Banana bread is one of our go to recipes when we feel like baking. It fills our whare with the most amazing aroma and just makes everything better. Banana bread is magic.
And the great thing about this recipe is that it's a simple and quick one bowl recipe, with no refined sugar, and it's still moorishly fluffy, moist, and loved by kids and adults alike.
Ingredients
- ⅓ cup melted coconut oil or high quality vegetable oil
- ½ cup honey
- 1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 2 large bananas)
- 2 eggs
- ¼ cup (56 grams) warm milk of choice or water
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ¾ cups (220 grams) whole wheat flour
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon salt
- Optional Extras: ½ cup mix-ins like chopped walnuts, dark chocolate chips, raisins, frozen blueberries or raspberries, fresh banana slices etc
Method
- Preheat oven to 165 degrees Celsius and grease a 9×5-inch loaf pan.
- In a large bowl, beat the oil and honey together with a whisk. Then add the mashed bananas, and eggs.
- Add the baking soda to the warmed milk and stir (be careful it maybe bubble up, this is the baking soda activating) before adding to the banana mixture.
- Lastly, switch to a big spoon and gently stir in the flour, vanilla extract, cinnamon and salt and any additional extras, and mix until combined. And don't worry if there are some lumps, it's best not to overmix.
- Pour the batter into your greased loaf pan, and this is where we added a sliced banana on top to decorate, or you can swirl through come extra cinnamon if you like.
- Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. Generally, if I haven’t added any extras, my bread is done at 55 minutes; if I have added extras, it needs closer to 60 minutes)
- Now the hard part - leave the bread to cool in the loaf pan for at least 10 minutes. If you take it out too early it could break. You may need to run a butter knife around the edges to loosen the bread from the pan. Once it's cooled for 10 minutes, transfer the loaf to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.
- Often I'll make a double batch, then slice one loaf and freeze it for simple and healthy school snacks. As one loaf doesn't last long in our whare. We love toasting ours straight from the freezer and topping with sliced banana and honey for a delicious breakfast treat!