Is it a bread? Or is it a cake? Banana loaf – A little bit of both!

Every time dad is in town, there is always an excitement towards baking! He, like me, loves food. He however, loves when I bake more. We both have a crazy sweet tooth, and baking at home at least lets us keep a tab on what ingredients are being used.

So last weekend I tried to bake something a little different from a usual cake. I tried my hands on a Banana Loaf. Before I tell you more about the recipe, something you should know – Its not a bread. There is no yeast involvement. And its easy! really easy!

Banana Loaf, I think gets its name mainly because its baked in a loaf pan. Its ends up into this mildly sweet loaf with a subtle banana flavour. It once baked, can be used like a bread for your breakfast. Cut a slice. Toast it. Put some nutella or peanut butter. And there… perfect breakfast.

I found a lot of recipes online. But I twisted it a lot for my loaf. I tried to make it as healthy as possible

Ingredients –

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup whole wheat flour (I think you can make both the cups whole wheat flour too, but I did not want to take the risk of getting a very dense loaf)

1/2 cup unsalted butter (most recipes ask for 3/4 cup of butter, I think you can work with even lesser than 1/2)

1/2 cup brown sugar (Again, something which depends on your taste, I did not want the loaf to be too sweet)

2 eggs

2 big ripe bananas – mashed (the more ripe, the better)

1tsp baking soda (no baking powder needed!)

1/2tsp salt

A little bit of milk (this is for thinning the batter if its too stiff. this also makes the loaf softer)

The recipe is pretty simple:

– Preheat the oven at 175 degree celcius. I worked with a 9×5 loaf pan. Worked perfectly for the above mentioned quantities. Do remember to grease the pan. Otherwise you might have to scoop out your loaf!

– Mix up all the dry ingredients together

– Cream the butter and Sugar, Add eggs, and then the mashed banana.

– Mix the dry and wet ingredients. If the batter is too thick, add a little milk

– All the batter goes into the loaf pan, and then into the preheated oven.

– And this where your patience gets tested. It takes 60-65 minutes for this loaf to be made. The lesser number of times you open the oven to see the status, the better. It will take this much time to cook fully.

– After around 60 minutes, put a knife into the loaf to see if its cooked through. People ask you to put a toothpick. but I prefer a knife as it can go all the way till the bottom. If it comes out clean – your loaf is ready!

Let it cool for a while before you attempt to take it out of the pan. If the pan was greased properly, this should be an extremely easy task.

And there you go! Here is your pretty tasty yet decently healthy Banana loaf:

Banana Loaf

Pretty ain’t it? It tasted awesome too. I am going to add things like chocolate shavings or nuts the next time I attempt making this. I think it will work beautifully!