Banana Bread with Pecans and Dates

This week's challenge was a first for me as I've never made a sweet bread before (I also hardly ever eat them). So, I pretty much picked a recipe at random and went for the banana bread with pecans and dates. It sounded nice and it looked nice in the picture, so I just had a go with it.

I stuck to all the directions except one: to bake the bread for 40-45 minutes. I was reading a book and forgot the time... oops! The bread baked 5 minutes too long, and the top got a bit dark. It doesn't look perfect but it still tastes good - some of the edges are just a bit crispy!

(On a side note I should mention that your house will smell delicious for as long as the bread is in the oven.)

The bread has a rough texture, with little chunks of dates and pecans. The flavor is the typical banana kind of sweet (no added sugars), but still savory enough to call it a bread and not a pound cake. Personally, I liked the braided bread of last week better but that's just because I'm more a fan of savory food and soft dough.

This banana bread is actually perfect for afternoon snacks or to add to your breakfast (perhaps with a thin spread of butter on it). It's also very healthy. As I mentioned, it has no added sugars: it contains only 380 calories! (But the calorie count will go up per next week I reckon, though!)

Anyway, the recipe:

Banana Bread with Dates and Pecan Nuts
Serves: 10
Takes: 15 min + 45 min baking + 1 hr 30 min waiting.

Ingredients:

• 400 grams bananas
• 100 grams dates without seeds
• 140 grams unsalted pecan nuts
• 250 grams wheat flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 2 tsp. cinnamon
• a pinch of salt
• 100 grams butter (room temp.)
• 2 eggs
• 125 crème fraîche
• greased pound cake mold (about 30 cm or 11.8 inch)
• skewer

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 200°C or 392°F. Mash the bananas and cut the dates in small slices. Save about 10 pecan nuts and coarsely chop the rest.
2. Sift flour, baking powder, cinnamon and salt into a bowl. In another bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until smooth. While beating, add eggs one by one, and next the crème fraîche. Scoop into the flour mixture.
3. Add banana purée, dates, and chopped nuts into batter and knead to mix well. The dough will get a bit thicker and more cohesive, which is good. The scoop the dough into the pound cake mold and smoothen it with a spoon. Press the 10 pecan nuts you saved into the top. Bake 40-45 minutes, until golden-brown and done.
4. After 40 minutes, check if the bread is done by sticking a skewer into it. If the skewer comes out clean, the bread is done. Let cool 30 minutes, take out of the mold, and let cool another hour.