How to Bake Banana Bread
Everyone loves banana bread and it’s probably a thing at the moment because the global lockdown banana-bread craze makes perfect sense when you consider that bananas are now the world’s number-one fruit.
Bananas are inexpensive, kids like them, banana bread is easy to make and keeps for days. Making banana bread as a means of avoiding food waste isn’t a new idea, it’s the go-to recipe for using up overripe brown bananas. Although banana bread tends to be high in carbs, it can be a source of protein with the right ingredients. Protein is an essential nutrient needed for the growth, repair and recovery of muscle. It also helps to stabilize blood sugar levels.
There’s plenty of mashing and mixing so get the kids involved – you know the results are going to be delicious.
Easy Banana Bread Recipe
Time 90 minutes.
Banana Bread Ingredients
5 medium over ripe bananas
1 ⅔ cup self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
⅓ cup caster sugar
⅓ cup brown sugar
2 eggs
½ cup vegetable oil
1 tsp vanilla extract
Banana Bread Baking Method
Preheat your oven to 160C and line a loaf tin with baking paper, this is healthier than greasing the tin with butter.
Mash 3 of the bananas really well and set aside until needed. Chop the remaining two bananas into bite-sized chunks.
Place the self-raising flour, cinnamon, caster sugar, and brown sugar into a kitchen mixing bowl and combine using an electric mixer – adding in the eggs, vegetable oil, vanilla extract, and mashed banana to the bowl with the dry ingredients. Stir in the chunks of the two remaining bananas, these will make for surprising flavouisom bites.
Scoop the banana bread mixture into the prepared lined tin and bake for an hour or until the banana bread is cooked through (a metal skewer inserted into the center should come out clean).
Allow the banana bread to cool in the tin for 10 minutes before carefully turning onto a wire rack to cool down completely.
Banana cake and banana bread have similar tastes, but has a few slight changes in recipe, banana cake is a bit sweeter. Keeping with the usual rules and reputation of cakes, banana cake is meant to be more of a dessert, hence the sweeter taste.Banana bread tips & tricks
Useful Cooking Tips for Banana Bread
- Use overripe bananas, the best bananas for banana bread are overripe bananas that are speckled and half black or dark brown
- If you don’t have ripe bananas for flavour, roast them in the over for a bit to toast the bananas until they are brown
- Inject further flavour the darker the sugar you use the more ‘malty’ your banana bread will taste.
- Banana is the ultimate flexible recipe – add walnuts, chocolate chips – use your imagination!