Banana bread is something no home should be without. If you have kids around, expect it to disappear in a day or two. Unlike its savoury brown and white bread cousins, this loaf is really half-cake. It’s moist, sweet and keeps you pretty full for a long time, so it works just as well for breakfast on its own, as a dessert with custard, or anytime snack plain or toasted. Almost everyone grew up eating their mom’s banana bread and recipes vary from adding nuts and coconut to using syrup instead of sugar. All of them are delicious, but this one – the traditional version – is my favourite.
Banana Bread
Servings: 12 slices Time: 40 minutes Difficulty: Easy
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cup self-raising flour
- ½ cup firmly packed brown sugar
- ½ cup mashed banana (approximately 1 large banana)
- ¼ cup milk
- 20g butter
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 egg, lightly beaten
Method
- Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees Celsius
- Grease or use cooking spray in a 14 x 21cm bread pan
- Line the base with baking paper
- Sift the flour and cinnamon into a large bowl
- Rub the butter into the flour and cinnamon
- Stir in the egg, milk, sugar and banana until the mixture is lumpy – be careful not to overmix
- Spoon the mixture into the greased pan
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through when tested with a skewer
- Stand in the pan for at least 10 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack
Try your banana bread toasted with cream cheese and honey. Or just with thick slabs of butter softly melting into each slice!
