Mary Berry’s easy banana bread recipe is ‘perfectly formed’ and ready in under an hour

Banana bread can be made in a variety of different ways, but the chef keeps her recipe nice and simple.

With more than 200 five-star ratings on BBC Good Food, Mary Berry’s banana bread serves six to eight people and takes less than an hour to bake in the oven.

The recipe notes said: “Mary’s banana bread recipe is small, but perfectly formed and loaded with chocolate chips.

“You can double this classic loaf cake recipe if you have lots of bananas to use up.”

The first step is to gather all of the ingredients before preheating the oven to 160C/140C Fan/Gas 3.

Ingredients:

One ripe banana

One tbsp milk

50g baking spread

75g plain flour

75g caster sugar

Half a teaspoon of baking soda

Half a teaspoon of baking powder

One egg

50g dark chocolate chips

Method:

After preheating the oven, grease and line a 1lb loaf tin with baking paper or a pre-made loaf tin liner.

Use a fork to mash the peeled banana in a mixing bowl before adding all of the remaining cake ingredients (except the chocolate chips).

Once they’re in the bowl, beat with an electric hand whisk until fully combined and smooth.

Stir in the chocolate chips and spoon the cake batter into the cake tin before levelling off the top.

Mary recommended baking the banana bread in the oven for 40 to 45 minutes or until well risen, shrinking away slightly from the sides of the tin.

Set aside to cool for 10 minutes and then remove it from the tin, leaving it to cool completely on a wire rack.

For optional decoration, break 50g of dark chocolate into small pieces and melt over a pan of simmering water in a bowl.

Spoon the melted chocolate into a piping bag and pipe zig-zags across the top of the loaf, setting aside to set.

Mary also recommended adding 50g chopped pecans or walnuts for an extra crunch in the loaf.