Today I am sharing another delicious, traditional South African recipe: Banana Bread!
Most South Africans love banana bread. I for one love all things sweet. I have shared my favourite Lemon Meringue Tart , Milk Tart and Pancake recipe previously. Today it is the banana bread recipe! It is an easy recipe, easy enough for kids to help make it!
Banana bread is a good recipe to make when you have overripe bananas. You could make a healthier version by substituting the sugar with sweetener, the flour with wholewheat or coconut/rice flour).
Now onto the recipe. Just remember the size of bananas varies. You might think you have a medium-sized banana, but it can be huge compared to what I am using here. I have seen in the US and Australia that you get really big ones, so play with the number of bananas you add- if it is too wet, add fewer bananas next time.
Ingredients
125 ml (1/2 cup) butter/margarine
125-250 ml (1/2 – 1 cup) sugar(your preference)
2 eggs
500 ml (2 cups) flour(cake or all-purpose or half wholewheat flour for a healthier version)
10 ml (2 teaspoons) baking powder
2.5 ml (1/4 teaspoon) salt
4-6 ripe bananas, mashed 400g (1 3/4 cup)
5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence(optional)
2.5ml(1/2 teaspoon) Cinnamon(optional)
Crushed pecan nuts(optional)
Method
- Preheat the oven to 180’C (350′ F).
- Use a small bread pan, sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add essence if you wish.
- Add eggs one by one.
- Add dry ingredients.
- Add bananas(and nuts) and mix well but do not overmix.
- Add to the pan.
- Bake for an hour or until baked through.
- Serve with butter.
Grab this Banana Bread Clay Pan.
I hope you enjoy this traditional banana bread! Leave your thoughts in the comments or feel free to share this post! PS- check out this Malva Pudding recipe too!
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South African Banana Bread
A traditional South African recipe, perfect to bake with the kids- banana bread!
Ingredients
- 125 ml (1/2 cup) butter/margarine
- 125-250 ml (1/2 – 1 cup) sugar(your preference)
- 2 eggs
- 500 ml (2 cups) flour(cake or all-purpose or half wholewheat flour for a healthier version)
- 10 ml (2 teaspoons) baking powder
- 2.5 ml (1/4 teaspoon) salt
- 4-6 ripe bananas, mashed 400g (1 3/4 cup)
- 2.5ml (1/2 teaspoon) cinnamon
- 5 ml (1 teaspoon) vanilla essence(optional)
- Crushed pecan nuts(optional)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180’C (350′ F).
- Use a small bread pan, sprayed with non-stick spray.
- Beat butter and sugar until creamy. Add essence.
- Add eggs one by one and beat well.
- Add dry ingredients.
- Add bananas(and nuts/essence/cinnamon) and mix well.
- Add to pan.
- Bake for an hour or until baked through.
- Serve with butter.
Hi Nadia, I loved this banana bread recipe. It seems that it’s not too difficult to cook, so will give it a try next week. Thanks for sharing!
That is great! Enjoy!
How is this recipe “South African” differ from plain old American banana bread?
It’s made with South African ingredients, from a South African family recipe, in South Africa, does that count?
Yea for South Africa !
Hi sorry but if you are using baking powder surely I need to add baking soda too? And using all purpose flour -is that not self-raising flour which therefore means I don’t need baking powder nor baking soda?
Thanks. My first time making banana bread 🙂
No need for baking SODA. If you use self raising flour, no need for baking POWDER. If you use all purpose flour you need baking POWDER. Confusing I know;)
Hi I tried the banana loaf ,it came out very wet inside ,therefore it was not great
I had all the ingredients accurately mixed and temperature,I have no idea where I went wrong .I will try again 😊.Thank uou
Your bananans might have been a bit bigger. Perhaps bake longer? It should be wet-ish, but not too wet.
My very first time baking anything either than bread, and it came out beautiful and tasty too! Thanks so much Nadia!!