Banana bread is a soft, moist and sweet bread, that is close to a cake dessert, that’s easy to make and fun to eat. The mashed bananas give it a softness that’s hard to recreate. And then natural sweetness of the bananas means it tastes relatable and refreshing. Follow this detailed recipe to make your own banana bread and serve it with afternoon tea on a cool Sunday evening. You can also enjoy it as breakfast or as an after dinner snack, given its versatility.
Ingredients:
- 250 gm all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 113 gm unsalted butter, softened to room temperature
- 150 gm packed light or dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 80 gm plain yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
- 460 gm mashed bananas (about 4 large ripe bananas)
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- Optional: 100 m chopped pecans or walnuts
Directions:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F or 177°C.
- Grease a metal loaf pan with butter. Set aside.
- In a bowl, add the flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon powder. Mix well and set aside.
- In another bowl, add the butter and brown sugar and beat with a handheld mixer or a stand mixer with a paddle attachment. Beat until all the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is smooth and creamy.
- Now add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition.
- Next, beat in the yogurt, mashed bananas and vanilla extract. Make sure it has all evenly been incorporated. Stop beating, scrape down the sides of the bowl and then continue beating, so that there are no lumps and everything is fully mixed in.
- Now slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, a little bit at a time. Beat well so that no flour pockets or lumps remain. But do not overmix.
- Then stop beating and add the nuts, if using. Gently fold them in, making sure they are spread throughout the mixture.
- Pour the batter into the prepared pan and bake for about an hour. The exact time will depend on the machine you're using. You’ll know it's done when a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean.
- Then remove the bread from the oven and let it cool on the wire rack for an hour. Then remove from the pan let the bread cool further.
- Then slice and serve.
- Leftover banana bread can be stored at room temperature for two days and in the fridge for a week.
Notes, tips and tricks:
- Make sure the butter is at room temperature. If it's cold it wont mix in properly and the batter will be lumpy. And if you melt it and use, the butter will be liquidy and the resultant batter will be too runny. So make sure you let it sit out at room temperature, let it soften, and then use.
- You can use salted butter if you don't have unsalted. The rest of the recipe remains unchanged. It wont affect the taste in any way.
- If you want a sweeter bread, increase the amount of brown sugar you're using to 200 grams. If you want it to be sweeter still, use white granulated sugar instead of brown sugar.
- To really amplify the taste of the banana bread, you can also add a cream cheese frosting. Simply beat 112 grams of softened cream cheese with 60 grams of softened unsalted butter and 120 grams of confectioners’ sugar. Also add ½ teaspoon of pure vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Beat all of this well until peaks form. Then spread on the loaf once it has cooled. Make sure the bread has cooled. If you try to add frost to a warm bread it will melt and spread everywhere.
- If you don't have sour cream on hand, you can also use plain Greek yogurt. If you don't have that either, you can use mashed bananas, unsweetened applesauce or even a canned pumpkin puree. Essentially, anything that’s soft and has some density to it, to hold the rest of the batter together.
- If you like, you can sprinkle chocolate chips and/or nuts on the batter and then pop it in the oven. They go well with the banana flavor.