Banana Bread #7

This recipe is from an older Women's Weekly cook book. It was selected as being a 'regular, traditional' style recipe.

I've used this recipe before and once again had the same problems with it, hence the quest for the best banana bread.

Nice looking as it comes out of the oven

But here is the problem, cakey at the top and dense and almost undercooked at the base.

This cake came out of the oven slightly too brown on the top. The recipe suggested an hour but I took it out at 50mins. The recipe also suggests icing the cake. When cut, it was cakey and moist at the top, but quite dense and almost undercooked at the base. It tasted better when buttered. The butter just added that little bit extra.

The Recipe

125g butter, chopped
1t vanilla
1/2 C caster sugar
2 eggs
1 1/2 C mashed banana
1 1/2 C SR flour
1t bicarb
1T milk

Grease a 14 x 21cm loaf tin.
Combine all ingredients in a medium bowl of an electric mixer
Beat at low speed until combined, then beat at a medium speed until mixture is smooth and has changed colour
Spread mixture into prepared pan and bake in a moderate oven for 1 hour
Turn onto a wire rack to cool.

So I still have the problem of the cooked top half and the stodgy undercooked bottom half - but only with this recipe. Interestingly this recipe is the only one that uses a free standing cake mixer. All the others are mixed by hand and this one also has bicarb and SR flour, like the previous one, but no smell of bicarb overload - interesting.

Score 6/10