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Ella Cooks

Deliciously Moist Banana Bread Recipe

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I made banana bread most weeks for about two years before I worked out that the recipe was never the problem. My bananas weren't ripe enough. Not spotted. Not mostly brown. Black, or near enough that you'd feel slightly odd putting one in a lunchbox. That's the point where the starch has finished turning to sugar and the banana flavour goes from vaguely fruity to properly deep and caramelly. Every batch I made before I understood that was fine. None of them were good. So this is a very ordinary one bowl banana bread, and the only thing I'd insist on is the bananas.
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Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Servings: 8 slices
Course: Dessert
Calories: 200
Ingredients Method Nutrition Notes

Ingredients
  

Ingredients
  • 3 ripe bananas mashed
  • 1/3 cup melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3/4 cup sugar adjust according to sweetness preference
  • 1 large egg beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 cup all-purpose flour
  • Optional: 1/2 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips

Method
 

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a 4x8 inch loaf pan, or line it with parchment up the long sides.
  2. Mash the bananas in a large mixing bowl until mostly smooth. A few small lumps are fine.
  3. Stir the melted butter into the mashed bananas.
  4. Mix in the baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
  5. Stir in the sugar, beaten egg and vanilla extract.
  6. Add the flour and mix only until no dry patches remain. Do not overmix. If you're using walnuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now.
  7. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and level the top.
  8. Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out with a few damp crumbs. If the top browns too quickly, lay a piece of foil over it for the last 15 minutes.
  9. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool for at least another 10 before slicing.

Nutrition

Calories: 200kcalCarbohydrates: 32gProtein: 2gFat: 7g

Notes

A few notes on the other ingredients.

Don't skip the cinnamon. It isn't there to make the loaf taste of cinnamon. Half a teaspoon sits underneath and makes the banana read as warmer and rounder. You'd notice its absence without being able to name it.
Room temperature butter and eggs. Cold eggs seize melted butter into little flecks and you get an uneven crumb. Twenty minutes on the counter is enough.
Weigh the bananas if you can. Bananas vary enormously in size, and "three bananas" can mean anything from 250g to 400g of mashed fruit. Too much and the loaf sinks in the middle. If you only have two large ones, that's usually closer than three small.

Things I learned the hard way

Stop mixing before you think you should. Once the flour goes in, mix only until you can't see dry patches, and accept a few lumps. Flour develops gluten the more you work it, and gluten is what turns a tender loaf into a chewy one. This is the single most common way banana bread goes wrong.
Line the tin, don't just grease it. Banana bread is heavy and wet and it sticks in a way that a plain buttered tin won't survive. A strip of parchment up the long sides gives you handles to lift it out.
It needs longer than you think. A skewer in the centre should come out with a few damp crumbs, not wet batter and not bone dry. If the top is browning too fast, lay a piece of foil over it and carry on.
Let it cool properly. Banana bread is still setting for a good twenty minutes out of the oven. Cut it hot and it gums up on the knife. I know. I do it anyway sometimes.

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