How to make the perfect banana bread and the common mistakes to avoid 

More cake than bread and is adding nuts the worst thing?

Perfect banana bread: sweet, springy and perfect for lunchboxes.

It gripped us during lockdown one, but banana bread is a perennial favourite. Not quite cake, not quite bread, it makes a great lunchbox addition and when stuffed with chocolate chips, a delicious sweet treat. 

Use the squishy bananas

This is the time to use your almost-mushy bananas. A great tip that many banana bread experts employ is to freeze their splotchy and squishy bananas in banana bread-recipe-sized batches to cut down on food waste. Ripe bananas equal a sweeter result because as bananas ripen, their starch converts to sugar. 

Derval O'Rourke's chocolate banana bread. Click for recipe.

No ripe bananas? No problem

Caramelise them before you use them. Heat your oven to 200°C and halve your bananas lengthways. Drizzle with a little honey and bake for ten to fifteen minutes until the bananas begin to break down and turn a caramel colour.

Remember to keep your wet and dry ingredients separate

Most banana bread recipes are based on an American method of using a flavourless oil as the fat component, and this is folded into the dry ingredients along with the eggs and milk if using. The oil is the key to a moist cake. If you don't have a flavourless oil (olive or rapeseed are too highly flavoured for baking), then use the same quantity of melted butter instead. 

Be gentle

As with most cakes and bread, the final stages must be treated with care. Fold the batter together gently and quickly, incorporating but not beating. This will result in lighter bread. 

Michelle Darmody's tahini banana bread. Click for recipe.

Use a combination of flour

Adding some wholemeal flour to your mix will add texture and flavour to your banana bread. Our recipe uses spelt flour, but feel free to substitute for plain white and wholemeal flour if that's what you have available to you. Spelt adds an almost nutty flavour to the bread that is extremely delicious. 

Pay attention to the cooking time

A long slow cook is required for this bread, due to its moisture content. If it begins to brown on top too early, cover loosely with foil. 

Flavour combinations

Once you have happened upon your favourite banana bread recipe, it's time to experiment. A handful of chocolate chips are always a welcome addition, as are spices like cinnamon, nutmeg and allspice. A banana halved lengthways and placed on top of the batter before baking and sprinkled with demerara sugar will result in a caramelised crunchy and beautiful looking cake. Fans of nut butter can swirl dollops of their favourite through the batter for a loaf of deliciously marbled banana bread and of course, nuts are always welcome. Pecans or walnuts work best. 

Banana bread

recipe by:Darina Allen

This is a lovely, moist loaf and a great way to use up over-ripe bananas – a perfect energy boost and deliciously fluffy interior

Servings

10

Preparation Time

 15 mins

Cooking Time

 60 mins

Total Time

 1 hours 15 mins

Course

 Baking

Ingredients

• 110g white spelt flour

• 110g brown spelt flour (Ballybrado)

• 1 heaped tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

• ½ tsp mixed spice

• 1 tsp salt

• 75g Billington’s unrefined caster sugar

• 2 tbsp of maple syrup

• 1 egg, beaten

• 75ml sunflower oil

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

• 65g pecan nuts or walnuts, chopped

• 4 large ripe bananas, well mashed

Method

1. Place the flour, salt, finely sieved baking powder and caster sugar into a large bowl.

2. Lightly mix the egg, oil, vanilla and maple syrup together and add to the dry ingredient mixing very gently.

3. Fold the pecan nuts and mashed bananas into this mixture with a fork, being careful not to overbeat or mix.

4. Place in a lined and oiled 900g loaf tin and bake in the oven for one hour. Allow it to cool in the tin before turning out.
   
   This recipe is from Debbie Shaw.