This good old fashioned Banana Bread is basic…… and by that I mean it is easy to make, without any frills, but delicious nonetheless. It is a great moist loaf and almost definitely “flop-proof”. It’s the kind your Grandma made, and then your Mother, who taught you, and was passed down through the family, generation to generation. These are my favourite recipes, the ones which are handwritten, with scribbled notes explaining the method, with maybe a doodle or two, and the pages covered with splashes and stains from frequent use. These are the true tell tale signs that the recipe has been tried and tested many times in the past.
Living in a Tropical region, we have an abundance of bananas and sometimes when you can’t get through all the bananas that ripen quicker than you would like, the best thing to do is bake with them. In fact this is exactly when you need to make banana bread, when the bananas apotheek-nieuwe are soft and have black marks on the skins, they can even be soft and bruised. When they are like this they are creamier , and softer to mash, and give the most flavour . So remember the softer the banana the better the Banana Bread. Green or hard bananas are just not going to give you any flavour whatsoever, so make use of those old bananas.
Remember
- NO to green bananas
- YES to ripe and over ripe bananas
CHECK LIST to make Banana Bread :
- Flour
- Bananas
- Butter
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Baking powder and Bicarb
- Vanilla essence
This is a great loaf to freeze, but remember to wrap it well in plastic wrap, for best results. Happy baking my friends.
Baking
- 125g (1/2 cup) softened butter
- 210g (1 cup) sugar
- 5ml (1 tsp) vanilla essence
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- 4 ripe or overripe bananas (medium size)
- 260g (2 cups) cake flour, sieved
- 5ml (1 tsp) baking powder
- 5ml (1 tsp) baking soda (bicarb)
- 125ml (1/2 cup) boiling water
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Set your oven to 180ºC / 350ºF . If you are using a thermofan oven set it slightly lower.
Grease a 9 inch loaf tin.
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In an electric mixer, beat the butter and sugar, until creamy.
In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with a fork, and add well mashed bananas and vanilla essence .
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Add this to the creamed butter and sugar mix. It will look a little curdled, but don't worry this will go once the flour is added.
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Sieve the flour and baking powder into the mixture and beat for a minute or two until combined.
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Add the baking soda (bicarb) to the boiling water and dissolve, then pour it into the mixture and beat until combined.
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Pour mixture into the loaf tin and bake for 1 hour until golden brown. Remember if you are using a thermofan oven you can reduce the temperature slightly, as it will cook quicker. Keep watching it after 50 minutes so that it doesn't burn. All ovens are different.
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Allow to cool on a baking tray before serving with butter.
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This recipe FREEZES well.
2 Comments
Lovely. So simple and easy when done right like you do. Thanks for the tip about room temperature eggs. I looked it up and and apparently cold eggs don’t mix well with the batter, is slow to rise and takes longer to bake. Wow I did not know that. I am thinking of making a Ceylon Cinnamon version of this with Cinnamon Oil instead of Vanilla essence. I wonder if it would work.
I think it would be fantastic with your Cinnamon Oil, but obviously not as much as a teaspoon, just a few drops. In fact I’m going to try that when I make it next. Thanks for the idea.