Craving banana bread? No need to be a baker to recreate these easy recipes
In the early days of quarantining in 2020, we had various phases: the dalgona coffee phase, the banana bread baking phase, the sourdough phase, among others. The dalgona coffee trend caught on as we sought something for the ‘gram when we couldn’t travel, the sourdough phase came in out of the thrill of baking your own bread when going to the grocery stores came with so many strings attached.
With banana bread, the popularity is partly a result of how easy it is to bake it. You don’t have to understand the nitty-gritty of baking in order to make banana bread. No wonder then, that Google searches for the recipes shot exponentially as we found ourselves locked in our houses. We were also ordering in bulk, so it’s likely that we wanted to seek a new life for the rotting or ripe bananas staring at us from our dining tables.
It became the meal of Zoom happy hours, the guilty pleasure for those wallowing in self-pity, and a distraction for those who head to the kitchen to clear their minds. Here’s an easy recipe for banana bread that you can refer to, no matter which of the aforementioned categories you belong to.
The easiest banana bread recipe in town
Fair warning: a banana bread recipe is the only place where the word moist won’t gross you out, despite all the erotic imagery bananas are known to otherwise produce. Let’s get started.
Baking banana bread is as simple as getting together all the basic ingredients, namely, ripe bananas, butter, sugar, egg, vanilla, baking soda, and flour. The key, many banana bread makers will claim, lies in the melted butter, because the flavor of the bananas is matched by the faint taste of the butter – and it’s this combination that lends banana bread the comfort food personality it’s known for.
Get a mixing bowl – that’s right, you don’t even need to get a fancy mixer for this – an egg whisk (or fork will do), and a mixing spoon or ladle. One question you can spend time contemplating is about the quantity of sugar you want to be used in the recipe. There are no thumb rules here, treat your taste buds to as much sweetness as you like.
In the mixing bowl, mash the ripe bananas with a fork until they’re completely smooth. This is the part of the recipe you can channel all your unresolved emotions into, as one does. Angry over the state of affairs of the world? Mash it harder. Frustrated over the year wasted? Groove your fork with all that frustration. It works.
Once the mashed bananas make one large, smooth lump, stir in the melted butter into it. This is where the flavors will begin to form. Then add in a pinch of baking soda, salt, sugar, beaten egg, vanilla extract, and two cupfuls of flour. Preheat the oven to 350°F & butter a loaf pan to prepare the bed for the batter.
That’s it. Now you have to pour the batter into the loaf pan, bake for around an hour, and let the heat do its magic. Use a tester to see if the bread is ready. You can do this by inserting a tester into the center of the bread – if it comes out clean, consider the mission accomplished. If it’s still sticky, you might need to bake it a bit longer.
Once you’ve ensured the bread is all clean & fluffy, take it out of the oven, let it cool for a few minutes. Then replace it onto another plate, slice it using a bread knife for sleek slices, and serve. While we’re at it, no one’s stopping you from adding your favorite dry fruits, fruit chunks, choco chips, or syrups to it!
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Want even more recipes to try over the holidays? Let us know which in the comments. Make sure you check out these gluten-free recipes first!
