‘Procrastibaking’, a common word used amongst home cooks, means to put off something you SHOULD be doing, like filing paperwork, paying bills, ironing or cleaning out the linen cupboard, and turning to baking instead.

Hands up those who can relate? Yep…me too.

A long to-do list of things I don’t want to do, plus a little bit of rain and BAM, I am in the kitchen, measuring, pouring and mixing.

This Banana Hazelnut bread is sitting on my bench, in a red and white spotted tin. With an extra early start needed today, I traded my usual bowl of Quinoa Bircher Muesli with greek yoghurt and berries for a slice of this bread, toasted and spread with ricotta and honey.

And not just any Honey.

Honey from our good friends, who got them straight from their bees. And, oh my goodness, I am having to stop my family from eating the honey by the spoonful, straight from the jar.

The original recipe for this bread is from Louise Fulton-Keats, culinary legend Margaret Fulton’s granddaughter. I found it in The OzHarvest Cookbook, a book compiled of famous Australian foodie’s recipes, focusing on using leftovers at home and cooking simply.

I have played with this recipe to make it gluten free and refined sugar free for a loved one with a restricted diet. It came out moist and as delicious as ever, so I am including all options below to meet all dietary needs.

Banana Hazelnut Bread

Created by emma@cookfasteatslow.com on February 4, 2016

Category: Baking

Ingredients

4 medium sized over-ripe bananas, mashed. You want 1 overflowing cup of mash.
1/4 cup milk (soy, nut or coconut milk can also be used to make this dairy free)
1/2 cup light olive oil or rice bran oil
2 eggs
3/4 cup pitted prunes, chopped (or dates if you prefer)
1 1/2 cups wholemeal self raising flour (gluten free self raising flour also works well)
1/2 cup hazelnut meal
1/3 cup rice malt syrup (or 1/2 cup brown sugar if you prefer)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
a handful of whole hazelnuts and pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top

Method

Preheat oven to 170 degrees celsius.
Grease and line a loaf style tin.
Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl, with a spoon, until all combined.
Pour into tin and bake for about an hour, or until it's cooked when you insert it with a skewer and it comes out clean.
If it's browning too quickly, loosely cover with a piece of foil for the remaining cooking time.
Allow to cool in tin for a few minutes before you remove.
Serve warm or toasted with ricotta and honey.
This also freezes well, pre-sliced if you like for ease. It will last for 3 days in an air-tight container or a little longer in the fridge.