Banana Bread is a staple, a favourite across the world. A delicious treat with cream cheese frosting or in this case – olive oil. I’ve worked really hard on this recipe to make sure it’s indulgent, fluffy, and delicious. It has a couple of surprise ingredients, but I guarantee they all work.
So, let’s go on a Banana Bread journey together!
Banana Bread
The few things to note about this recipe is that you’ll be using olive oil, Greek yoghurt and very ripe bananas, and these are things that you can’t skip. This recipe is also designed to be served warm with a healthy smear of butter on it.
Each ingredient is crucial to the recipe. The one thing you can skip out on is the nuts, but that’s only if you’ve got an allergy – they are a great addition to this Banana Bread for flavour and texture.
Bananas
The star of the show, of course! It’s the bananas! And these ones need to be ripe. Not just ripe but basically black on the outside. It really helps the texture and incorporating it through the batter.
Don’t have ripe bananas? There’s a secret trick to getting them more ripe – pop them on a tray into a 150 degree Celsius oven until their skins turn black.
You’ll also use bananas to bake into the bread as decoration. It looks beautiful and a bit quirky, and definitely lets everyone know what sort of bread it is!
Greek yoghurt
This has been covered a few times on my page and that’s because I love using yoghurt as the dairy element in cakes. This recipe is no different. The yoghurt makes it light and fluffy, and the Greek one has such a lovely tang. I really think that this enhances the flavour and the texture – trust me! I wouldn’t let you down!
Olive oil
Yep, another left turn when it comes to ingredients, but olive oil helps make it extremely moist, fluffy and light. And I can already hear the cries of “of course Daen’s recipe uses olive oil, what recipe of hers doesn’t?” But it’s for very good reason – olive oil is delicious and so, so versatile. And, and olive oil bread is rich, powerful, zesty and moist. It’s a real treat. It’s indulgent heaven in each slice. Olive oil based cakes have a fruity flavour and a tender crumb.
Olive oil is also really easy to work with so no fancy kitchen equipment required – win!
FAQ for Banana Bread
Can I remove the nuts?
Yes, you can omit the walnuts if you have allergies – but I love this version with the nuts.
What can I serve it with?
Warm butter! Or a warm cake with butter! Fresh out of the oven or perhaps pop it in the microwave, this will make it even more indulgent. You could also add a touch of honey or cinnamon sugar.
What olive oil do you recommend?
I love to use any kind of olive oil in my baking but for a lighter taste, I would suggest using a light extra virgin olive oil.
If you make this banana bread, please tag me on Instagram, Tik Tok or Pinterest so I can see your wonderful creations!
If you have any questions or would like to leave a review, please do so here! I always love answering your food and recipe related questions and hearing your feedback on my recipe.
Banana Bread
Ingredients
- 2 eggs
- 3/4 cup brown sugar
- 3/4 cup olive oil
- 100 g Greek yoghurt
- 2 very ripe bananas +1 extra (optional)
- 1 tsp cinnamon powder
- 1 cup self raising flour
- 40 g walnuts chopped (optional)
- butter to serve
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 170 degrees C / 340 degrees F. Grease a 24cm / 10 inch loaf tin with olive oil and brush the bottom and sides all over.
- In a large bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until combined and slightly pale. Pour in the olive oil and Greek yoghurt and whisk to combine.
- In a separate bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until smooth then mix into the batter. Sift in the flour and cinnamon powder gently stir through with a spatula. If using walnuts, add them to the batter and gently stir through with the spatula until all ingredients are well combined. Transfer the batter to a loaf tin. If using a third banana, peel and cut in half lengthways. Place on top of the batter and gently push down until the banana is just poking out of the batter.
- Bake for 50 minutes or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the centre of the cake. If the cake is browning too much on top, cover with alfoil while it bakes.
- Remove the tin from the oven and leave the cake to sit in the tin for 15 minutes. Carefully remove the cake from the tin and leave to cool on a cooling rack.
- Slice and serve with some warm butter.
In your ingredient picture there is a cup of something white, could be white sugar or salt but in the entire recipe I don’t see a use of either of those. Is something missing? Because I just followed the recipe and made it today.
It’s salt but I would just use a pinch and it’s optional! No need to worry if it was left out.
How imperative is the self-rising flour? Am I able to use all-purpose for the same effect?
You could use all purpose flour but just add some baking powder! 1 tsp to be exact.