Ingredients:
3-4 ripe bananas
1/4 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar
1 beaten egg
1 tbs vanilla extract
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
Pinch of salt
Cooking oil spray
Optional: 1 1/2 cups chocolate chips or chopped nuts
Don’t throw away your browning bananas—save them in the freezer to have a tasty treat for later.
I made this recipe with my mom as a kid all the time. Even though bananas are not my favourite fruit, I couldn’t resist this delicious snack. Banana bread is very straightforward but also customizable with what fillings you can add. I personally recommend nuts or chocolate chips—if you’re feeling fancy, use both.
Pre heat your oven to 350 F. In a large bowl mash up your ripe bananas, then mix in with the butter, vanilla, and beaten egg. Then add in the baking soda and salt, and mix thoroughly. Add the flour in parts, mixing between each addition. Put in the chocolate chips and give the batter one final mix. The batter should look loose, but not runny.
Grease a loaf pan with a small nob of butter or with oil spray. Pour the batter into the loaf pan; it should fill about two-thirds of the pan. Bake for one hour, checking with a toothpick or wooden chopstick to see if it comes out clean; when it does, take the pan out of the oven to let it cool for a while. Take the loaf out of the pan and let cool the rest of the way on a rack. Once cooled, it’s ready to enjoy.
If you are using frozen bananas let them thaw completely in a ceramic or glass bowl. Do not use a stainless steel bowl, as they hold on to the cold, making the bananas thaw slower. When the bananas are thawed, don’t peel them—cut the stem off with scissors. Then squeeze the fruit out like a yogurt tube. This process is the most unpleasant part of making banana bread; I recommend using gloves. Or you can use yellow bananas, but they don’t have as much flavour power compared to the brown ones.
This recipe takes a long time to bake. The batter has a high moisture content, so to prevent burned sides with a liquid middle, it’s cooked at a lower temperature. This type of bread is closer to cake texture than it is to normal bread. It can be cut into when it’s still warm, and it won’t affect the texture of the whole loaf. I like to put a small amount of butter on my slice and heat it up in the microwave.