Banana Bread

By Sophie Dahl

I used to make banana bread in the fierce winters when I lived in New York and it was too freezing to do anything but bake. Eat it warm out of the oven with a lick of butter – it’s unadulterated manna.

Photography by Jan Baldwin

Baking | Banana | Bread | Cake

Serves: 6

Ingredients

75g/1⁄3 a cup of soft butter, plus extra for greasing and serving
4 ripe bananas, mashed up
200g/1 cup of soft brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
1 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda/baking soda
1 pinch of salt 170g/11⁄2 cups of flour (spelt or whatever)

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C/160°C fan/Gas 4. Grease a 30 x 23-cm/12 x 1-inch bread tin.
Pour the mashed bananas into a big mixing bowl. Mix in the butter, sugar, egg and vanilla extract. Add the bicar- bonate/ baking soda and salt and mix in the flour last. Pour into the prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour, remove and cool, then serve in slices with a little butter.