Banana Bread

Banana bread is really a quick and easy thing to make.

I usually make this when a couple of bananas get too ripe to eat. Those bananas have the strongest banana flavour and I don't have to throw them out. I can't seem to bring myself to throw out a banana. I can throw out rotten apples and oranges, but bananas . . . . they must be put into banana bread.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 F or 180 C

Grease and flour a loaf tin (approximately 8 x4 x2)


1 1/2 cups plain or all purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda or bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
pinch of salt
1 egg
1 cup mashed banana (about 3 medium sized bananas)]
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup cooking oil
1/2 cup chopped nuts (optional) I love to add chopped pecans as they're my favourite nut


Mix the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon in a medium bowl. Form a well in the centre of the dry ingredients.

In a separate bowl mix the remainder of the ingredients together. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all at once.

Mix the batter together and then fold in the nuts. It is perfectly okay for the batter to be lumpy. Pour or spoon all the batter into your prepared loaf tin and pop it into the pre-heated oven. Bake for about 50 - 55 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Sometimes the banana bread will have a huge crack on the top, I keep an eye on this crack and can tell when the banana bread is done by looking at the crack.

With such a dense batter and the shape of a loaf tin, it is very easy to under cook banana bread. Its better to have it a bit overdone on the surface than to have some uncooked batter in the middle. It makes for an unpleasant slicing experience. If your oven runs a bit hot, turn it down and cook this a bit more slowly.