Cheap banana bread recipe

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I’ve been getting back into baking more recently. With two small daughters, who love a snack, and my husband home full-time recovering, it is fair to say that the snacks need to be readily available. This cheap banana bread is a great way to use up leftover bananas, especially if they’re very brown, and it tastes delicious too!

This banana bread keeps well, lasting for 2-3 days in an *airtight container, and is delicious either eaten plain or spread with honey, chocolate spread or jam.

It takes just a few minutes to prepare this banana bread and it is perfect for cooking in the oven when you’re going to be making a roast dinner or another time consuming meal.

I feel like the ingredients are real pantry or store cupboard staples and I almost always have everything I need on hand for this recipe.

Personally I like to use *loaf tin liners as this stops the bread sticking, makes it easy to remove and is low mess too. However, you can skip this step and just oil your loaf tin well.

Ingredients for banana bread with plain flour:

3 bananas

1 egg (beaten)

30ml of vegetable oil – approx 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil

75ml of milk (I used semi-skimmed)

75g of sugar (granulated sugar or caster sugar) – approx 5 tablespoons

2g of salt – approx 1/2 tsp

5g of bicarbonate of soda – approx 1 tsp

3g of baking powder – approx 1/2 a tsp baking powder

350g of plain flour – approx 2 1/4 cups

Method for my banana bread recipe:

Firstly I combined the bananas (which I mashed), egg, vegetable oil and milk.

In a separate bowl, I combined the sugar, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and plain flour.

Then I combined the ingredients. I needed to work quite hard to make the wet mixture cover all of the dry ingredients. However, it did. Just!

Anyway, once combined I poured into a loaf tin, with a liner inside. If you don’t want to use a liner then you should be fine if you spray the inside of the tin with cake release or rub a little butter or oil around. You could even use spray oil and a pastry brush to spread it around.

Bake at gas mark 5 (190C) for 40 – 45 minutes. I checked after 40 minutes, using a *cake tester, and mine was ready. Obviously this depends on your oven so keep a close eye near the end.

Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Use a serrated knife to slice it up for easy serving with minimal mess.

Topping ideas:

Glace icing

Dusting of icing sugar with a little cinnamon or cocoa powder

Chocolate ganache or chocolate sauce

Popping some banana slices on midway through the cooking is always a fun idea too, or even just some fresh berries on top of the icing.

Want to make a banana nut loaf instead?

When you’re making the wet batter you can add in 50g of mixed nuts. Walnuts work very well for this recipe. They compliment the banana wonderfully too.

Want to make this a chocolate loaf?

You can add 100g of chocolate chips to the dry mix before you add it to the wet mix. By coating the chocolate chips in the flour mix it’ll help stop them sinking when you’re serving.

Alternatively when the batter has been cooking for 1/2 the time you can sprinkle some chocolate chips on the top of the wet batter and they should sink down into the middle a little while it finishes cooking.

Why do you need to use overripe bananas for banana bread?

Overripe bananas are simple to mash and they have more sweetness to them. This works very well for banana bread.

Which sugar should you use for banana bread?

Personally I just use granulated these days. I can tell no difference between using this and using caster sugar, which has just been finely ground. Use whichever you have to hand.

Will banana bread work without baking soda?

If you don’t have baking soda then change the plain flour for self-raising flour and this should help you still achieve a great bake.

Can you have banana bread for breakfast?

Of course! You can eat anything you fancy for breakfast. All things in moderation I say.

How to make my cheap banana bread recipe:

Print

Cheap banana bread recipe

A delicious, simple and cheap banana bread recipe

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Keyword banana, bread

Prep Time 5 minutes

Cook Time 45 minutes

Total Time 50 minutes

Servings 12 slices

Calories 195 kcal

Author Katykicker

Ingredients

• 3 bananas
• 1 egg beaten
• 30 ml of vegetable oil – approx 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
• 75 ml of milk I used semi-skimmed
• 75 g of sugar granulated sugar or caster sugar – approx 5 tablespoons
• 2 g of salt – approx 1/2 tsp
• 5 g of bicarbonate of soda – approx 1 tsp
• 3 g of baking powder – approx 1/2 a tsp baking powder
• 350 g of plain flour – approx 2 1/4 cups

Instructions

1. Firstly I combined the bananas (which I mashed), egg, vegetable oil and milk.
2. In a separate bowl, I combined the sugar, salt, bicarbonate of soda, baking powder and plain flour.
3. Then I combined the ingredients. I needed to work quite hard to make the wet mixture cover all of the dry ingredients. However, it did. Just!
4. Anyway, once combined I poured into a loaf tin, with a liner inside. If you don’t want to use a liner then you should be fine if you spray the inside of the tin with cake release or rub a little butter or oil around. You could even use spray oil and a pastry brush to spread it around.
5. Bake at gas mark 5 (190C) for 40 – 45 minutes. I checked after 40 minutes, using a cake tester, and mine was ready. Obviously this depends on your oven so keep a close eye near the end.
6. Leave in the tin for 10 minutes then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
7. Use a serrated knife to slice it up for easy serving with minimal mess.

Note: All calorie information is for demonstration purposes only and is based on the specific uncooked ingredients that I used when creating the recipe.

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