Classic Banana Bread
Dark, moist, and heavily banana — the loaf that justifies letting bananas go too far.
Makes 1 loaf (9x5 pan) · Prep 15 min · Bake 60 min
Ingredients
Wet
- 3 Very ripe bananas, mashed — heavily spotted or black — about 1.5 cups mashed
- 1/2 cup Neutral oil
- 3/4 cup Brown sugar, packed
- 2 Eggs
- 2 tsp Vanilla extract
Dry
- 2 cups All-purpose flour
- 1 tsp Baking soda
- 3/4 tsp Salt
- 1/2 tsp Ground cinnamon
Instructions
Prep
- Heat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and line a 9x5 loaf pan with parchment, leaving an overhang on the long sides.
Wet
- Mash the bananas thoroughly in a large bowl, then whisk in the oil, brown sugar, eggs, and vanilla until smooth. (Tip: Leave a few small lumps of banana. They turn into pockets of intense banana flavour rather than disappearing into the crumb.)
Dry
- Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon together in a separate bowl.
Combine
- Tip the dry ingredients into the wet and fold with a spatula just until no dry flour is visible. Stop immediately. (Tip: The batter should look lumpy and slightly under-mixed. Beating it smooth builds gluten and gives you a rubbery loaf with tunnels in it.)
Bake
- Scrape into the pan and bake until deeply browned and a skewer in the centre comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. (Tip: If the top is dark well before the centre is done, tent it loosely with foil. The sugar-rich top browns faster than the middle cooks.)
Cool
- Cool in the pan 15 minutes, then lift out by the parchment and cool on a rack before slicing. (Tip: The crumb is still setting. Slicing hot banana bread gives you a gummy, compressed slice.)
Tips
- Ripening bananas in a hurry: Bake unpeeled bananas at 150°C for 15–20 minutes until the skins go black. This softens them and concentrates the sugars, though it doesn't fully replicate real ripening — enzymatic conversion also builds aroma compounds that heat alone can't create. Better than green bananas, not as good as patience.
- Loaf sank in the middle: Usually underbaked, or too much leavening. The structure rises before it sets, and if it isn't cooked through by the time the gas runs out it collapses. Bake to a clean skewer, and measure the baking soda level.