I read somewhere that it seems like corona virus was sponsored by the banana bread! And thanks to the overripe bananas in the kitchen, I’ve joined the bandwagon. But I must admit I was very much overjoyed to see them – you see, I was aiming to use this lockdown period to conduct trials for a whole book of recipes for a client and with the situation and scarcity and difficulty of ingredients I had to chuck the idea. But this… this banana bread found it’s way in quarantine! I’ve made this completely vegan and nut-free, and for you ease, everything is in cup measurements.
This fits a nice 9” loaf tin, or you can bake in a square shallow tin and make them into squares. It requires no dusting of sugar on top or extra frosting in my opinion, but I leave you to decide. If I had to choose, I’d pick a browned butter and cinnamon frost from my Chai Latte Cake – the medley of spices would only enhance the flavour of the banana bread.
For breakfast, you can grill slices of the bread on high heat on a non-stick pan (no oil), and serve like toast, with a smatter of butter or jam.
The cake stays well for up to 36 hours in an airtight container outside – although it lasting even that long would be a mystery!
The Recipe
Serves Serves: 9” loaf (12 slices) | Prep Time: 15 mins | Cook Time: 45 mins
Ingredients
- 2 cups flour
- 2 cups ripe bananas, mashed
- ½ cup castor sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp salt
- 2/3 cup vegetable oil
- 2 tsp vanilla essence or 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 tsp cinnamon powder
- 2 tsp orange zest (optional)
- 1 cup chopped nuts (optional)
Instructions
- Prepare 9” loaf tin with oil and flour
- Heat oven to 180C
- Whisk flour, baking powder ,baking soda, salt, cinnamon and set aside
- In large mixing bowl, whisk banana, sugar, oil, vanilla, orange zest until well combined and fluffy batter
- Fold in the dry ingredients with wooden spoon – do not overmix
- Pour into the loaf tin
- Bake for 35 minutes at 180C
- Then another 10 minutes at 200C – loosely cover with foil if top is too browned
- Allow to cool completely before slicing
- Slices – 12 equal portions
