The Walk

The Walk

Banana Date Molasses Tea Cake.

A fermented sourdough batter, made with organic flour, keffir butter, free range eggs, and refined sugar free.

It was time. Time to heal. And walking was the only way forward. One day at a time, one step at a time. Pools were closed, and bush walks were open. Nobody was around. It was me, my headphones and my Blundstones. So I walked, every day for at least 2 hours. I tried to shake it off, I cried, I dreamed, and escaped into fantasy. I journalled. I discovered new music, new guided meditations. I lost friends, I made new ones. And I kept walking. Feet on the ground. On the earth. In the bush, unpaved, wild nature.

This cake is fermented. It is alchemy. It is good for digestion and the complexity of flavour from the long ferment adds depth and new interest for an otherwise bored palette. Alternative sugars, nuts for nourishment, a perfect thing to take with you on the walk of healing.

A perfect accompaniment for a local bush walk, picnic, or visiting a friend. Delicious with a mug of tea.

Recipe

• 1 cup mashed overripe banana

• 70ml keffir milk

• 90g sourdough leaven

• 50g molasses

• 2 eggs

• 1tsp vanilla

• 1tsp mixed spice (I use black pepper, corriander seed and fennel seed, dry roasted & ground in a mortar)

  Mix all together in a bowl

• 140g whole spelt flour

• 80g jaggery

• 2tsp baking powder

• 1tsp bicarb

• 1/2tsp sea salt

  Mix together

• 80g keffir butter (homemade, if not use cultured butter)

  rub through dry ingredients till fine breadcrumb consistency

• 130g fresh dates (chopped)

  mix through dry ingredients

• 80g toasted walnuts

  mix through ingredients

  stir wet ingredients into dry

  pour into lined loaf tin

  top with sliced banana and a sprinkle of jaggery

  cook 180c oven till done (30-40min)

  cool before removing from tin

"It’s dark because you are trying too hard. Lightly child, lightly. Learn to do everything lightly. Yes, feel lightly even though you’re feeling deeply. Just lightly let things happen and lightly cope with them. I was so preposterously serious in those days… Lightly, lightly – it’s the best advice ever given me…So throw away your baggage and go forward. There are quicksands all about you, sucking at your feet, trying to suck you down into fear and self-pity and despair. That’s why you must walk so lightly. Lightly my darling…"

Aldous Huxley - Island, 1962.