Homemade Banana Bread

Ingredients

For the recipe

• 350 g very ripe banana flesh, weighed without peel, about 3 large bananas
• 250 g all-purpose flour
• 120 g light brown sugar
• 85 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled until just warm
• 2 large eggs (100 g without shells)
• 80 g plain whole-milk yogurt
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (4 g)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder (4 g)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda (2.5 g)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon (2.5 g)
• 1/2 teaspoon fine salt (3 g)

Instructions

1. Heat the oven to 175°C / 350°F conventional, or 160°C fan. Line a 23 x 13 cm / 9 x 5 inch loaf tin with baking parchment, covering the base and sides and leaving an overhang for lifting.
2. Peel the bananas, weigh out 350 g and mash thoroughly with a fork. Small soft lumps are fine, but there should be no large firm pieces. Thaw frozen bananas completely before measuring; include their thawed juices in the 350 g weight.
3. In a large bowl, whisk the mashed banana, brown sugar and melted butter until combined. The butter must not be hot enough to cook the eggs.
4. Whisk in the eggs, yogurt and vanilla until the wet mixture is smooth apart from small banana pieces.
5. In another bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt, breaking up any lumps in the raising agents.
6. Fold the dry ingredients into the wet mixture with a spatula just until no pockets of dry flour remain. Scrape the bottom of the bowl and stop mixing as soon as the batter is combined.
7. Scrape into the lined tin and smooth the top. Bake on the middle oven rack for 50 minutes without repeatedly opening the door.
8. Check the loaf and loosely tent the top with foil if it is already deeply brown. Continue baking for 5-15 minutes, checking every 5 minutes, until a skewer inserted into the center comes out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. Total baking time is usually 55-65 minutes.
9. Cool in the tin for 15 minutes, then lift out using the parchment and transfer to a wire rack. Remove the parchment from the sides so steam can escape.
10. Let the loaf cool completely, ideally for at least another 60 minutes, before cutting into 12 equal slices. Slicing while very hot can make the crumb compress and appear gummy.