Easy Banana Bread

I saw the recipe for this tasty Banana Bread on Linda’s  Fired up Cooking SA‘s blog.  I felt a slight twinge of guilt though when I made it, as I have stated in the past that my family’s recipe for Banana Loaf is the one of the best!  While it is still a brilliant and well loved recipe, Linda’s version is so much quicker and like Linda says, all you need is a fork and a bowl.  Ordinarily I use very ripe bananas for Banana Loaf but only had “just yellow” ones on hand and they produced a lovely light banana flavour.

Ingredients

3 or 4 bananas (I used three and they made up 1 cup)
1/3 cup melted butter
1 cup sugar (I used brown sugar)
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla essence
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1½ cups all purpose flour

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C.
2. Grease a small loaf tin.
3. Mash the bananas in the bowl with the fork.
4. Add the melted butter and mix in.
5. Add the sugar and mix in.
6. Add the egg and beat into the mixture.
7. Add the vanilla essence and stir in.
8. Sprinkle the bicarbonate of soda over the mix and blend in.
9. Add the flour and mix through.
10. Pour the mixture into the loaf tin and bake until a skewer inserted comes out clean.  Mine took 45 minutes.

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Banana Loaf

I have the fondest memories of the smell of banana bread baking in the oven.  I don’t ever remember my Mom every using a recipe; I think she inherited the recipe from her Mom and through years of making it, just remembers the recipe.  This has to be the best accompaniment to a cup of tea and we enjoy slices with butter.  The secret to this recipe is to use over ripe bananas where the skin is starting to go black and the fruit itself is soft.

Ingredients

125g butter
1½ cups sugar
1tsp vanilla essence
2 eggs
2 cups flour
½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
¾ cup milk
3 mashed bananas

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C.
2. Cream the butter and sugar.
3. Add the vanilla essence and eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
4. Add all the dry ingredients and milk and mix well.
5. Add the mashed bananas and mix through.
6. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for approximately 1 hour or until a skewer inserted comes out clean.

Submitted by: Val Olsen, Johannesburg