PERFECT BANANA BREAD

Hello!

So I used to shoot weddings full time, like so many weddings, all summer long. And I love taking dramatic photos of couples in love, but ever since I’ve been in school and cooking a lot more, I feel like I channel my intense love story energy into my food lighting… Like does banana bread need to be so dramatically lit?

Anyways, I love/ hate banana bread. I love having a cake in the house, it’s the perfect afternoon yum with tea. But I mostly hate banana bread because there are a billion banana bread recipes and a lot of bad ones. They’re usually too dry or too sweet. But this is the recipe I make over and over again. It’s foolproof. Dense, chocolatey, and not too sweet.

They keep at least a week in the fridge, wrapped in plastic, but they are best served room temp. Because this is a butter based cake, the fat goes solid in the fridge and isn’t at maximal deliciousness cold. If you’re taking them out of the fridge, just pop it in the microwave for 10 seconds at a time until it’s not cold to the touch.

Enjoy!

INGREDIENTS - DRY

• 400 g Flour

• 1 tsp Baking Soda

• 2 tsp Baking Powder

• 1 tsp Salt

INGREDIENTS - WET

• 250 g Soft Butter (or 200g oil)

• 150 g Granulated Sugar (plain white sugar)

• 250 g Dark Brown Sugar

• 4 eggs

• 100 g Greek Yogurt

• 1 tsp Vanilla

• 4 -5 Ripe/ Spotty Brown Bananas (400 grams)

• 100 g Chocolate

• 100 g Toasted Pecans (I didn’t have any, but I love toasted nuts in my banana bread. You can either toast them in a dry pan on the stove or put them in the oven for 10 minutes. Just make sure they’re cool before adding them.)

• 2 lb Loaf Tin (H-102mm x L-305mm x W-102mm)

INSTRUCTIONS

• Preheat oven to 175*C / 350*F

• Toast the pecans, let it cool completely. Set aside.

• Mash the bananas and yogurt. Add vanilla. Set aside

• Mix dry ingredients together

• Mix butter (or oil) and white sugar and brown sugar well

• Start adding eggs in one at a time.

• Keep mixing, it will come together

• Then add the Greek yogurt and vanilla and mushed up bananas to the bowl of wet ingredients

• Now add a third of the dry mix to the big bowl of wet ingredients. Mix until it’s dissolved into the wet. We’re gonna add about a third of the dry mix at a time until it disappears.

• Just mix enough until incorporated without over-mixing, cus we don’t want to overwork the dough

• Add the cooled toasted pecans and chocolate chips to the batter. It’s a thick, goopy batter.

• Line a greased baking tin with parchment paper. Make sure you have enough parchment paper coming up over the sides of the tin so you can pull out the banana bread easily when it’s all done.

• Pour into lined baking tin. If you want a nice crack on the top, run a wet knife down the centre.

• Bake for 1 hour. Test at the 1 hour mark. You want the toothpick to come out clean. Or an internal temp between 190 and 205.

• Let it cool down before devouring.