A Minimalist Banana Bread

My minimalist banana bread, with a handful of dark chocolate chips thrown in.
April 2011

Don't get me wrong. I still love Nigella Lawson-style lusciously rich full-of-rum-soaked-raisins banana bread. But sometimes I feel I don't deserve all that deliciousness. Or there's that feeling that perhaps, just perhaps, I don't need all that richness in a cake.

Well, this minimalist banana bread is just the cake for those occasion. Still lovely, still tasty. But it won't spend a moment on your lips, followed by a lifetime on your hips, as a famous saying goes.

Minimalist Banana Bread
(MInimalistlik banaanikeeks)
Serves 8



2 large eggs
100 g caster sugar (just under half a cup)
150 g plain/all-purpose flour (that's about 1 cup)
2 tsp baking powder
2 ripe medium-sized bananas (about 200 g peeled weight)
100 ml milk (about 7 Tbsp)

Whisk eggs and sugar until pale and frothy in a large bowl.
Mix flour and baking powder in a small bowl.
In another bowl, mash the peeled bananas with a fork, then mix in milk.
Fold the dlour mixture and banana-milk mixture into the egg and sugar mixture. Stir until just combined.
Pour the batter into a lined 2-litre loaf tin and bake in the middle of a pre-heated 175 C / 350 F oven for about 50 minutes, until a wooden toothpick pushed into the cake comes out clean.
Let cool in the tin for 10 minutes, then trasnfer onto a metal rack to cool completely.