Something comforting can be said about traditional banana bread. While chocolate chips may be the obvious addition so can fruit. With a whole plethora of fruit waiting to heighten its taste and texture; strawberries were my choice and they added such a welcoming sweet tang to this already fragrant loaf.
Strawberry Banana Bread
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2 cups mashed banana, about 2 large or 4 small/medium bananas
2 cups self raising flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup olive oil
2 large eggs, room temperature
1/3 cup plain Greek or Skyr yoghurt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup fresh or frozen sliced strawberries
Notes: you can replace the self raising flour with all purpose flour and add 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon baking powder.
Preheat oven to 350ºF (180ºC). Grease and flour a 3 lb. (11 x 5 x 3 inch) loaf tin and line the bottom and sides with baking parchment, to ensure easy removal of bread from tin when baked.
Place peeled bananas in a medium bowl and roughly mash together. Set aside.
Slice fresh strawberries or if you are using frozen place them in a microwavable bowl and use the microwave to gently defrost them.
In a medium bowl add the self raising flour and salt and whisk together. Set aside.
In a large bowl, combine the brown sugar, olive oil and whisk together until creamy and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, blending well after each addition. Add the yoghurt, vanilla extract and mashed bananas and using a wooden spoon stir together until well combined. Then add the sliced strawberries to the mixture and gently blend together.
Fold in the flour mixture, in two additions, and stir until just combine, you do not want to over mix the batter.
Spoon the batter into the prepared baking tin and bake in the preheated oven for about 60 minutes, check loaf after 30 minutes, if the loaf is browning to quickly on top cover with aluminium foil to prevent over browning, for the remainder of the baking time.
When done, the middle should be set and a toothpick inserted in the centre should come out clean. Transfer to a wire rack to cool slightly, about 10 to 15 minutes. Carefully turn loaf out onto the wire rack to finish cooling. Cut into slices and serve with butter.