Marie's Best Banana Bread

We love banana loaves in this house.  I am not overly fond of eating bananas themselves, but bake them into a loaf or pie or cookie and I am all over them.  The Toddster could eat a raw banana every day.  I actually have to hide bananas so that I can bake with them . . .

 

This is my all time favourite banana bread.  Okay . . . I know . . . I say that about every banana bread I bake.  I guess I just love banana breads and this one shines!



Stogged with beautiful jewel-like dried cranberries, and crunchy toasted English walnuts, it is pleasing on many levels!



It's moreishly moist . . . with sticky little sweet bits and crunchy nutty nobbles scattered throughout.   It's lovely eaten plain and out of hand . . .



Or gently warmed and spread with cold butter . . .

 

It's gorgeous toasted and spread with butter . . . the stale bread makes great French Toast, or bread pudding . . . I hardly ever have any that goes stale however, it's that good.



It's also my next door neighbors' favourite banana bread that I bake for them.   I usually send half of it over to them every time I bake it.  They love it and I love to give.  It's win/win really!  Put it this way, they've never turned the gifting of  it down . . . never.

*Marie's Best Banana Bread*

Makes 1 9X5 loaf

Printable Recipe  

A moist banana loaf chock full of sweet cranberries and crunchy walnuts.  

4 ounces butter, at room temp (1/2 cup)
175g of caster sugar (3/4 cup)
2 large free range eggs, beaten
1 tsp milk
300g of plain flour (2 1/4 cups)
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp mixed spice (see my recipe in the side bar on the right side
of the page)
3 ripe bananas, peeled and mashed
85g dried cranberries (generous 1/2 cup)
60g toasted walnuts, chopped (scant 1/2 cup)  

Preheat the oven to 160*C/325*F/ gas mark 3.  Butter 2 small loaf tins, or 1 large loaf tin and line with baking parchment. 

Cream the butter and sugar together in a large bowl until pale and creamy.  Beat in the eggs and the milk, mixing all together well. 

Whisk together the flour, salt, soda and spice.  Stir this mixture into the creamed mixture.  Stir in the bananas, cranberries and walnuts.  Divide the mixture between the two small tins or spread into the large tin.  Bake in the middle of the preheated oven for 45 to 50 minutes for small loaves, or 1 to 1/1/2 hours for the large tin, until well risen and a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.   

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the tins for 10 minutes, then lift out onto a wire rack to cool completely.  This cake will keep for up to 1 week when stored in an airtight tin.