Banana Bread à la Ottolenghi

I think it is almost a given that anyone that considers themself a baker, even a bit, has made banana bread (or in some cases, it should be called cake). I first made banana bread from my grandmother’s recipe in my mom’s kitchen from a tattered and oil-stained notecard when I was a very young girl. Those were the days . . . I was happily ignorant of the  thousands of calories in the one cup of vegetable oil I emptied into the mix of bananas, milk and flour.

Moist, delicious and traditional.

I also will say that I think everyone believes that their mom/grandma/godfather/great-aunt-once-removed makes the best rendition of the extremely popular bread.  It is common to have superlatives thrown about casually and call a recipe “the best __x__” when it comes to baked goods, but I’m happiest surrounded by a plethora of different, delicious novel treats. I don’t need to choose a best one. I want them all.

So while you may just continue to use your own “best” recipe, I think it’s worth trying this banana bread. Then maybe someday you can pass it off as your own and then you’ll be other people’s go-to banana bread master.

This recipe is very loosely adapted from Ottolenghi’s Grilled Banana Bread with Tahini in Plenty More. My version is neither grilled, or sesam-ized in any way. But it’s a nice classic, comforting bread great for tea, breakfast or a midnight snack.  For those of you that can be intimidated by Ottolenghi’s notoriously-long ingredient lists, I assure you this recipe is mercifully simple.

I made a tasty crumble topping for the banana loaves and thought it was a worthwhile improvement. The small loaf pans made the nicest banana bread that was still moist but had a good crust and a “healthy” amount of topping. The bread in muffin form was noticeably less good.

The muffins were still good but less decadent and delicious than the bread.

Ingredients

180 gms pecans (or walnuts, as I used)
3 large ripe bananas, peeled and mashed (300 gms)
275 gms  light brown sugar (I use C&H dark brown sugar for more flavor and because even the dark brown is rather light)
3 eggs, lightly beaten
140 ml full-fat milk
70 ml sunflower oil
275 gms plain flour
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1½ teaspoons baking powder
Salt (a large pinch)

Topping

Mix together 50 grams of plain flour, a handful of walnuts, a handful of oats, 50 grams brown sugar and 50 grams of butter, with a dash (or more) of cinnamon. Combine until a sandy texture.

Preheat the oven to 170°C/340°F and grease a mini loaf pans generously with butter and oil.

Place the pecans/walnut on a baking tray and roast for 10 minutes before roughly chopping them and set aside.

Place the bananas, sugar and eggs in the large bowl of an electric mixer and beat until combined. With the machine running on a slow speed, add ½ tesapoon of salt, the milk and then the oil. Sift together the flour, bicarbonate of soda and baking powder and, with machine still running, add this to the mix. Continue to mix on medium speed for about 5 minutes, until thoroughly combined. Stir in the pecans/walnuts and then pour the mixture into the loaf tins. Top the mini loaves with a good portion of the crumble on each.

Place in the oven and bake until a skewer or knife inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-35 minutes depending on the size of your loaf pans. Let sit for 10 minutes before removing the cake from the tin and setting aside on a wire rack until completely cool. You can now wrap the bread in foil and keep for up to 5 days, or freeze for a few weeks.

The topping is especially good when this is served as a breakfast cake, as it’s similar to a granola.

While totally biased as a self-proclaimed Ottolenghi fanatic, it only makes sense that even Ottolenghi’s banana bread transcends the typical loaf (sorry Mom and Gran . . . ).