Banana Dates and Macadamia Square Yeast Bread

This soft banana bread is made with yeast and is a wonderful fruit and nut bread for morning toast.

Ingredients make 1 loaf

250 g mashed bananas

40 g butter

170 ml milk

30 g caster sugar

1 tsp salt (6g)

350 g white bread flour

1 tsp cinnamon (3g)

1 sachet yeast (7g)

110 g chopped dates

80 g chopped macadamia nuts

Method

Place bananas, butter, milk, sugar and salt in a mixing bowl and combine. Add flour, cinnamon and yeast, combine to make dough. Knead the dough by hand or machine until smooth. Add dates and macadamia nuts and combine. Rest covered for approx. 60 minutes in a covered bowl. Remove the dough from the bowl and place on a lightly floured kitchen table. Deflate the dough and form the dough into a log shape. Place the dough in a greased 10 x 10 x 28 cm Pullman tin and press the dough gently on top. Place a towel on top and let the dough rise until 1 cm from the top approx. 70 minutes. Preheat oven to 180ºC. Remove the towel and place the lid on the tin. Place the tin in the middle of the oven and bake for approx. 40 minutes. Remove the bread from the tin and allow cooling for at least 30 minutes on a wire rack before cutting.

Note: Try mixed spice instead of cinnamon and honey instead of sugar.