Banana bread

Banana bread has been providing a lot of comfort to newbie bakers during the lockdown. It's the first bread/cake that I baked almost 10 years ago for my brother who was also was my baking guinea pig for a lot of years. over the years the bread has been the quick snack for tea time, tiffin staple for kid and us, baby lead weaning food and what not. everyone loves it for the slightly more healthy quotient and oh...a soft banana bread drizzled with hot caramel sauce  is favourite dessert for many.

Ingredients

3 large over ripe about to die bananas (this is key, the more over ripe they are the better the flavour, if you don't have microwave the bananas for 60 Seconds with skin on, that will be fine)

200gms whole wheat flour ( you can replace the same with all purpose flour..but somehow the flavour and moistness comes with whole wheat)

or

250 gms multigrain mix ( I add Quaker oats, ragi flour, whole wheat flour in grinder and make a fine powder)

100gms brown sugar ( I prefer brown, you can even go with white or stevia)

1 tsp Eno or baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

50gms roasted peanuts/almonds (optional)

100gms oil/ghee/ moist butter

pinch of nutmeg or cinnamon

STEP 1

If you have time then dry roast the flour for a nutty flavour else it's totally ok to just mix for the cake. sift in case of lumps and ensure the dry mix is fine. 

STEP 2

In mixer add oil, sugar and 25gm of peanuts or almonds and make a thick batter. ensure no residue sugar remains.

STEP 3

Pre-heat you oven to 150 degree for 15 minutes.Pre heat is a great hack to ensure cakes fluff up nicely.

in the meantime, mix you dry flour and wet batter together in fold method. mash the over ripe bananas in a bowl and add the same to the cake batter, don't mix that too much after that as the flavour goes off. Add a pinch of nutmeg with soda and powder and pop the tin in oven for 30 minutes. After 15 minutes at 150 degrees, knock down temperature to 130 degrees and bake for 15 minutes more. Leave the cake in the tin to cool down else it would break apart while coming off.

For my daughter when she was teething I would make it without sugar and add an extra banana in the mix. she would eat it without fuss. for her tiffin also I would give and she loves it. you can add cranberries, sweeten it with dates syrup for older kids. I sometimes add jam on top before baking and swirl it for amazing soft top. You can also add remaining 25gms of chopped almonds or peanuts on top and sprinkle some brown sugar for amazing caramel glaze

Banana bread is a versatile cake and as the lockdown has showed, its now a staple for many pantries now. I have also linked an insider article on the common banana bread mistakes along with photos, gives fantastic reference to common mistakes and the resulting loaf.