Both!
By popular demand.
Millie’s Spiced Banana Bread
Reader Millie writes:
This is one of my favourite bakes ever. I confess, I’m not a huge fan of banana bread – but this loaf changed my mind. There is something immensely comforting about this bake, whether it be how easy it is to make or the delicious smell that wafts through the house as it bakes and lingers for hours after. It’s a very forgiving recipe too, in that you can adjust the spices to your personal taste and in that you can swap the Greek yogurt for sour cream or natural yogurt, and you will still get a delicious loaf. It lends itself especially well to toasting, requiring only a minute under the grill before the sugar begins to caramalise. I like it slathered with butter and a good-sized cup of coffee.
You will need:
115g butter, softened
200g caster sugar
2 large eggs
190g plain flour
1tsp baking soda/bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp mixed spice
½ tsp ginger
½ tsp nutmeg
240g mashed banana (roughly 2-3 bananas, depending on size)
120g greek yogurt
1 tsp vanilla extract
How To:
1. Preheat oven to 170C/160C (fan). Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Whisk eggs together and slowly add to the butter-sugar mixture, making sure to beat the mixture well after each addition. Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl too, as this will ensure your mixture is fully combined. This, according to Her Majesty Queen Mary Berry of Cakes, will help to avoid the dreaded curdling of the egg. I’d also recommend keeping your butter and eggs at an even temperature, as this can also help. In any event, I usually carry on with the bake, even if it has curdled a bit.
3. In a separate bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and spices. Add to butter, sugar and egg mixture and fold together until just combined.
4. Next, mash your bananas. I should add that I never actually weight out the bananas, just throw in 2 or 3 ripe bananas and the loaf has always turned out well. Add mashed banana, Greek yogurt and vanilla extract and mix again.
5. Pour mixture into greased and floured loaf tin and bake for approximately 50-60 minutes, until a deep golden brown and a skewer, when inserted, comes away clean.
Oo-er.
Pics via Millie
oh that looks delicious !
I’ll let you know how it turns out :)
Cheers Janet. Looking forward to hearing how it goes ;)
i’m going try that millie. i have all the stuff lying about, not like treacle..
ouch ;)
don’t take it personally J..
sniff
The original recipe for this contained much more high-falutin’ fancy ingredients, half of which were not in my fridge/pantry, so I substituted here and there, and ended up with this recipe, which I’m quite proud of. Let me know how you get on :)
omnomnom
You’re welcome
If I could locate the search/ archives I’d do a
How it Started
to How it ended
btw Bake’sheeters, Tafton Clax sent on Mrs Clax’ pretzel recipe so that’ll be this weekend’s test back, stay tuned etc
This looks so good! I really want to learn how to make this.
No learning
Just follow the recipe. Exactly.
You can play around with it after you’ve got familiar with baking
and your own kitchen, especially your oven
Everyone should have a good loaf cake in their go to bake notebooks
Try this one out first Junk
Even if you have to buy the ingredients in special
You’ll use them again for loads of other stuff to try
If I could impress on you, and others, again I suppose
is get the very best equipment you can afford
so that means get yourself a good solid heavy loaf tin
if you have a tenner say, spend exactly that
not one reduced from a tenner down to a fiver,
TIP for first time bakers
Mr Price (there’s a great one on the Kylemore Road)
Great forTins and Utensils
and proper baking parchment
and for the more experienced/ advanced baker that wants to do more confectionary stuff, like decorating
they’ve a great range of kit and specialist icing stuff
Thanks V, I will check out what my local supermarket has available.
BTW
Since you’re a learner
the method doesn’t mention a cooling tray / rack
again get the best you can afford
and the higher/ taller the better
That’s great advice V. Every day is a school day and all.
Cheers for the Mr Price head’s up too. I’ll be checking that next time I need a few bits.
What size loaf tin for that amount of cake, please?
Mr Price sells online, but they don’t seem to have baking tins on their site https://www.mrpriceonline.ie/
I think I use a 2lb tin, which works out at 1.5ltrs. That said, I’ve used different sized loaf tins and had fairly consistent results. I’d just keep an eye on it once it’s in the oven and always check with a skewer. I’ve been caught out before with a raw middle, much to my mortification.
If it’s a dense mixture Mill
Sit the loaf tin on a baking tray (that’s been in the oven getting nice and 170°)
If your loaf cake needs more time,
And then drop another baking tray/ tin in the rack over to let the loaf stay in the oven but take the heat off the top
Btw. That’s not a bad tip for big fat whopper bread bakes
Particularly cobs n’ sourdoughs
I’ve been known to do the same for Wellington type bakes as well
Just saying
It’s not all that dense usually, but my oven can be a bit temperamental ever since we replaced the element last year. I must try your way next time. Usually I just throw some tinfoil over the top.
You’re a great woman for the baking advice. You’re up next for a recipe.
Confucius walks among us…
Fabulous Millie! thank you for the recipe :)