently decimating the world’s banana plantations. Many fear the disease, caused by a fungus, could wipe out the Cavendish banana, which is the most common type of banana consumed today.


Fun fact: Bananas are actually berries, yes you heard it, BERRIES like blueberries. So bananas are long, curved berries, isn’t that fascinating? They can vary in size, colour and firmness. You even have purple bananas .

Purple bananas!

In Europe we mostly eat the dessert bananas. Sometimes we eat plantains these are the bananas we use in hot recipes like banana on the BBQ. In Europe we eat bananas in smoothies, ice cream and in banana bread, but we also eat them on the BBQ or caramelized, yummy!

Hi!

Welcome to our blog about the most delicious fruit in the world: Bananas!

We're four students from Belgium and we made this blog for a school project. We hope you'll enjoy!

We chose the subject ' bananas' because it's a world-wide known fruit, everybody eats it, but nobody prepares it the same way. There are also a lot of different types of bananas!

We'd like to tell you more about where bananas come from and where in the world they grow.

Of course some yummy recipes and a little bit of history are also included!

Stay tuned to discover everything you didn't know yet about bananas!

Lise, Julie, Arthur and Tom