Banana Bread
Banana bread is one of those recipes that never goes out of style. It’s simple, satisfying, and versatile. Whether you like it plain, studded with nuts, or with a hint of chocolate, banana bread is always a crowd-pleaser. This recipe brings out the best in those spotty bananas that have been sitting on your bench top—transforming them into a loaf that’s moist, flavourful, and perfect for your morning or afternoon tea treat.
I love making this recipe because it’s so easy. No need for any mixers, you just need some bowls and a few basic kitchen utensils. As much as I love my electric mixers and making most of my baked goods recipes would be easier with a mixer, I want to try to have most of my recipes as easy to make as possible without compromising on flavour.
Ingredients
Over ripe bananas, butter or oil, plain flour, bicarb soda, salt, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla
Optional
Chocolate chips, walnuts, sultanas, cinnamon
All the ingredients are pantry staples, no need for yoghurt or sour cream. The fat source, the eggs and bananas are all you need to give you a moist loaf of banana bread.
Butter v Oil
What’s really great about this recipe is that the fat source can be substituted, if you don’t have butter, you can swap it for oil and still get the same tender, tasty loaf. I am a sucker for butter based banana bread though, it hits a spot that an oil based banana bread doesn’t. Either way, the texture of the loaf will be the same. I use a mild olive oil for making banana bread, however any neutral tasting oil will do, such as canola or vegetable oil. I don’t recommend extra virgin olive oil, it has too strong of a taste, it’s very overpowering even with the added sweetener, whereas with light or mild olive oil, it’s subtle and the sugar and sweet bananas cover up the taste.
Flour substitutions
You can swap for the plain flour for different flour like gluten-free, the same weight as listed in the recipe. However, I’ve not tried it, so I’m not sure how it would turn out texture wise. If you do swap for a different flour, I’d love to know how it turned out.
Ripe Bananas
You want very spotty, dark bananas for banana bread. They’re at their peak for baking, soft and very sweet. If you want your bananas to ripen fast, place them into a brown paper bag. It traps the ethylene gas that bananas produce to help itself ripen. Some people recommend baking the bananas in the oven to ripen them, but all it does is turn the skin black and make the flesh very mushy. The natural ripening process of bananas, while making the flesh soft, also makes the bananas sweeter, which doesn’t happen when they’re baked in the oven. The only way to help move the ripening process along that makes the bananas soft and sweet is the brown paper bag method. Frozen, naturally ripened bananas still hold onto that sweetness despite their mushiness once defrosted.
My Best Tips
If you have left over bananas and don’t want to make banana bread straight away, put those bananas in the freezer for later. It will not stink up your freezer. Note, they will be very mushy once they defrost, the recipe remains the same.
Leftover banana bread, once completely cooled, can be stored in an airtight container for up to 3 days or sliced and placed into the freezer for up to 3 months.
Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 3 medium to large overipe cavendish bananas approximately 350 grams – Note 1
- 115 ml olive oil sub available – Note 2
- 200 grams plain flour
- 80 grams white sugar
- 80 grams brown sugar
- 2 extra large eggs Note 3
- 4 grams salt
- 4 grams bicarb soda
- Splash of vanilla
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 160 degrees Celsius. Prepare your loaf pan by greasing it with oil or room temperature butter or using baking paper.
- In one bowl, combine the flour, cinnamon, bicarb soda and salt and stir until well combined. Note 4
- If using butter, add the butter into another microwave safe bowl and heat for 60-70 seconds until melted. Keep an eye on it so it doesn't splatter.
- In another bowl, add the peeled bananas, mash with a fork or potato masher until smooth. Add in the oil or melted butter, vanilla, eggs and sugars until everything is well combined, ensuring the eggs are broken up and well mixed into the batter.
- Add the dry ingredients into the bowl of wet ingredients and mix together until no flour pockets remain. This is where you add in any nuts or chocolate.
- Pour the batter into your prepared loaf pan, cover with aluminium foil. Bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Note 5
- Remove the loaf pan from the oven, take off the foil and return to the oven for another 15-20 or until a knife comes out clean when poked in the centre.
- Leave the loaf pan to cool for 10 minutes once out of the oven, then remove the loaf from the pan and onto a cooling rack to let completely cool.
- Once cooled, use a knife, preferably something serrated, to slice the loaf into pieces.
Video
Notes
Use overly ripe bananas. Don’t use bananas that are still very yellow and perfect for eating. The riper bananas become, the sweeter they are, which means adding extra sweetness to the loaf. They need to be very spotty, verging on turning black. You can use lady finger bananas, weigh them and use up to 350 grams worth. There is a way to speed up the ripening process. If you want your bananas to ripen fast, place them into a brown paper bag. It traps the ethylene gas that bananas produce to help itself ripen and still produce the same sweetness of over-ripened bananas. Some people recommend baking the bananas in the oven to ripen them, but all it does is turn the skin black and make the flesh very mushy without that signature sweetness of overripe bananas. I don’t recommend the baking method, because you miss out on that sweetness that overripe bananas produce when they’re let to naturally over ripen. Note 2
You can sub the olive oil for butter. Switch for 125g of butter. Note 3
Use what eggs you have at home, egg sizes shouldn’t affect the outcome too much, I just prefer eating extra large eggs so that’s what I use for baking. The 104 grams are the eggs out of the shell. Note 4
Flour mixture: make sure you mix it together, you don’t want pockets of salt, cinnamon or bicarb in your loaf. Note 5
The loaf takes about an hour to cook through. The aluminium foil at the start of baking protects the top of the loaf from burning while the loaf bakes. Taking it off half way through helps add some colour to the top of the loaf without it burning. Frozen Bananas
If you’re using defrosted bananas, they will be soft and very mushy, however the recipe remains the same. Additions:
You can add vegetables like zucchini or carrot or even an extra banana, but the loaf may become more moist and dense in consistency. I’ve tried this recipe with an extra banana and slightly more flour, and the loaf turned out more moist and dense than the recipe above. Adding walnuts and chocolate should not affect the loafs consistency.
