How can I make a banana loaf...

[0nwardsAndUpwards]

I have 4 very ripe bananas and a loaf tin. Also eggs and flour and butter (not exactly sure what it entails!)

But.. I have no scales or measuring cups

Any tips I could use to throw something together? Doesn't have to be winning any awards, would just be a shame for the bananas to go to waste.

Thanks!

Well, someone else will come along at some point I’m sure and give you a better answer to the actual question you asked...

In the meantime, here’s what I would do in your situation:

I’d make pancakes, because the ratio for that is easy:

1 part eggs (2, or 4 if you want to make a bigger batch), equal amount flour, and double amount milk. I use a glass to measure as it’s easier to see. Pinch of salt, plus 2 mashed bananas if you’re using 2 eggs, or all 4 if you made a double portion of the batter.

I always use this one from Mumsnet:

Prep time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 1 hour
By 2handsomeboys
Ingredients

8 oz self-raising flour
6 oz sugar
2 eggs
2 big bananas
4 oz butter
Method

Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 4/180°C/350°F.
Mash the bananas with a sturdy fork.
Cream the butter and sugar together and mix in the eggs.
Mix together the two yellow sludges you now have, and mix in the flour.
Scrape into a loaf tin and bake for about 40-60 minutes.

Tip: I usually cover the top with foil halfway through cooking to prevent it burning while the cake is cooking through.

Buy some scales or cups online. Or you can estimate a cup - it’s about half a normal mug?

Can you guess 4oz of butter from looking at the amount in the pack? And the same with flour? Banana cake is quite forgiving...

Or...
Until you can buy some scales or measuring cups, you can freeze over-ripe bananas for use in a cake later. Just peel and chop into chunks and defrost them when you need them.

My recipe has veg oil instead of butter - interested?

You could use tablespoons instead? Either use online conversion tables to convert a recipe that uses grams/ounces/cups or I found this one online that is already in tablespoons?

www.parentclub.scot/recipe/banana-bread

Won't be as accurate as using scales but banana bread is a pretty forgiving cake so I think it should work.

OK. 2/3 of a standard mug each of flour, sugar and butter, 2 eggs, small teaspoon of baking powder if you have it, 2 mashed bananas.

Bung it all in together minus the banana and mix up. Add the banana gently at the end by hand.

Grease the tin and pour the mixture in.

Bake for 40-50 minutes on about 170. When a knife comes out clean it's done.

You're getting it anyway...

3 very ripe medium bananas
1 cooking apple (chopped small)
3 large free-range eggs
100g/3½oz soft light brown sugar
150ml/5fl oz sunflower or vegetable oil
275g/9¾oz white self-raising flour
1 tsp ground mixed spice (I usually use 2 heaped cinnamon)
1 tsp baking powder

mix it all up

cook @180 for 40 mins

I made a nice one last week

10 ozs plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
Half tsp salt
4 ozs sugar
2 eggs
4 ripe bananas
3 fl buttermilk.

Beat butter and sugar together, add eggs a little at a time.
Add mashed banana
Sieve flour, bicarb and salt and fold into mixture
Grease a large loaf tin
Bake 180* C for 1 hr.

This made a very large loaf and as DH doesn’t like bananas I ended up eating all of it myself. So next time I’ll halve the recipe.

A cup is 8 floz. A regular mug is about 12 floz; a teacup is about 5 floz. Can you estimate from there, or do you have a measuring jug or a plastic container that's marked 4 floz or 125ml? If so,

Pre-heat oven to 180. Prepare a 2lb loaf tin either by greasing it and putting a strip of greaseproof paper across the bottom or by using a liner.

2 or 3 ripe bananas, in a bowl, mash by whisking with a hand mixer
Add ½ cup oil - not a strong-tasting one; I use sunflower
Add ½ cup sour cream/buttermilk/vanilla yoghurt/soured milk (that's milk with a squeeze of lemon juice), whatever's in the fridge
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla essence
Mix well.

In a large bowl, mix
2 cups plain flour
1½ cups sugar; I use soft light brown
1½ tsp baking powder
¾ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Add the wet ingredients to the dry and stir well, making sure there are no pockets of dry ingredients. Dollop into the prepared tin and bake for 30 - 35 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

Sometimes I use half plain flour and half wholemeal, or I add about half a cup of pecans. Sometimes I use about ¼ cup of cocoa and only 1¾ cups of flour, and add chocolate chips. Sometimes the bananas are bigger and sometimes they're smaller. It always works, it's easy, it tastes good and it keeps well.

Oh thank you all so much!

Really helpful replies there, I'll definitely be able to throw one together with all your help

Much appreciated!

Good luck! And no raisins (that's just all kinds of wrong)

Hold you borrow scales from a neighbour?

This is my kind of thread..
Nobody’s mentioned walnuts yet. KEY INGREDIENT!
And I do sometimes add a few raisins for fun or better yet dates when I am feeling posh
I sometimes make a slightly dryer cake than Squit’s recipe (so you could halve the butter in that) so it comes out more teabread-like. Then we all carve off thin slices from the finished cake and spread them with salted butter. Joy!
I am keen to try the oil based cake recipe thank you for that Lordfrontpaw - I make carrot cakes that way and they are delicious. Haven’t tried that method with banana yet.

Walnut, date and banana bread...so good.

But my favourite is Mary Berry’s banana loaf.

Mary Berry's YES it's fabulous. I always put half the mix in the tin (no greaseproof paper? use tinfoil) then warm up a couple of tablespoons of Nutella, swirl it through with a flat knife then pour the rest of the mixture on. Bake for half an hour then cover with tinfoil for the rest of the time, will be eaten within hours, I promise!

Mmm. The vegan banana bread on BBC food website is delicious and easy to make. I say that as a novice baker.

Difficult without scales though but you've got some good approximations there.

Is Mary Berry’s recipe online? Great thread OP, I bought bananas today wanting to make one when they are finally ripe!

queenofeverything.co.uk/2012/02/06/mary-berrys-banana-loaf/

That's what mine ends up like using that recipe

I hope the banana bread went well @OnwardsandUpwards.

I wanted to add that no banana bread needs sugar. There is enough sugar in the bananas. I use one banana to one egg and add a bit of flour until it looks about right. My son hates my cooking instructions!!

I add Nutella to my banana bread too, one of the few things ds will eat.

I can usually gauge measurements from the amount in the pack, so if it’s 250g of flour it’ll be a quarter of a 1kg pack etc (plucked amounts out of thin air!)

Now just use measuring cups as I find them much easier.

This is the best one I've made