I followed an ‘easy' 15-minute banana bread recipe - but it had one problem with it

As I had a few overly ripe bananas, now was the perfect time to bake a loaf of banana bread.

Having never made one before, I scoured the internet for a recipe that seemed quick and easy. I found one from BBC Good Food and decided to give it a try.

The BBC recipe claims that this sweet treat is a cross between banana bread and a drizzle cake.

The description reads: “This easy banana loaf recipe is a quick bake that can be frozen. It’s great for using up overripe bananas, too.”

With the recipe looked promising at first glance, I decided to see what the reviews were saying. One claimed that it was the “best ever banana bread” they made while another argued that it was “awful”.

Banana bread recipe ingredients

Moving on to making the banana bread, I started by weighing out and prepping all of the ingredients – this took no time at all.

Ingredients

For banana bread

140g butter, softened

140g caster sugar

Two eggs, beaten

140g self-raising flour

One teaspoon baking powder

Two ripe bananas, mashed

For toppings

50g icing sugar

Handful of dried banana chips

Method

I started by preheating my oven to 160 fan. For electric and gas ovens it would be 180C and gas mark four.

The recipe then said to butter a 2lb loaf tin and line the base and sides with baking parchment. As I was using a loaf tin cake liner there was no need to grease the tin.

Moving on to making the banana bread, I creamed together the softened butter and caster sugar together until the mixture was light and fluffy. This took around a minute to do so with a hand mixer.

Creaming the butter and sugar before adding the eggs and half the flour

Folding in the remaining flour, baking powder and bananas before putting it in the tin

Once the mixture resembled a pale yellow colour, I slowly added the two eggs with half of the 140g of flour the recipe calls for.

Afterwards, I folded the remaining flour, baking powder and two mashed bananas with a spatula. It’s important to stop folding the mixture once everything is combined as you risk knocking too much air out of it.

Next, I poured the mixture into the prepared tin and put it in the preheated oven.

The recipe instructed checking on the banana bread at five-minute intervals from around 30 to 40 minutes in the oven – this was a big mistake.

Checking in at 40 minutes in, the loaf looked great but still was not fully done as I had tested it with a skewer and when I removed it, it didn’t come out clean.

sunken banana loaf

cake cooling on wire rack

Finished banana loaf topped with dried banana chips and icing

When I next checked on the loaf, after five minutes, the middle had completely sunk.

As I followed the recipe exactly, had the right sized tin and the baking powder I used was in date, the only possible cause for this could be that I checked on the loaf too early, despite this being when the recipe said to start checking on the banana bread.

I then put the loaf back into the oven for a further five minutes before it was ready. I left the cake to cool in the tin for 10 minutes, before moving it to a wire rack.

While the loaf was cooling, it was time to move on to the icing. To make this, I mixed the icing sugar with water until it turned into a slightly runny consistency. I drizzled this with a spoon across the top of the cake and finished decorating it with a few dried banana chips.

Despite the banana bread sinking, it did taste delicious. For anyone planning to follow this recipe, I would just recommend that they leave the loaf to bake in the oven for 50 minutes rather than 30 to 40 minutes before checking in on it.