Classic of the Classics – Banana Bread

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How many times have you bought bananas in the supermarket and left them forgotten on the kitchen counter until they are all speckled? At this point, you don’t want to use them as your breakfast topping, they’re too soft for a midday snack, and they’re way too mushy to put in your smoothie. But these spotty ripe bananas are perfect for one thing, and one thing only – a delicious banana bread!

What ingredients do you need?

• Bananas – ripe and speckled, that’s your perfect bananas for any banana bread recipe. They will make the cake moist, flavorful and soft.
• Unsalted butter – at room temperature. If the butter is too cold, it will not mix properly and you might end up with a lumpy base for your banana bread. Also, I wouldn’t recommend using salted butter in any baking recipe. The reason for that is you won’t be able to control the amount of salt that is added to the batter. Salt is a very important ingredient when it comes to baking, however, in most cases, you’ll need only a small pinch of it.
• Brown sugar – I like using soft light brown sugar in my recipes. It has a less coarse texture, and it makes it easier to cream it with butter.
• Eggs – they bind the ingredients together and need to be at room temperature. Just take the eggs out of the fridge a few hours before you want to start baking. If you forgot to do so, there’s no issue at all, just place them in a bowl of warm (not hot!) water for a few minutes.
• Flour – your usual all-purpose flour that you can get in any supermarket. Don’t forget to sieve it to remove any lumps.
• Baking soda – banana bread needs a bit of a lift, so you won’t end up having a banana brick instead.
• Vanilla extract – to enhance the flavor.
• Cinnamon – for even more banging flavor!

How to prepare?

1. Preheat the oven to 180 C (350 F). Take out a loaf pan, grease it with a bit of butter, and line it with a piece of baking paper. Set aside.
2. Sieve together the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. By doing that you’ll ensure that there are no lumps in the batter, and, at the same time, you’ll mix well all the dry ingredients. Set aside.
   250 g all-purpose flour
   1 tspn baking soda
   1/4 tspn salt
   1/2 tspn cinnamon
3. Using a handheld or standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment beat the butter and sugar together until smooth and creamy. Mix on high speed for 2-3 minutes.
   125 g butter, unsalted
   125 g light soft brown sugar

4. Add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well on medium speed. The texture will become weird and lumpy but don’t worry, once you add the flour it’ll come back to normal.
2 eggs

5. Using a fork, mash the bananas and add them to the batter together with the vanilla extract. Mix well.
4 bananas
1 tspn vanilla extract

6. With the mixer on a low speed, slowly add the flour mixture to the batter using a spoon. Mix after each addition, until there’s no flour visible.

7. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and bake for 45-50 min until the toothpick inserted in the middle of the banana bread comes out with only few crumbs on it.

How to store?

You can store the banana bread in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 2 days.

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