We are a family of cake lovers and banana bread is right up there as a firm favourite; a banana will rarely make it to the compost bin as they are always saved for baking. There’s no such thing as a ‘too far gone’ banana in our house!
This recipe is based on a Nigella Lawson recipe from her ‘How to be a Domestic Goddess’ cookbook. Of all the recipes I’ve tried, this is my favourite, I’ve always found it to be reliable and very moist. I have altered it to be dairy free, using unrefined sugar and spelt flour, it’s easy to make it gluten free too.
Banana bread ingredients
- 175 grams spelt flour*
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- pinch salt
- 125 grams sunflower spread (I use Pure brand)
- 150 grams unrefined sugar, i.e. coconut blossom or whole cane
- 2 large eggs
- 4 small very ripe bananas (mashed)
- 100 grams sultanas or cranberries
- 60 grams chopped walnuts or pecans
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*for a gluten free version, substitute gluten free flour and add 1/2 teaspon xantham gum. Make sure your baking powder is also gluten free.
Making the banana bread
Preheat the oven to 170ºC/gas mark 3/325ºF.
I like to get all the ingredients ready first – uses more bowls but making the bread is a quicker (and more fluid) process!
- In separate bowls:
- Sieve together the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt, and mix well
- Mash the bananas
- Crack & beat the eggs
- Chop the nuts & mix with dried fruit, add vanilla extract to this mix
- Then in a large bowl, whisk together the sunflower spread and sugar, keep whisking until well blended and lighter in colour.
- Tip in half the egg mixture along with a tablespoon of the flour mix and whisk in, then add the rest of the egg with another tablespoon of flour and whisk.
- Then whisk in the mashed bananas.
- With a wooden spoon, stir the nut/fruit/vanilla extract mixture and finally, add the flour mixture a third at a time, stirring well after each bit.
- Scrape into a loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm / 9 x 5 x 3 inches) – I use ready made loaf tine liners, otherwise line with greaseproof paper – and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1¼ hours.
- Check after 50 minutes or so – if the top looks like it’s getting a bit dark, cover the top loosely with some foil.
- After the cooking time, insert a toothpick or fine skewer in the middle of the bread to see if it comes out clean.
- Leave in the tin on a rack to cool and store in an airtight container.
- Enjoy!!