Recipe details

Banana bread

Banana bread

Pan de plátano

Easy

Contains allergens

Cereales con glutenLecheHuevosFrutos de cáscara

Incomplete allergen information: some ingredients have not been reviewed yet. Always check the labels before cooking.

Preparation time
2 hr
Servings
10

Summary

Classic banana bread: a moist, fragrant loaf made with very ripe bananas, melted butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, with optional walnuts. It is mixed in one bowl and baked in a loaf tin.

Ingredients

10 servings
Add to Bring!
  • 250 g Wheat flour
  • 115 g Butter (melted and cooled slightly, plus a little extra for the tin)
  • 2 u Egg (at room temperature)
  • 80 g Walnuts (roughly chopped) (optional)
  • 3 u Banana (very ripe, skins covered in black spots (about 350 g peeled))
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 150 g Brown Sugar
  • 1 teaspoon Bicarbonate Of Soda
  • 1 teaspoon Cinnamon (ground)
  • 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 175 °C, conventional heat. Butter a loaf tin of about 23 × 13 cm and line it with baking paper, leaving it overhanging the long sides so the loaf is easy to lift out.

    10 min

  2. Peel the bananas and mash them in a large bowl with a fork, leaving a few small lumps.

    3 min

  3. Add the melted butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla and whisk until everything is well combined.

    3 min

  4. Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cinnamon and salt over the top and fold in with a spatula just until there is no dry flour left. Do not overmix. Fold in most of the walnuts.

    3 min

  5. Pour the batter into the tin, smooth the top and scatter over the remaining walnuts.

    2 min

  6. Bake on the middle shelf until golden and risen with a crack along the centre. If it is browning too quickly after 40 minutes, cover it with foil. It is done when a skewer pushed into the centre comes out clean or with a few moist crumbs, but no wet batter.

    60 min

  7. Leave it in the tin for 10 minutes, lift it out using the paper and let it cool completely on a wire rack before slicing.

    60 min

Notes

It is a quick bread: it rises with bicarbonate of soda rather than yeast, so it needs no kneading or proving. Recipes began appearing in American cookbooks in the 1930s, when bicarbonate of soda and baking powder had become household staples and, in the depths of the Great Depression, nobody wanted to throw away an overripe banana. The blacker the skins, the sweeter and more fragrant the loaf; if your bananas are still yellow, bake them in their skins at 150 °C for about 15 minutes until black, then let them cool. You can also freeze bananas that are past their best and use them thawed, with their liquid. The bicarbonate reacts with the acidity of the banana and brown sugar; don't swap it for the same amount of baking powder, as you would need three times as much. Common mistakes are overmixing the batter, which makes the loaf tough and full of long holes, and taking it out too soon, which makes it sink in the middle. You can swap the walnuts for pecans or chocolate chips, or leave them out. Wrapped in cling film it keeps for 4 days at room temperature (in the fridge in hot weather) and is even better the next day; sliced, it freezes for up to 3 months and can be toasted straight from frozen and spread with a little butter.

More information

Guide indicatorsDifficulty, quality and data reliability

Guide indicators

Estimated difficulty54/100
Recipe completeness60/100
Nutrition reliability
High

Calculated automatically from the ingredients, steps, time and community feedback. They are not a guarantee.

StorageKeeps 4 days in the fridge
Cuisine: AmericanKeeps 4 days in the fridgeFreezer friendlyGood for batch cooking

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