Banana Bread

Fluffy and moist banana bread loaf. A fantastic recipe for using up any leftover overripe bananas. 

Banana bread is one of my favourite things to bake so I was shocked when I discovered I hadn’t yet shared a banana bread recipe with you, I figured it was time to share our family favourite recipe.

This recipe is possibly one of the, if not the easiest banana breads I have ever made. It can be made either one of two ways, using an all-in-one method or with a mixer using the creaming method, it’s totally up to you as both ways produce an amazing, fluffy and soft banana bread.

The other day it snowed and was too cold to go out, so on my day off work I decided to stay in the warm and spend the day doing some baking. After looking in our fruit bowl, I noticed we had a couple of bananas that looked like they’d seen better days. Whenever I have overripe bananas hanging around on the kitchen counter the first thing I will bake is banana bread or some kind of cake/muffin.

To make good banana bread you’ll need to use fairly overripe bananas. Ideally you want your bananas to be yellow and spotty, overripe bananas will add extra flavour, moistness and sweetness to the bread.

With this recipe you can experiment with different add-ins, sometimes I will even add a couple of handfuls of chocolate chips or nuts such as pecans or walnuts to the batter. Today, I just fancied a traditional banana bread that used ingredients that I already had in.

Don’t worry if your banana bread forms a crack down the centre just like mine did, this is a common trait of banana bread and loaf bread/cakes in general. I personally think it makes the bread look lovely and rustic, banana bread isn’t meant to look pretty it’s definitely all about the taste with recipes like this one!

Oh and just an idea…

If you want to put a spin of this classic banana bread recipe, I recently experimented with this recipe by turning it into a traybake. Simply just double the recipe below and spread the cake batter into a lined 9 x 13-inch (23 x 33cm) tin. Bake the traybake for approx. 40-45 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean and the cake is springy to the touch. Then I piped yummy swirls of cream cheese frosting on top of each piece – for the cream cheese frosting see my Carrot Traybake recipe.

I also topped each piece with salted caramel fudge pieces and sliced banana, but decoration is totally up to you!

Ingredients:

100g (4 ounces) unsalted butter or margarine, softened

175g (6 ounces) caster or granulated sugar

2 large free-range eggs, at room temperature

2 large ripe bananas, mashed

225g (8 ounces) self-raising flour, sifted

1 teaspoon baking powder

2 tablespoons milk

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 180°C / 160°C Fan / 350°F / Gas Mark 4. Line and grease a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with parchment/non-stick baking paper.
2. Place all the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a wooden spoon or a handheld electric mixer, beat all the ingredients together for about 2 minutes until well combined. Alternatively, cream the butter and sugar until fluffy and smooth for about 2-3 minutes. Next add the eggs one at a time making sure you beat well between each addition. Fold through the mashed banana, flour and baking powder until completely incorporated. Finally add the milk and continuing mixing until the batter is smooth.
3. Spoon the mixture into the lined loaf tin. Bake for an hour or until golden and well risen. Check the banana bread is cooked all the way through by inserting a wooden skewer or cake tester into the centre, if it comes out clean without any uncooked batter remaining then the banana bread is completely baked.
4. Allow the banana bread to cool in the tin for about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the tin and leave to cool set over a wire rack.
5. Once cool, slice the banana bread up. It’s delicious served as it is or toasted and spread with butter. Banana bread will keep stored in an airtight container for about a week.

Recipe Notes:

• You’ll need to use very ripe bananas to make this recipe. The bananas need to be spotty and turning brown, this will bring extra sweetness and moistness to your banana bread.
• The butter or margarine needs to be really soft in order to be completely incorporated into the batter. I recommend leaving your butter/margarine out overnight to soften.
• Feel free to add chocolate chips or chopped nuts if you’d like. You could even decorate the top of the banana bread with nuts or stud with chocolate chips, I’m going to try that next time!
• Try adding a teaspoon or so of ground cinnamon, ginger or mixed spice. I particularly love adding cinnamon to banana bakes.
• Remember all ovens bake differently. This recipe requires a full hour baking, check the banana bread after 45 minutes of baking, if it’s colouring too much then cover the top with a piece of aluminium foil to prevent it browning any further. Continue baking for the remaining 15 minutes until the a cake tester comes out completely clean, with no uncooked cake batter on it.

Recipe from Mary Berry’s 100 Cakes and Bakes

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