New Honest Cooking contributor Diana Mieczan debuts with a delicious homemade Banana Loaf. We could get used to this.
By Diana Mieczan
Hello, wonderful readers. I’m Diana and I’m thrilled to be part of the Honest Cooking team. Each Tuesday I’ll be teasing you with fuss-free scrumptious recipes, awesome food-talk and the magical coffee culture. So nice to meet you all and thank you for having me.
Now, to the fun part!
Fancy a slice of homemade banana bread right about now? I thought so. I decided to go with this recipe today as it’s one of those things you can pretty much always find in our home (or crumbles of it for that matter). My husband, Balazs calls it the “mood fixer”. About seven or eight years ago I got hooked on this beauty by a good friend who jotted the recipe for me onto a piece of restaurant napkin after she got it from her mother in-law a few years earlier. Through the years I tweaked it a bit and today I’m ready to share the goodness with you. 
The key to making this delicious loaf is two very ripe bananas. The best is to leave them on your counter for a few days till they turn into a spotty-brown-unappetizing pieces of fruit that you would probably want to bin and then use them with this recipe. (I know it sounds gross but oh-so delicious, I promise).
I should also warn you, I only use brown sugar while baking and found that a bit of honey goes a long way too. It not only gives the right sweetness but it’s also super healthy. A pinch of salt is always a must and using unsalted butter makes the whole dough creamy and homey. One loaf lasts about 2 to 3 days in our home as you can keep it in the fridge. Sometimes we freeze pre-cut slices and then warm them up in the over before eating them for breakfast with our favourite cup of coffee.
The cool part about this recipe is that if you are not a banana fan, you can replace it with apples, blueberries or any type of seasonal fruits. It will taste great as well. During summer dinner parties I like to serve it with a scoop of vanilla ice-cream, while in the winter we have it with Balazs’ homemade custard.
It’s one of those easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy recipes that will cheer you up after a long day at work or when you simply fancy something comforting. Hope you’ll try it and I’d love to know your thoughts. So, let’s chat, shall we?
Sweet readers, have you done banana bread before? Would you try this one? I’d love to know. xo
Here is how to:
PrintHomemade Banana Loaf
- Total Time: 1 hour 10 minutes
- Yield: 9 1x
Description
A super easy loaf of goodness with honey and bananas.
Ingredients
- 2 large eggs
- 2 cups ( 240 g) of flour
- 1.5 cups (300 g) of brown sugar
- 1/2 stick (60 g) of unsalted butter (melted)
- 1 dash (1/16 teaspoon) of salt
- 1 teaspoon (1/3 tablespoon) of baking soda
- 1 teaspoon (1/3 tablespoon) of baking powder
- 1/3 of vanilla pot
- 4 teaspoon of milk
- 1 tablespoon of honey
- 2 big bananas (smashed)
Instructions
- Preheat your oven to 325°F (165°C). Mix eggs with sugar in a large bowl and then add flour gradually. Sprinkle baking powder, baking soda and vanilla to the mixture. Mix in the milk and add the melted butter, mix well till you achieve a creamy dough. Add the smashed bananas and honey last. Mix well. Pour the ready mixture into a pre-prepared buttered 4×8 inch loaf pan. Bake for up to an hour, or until the tester comes out clean or the top is golden brown. (It may vary depending on your oven). Cool it for about 30 mintues and you are ready to eat!
Notes
I like to use 2 paper or alufolie baking sheets for my loaf pan. It prevents the sides and buttom of the loaf from burning. I also start off by covering the whole mixture with alufolie for the first half an hour in the oven.
- Prep Time: 10 mins
- Cook Time: 1 hour
I’d definitely try this recipe! I’ve had the yearning to grill a slice of banana bread and serve with creamy white honey! This is perfect!
Looks great – I’ll definitely have to try it. You meant “ripe” bananas…right? Whoops :)
Thanks Lisa – Updated accordingly :)
Looks tasty! You mention you can sub any fruit… about how much banana did you use for this? Want to make sure I sub equal amounts!
Carri, I used two bigger size bananas which makes about one cup of smashed bananas. While using different fruits I usually go with one full cup of blueberries or two bigger apples. Of course depending on the fruit but no more than two cups I would say. Hope that helps and let me know if you have any other questions:)
Since Banana bread is my favourite, I will try this recipe.
Stuart
That is awesome, Stuart:)
I LOVE B’bread and have a freezer full of black bananas for just this purpose. I love to toast it and spread with butter but custard would also be delish – thanks for the idea. I’ve never used honey in the bread either so going to print out this recipe and give it a go. If you were using other fruits, say apples, would they need to be almost “throw away” ripe as well?
Thanks for the yummy inspiration!
Great idea to store black bananas in the freezer, Jeanette. Generally, for baking I like to use fruits that are pretty ripe as they have the sweetest taste. Btw: Next time I’m trying a banana bread slice your way- with butter:)
I love the idea of adding honey and also changing it from bananas to apples or other fruit from time to time. I cant wait to try this, banana bread is actually one of my favs…my husband made it for me for my birthday one year!
Diana, this sounds incredible! I like how it’s honey/brown sugar and not white sugar. I’ll have to give it a try!
I tried this recipe a couple days ago. I made muffins instead of a loaf and it turned out great. Recipe made a dozen muffins with a little extra. I baked @ 325F for 30 minutes, checking every 10 minutes to make sure I didn’t over cook them. I was a little nervous at how dry/crumbly the batter was at the beginning but it was easy to cream once I started adding the milk, honey, and butter. I can’t wait to try your next recipe! Thanks!
Fantastic! I love that you made muffins instead and yes, the batter is quite crumbly at first but as soon as you add all the liquids it turns into a creamy dough. Thanks so much for your sweet comment:) xo
It was so easy to make and tasted really great! This was my very first time baking banana bread!
Awww…so great! Thank you, Di.
Diana this recipe looks amazing, my husband is a banana fan so this is great for me to bake. ( i was poking through express-o and so the post about your column here, congratulations, i look forward to this)
Aww..thank you, Patricia:) You are so lovely. xo
Sounds yummy!!! What is vanilla pot??
oh noo! you forgot to include the salt in the instructions! hope that it won’t affect the taste that much.
Lissa…oops it should be vanilla pod:) Hope that helps.
Pinar, it wont affect the taste! Sorry about that. Next time you can add the salt together with baking powder.
Yep you’re right! It was still perfectly tasty and gone in a very short time! I’ve enjoyed it with laughing cow cinnamon spread! Thanks for the recipe :)
Awww..so wonderful! My pleasure, Pinar:) Have a great weekend.
This was an excellent recipe I added pecans to it for a little crunch. Thank you
Pecans are a great idea, Tim! So happy that you enjoyed it.
Diana xo
super delicious> everybody shpuld try this!
EVERYONE SHOULD TRY THIS. i’m making it for my family. :)
Awesome, Cassandra:) Thank you! xoxo
I love banana bread and so does my hubby … just made your recipe and its devine. Adding the honey just added that extra taste … oh and I’ve added sultanas to mine.
Thanks for sharing your recipe.
I love experimenting with different types of food,m so gonna try this recipe.l juss can’t wait and banana bread is my fab.thank you so much
Just tried it and it was yummmmmyyyyy!
Will try the other fruit variations.
I made this but it fell in the middle. Also wasn’t done at 1 hour. Had to cook longer.
Had oven set to 325.
fuera mejor q pusieran fotos