Who doesn’t love a piece of banana cake or bread with a nice hot cup of tea in the afternoon?
A simple recipe for banana cake or bread, whichever you like to call it. Generally the difference is Bread usually doesn’t have icing and uses heavier flours, like all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour, while banana cake sometimes calls for pastry flour or cake flour, which is lighter. It also depends on the shape. Cooked in a loaf tin is like bread. Cooking it in a round tin with or without icing is like a cake. So ill call it bread as I used a loaf tin and no icing.
A simple recipe but it does require a 50 minute bake time. Trust me its worth it! And the aroma of baking through the house is perfect on a cold winters lockdown day.
I researched many banana bread and cake recipes and most had similar ingredients, so I used the basics and mixed and matched to make my own. You can do the same by adding sultanas or nuts etc. Be as creative as you like. I didn’t add icing as I don’t have the sweetest tooth, however there’s many varieties of healthy versions on the web.
Ingredients
- 3 ripe bananas
- 1 3/4 cup plain flour (I use gluten free)
- 2 eggs
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup Greek yoghurt
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/3 cup maple syrup
- 1/3 cup dark baking chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 tsp vanilla essence
- 2 tsp organic stevia sweetener
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- Pinch salt
Method
Preheat oven to 180 deg C.
In a separate bowl, mash the 3 ripe bananas and leave aside for now.
In a medium size bowl, whisk together eggs, oil, maple syrup, yoghurt and vanilla essence. Whisk for a couple of minutes until a smooth runny mixture is formed.
In another separate bowl, sift the flour, add the cinnamon, salt, baking soda and sweetener. Mix together.
Now tip the egg mixture into the flour and add the chocolate chips. Mix until well combined.
Line a loaf tray with baking paper and give it a little spray with oil. This helps the loaf from sticking.
Evenly pour and spread the mixture, making the centre lower than the rest. This is because the middle of the loaf will rise and helps stop it from cracking too much.
You can top with banana slices, cinnamon, crushed nuts or similar.
Bake for 50 minutes.
Loaf is cooked when a skewer or knife comes out clean. You may get melted chocolate on it, thats fine as long as there isn’t wet loaf mixture present.
Once cooked allow to cool. If eating warm use a bread knife and cut softly. The loaf will be easier to cut as it cools. It is a moist soft loaf so dont hack into it.
Store in an air tight container in the cupboard once cooled.
You should get around 8 to 10 slices depending on the size loaf tin you use.
Enjoy!