Earl grey tea banana bread

I made this earl grey tea banana bread for my friend Angie for breakfast when she came to visit as earl grey is her favourite tea.  This is in addition to the chocolate beetroot cake to ensure a warm welcome to London :) 

It's a lovely moist fragrant bread and went very well with a cup of tea.  It was definitely worth the extra effort making it.

 very strong tea

 melt butter, strong tea and sugars

 lovely 'tea syrup'

 mix ingredients 

 add bananas

 fresh from the oven 

5 Earl Grey Tea bags

150ml boiling water

45g brown sugar

180g golden caster sugar

100g butter

255ml sour cream

1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

2 medium eggs, lightly beaten

250g self raising flour

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3 medium bananas

Preheat oven to 180C.

Place tea bags in mug and pour boiling water over it. 

Leave to steep for 5 minutes before removing teabags.

In a small saucepan, place strong tea, sugars and butter then melt over a low heat until the sugar granules have dispersed and it has turned into a buttery brown syrup. 

Leave to cool for 10 minutes or so. 

In a large bowl, mix together the sour cream and bicarbonate of soda and leave to stand for 5 minutes. 

Stir in the melted mixture and eggs. 

Sift flour, baking powder and cinnamon into another bowl. 

Gradually fold in the sour cream mixture followed by the mashed bananas. 

Divide into 2 loaf tins and sprinkle some brown sugar on top if you want a sugary crust (It's great!).

Bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Cool in tins for about 20 minutes before turning out to a wire rack to cool completely.