Candied bacon banana bread

Method

• step 1

  Put the diced bacon in a small, cold frying pan, then cook gently until the bacon is starting to crisp up. Stir in 1 tbsp of the maple syrup and bubble for a minute until the bacon bits are sticky and candied. Cool.

• step 2

  Heat the oven to 180C/fan 160C/gas 4. Lightly oil a 2lb/900g loaf tin and line the base and ends with a long strip of baking paper. Mix the flours, bicarb, baking powder, cinnamon and sugar in a large bowl – crumble any sugar lumps between your fingers. Mash the bananas really well in another bowl, then mix in the eggs, milk, melted butter and sunflower oil. Stir into the dry ingredients until smoothly combined, then fold in the cooled bacon bits. Spoon the batter into the tin and smooth the top. Bake for 35 minutes.

• step 3

  Meanwhile, put the halved bacon rashers in another cold frying pan – with space around them, and cook over a low heat to render some of the fat. When the fat is just starting to turn pale golden, take off the heat and drizzle over the remaining 2 tbsp of maple syrup – it will bubble and coat the bacon.

• step 4

  Check the cake at 35 minutes – when the cake’s top has fully set (but you should see it’s not fully cooked beneath), leave the cake in the oven but open the oven door and brush some syrup from the bacon pan over the top. Carefully lay the bacon strips over the top and brush with remaining syrup. Close the oven door, and bake for a further 10 minutes until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean and the bacon is crisp and candied. Cool in the tin.