I’ll be honest; before I had kids, I hated bananas. Despite having banana trees in my parent’s garden as a child, the only way I’d ever eat one was just as it turned yellow so it was still hard. And it wasn’t even the actual fruit, it was anything banana flavoured as well!
Whilst I’m still not a big fan of artificial banana flavouring, ever since I had master 4 I don’t hate bananas anymore. Weird aye? I still dislike them very soft though, so any softer bananas end up as banana bread or better yet, banana cake. After a while though, banana cake gets a tad boring, so new ideas must be tried 🙂 Hence, banana jam! 😋
Banana jam or spread or butter.. not actually sure entirely what to call this, but whatever it’s called it’s OMG DELICIOUSLY YUMMY! I could seriously eat it by the spoonful, but it’s equally as nice on scones or even banana cake if you’re wanting an extra banana-ry indulgence 😛 If you don’t eat it by the spoonful, it should last 1-2 weeks in the fridge, but don’t quote me on that 🙂
Ingredients:
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1/2 cup soft brown sugar
- 1 Lemon
- 50g butter (melted)
- 1.5 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste (or the equivalent in essense)
Method:
- Mash the bananas. This can be done till it’s smooth or you can leave a few lumps in 🙂 I left a few lumps in as I like the occasional hit of banana.
- In a small heavy saucepan add the mashed bananas, juice of one lemon, sugar and butter.
- Over medium heat, bring to a simmer.
- Turn to low & simmer for approx 25 minutes, stirring frequently (every 5 minutes or so). Closer to the end time, you’ll have a thicker mixture that pulls away from the sides of the pan easily. Don’t worry if it doesn’t look thick enough for a jam, it will thicken when cooling.
- Take off the heat & allow to cool so you can taste the banana jam without getting burnt.
- Taste. Add cinnamon & vanilla, half a teaspoon at a time, tasting as you go. The vanilla & cinnamon measurements above, are according to my tastebuds, and I LOVE both 😛
- Let the banana jam cool completely to room temperature, before decanting into jars.
- Store in the fridge.
Notes:
- To get the most juice out of the lemon, I rolled the whole lemon on the benchtop for about a minute. You can also microwave for about 15 seconds.
- You can use vanilla essense if you have that in the cupboard, but I always wanted to try out the vanilla bean :P, so purchased the Mrs Rogers vanilla bean paste for this recipe.
