Banana Bread
by Nigella. Featured in HOW TO BE A DOMESTIC GODDESSIntroduction
I haven't done a tremendous amount of fiddling with this, but I did once make it, for friends who are more chocolate-crazed than I am, by replacing 25g / 3 tablespoons of the flour with good cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and adding 100g / 4oz of dark chocolate, cut up into smallish chunks. And you could just as easily use the chocolate chips sold in the baking aisle of supermarkets.
If you're thinking about giving this cake to children, don't worry, the alcohol doesn't pervade: you just end up with stickily, aromatically swollen fruit.
For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
I haven't done a tremendous amount of fiddling with this, but I did once make it, for friends who are more chocolate-crazed than I am, by replacing 25g / 3 tablespoons of the flour with good cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) and adding 100g / 4oz of dark chocolate, cut up into smallish chunks. And you could just as easily use the chocolate chips sold in the baking aisle of supermarkets.
If you're thinking about giving this cake to children, don't worry, the alcohol doesn't pervade: you just end up with stickily, aromatically swollen fruit.
For US cup measures, use the toggle at the top of the ingredients list.
Ingredients
Yields: 8-10 slices
- 100 grams sultanas
- 75 millilitres dark rum (or Bourbon)
- 175 grams plain flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 125 grams unsalted butter (melted)
- 150 grams caster sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 4 small very ripe bananas mashed (approx. 400g total weight with skins on)
- 60 grams chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- ⅔ cup golden raisins
- 5 tablespoons dark rum (or Bourbon)
- 1¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking powder
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 9 tablespoons unsalted butter (melted)
- ¾ cup superfine sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 4 small very ripe bananas mashed (approx. 400g total weight with skins on)
- ⅓ cup chopped walnuts
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Method
- Put the sultanas and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil.
- Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the sultanas have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC/150°C Fan/gas mark 3/325ºF and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.
- In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the peeled and mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained sultanas and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into a loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm / 9 x 5 x 3 inches) and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1¼ hours. When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.
- Put the golden raisins and rum or bourbon in a smallish saucepan and bring to the boil.
- Remove from the heat, cover and leave for an hour if you can, or until the golden raisins have absorbed most of the liquid, then drain.
- Preheat the oven to 170ºC/150°C Fan/gas mark 3/325ºF and get started on the rest. Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt in a medium-sized bowl and, using your hands or a wooden spoon, combine well.
- In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar and beat until blended. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then the peeled and mashed bananas. Then, with your wooden spoon, stir in the walnuts, drained golden raisins and vanilla extract. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, stirring well after each bit. Scrape into a loaf tin (23 x 13 x 7cm / 9 x 5 x 3 inches) and bake in the middle of the oven for 1-1¼ hours. When it's ready, an inserted toothpick or fine skewer should come out cleanish. Leave in the tin on a rack to cool, and eat thickly or thinly sliced, as you prefer.
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Show more commentsMoist and delicious banana bread! Easy to make. Because I am a sucker for cream cheese frosting, I covered the top of the cake with this frosting. Now I know what to make with my (very) overripe bananas.
I’ve been baking this ever since I can remember. I love that you don’t need a mixer (less washing up) and the grandchildren aged 5 and 3 can help too. I also use pecans instead of walnuts and to change it up occasionally use the choc chips.
This has become my go-to banana bread recipe since I found it during the COVID lockdown. The rum soaked golden raisins become like juicy rum flavored morsels in this bread! I usually bake this as written except I don't add the vanilla but a teaspoon of the rum, and I sometimes top with a rum turbinado sugar that I made for another recipe.
The best banana bread ever. My husband won’t eat sultanas so I soaked in the rum some dried pitted dates, which I chopped roughly the same size of sultanas. Yummo, was perfect!
This is the best banana bread recipe. I did make some tweaks. I made the chocolate version (notes at the top) using green and blacks organic cocoa powder and milk chocolate chips. I used brandy as that is all I had and didn’t drain but added the liquor in to the mix (soaked for 4 hours) I used pecans instead of walnuts (don’t like walnuts) and added half a teaspoon of mixed spice. When cooled I drizzled caramel over the top. Served with a dollop of clotted cream. Heaven !
I love making this recipe, always with cocoa added. Enjoy it with a sprinkle of extra walnuts and demerara sugar on top.
Five stars for this. I try new banana bread recipes all the time as I’m still on the search for the ‘perfect’ recipe. Not sure if I’ll try any other recipes after finding this one. This is moist and tasty. Thank you.
Best banana bread ever. Great texture & rise.
This is superb. I add some mixed spice, and I don't stint on the decent sized chunks of chocolate - more is more! And the rum that the sultanas don't manage to absorb in the pan ("No more, please!") is a sublime glug.
Made the chocolate version mentioned in the Intro and used Cadbury's Old Jamaica chocolate rather than plain as a treat for my Dad for Father's Day, as he loves it. OMG, it was delicious! Followed the recipe in all other respects and it was absolutely perfect (and possibly rather addicitive!). Think it would also be perfect slightly warm with a dollop of clotted cream for ultimate indulgence. Yum.
I've been making this cake for a while but meanwhile, have tried to quit sugar. Well, cake and no sugar doesn't work. So I'm making this one with half the amount of sugar, which works just fine. Today I soaked the raisins in amaretto instead of rum and replaced one banana with an apple to make the taste more fresh. I read somebody here said they threw the liquor into the batter as well in order not to waste any of it, which I liked so I followed up on that.
I just love this recipe, it's so versatile!
Delicious! I made the chocolate version of this, as you can never have too much chocolate. It made enough for the loaf and four muffins as well. Really light and moist, not too sweet. I won't use another recipe now. Thanks Nigella!