Get the Recipe: The Hummingbird Bakery's Banana Bread Recipe
This is the Hummingbird Bakery's banana bread recipe! Although the British bakery is primarily known for its cupcakes, its banana bread recipe is pretty solid. The recipe is quick-and-easy to make, and the resulting loaf cake is gently flavored with banana and spices like ground cinnamon and ginger.
Ingredients
For the Hummingbird Bakery's Banana Bread Recipe
- 2 ¼ cups (10.15 ounces or 288 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 ½ cups (11.25 ounces or 319 grams) tightly packed light OR dark brown sugar
- 2 large eggs, at room temperature
- 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) mashed bananas
- ½ cup plus 2 Tablespoons (5 ounces or 148 grams) unsalted butter, melted and cooled slightly
Equipment
- a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan
Instructions
For the Hummingbird Bakery's Banana Bread Recipe
- Prep your oven and pan. Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 325°F. Spray a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray and line with parchment paper, leaving a 2-inch overhang on the long sides. Spray the parchment, too.
- Mix the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and salt.
- Mix the sugar, eggs, and bananas. In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar and eggs until combined. Add the bananas and use a rubber spatula to mix until combined.
- Add the dry ingredients and the butter. Gradually mix in the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients until just combined. Slowly pour in the melted butter. Use the rubber spatula to finish mixing until smooth and well combined, 1 to 2 minutes more.
- Assemble and bake. Pour the batter into the prepared pan and use an offset spatula to smooth the top. Bake for 60 to 65 minutes, or until a skewer inserted into the center of the banana bread comes out with few crumbs attached. Cool on a wire rack.
- Serve and store. Serve warm or at room temperature. The banana bread can be stored at room temperature, wrapped tightly in plastic wrap, for up to 3 days.
Notes
- Adapted from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook
- This recipe works best if you use incredibly ripe, spotted, and almost black bananas. The unpeeled bananas should feel soft to the touch and give easily when gently pressed. That means that they’ll mash easily in the stand mixer. If the bananas feel firm, you may need to mash them before using them in the recipe. Set the bananas on a firm surface and use the twines of a fork to press down on the fruit until mashed.
- The recipe below instructs you to use 1 cup (8 ounces or 227 grams) mashed bananas. For best results, I suggest using a digital scale to weigh out the bananas. How do you weigh out bananas? Simple: place a bowl on the digital scale and tare it to "0". Then, peel the bananas, placing them in the bowl until the scale reads 8 ounces or 227 grams. After you've weighed out the bananas, mash them using the technique described below.
- The best way to mash bananas is this: peel the bananas and place them flat on a chopping board. Then, use the twines of a fork to mash them—that's it! This method mashes the bananas more consistently and ensures you don't have any large chunks.
- The Bake Time for this recipe is listed at 1 hour. That being said, if you’re using extremely ripe bananas, you’ll likely need to bake it for 10 to 15 minutes longer than what’s listed in the recipe. The same goes for bananas that were frozen, then thawed for use in the recipe. Extremely ripe and previously frozen bananas contain more moisture and will need longer to cook in the oven. The best way to test for doneness is to use a wooden skewer and stick it in the direct center of the loaf. The skewer should come out with few crumbs. If you find that the skewer is plenty wet with batter but the top of the banana bread looks too browned to keep on baking, don’t panic! Simply cover the top of the bread with a loose sheet of aluminum foil. This will help prevent the top of the bread from browning further.
- The Bake Time for this recipe is listed at 1 hour. That being said, if you’re using extremely ripe bananas, you’ll likely need to bake it for 10 to 15 minutes longer than what’s listed in the recipe. The same goes for bananas that were frozen, then thawed for use in the recipe. Extremely ripe and previously frozen bananas contain more moisture and will need longer to cook in the oven. The best way to test for doneness is to use a wooden skewer and stick it in the direct center of the loaf. The skewer should come out with few crumbs. If you find that the skewer is plenty wet with batter but the top of the banana bread looks too browned to keep on baking, don’t panic! Simply cover the top of the bread with a loose sheet of aluminum foil. This will help prevent the top of the bread from browning further.
- Perhaps it's the professional food blogger in me, but I always think that loaf cakes are a little blah-looking on their own without a glaze or topping. As a result, I adorned my Hummingbird Bakery banana bread with 2 Tablespoons of granulated sugar. How? I sprinkled the sugar on top of the batter right before baking. However, if you don't want your banana bread to be overly sweet, feel free to skip this step! Just note that your banana bread will look different from mine (it won't have the sugary top).
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