Although I am not exactly the biggest fruit addict and I usually prefer something spicy and salty over something sweet, there is always some fruits found in our kitchen. Most of the time, it’s a bunch of bananas. And because we almost never manage to eat them all before they turn slightly brown, we often use them to prepare a delicious and simple banana bread. Unlike many other fruits and vegetables, bananas are one of the few that are easy to use, even if they are well above the threshold of ripeness. For this exact reason the famous was actually invented in the USA during the times of Great Depression in the first half of the 20th century, as expensive imported bananas “spoiled” all too quickly and the usage of baking soda and baking powder was being largely promoted across the States. The first recipe appeared in a cookbook in 1933, and banana bread is considered one of the most popular simple sweet treats since then. Bananas are also an excellent source of energy and we like to eat them on trips, hikes, road trips and other travels. To satisfy our personal taste we can add a couple of extra ingredients to the original banana bread recipe, so in this post, I´m sharing our basic recipe and adding a couple of ideas for special variants.
There are a number of different recipes for making banna bread, which also differ in what kind of flour we choose (the most common is the usual wheat flour, but we can also use wholemeal, coconut, almond or rice for example), how many eggs and other extra ingredients we add. What all the recipes have in common is that they contain mashed ripe bananas and baking powder or baking soda instead of yeast. There is also no rule as to what shape the bread should be, we usually prepare it in a narrow rectangular baking pan. Check out our recipe below.
INGREDIENTS
- 3 ripe bananas
- 200g all purpose flour
- 120g butter
- 120g brown sugar
- 6g baking powder
- chunks of dark chocolate
- 1 spoon of rum
- 1 tea spoon of vanilla extract
PREPARATION
- preheat the oven on 180º
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prepare brown butter from 40g butter in a hot pan *
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add 2 ripe sliced bananas to the brown butter, sprinkle with 50g of brown sugar and stir until the bananas soften
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flambé the bananas in a pan with the rum then set aside to cool
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in separate a bowl, beat 3 eggs with the remaining brown sugar until the mixture becomes foamy
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add all the flour and baking powder to the egg and sugar mixture and mix everything well
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dodamo preostanek masla (80g), katerega pej stopimo ter dobro premešamo
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melt the rest of the butter (80g), mix it well and add the cooled banana mixture from step no.
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add little pieces of dark chocolate and vanilla extract
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pour the mixture into a greased baking mould, place slices of the third banana on the top and bake for about 45 minutes at 180º
* Brown butter is formed when already melted butter continues to cook over low heat until it starts to foam and the fat is eliminated. The butter turns brown and gets a slight hazelnut smell, but does not burn.
TIPS & IDEAS
Banana bread is great for breakfast, lunch, dessert with coffee or a snack just like that. We like it best without additional ingredients, but since the flavors are different, here are a few ideas for further experimentation with the recipe. For example, you can dd one of the following to the mix according to your preference and personal taste:
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NUTS (for example, walnuts, pecans, almonds, hazelnuts, cashews)
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DRIED FRUITS (for example rasins, dates, pears, apricots, cranberries)
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SPICES (for example cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, nutmeg)
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NUTELA or COCOA POWDER
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HONEY (for an even sweeter version, you can add a tablespoon of honey to the mixture)
We hope you’ve got some new ideas and you’ll try our banana bread recipe at home – if you have additional questions make sure to leave us a comment below.
