Banana Bread . . . a simple classic

Philip Reynolds -

Everyone's new favourite during the Covid lockdowns, but it's a saviour of cakes.

You've seen all of the posts about banana bread during the first few months of the Covid-19 lockdowns, before everyone lost interest again. This has always been one of my favourite cakes and just about the only cake that is guaranteed to be eaten within a day or two.

There is a simple and standard recipe for banana bread, which you can then raise to your own level with some store cupboard additions. I've added a few options of how to tart up your loaf but if you just need a moist and not too sweet cake, just go with the classic.

First thing to remember is to make sure that your butter is at room temperature. I tend to have a pack of unsalted butter always out of the fridge, unless it's summer and just too warm in the kitchen. This goes for your eggs too, never store them in the fridge.

For the recipe I've given here, you will need two small loaf tins (16cm x 10cm x 7cm) or a larger loaf tin. It's also quite easy to scale it up or down, I just love to make two quite manageable cakes, one of which I give to a friend.

Pre-heat your oven to 170c fan. Grease and line your tins with parchment paper (not greaseproof paper which will stick to the cake). I just line the longest sides and base with one strip of paper as you can easily run a knife down the ends to loosen them and then lift out.

I have added photographs of each stage of the recipe at the end.

3 very ripe bananas (large ones)

80g room temperature butter plus extra for greasing pans

210g caster sugar

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

255g self raising flour

1 tsp baking powder

First of all, mash the bananas in a mixing bowl with a fork. I've used the bowl of my Kenwood mixer as I'm lazy. To this, add butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla extract. Mix this all together until well combined, usually 5 minutes at a good pace in the mixer. NOTE: the mix at this stage will look like it has split, don't worry though as that's perfectly normal!

Gradually add the flour and baking powder to the mixture until fully combined, at which point it will most certainly look more like cake batter.

At this stage you can gently mix in your extras which could be anything you want, as long as it's dry and not too much (usually anything between 50-100g). Here are some of my favourites to pimp my loaf:

  • Chopped walnuts
  • Chocolate chips (dark or milk)
  • Semi-dried and chewy banana chips (these are amazing chunks of banana that I have to hide away or I'd eat them just like sweets)

Pour your mixture carefully into your lined pans, knocking them on the worktop a few times to release any air pockets and spread the mixture into the corners.

Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes, checking with a skewer which should come out clean to make sure they're done. Cool on a rack for 10 minutes before lifting out and leaving to cool fully.

If you have the small loaf pans that I've used for the picture above, you'll need to reduce the cooking time to around 25 minutes but check from 20 minutes until they are done as this depends on the size of your tins.

If you are wanting to ice your cakes, you must leave them to cool completely before starting.