Name: The Best Banana Bread
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 55 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 3 very ripe bananas (about 350g peeled); 125 g unsalted butter, melted; 170 g brown sugar; 2 eggs; 1 tsp vanilla extract; 200 g self-raising flour; 1 tsp ground cinnamon; 0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda; 0.5 tsp salt; 80 g walnuts, roughly chopped (optional)

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Banana bread is what happens to the three browning bananas in the fruit bowl on a Sunday afternoon.

Why you are cooking this tonight

Banana bread is what happens to the three browning bananas in the fruit bowl on a Sunday afternoon. Mash them, mix them into a cinnamon-spiced butter batter, pour into a loaf tin, bake fifty-five minutes. You end up with a cake that is technically breakfast, definitely afternoon tea, and arguably dessert.

The banana needs to be properly ripe. Black-spotted, soft, sweet. If they are still firm and yellow, put them in a brown paper bag on the counter for two days. Fresh bananas will not give you the deep caramel-banana flavour that makes this cake the cake.

Notes on method

Good quality butter, brown sugar not white, a generous pinch of salt. Do not overmix once the flour goes in – you are making a quick bread, not a sponge.

What to pour with it

A long black coffee. Sliced and toasted the next day with butter.

Kahlua

Banana bread, dark coffee liqueur and a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

Starward Two-Fold Whisky

A small pour over ice. Caramel and banana fold into wine-cask whisky.

Mr Black Cold Brew Coffee Liqueur

Cold brew coffee liqueur splashed into espresso, banana bread on the side.

The Best Banana Bread

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Prep Time 15

Cook Time 55

Total Time 10

Servings: 10 slices

Cuisine: American, Australian

Calories: 280

Ingredients Method Nutrition

Ingredients

Cake

3 very ripe bananas (about 350g peeled)
125 g unsalted butter, melted
170 g brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
200 g self-raising flour
1 tsp ground cinnamon
0.5 tsp bicarbonate of soda
0.5 tsp salt
80 g walnuts, roughly chopped (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 170°C fan-forced. Grease and line a 23x12cm loaf tin.
Mash bananas in a large bowl with a fork. Whisk in melted butter, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla.
Sift in flour, cinnamon, bicarb and salt. Fold through with a spatula just until combined. Fold in walnuts if using.
Pour batter into the loaf tin. Optionally, slice a banana in half lengthways and press cut-side up along the top.
Bake 50-55 minutes until a skewer comes out clean. Cool in tin 10 minutes, then on a rack.
Slice and serve with butter. Keeps for 4 days wrapped in the fridge.

Nutrition

Serving: 1gCalories: 280kcal

Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!

Two things that go wrong

Your bananas weren’t ripe enough.

Yellow bananas with green tips give you a flat, bland loaf. You need black-spotted bananas, the riper they look the better they bake. If yours aren’t there yet, leave them in a brown paper bag for two days, or speed it up by baking them in their skins at 150°C for 15 minutes.

You overmixed once the flour went in.

Banana bread is a quick bread. Once flour hits the wet ingredients, fold gently and stop the moment there are no dry streaks. Overmixing develops gluten and you’ll end up with a dense, gummy loaf.

Variations worth knowing

Choc chunk and walnut

Fold in 150g chopped dark chocolate and 80g walnut pieces with the flour. Sprinkle a few extra chocolate chunks on top before baking.

Brown butter

Brown the butter before melting it into the wet ingredients. Adds nutty depth that takes the loaf into bakery-class territory.

Cinnamon swirl

Spread half the batter in the tin, sprinkle a generous layer of cinnamon-brown-sugar mix across, top with the rest of the batter, swirl with a knife.

Leftovers and make ahead

Banana bread keeps four days wrapped in foil on the bench, or a week in the fridge. Toast slices in butter for the best breakfast you’ll have all week. Day-old slices are fantastic dipped in eggy custard and pan-fried as French toast. Freezes well if pre-sliced, pull a slice out the night before.

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The Best Banana Bread

Why you are cooking this tonight

Notes on method