Moist Banana Bread
Overview
A large batch of banana bread, enriched with chocolate chips and citrus zest. No country is claimed. Banana bread as a category is American, it spread through the United States in the 1930s once chemical raising agents became cheap and household economy made using up blackened fruit a virtue, but this particular version has been through a West African kitchen. Two details give that away. Milk flavour, the concentrated flavouring sold in Nigerian and Ghanaian shops, is not something an American or European recipe would call for. And the contributor's note recommending tigernut milk alongside it points the same way, tigernuts, kunun aya, are a West African staple with their own drink recipe on this site. The quantities are worth reading before you start. Ten bananas, six eggs and three cups of flour make five loaves, not one, which is a great deal of banana bread and explains the unusually large amounts of everything. The method has one ordering problem: it leaves the oven instruction until the second-to-last step, by which point the batter has been sitting. The oven step has been moved to the front, where it belongs.
Ingredients
Dietary tags are provided by contributors as a guide, not verified by AFN, and they depend on the products you buy. If you have a serious allergy, check every ingredient yourself. Cooking, allergies and your own judgement
Directions
- 1
Set the oven to 350°F / 180°C and grease your loaf tins with oil or butter and a dusting of flour.
- 2
Mash the ripe bananas roughly in a large bowl, some texture is fine and welcome.
- 3
Crack in the eggs and beat them into the mashed banana.
- 4
Pour in the sugar and whisk.
- 5
Whisk in the milk and the melted butter.
- 6
Whisk in the vanilla essence and milk flavour, gently.
- 7
Sift the flour and baking powder over the mixture.
- 8
Fold everything together until just combined, do not beat it.
- 9
Fold through the lemon and orange zest, then the chocolate chips.
- 10
Pour the batter into the prepared tins and tap them lightly on the worktop to release air bubbles and level the tops.
- 11
Top with lemon slices, extra chocolate chips or coconut shavings if you like.
- 12
Bake for about 40 to 45 minutes, until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out clean.
- 13
Cool in the tins briefly, then on a rack before slicing.
Africook’s Notes
Personal notes from Food Trove- Use bananas that are properly black-spotted. Underripe fruit gives a bland, dry loaf and no amount of sugar compensates.
- Fold rather than beat once the flour is in. Overworking develops gluten and gives you a tough, rubbery crumb.
- Get the oven hot before you start mixing. Batter with baking powder in it begins working immediately and loses lift while it waits.
- This makes five loaves. Halve or quarter everything if you want one, and reduce the baking time accordingly.
- Milk flavour is a West African baking flavouring, sold in African grocers. Leave it out if you cannot find it; the loaf is fine without.
- It keeps well wrapped for several days and freezes properly, which is just as well at this quantity.
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