Banana Bread




Everybody loves banana bread. If there happens to be someone who doesn't, well I feel quite distressed for them. It's just one of those things that I can't get enough of. Pretty much a Cafe staple these days, I have often ignored other menu items in favour of this seemingly simple loaf. I must admit, I do love bananas immensely, but there is just something about using them in baking that really shows off their amazing-ness. Whether muffins, cake or bread they meld into other ingredients to create deliciously moist and flavourful things. 

Naturally, loving something so much means I have baked it more than my fair share of times. But as it is with certain foods, I was never able to produce the banana bread that I had been craving - the dense, moist loaf that seemed to be available at every cafe but which annoyingly remained something I could not seem to replicate. Thus began (as it so often does in the food world) another infamous and seemingly endless quest to find the 'perfect' recipe. 

As luck would have it, I eventually found it. Well,  I converted, tweaked and edited to produce what you see below. This is my ultimate banana bread recipe and as far as I can see, I will never, ever, ever need to find a different one. It's true, I'm in love.

(The Best) Banana Bread 

Ingredients:

4 ripe bananas, mashed (use more to make the bread even more moist, and the riper the better!)
200g sugar
2 eggs
120mls vegetable oil
240g plain flour
1 tsp bi-carb soda (baking soda) 
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon (optional)
1 tsp vanilla
Blueberries/other berries (optional)
Chopped nuts e.g. walnuts (optional)

Method:

Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F). Grease and line a loaf tin.

Sift flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon (if desired) into a small bowl. Whisk together. Set aside.

In a medium bowl whisk together sugar, eggs and oil. Once combined, add the mashed bananas and vanilla and whisk again. 

Add the dry ingredients to the banana mixture, folding e through gently until smooth and combined, and there are no lumps/pockets of flour. Fold through  nuts and/or berries if desired.

Pour batter into the prepared loaf pan, smoothing the top with the back of a spoon, or shaking the tin side to side carefully to even the surface. Bake for around 50 mins to an hour or until bread is golden and a wooden skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean.

Source: Adapted from Recipe Tips