My Banana Bread
Not I (: On the contrary, I’ve settled in to this new normal quite nicely. Hopefully you have too! Of course I’d love for the world to be virus-free as much as anyone else. But in the meantime if you do find yourself with more time or are lucky to be with family, take the opportunity to make the most of it. Live in the moment, slow down, be present.
Finding more time at home, many people seem to have taken up baking. From sourdough to banana bread and basque burnt cheesecakes, whatever the next trend may be. Cue flour shortages and the endless search for yeast (goes down the rabbit hole of a sourdough starter for some natural yeast goodness), a nightmare for regular home cooks. The neighbourhood baking ingredient store suddenly was that much less appealing, with snaking queues any day of the week!
Given the newfound love for simple, homey bakes, I thought it only apt for the first recipe I share to be for banana bread. A recipe I have been tweaking for the past five years.
My recipe uses a local banana variety called Pisang Emas (introduced in all its golden glory later on) and is kept moist with a combination of coconut cream and yoghurt. It manages to be moist, light and buttery all at the same time. This makes it the perfect breakfast or tea time snack. Personally, I like to keep it in the fridge after the first day and really enjoy the texture it develops.
Jump to RecipePisang Emas – the ultimate banana for smoothies, banana bread, banana muffins, you name it… Genuinely a reason why I can’t leave South East Asia, I can’t imagine life without them! They just pack so much more flavour than your typical supermarket cavendish.
Translated from Malay, Pisang Mas means golden banana and they sure live up to their name. When ripened, their thin skin fills with brown spots but the flesh is perfectly golden-yellow, has a smooth texture and is sweet like honey. About 8-10cm in length, these bananas are about a third of a size of the Cavendish variety. It’s important to remember this if you’re swapping the two in a banana-based recipe.
The Cavendish is much more common, available in supermarkets all over the world. They are durable and transport well, but unfortunately I find the flesh floury and bland. The crop has also suffered from issues in the past few years, raising concerns on the problems of monoculture farming. So support your local banana varieties! The bumps & bruises are all natural.
Print RecipeBanana Bread
Ingredients
- 130 grams Butter room temperature
- 1/2 cup Caster sugar
- 1/2 cup Brown sugar
- 2 large Eggs Beaten
- 8 Pisang Emas 7 peeled & mashed, 1 sliced thinly to lay across the top
- 1 tsp Calamansi / Lemon Juice Optional, to keep bananas from oxidising
- 1/2 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 1/2 generous cup Greek Yoghurt / Coconut Cream Either, or mixed in desired proportion
Dry Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups Cake Flour Sifted
- 1 tsp Cinnamon Powder
- 1/8 tsp Nutmeg Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Powder
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/2 tsp Fine Salt
Instructions
- Line a 8 or 9 inch loaf pan with baking paper and pre-heat over to 160 degrees celcius. I also like to measure out all my ingredients and keep them ready in their specified portions.
- Sift cake flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and salt into a bowl and use a fork or whisk to mix well.
- Peel the bananas and mash 7 in a bowl. Add calamansi juice to keep them from turning brown quickly. Slice the last banana thinly lengthwise, drizzle with remaining calamansi juice and then coat in a thin layer of flour which should help to keep it from sinking later.
- Put the room temperature butter, caster sugar and brown sugar in the bowl of your electric mixer and beat on medium for a few minutes, until smooth and creamy. Add beaten eggs and continue with electric mixer until just incorporated.
- Fold in the mashed bananas, then beat in vanilla essence and greek yoghurt / coconut cream until just combined.
- Sieve in half the dry ingredients and fold in by hand. Once incorporated, repeat with the remaining dry ingredients.
- Pour the banana bread batter into the prepared loaf tin. Lay sliced bananas across the top as you like. You can also sprinkle a little brown sugar / cinnamon over them, it will caramelise well.
- Place in the oven on a middle rack for 55 minutes – 1 hour. The timing can vary, so check to see if a toothpick comes out clean sooner rather than later. It will keep cooking with the residual heat after it comes out.
- Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the tin, before transferring to a wire rack.
- Cut everyone thick slices and enjoy!
Notes
