Recipe: Mummy’s Banana Bread

I’ve got a recipe for banana bread in my book Student Eats. It’s heavy with chocolate chips and given a rich boost with a shot of rum, and it is something of an indulgence. This banana bread is different. This is the banana bread that my Mum used to make when I was little whenever we had bananas going bad in the fruit bowl, as she shares my utter hatred of wasting anything edible. This is the banana bread that I’ve been baking recently as J believes chocolate chips in banana bread is utter heresy so has refused my recipe, and which I think you need in your back pocket as it is one of those basic, classic recipes that does not need adornment.

There are loads of great banana breads on the internet. I’m pretty sure every good blog has one, perhaps if seeds and whole grains are your thing, or different nuts and flours. However, what I have learnt from posting my recipe for a Classic Bolognese Lasagna that while there is a place for a recipe that is truly different, sometimes all we want is a good recipe for the classics. So, enjoy Mummy’s Banana Bread recipe as-is, just because banana bread is excellent by itself. However, neither of us will mind if you want to add a handful of chopped nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips to the batter. Make it your own – a little gift from our family to yours!

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Mummy’s Banana Bread

• Author: Fiona Phipps
• Prep Time: 10 minutes
• Cook Time: 1 hour 15 minutes
• Total Time: 1 hour 25 minutes
• Yield: Serves 8-10 1x
• Category: Baking
• Cuisine: American

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Description

This really easy family recipe banana bread just relies on the basics: ripe bananas, brown sugar and buttermilk to create the perfect tender, flavourful crumb. Feel free to add chopped nuts, dried fruit or chocolate chips if that’s the way you roll!

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Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 100g (4 oz) Unsalted Butter, at room temperature
• 140g (5 oz) Light Muscavado Sugar
• 2 Large Eggs
• 3–4 Large Ripe Bananas
• 150ml (3/4 pint) Buttermilk
• 280g (10 oz) Plain (All Purpose) Flour
• 1 tsp Bicarbonate Soda (Baking Soda)

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Instructions

1. Pre-heat the oven 180 degrees (355 fahrenheit). Butter a 2 lb / 20 x 30cm loaf tin (the larger of the two standard sizes) and line with vertical and horizontal strips of baking parchment.
2. Using a wooden spoon or an electric whisk beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. Fold the buttermilk and 3 of the bananas, lightly mashed with a fork, into the mixture followed by the bicarbonate of soda and the plain flour. Be sure to mix the bicarbonate in well, as if lumps remain in the cake they taste really, really awful!
4. Using a rubber spatula scrape the mixture into the tin and smooth out the top. If you’re using the fourth ripe banana peel it and slice it down the middle, laying the two halves cut size up on top of the cake to caramelise.
5. Bake the banana bread in the oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes. Check it after 40 minutes to make sure it is not burning at the corners, this will depend on your oven – in my flat in London it catches around the 1 hour mark, but in my mothers oven it never burns! If it does catch a little, just cover the top with a bit of tin foil to shield the edges.
6. Leave in the tin to cool for 10-15 minutes before turning out onto a cooling rack and slicing once cool.

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