I’m a mother of four – you have to be able to knock-up banana bread to use up all those mushy bananas. I don’t know what happens – some weeks they go through many bunches, others none… Still, banana bread is a favourite of the 11yo, so it’s never a wasted effort.I’ve found that making cake batter in the Thermomix is speedy, but can result in too much gluten development, resulting in a leaden batter. Here I’ve put everything else in together and blitzed, before adding the flour by hand at the last moment. The Thermomix does give you a finer puree of bananas, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing from my point of view!
This recipe is based on the one on the BBC website…
Ingredients
285g/10oz plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
110g/4oz butter, plus extra for greasing
225g/8oz caster sugar
2 free-range eggs
4 ripe bananas, mashed
85ml/3fl oz buttermilk (or normal milk mixed with 1½ tsp lemon juice or vinegar)
1 tsp vanilla extract
Thermomix Preparation Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
- In the thermomix bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy – I do this using the butterfly… Bring it slowly up to Speed 4 / 5 minutes – this stops the sugar mixture from splashing all over the TM bowl.
- Remove the butterfly, and add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk, and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture. Mix on Speed 4 / 2 minutes.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into the TM bowl, and fold the wet ingredients into the dry by hand. When mostly combined, pulse briefly for around ten seconds until more thoroughly mixed – try not to overwork the batter. Once you have removed 90% of the batter, you can briefly pulse again for just a few seconds – this will spin the remaining batter out of the blade an onto the side of the TM bowl.
- Grease a 20cm x 12.5cm/8in x 5in loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for about an hour, or until well-risen and golden-brown.
- Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
Normal Preparation Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.
- Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl, cream the butter and sugar together until light and fluffy.
- Add the eggs, mashed bananas, buttermilk and vanilla extract to the butter and sugar mixture and mix well. Fold in the flour mixture.
- Grease a 20cm x 12.5cm/8in x 5in loaf tin and pour the cake mixture into the tin.
- Transfer to the oven and bake for about an hour, or until well-risen and golden-brown.
- Remove from the oven and cool in the tin for a few minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving.
