Banana bread is one of my favourite sweet treats and it's all the rage at the moment with bloggers and vloggers all over the place getting in on the banana bread band wagon. And today I'm going to add my two cents worth. I love this recipe of mine as it's super easy and all the ingredients are things you'll have in your cupboard but it's also a recipe that I've tried and tested with other varieties of ingredients and it's worked just as well. I call this my versatile banana bread as you can literally use what ever's in the cupboard that you think will work, or healthier alternatives, and it probably will - or at least it has done for me so far. So scroll on down and enjoy the end result.
You will need
285g of plain flour (I've also used almond flour and it's worked fine)
1 tsp of bicarbonate of soda
1/2 tsp of salt
110g of butter (or coconut oil, olive oil spread whatever you prefer works here)
225g of sugar of your choice (for the loaf pictured above I used brown sugar, but caster works and so does agave syrup)
2 eggs
4 very ripe, large bananas, mashed
85ml buttermilk (if you don't have buttermilk normal milk with 1 1/2 tsp of lemon juice works, or almond/soy whichever milk you prefer)
1 tsp of vanilla extract
N.B Make sure you use vanilla extract not essence, extract is taken from the vanilla bean where as essence is just a bunch of artificial flavours - even if the recipe says essence, use extract it's far better
How you make the magic happen
Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas mark 4
Grease and line a loaf tin
Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in a large mixing bowl
In a seperate bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy
Technique - creaming by hand: I like to use a fork for this and mash the sugar into the butter until it's combined, keep going until the butter has gone soft, fluffy and slightly lighter than it was before.
Add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract into the sugar and butter mixture and combine
Once you've done so fold in the flour mixture
Technique - folding: For this a spatula or wooden spoon is best, cut down through the middle of the two mixtures, across the bottom and up the side and turn the bowl a quarter turn each time you do this, you will see the two mixtures turning on top of each other carry on until they are well combined. You may find it easier to do half the flour at a time. Keep folding until the flour has disappeared.
Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for a around an hour. The bread should be golden brown and well risen. I tend to check mine every five minutes once it's been in the oven for about half an hour as sometimes you'll find the top might start going brown before the inside is cooked. If this happens just cover the top with tin foil which will will allow the rest of the loaf to continue to cook but will prevent the top from burning.
Once it's cooked remove it from the oven and leave to cool for about ten minutes in the tin before turning on a cooling rack.
I like to serve my banana bread warmed with butter but it tastes great cold and on its own too.
How do you like your banana bread? Let me know if you try this recipe out in the comments below.
Until next time,
No comments:
Post a Comment