I love a good Banana Bread and this is a bit of a twist on a well-loved favourite … easy to make, absolutely delicious, sweet, moist and it freezes beautifully. This recipe will make three small loves so I usually whip it up on the weekend when no-one’s around (otherwise it gets eaten straight from the oven and disappears), wait for it to cool, slice it and then freeze the pieces individually ready for lunches the next week. If I’m making this for school lunches, I leave out the walnuts. I’ve also recently found this 100% pure maple syrup at Woolworths. I definitely prefer it to the syrups I’ve used in the past which are only maple-flavoured. Enjoy!
- 1 ¼ cups self-raising flour
- 1 ¼ cups plain flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1 teaspoon cinammon
- ⅓ cup castor sugar
- ¾ cup walnuts, finely chopped
- 3 eggs, lightly beaten
- 5 medium to large bananas, mashed
- ⅓ cup maple syrup
- 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla essence
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 banana, extra, sliced thinly
- 1 tablespoon maple syrup, extra
- Preheat oven to 180C and line the base and at least two sides of three small loaf tins measuring 180mm long x 80 mm wide x 60mm deep with baking paper.
- In a large bowl combine the self-raising flour, plain flour, baking powder, cinnamon, sugar and walnuts.
- In a smaller bowl combine the eggs, bananas, maple syrup, vanilla essence and olive oil.
- Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir until just combined.
- Spread the mixture evenly between the three lined loaf tins and smooth the surface.
- Lay the chopped banana pieces in a row through the middle of each loaf, overlapping the pieces slightly. Pour the maple syrup over the chopped bananas and surface of the loaves.
- Bake for approximately 30 – 35 minutes until golden brown on the top. Test each loaf is evenly cooked by inserting a metal skewer into the centre of each loaf, which should come out cleanly. Once cooked, remove the loaves from the tins and stand on a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, slice the loaves and freeze the individual pieces, which can be frozen for up to three months.
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