Simple, Lightly Sweetened Banana Bread

Step 1 · Prepare oven and pan

Heat the oven to 350°F / 175°C, conventional setting. Lightly grease the loaf pan and line it with a strip of parchment.

Step 2 · Mash bananas

Mash the bananas in a large bowl with a fork. A few small lumps are fine.

• 3ripe bananas, peeled

Step 3 · Mix wet ingredients

Add the eggs, sugar, oil and vanilla. Whisk with a fork or whisk until combined.

• 2large eggs
• 65 gneutral oil, such as avocado or canola
• 5 gvanilla extract

Step 4 · Add dry ingredients

In another bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Add to the banana mixture and gently fold until no dry flour remains. Stop there to avoid overmixing.

• 220 gall-purpose flour
• 4 gbaking powder
• 2.5 gbaking soda
• 3 gfine salt
• 2 gcinnamon

Step 5 · Bake

Scrape into the pan and smooth the top. Start checking at 50 minutes; it may take up to 65 minutes. A skewer inserted into the centre should come out with a few moist crumbs but no wet batter. If the top is getting dark before the middle is ready, loosely cover it with foil.

Step 6 · Cool

Leave in the pan for 10–15 minutes, then lift onto a rack. Let it cool for at least another 30 minutes before slicing.