Top tips for the best banana bread

This is a very easy banana bread which is light and soft and delectable, served warm from the oven with butter melting into it.

I had a bunch of banana’s lurking around my fruit bowl just starting to turn brown. What better way to use them up than to make a bread? I also thought of muffins as an option, and think this recipe would probably work well as these too.

I wanted to create my own recipe for this classic tea time treat, and always think its that much nicer with walnuts in it. But if you don’t like nuts, you can just leave them out.

I also wanted to add as much banana as I thought the batter could take. I wanted it to be intensely banana, but it almost seems you can never reach this point. I used 4 medium-large bananas which equated to just over 2 cups mashed up. This is a fair amount.

I’m rather delighted with the result.

What you need to make 1 loaf:

3/4 cup of brown sugar
100g butter at room temp
2 large free-range eggs (always and I mean always free-range)
2 cups of mashed banana (about 4)
1 3/4 cup of flour
3t baking powder
1/2 cup roughly chopped walnuts

Method:
Pre-heat the oven to 180C / 350F. Using an electric mixer cream the butter and sugar. Add the eggs one at a time ensuring they are fully incorporated after each addition. Scrape the bowl if necessary and beat for about 2 minutes. Add the banana’s and mix briefly to combine. Sift the flour and baking powder into the bowl and by hand mix this into the batter. Add the walnuts  and stir these through.

Bake for 70 – 80 minutes (depending how thick your loaf tin is) and until golden brown and springy to the touch. I also always insert a sharp knife into the thickest part of the loaf and ensure that it comes out clean.
Empty the banana bread batter into a loaf tin that has been lined with baking paper.

Top tips

1. I always like to line the loaf tin with paper as this helps to prevent over browning of the outer part of the loaf.  This can happen when you are baking a loaf or a bread for a long period of time.

2. To prevent the top from over browning I loosely cover with a piece of tin foil from about 35 minutes into the baking time.

3. I like baking my loaves in my vintage ‘Hovis’ bread tin which is quite deep, so I found this took a little longer to bake than might be usual.  If you are using a flatter and wider tin, it may bake a bit more quickly.

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