Bake the best banana bread ever!

One bite of Anna Ashton’s Banana Bread will spoil you for life because it is the best banana bread recipe ever! Luckily, it is a regular treat for guests at Straw House, a Granite Belt B&B, where kids, dogs, cattle, and friendly folk combine to make a great getaway spot.

How to make the best ever Banana Bread

Get yourself in the mood while baking with this banana-themed playlist on Spotify.  You’ll soon be singing your heart out to The Karaoke Banana playlist and discovering how many of your favourite songs are banana related song (‘Yellow’ by Coldplay anyone?). This easy Banana Bread recipe is so simple you can make it in 15 minutes.  It will be even easier once you have mastered the recipe a few times.

Anna likes to make the bread, cut it, and freeze the slices so that it is always on hand for guests when they arrive. Reheating the banana bread on a ridged griddle gives those morish dark stripes and caramelises the banana sugars too.  Add some butter to the hot slices, and it’s a little bit of bliss when you bite!

The Straw House B&B Best Banana Bread

Makes one loaf. You can use any size loaf pan but an 11 cm x 28 cm standard pan works well.

Ingredients

• 1 cup of melted butter
• 1 cup of white sugar
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 2 eggs
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 ½ cups plain flour
• 1 full teaspoon of bicarb soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• An overflowing ½ cup yoghurt (plain or vanilla but vanilla is best!)
• 3 very ripe medium to large bananas (mashed)

Method

1. Preheat over to 180 degrees (moderate)
2. Get a large bowl and in it whisk together the butter and both lots of sugar. Add one egg and whisk, and the second egg with vanilla and whisk until it looks smooth. No more than a minute in total. (Don’t be tempted to use an electric mixer).
3. Sift in the flour, salt and bicarb soda and stir with a large spoon until just combined. Fold in the bananas and yoghurt. Don’t over mix.
4. Pour into a cake tin that has been lightly greased and lined with baking paper. Cook for about 45 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean on when the middle of the cake is firm to touch.
5. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes and then flip onto a cake rack. (It’s good to taste an end at this stage with butter!)

Anna’s easy Banana Bread tips

• Really ripe bananas are essential for the best results.
• Make double the quantity and freeze or keep in the fridge for three days (or just eat all at once).
• Toast slices in the toaster or dry fry in a pan then spread with butter while still warm and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
• If you want to be fancy, thinly slice an extra banana longways and lay two pieces on top of the mixture before putting it in the oven. Don’t make the banana slices too heavy or bread may not rise.

Not your average B&B

The Straw House is not your average bed and breakfast because the two cottages really are made of straw.  Built using straw bales and stucco, the cottage has very thick walls which make them warm in winter and cool in summer.  The walls also block out exterior noise from the nearby highway.

Guests can take a walk through the apple orchard and in-season sample the fruit. At night the fire pit is the perfect spot to take a bottle of wine, a cheese platter, and something to sizzle.

As well as patting the resident dogs, you can bring your own pups too.

Anna Aston operates the farm and B&B together with partner Tony McDougall.  They were both working in local government jobs in 2019 when they decided it was time for a tree change. So they bought this cute, bright yellow B&B and moved from Brisbane, and now live on 22 acres in the Granite Belt.

Each spacious, self-contained cottage has a queen-size bed and a fold-down sofa bed for one adult or little ones. There’s also a Nespresso machine!

Stay in the Granite Belt’s first tiny house

From the end of April 2021, the Straw House will also have a luxurious new Tiny House which will be the first on the Granite Belt.

Set in a field behind the B&B, the 20 sqm2 tiny house will have farm animals on its doorstep. A fence at the top of the stairs will keep the very friendly highland cattle, goats, and other farm-yard animals off the Tiny House’s 15 sqm2 deck

Feed the farm animals

Come dinner time and you can say hello to the friendly animals lining up for a feed.

There are four alpacas, Pablo, Edwardo, Deigo, and Nigel along with five miniature goats. The cattle with the impressive horns and wild hair are Scottish Belted Galloways Bonnie, Holly, Ivy and Benny.

Find Straw House Bed & Breakfast at 21 Straw House Lane, Dalveen Queensland