Banana Bread Recipes 350g ripe bananas (peeled weight) 180g plain flour, plus extra for the

tin 2 tsp baking powder 1 tsp salt 160g soft, light brown sugar 2 eggs, beaten 4 tbsp melted butter, plus extra to grease, slightly cooled 50g walnuts, roughly chopped 1. Preheat the oven to 170C. Put two-thirds of the peeled banana chunks into a bowl and mash until smooth. Roughly mash the remainder and stir in gently. 2. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl, and grease and lightly flour a baking tin about 21x9x7cm. 3. Put the sugar, eggs and melted butter in a large bowl and use an electric mixer to whisk them until pale and slightly increased in volume. Fold in the bananas and the dry ingredients until you can see no more flour, then fold in the walnuts. 4. Spoon into the tin and bake for about an hour until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool in the tin for 10 minutes before turning out on to a rack to cool completely.

300g ripe bananas 15ml lemon juice 125g shelled walnuts, chopped 75g unsalted butter 175g dark soft brown sugar 50ml walnut oil 1 tsp mixed spice 3 medium eggs 325g wholemeal bread flour 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda Demerara or natural sugar crystals Line the base and sides of a large, deep, 19cm-long loaf tin or similar with nonstick paper, and heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4. Peel the bananas and in a medium bowl mash them and the lemon juice with a fork until smooth. Stir in the walnuts and leave to one side. In a saucepan, gently melt the butter, then tip it into a mixing bowl with the sugar, oil and spice. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition, until everything is evenly combined. Sift the wholemeal flour and soda into a bowl (pick out any bran caught in the sieve and add to the flour in the bowl). Beat half the sifted flour into the egg mixture, fold in the banana and walnut mixture, then fold in the remaining flour gently. Spoon the mix into the lined tin and smooth the top. Sprinkle some demerara sugar over the top and bake for about 60-70 minutes, or until a skewer poked in comes out barely clean.

Banana Bread Makes 1 full-sized loaf or 2 small loaves

Preheat the oven to 350. In one bowl, combine: 1/2 stick (4-5 tablespoons) butter, softened 2 eggs 2 or 3 very ripe bananas 2/3 cup sugar Use a potato masher, fork, or spoon to squish the banana and mix the ingredients together. It is alright for there to be small (1 centimeter) chunks of banana in the batter, but you want most of the banana to be reduced to mush. In another bowl, combine: 1 1/3 cup all-purpose unbleached flour 3/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon baking powder 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)

Combine the wet and dry ingredients and mix until the ingredients are blended together. If you like, stir in additional ingredients here, such as chopped walnuts or pecans, dried cherries or apricots, or chocolate chips. A handful (about a half a cup) is about right. Pour the dough into greased baking pans and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Small loaves take around 30 minutes, a normal-sized loaf takes around 50 minutes. Remove from the oven. This bread is great warm, but it is excellent cold too. After they have cooled for 5 or 10 minutes the loaves can be removed from the pan to cool. Once they are cool they can be individually wrapped and frozen.