Walnut Banana Loaf Cake – Banana Bread

With a surplus of bananas I decided to make some banana bread, using a slight variant on a recipe I saw in the Guardian some years ago.  For mine I am adding a little ground cinnamon as that is a flavour that I really like and it goes well in this type of loaf cake.

It is a very simple recipe and fairly foolproof.  It also tastes so good and doesn’t take long to make that is it well worth the effort to make it.

It could also be easily adapted to make banana bread muffins, if required.

Mine turned out very well indeed, tasting so good.  It was also moist and, for me, the hint of cinnamon was wonderful too.

Ingredients:

• 320g (11 oz)bananas(peeled weight)
• 50g(1/2 cup) chopped walnuts
• 180g (1 cup + 6 tbsp)plain flour
• 160g (3/4 cup + 2 tsp)light brown sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 medium eggs(large in USA)
• 56g butter, very soft or melted and cooled

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 170C/150C Fan/325 F
2. Butter a 2lb loaf tin and then coat the buttered surface with flour, shaking off the excess. Or line with a loaf paper.
3. In a bowl mix the flour, baking powder and salt together.
4. In a separate bowl crush 2/3 of the bananas until mushy. 
5. Then chop the remainder into small chunks. 
6. In a large bowl place the sugar, eggs and butter and whisk together until all combined and slightly increased in volume. ( I used my hand mixer for this).
7. Add the mashed banana and mix to combine.
8. Add the chopped banana and the flour and gently fold in until all is just about combined.
9. Add the walnuts and fold again until all is mixed in.
10. Pour the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and spread until the batter is level.
11. Bake in the oven for about 1 hour, until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.
12. Remove from the oven and leave in the tin for 10 minutes.
13. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before slicing.