Classic Banana Bread
Banana bread has become the icon of quarantine baking, and with good reason - it’s super quick, easy to make and most importantly delicious. In this recipe, I’ll be taking you through my classic plain banana bread as well as three of my favourite variations - Demerara Pecan Crust, Biscoff Caramel and Chocolate Marble. Also important to note, this recipe is more cake than bread for those who are looking for more a dense bread-like texture!
Tin
1 x Loaf Tin or 6-8inch Cake Tin
Ingredients
120g Butter or Stork
105g Light Soft Brown Sugar (White, Golden Caster & Dark Brown would also work well as substitutes)
3/4tsp Vanilla Extract
1 Large or 1.5 Small Super Overripe Bananas* (approx 90g without skin)
120g Self Raising Flour
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 tsp Cinnamon
OPTIONAL: 1/4 tsp Nutmeg + A Pinch of cloves (for extra warm cosy vibes)
* big brown splodges all over the banana
Method
Preheat your oven to 160 C Fan/180 C/Gas Mark 4 and line your tin with baking paper.
TIP: If you don’t have any baking paper, you can grease your tin lightly with butter and then dust over a thin coating of flour to stop the cake sticking to the tin when it’s done!.
Cream together butter and sugar until light & fluffy (approx 5-7 minutes). Next add in the eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition.
In a separate bowl, mash the bananas into a smooth-ish mixture forms. Stir banana and vanilla extract into the main mixture until well incorporated. The mixture will look curdled, don’t panic!
Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and optional spices into the main mixture and fold until the mixture just comes together, it should be a relatively smooth cake batter.
Finally bake for about 50mins - 1 hour. Start to check at about 40 mins and then 5 min intervals after that. You can tell a cake is done, by poking a metal knife into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done.
Variations
The variations are limitless with banana bread but here are some of my personal faves. All variations below bake for same time and temperature as listed above in the Method section.
Demerara Pecan Crust
Additional Ingredients: 2 tbsp Demerara Sugar & a large handful of chopped Pecan nuts
Stir half the chopped nuts into your banana bread batter and then pour the cake batter into your cake tin. Scatter over the remaining pecan nuts and then sprinkle over the demerara sugar. The demerara gives it a crisp, caramel crust.
Chocolate Marble
Additional Ingredients: 1-2 tbsp Cocoa powder
Move 1/4 - 1/2 of your cake batter to a separate bowl. To this same bowl, add a tbsp of cocoa powder at a time, mixing well between each addition. If you think your mixture is chocolatey enough after the first tablespoon of cocoa powder, you don’t need to add any more.
In your baking tin, alternately place large blobs (heaped tablespoons) of the plain and chocolate banana bread batter until no more remains. Finally use a knife to swirl gently through the cake batter in the cake tin and create the marble effect.
Biscoff Caramel
Additional Ingredients: 3 tbsp Lotus Biscoff Spread (Cookie Butter/Speculoos), 2 tbsp Caramel & 2 Biscoff biscuits
Place your biscoff spread in a microwaveable bowl and warm the spread for about 15-20 secs to make the spread just slightly more runny. Next add the caramel to the biscoff spread and mix well.
Pour 1/2 banana bread batter into the tin and then place a few small dollops of biscoff caramel on top. Pour in the remaining banana bread batter and dollop the remaining biscoff caramel in small blobs on top. Finally, for an extra crunch break your Lotus biscuits into 2 or 3 big pieces each and place them on top of the batter.
Have a bake and let me know what you think on Instagram @OsiBakes
Classic Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 1 x 1lb (Standard) Loaf Tin OR 1 x 6/15cm Circle Tin
- 120g Butter or Stork
- 105g Light Soft Brown Sugar (White, Golden Caster & Dark Brown would also work well as substitutes)
- 2 Large Eggs
- 3/4tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1 Large or 1.5 Small Super Overripe Bananas (approx 90g without skin)
- 120g Self Raising Flour
- 1/2 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Cinnamon
- Optional: 1/4 tsp Nutmeg + A Pinch of cloves (for extra warm cosy vibes)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 160 C Fan/180 C/Gas Mark 4. Line your tin with baking paper OR grease & flour your tin.
- Cream together butter and sugar until light & fluffy (approx 5-7 minutes). Next add in the eggs, one at a time mixing well after each addition.
- In a separate bowl, mash the bananas into a smooth-ish mixture forms. Stir banana and vanilla extract into the main mixture until well incorporated. The mixture will look curdled, don’t panic!
- Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and optional spices into the main mixture and fold until the mixture just comes together, it should be a relatively smooth cake batter.
- Finally bake for about 50mins - 1 hour. Start to check at about 40 mins and then 5 min intervals after that. You can tell a cake is done, by poking a metal knife into the centre of the cake. If it comes out clean, it is done.
Banana Bread Variations:
The variations are limitless with banana bread but here are some of my personal faves. I use my classic banana bread recipe as the base for all these variations so follow steps 1-4 above first. All variations below bake for same time and temperature as listed above in the Instructions section.
Additional Ingredients: 2 tbsp Demerara Sugar & a large handful of chopped Pecan nuts
- Stir half the chopped nuts into your banana bread batter and then pour the cake batter into your cake tin. Scatter over the remaining pecan nuts and then sprinkle over the demerara sugar. The demerara gives it a crisp, caramel crust.
Additional Ingredients: 1-2 tbsp Cocoa powder
- Move 1/4 - 1/2 of your cake batter to a separate bowl. To this same bowl, add a tbsp of cocoa powder at a time, mixing well between each addition. If you think your mixture is chocolatey enough after the first tablespoon of cocoa powder, you don’t need to add any more.
- In your baking tin, alternately place large blobs (heaped tablespoons) of the plain and chocolate banana bread batter until no more remains. Finally use a knife to swirl gently through the cake batter in the cake tin and create the marble effect.
Additional Ingredients: 3 tbsp Lotus Biscoff Spread (Cookie Butter/Speculoos), 2 tbsp Caramel & 2 Biscoff biscuits
- Place your biscoff spread in a microwaveable bowl and warm the spread for about 15-20 secs to make the spread just slightly more runny. Next add the caramel to the biscoff spread and mix well.
- Pour 1/2 banana bread batter into the tin and then place a few small dollops of biscoff caramel on top. Pour in the remaining banana bread batter and dollop the remaining biscoff caramel in small blobs on top. Finally, for an extra crunch break your Lotus biscuits into 2 or 3 big pieces each and place them on top of the batter.
Calories
140Fat (g)
7.76Sat. Fat (g)
4.66Carbs (g)
15.94Fiber (g)
0.54Net carbs
15.40Sugar (g)
8.24Protein (g)
1.95Sodium (mg)
191.43Cholesterol (g)
45.00
