Light, soft and just the right amount of sweetness – anyone can guess that we are talking about banana bread. It is a classic, an all-time favourite recipe, especially with kids. But, adults love it alike because of the delectable taste of perfectly baked banana bread. However, beginners need to know a few tips and an easy banana bread recipe to steal the show. It is exactly what we are delivering in this blog.
Recipe for the perfect banana bread
Ingredients:
- 4 ripe Bananas
- 1 cup of White Sugar (you can use less according to desired sweetness)
- 1 cup of Brown Sugar (you can use less according to desired sweetness)5 Eggs
- 1 cup of Butter
- 2 teaspoons of Vanilla Extract
- 2 teaspoons of Almond Extract
- 1 cup of All-Purpose Flour
- 1 cup of Almond Flour or Almond meal
- 2 teaspoons of Baking Soda
Procedure:
- Mash the bananas nicely using a fork.
- Add the white sugar and the brown sugar to the mashed bananas and stir well.
- Stir in the softened butter as well till the sugar is almost dissolved.
- Add in the eggs. You can use chia or flax egg replacements to make it vegetarian.
- Add in the vanilla extract and give it a quick mix.
- Then, add the almond extract as well and mix till it is all aromatic.
- Add in the almond flour and fold gently.
- Add the all-purpose flour and combine using the cut and fold method.
- Add baking soda and baking powder and mix well. If you see small chunks of bananas, don’t worry about them as they will turn out just delicious.
- Grease the pan with butter.
- Preheat the oven at 177℃. Bake the banana bread at this temperature for 1 hour.
- Remove the bread from the oven and let it cool for about 10 minutes before taking it out from the pan.
- Let the loaf cool completely before slicing and enjoy!
You can use vegan butter or sunflower oil along with chia or flax egg replacements to make this recipe a perfect match for the vegan sweet tooth.
Tips for the perfect banana bread
Either pro or a newbie, here are some tips for you to bake a loaf of irresistible banana bread.
1.Pick the right bananas
The more ripe the bananas are, the better your recipe will taste. Don’t pick bananas that have skin on the greener side. Always go for the yellow ones. If you’re going to bake on the same day, pick the one with light black spots.
2.Use the right flour
Most recipes involve all-purpose flour. However, you can use a combination of flours to make your banana bread moister. You can use a combination of all-purpose and cake flour. Wholewheat flour will work great too but will give a comparatively dense banana bread.
3.Look out for the sweetener you use
An equal proportion of brown and white sugars is common. You can omit the white sugar altogether. But, this will give you a darker colour and molasses-like flavour. You can use other sweeteners like honey and maple sugar too which make the banana bread very moist and delicious.
4.Keep it moist!
A slice of hard and chewy banana bread is like a nightmare for the devotees of this recipe. You’ll have to keep it moist to make it decadent. The key to doing this is to incorporate one type of fat in the recipe. Apart from butter and sunflower oil, you can use coconut oil, olive oil, milk, buttermilk, or any other source of fat that is easily available to you. These will of course affect the taste of the end product but the change is very slight and mostly go undetected.
5.Flavour it to make it your kids’ favourite
Kids can be picky but you can outsmart them with delicious flavourings in your banana bread. You can add nut butter, chocolate chips, chopped walnuts or almonds, lemon or orange zest, spices, coconut or anything else that they like. And, this will make it their favourite sweet treat.
