Easy Banana Bread

There are many people who consider it to be a quick bread, due to the fact that it’s dense and made using baking powder to help it rise rather than yeast.

Yet, there are many dense cake recipes like the pound cake and butter cake that use baking powder as a rising agent.

For us, we have always considered banana bread to be a cake rather than a bread since it’s sweet, contains fruit, and usually would not be served with anything savoury. But who cares! Banana bread tastes great no matter what you call it.

Banana bread freezes very well both as a loaf or in slices. Tightly wrap in plastic food wrap or, use freezer bags and don’t forget to label and date before freezing.

To freeze as a loaf
Allow the bread to cool completely before wrapping tightly in two layers plastic food wrap.

To freeze in slices
Slice the cooled bread, then either individually wrap each slice for a quick grab an eat later snack or, stack two or more slices together for sharing.

The bread can be frozen for up to 4 months.

To defrost a whole loaf of banana bread
Remove from the freezer the night before and allow to defrost on the kitchen bench while still covered in food wrap.

To defrost sliced banana bread
Sliced banana bread can be defrosted overnight in the same way as a whole loaf or, the slices can be removed from the freezer several hours before needed.

Depending on how many slices you have bundled together, and the room temperature it could take anywhere from 1 – 2 hours for a single slice or, up to 4 hours (or more) for a pack with two or more slices.

Quick defrost method
If you are in a hurry use the defrost cycle on your microwave oven to partially or completely defrost the bread.

I do this sometimes but only half defrost the bread in the microwave oven and then let the bread stand at room temperature until completely defrosted.

Banana bread can be stored at normal room temperature for a day or two, after that I would recommend that any remaining bread be refrigerated. However, if you live in a climate that is very humid, I would recommend that the bread refrigerated soon after cooling.

Yes, easy banana bread can be made into muffins.

Simply place the easy banana bread batter into lined or greased muffin tins, then bake at 180°C (350°F) until cooked.  The cooking time will vary between 15 – 30 minutes and this will depend on the size of muffin tins used. To test if the muffins are cooked, insert a skewer into the centre of a muffin if it comes out clean, they are cooked.