Name: Banana Gingerbread with Molasses
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 1 h
Total time: 1 h 10 min
Yield: 1
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 113g (1/2 cup) unsalted butter; 240g (2 large) extra ripe bananas; 2 large eggs; 150g (¾ cup) soft brown sugar; 95g (⅓ cup) unsulphured molasses; 1 tsp vanilla paste or extract; 250g (2 cups*) all-purpose flour; 2 1/2 tsp ground ginger; 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg; ¼ tsp ground cloves; 1 tsp baking soda; 1/2 tsp salt; 240g (1 cup) boiled water; 1 banana (optional); Turbinado sugar (optional)

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Rich and moist, this banana gingerbread is full of warming gingerbread spices, bananas, and molasses. Perfect for the holiday season.

An easy banana bread recipe is always a hit, but sometimes a change to a classic is nice. This spiced banana bread is a gingerbread banana loaf combination.

It contains the texture of classic moist banana bread, combined with the warming spiciness of an old-fashioned gingerbread loaf. It's deliciously decadent.

Try this brown butter banana bread next!

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About this bread
The ingredients
Equipment
The method
Serving and storing
Additions and substitutions
Related recipes
Full Recipe

About this bread

This is a quick bread because the batter can be mixed up in less than 10 minutes!

However baking time takes a little longer. It's baked in a loaf tin, which, because of its restricted size, means it takes its time to cook right through.

It has the taste and moist texture of banana bread but it's also spicy and super flavorful thanks to deep molasses, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves. The perfect bread to bake over the winter holidays and it will make the house smell wonderful.

The ingredients

The ingredients are listed in the recipe card below but here is a run-through of them with a few extra details.

Large bananas - Mashed bananas are an obvious must-have in a banana gingerbread loaf. Overripe bananas are best. They provide natural sweetness and flavor to the recipe as well as add moisture to the bread.
Soft brown sugar
Unsalted butter - melted butter provides flavor and moisture.
Eggs - Large eggs provide some of the structure.
Vanilla - Always a good idea.
Spices - ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves give the warming gingerbread flavor.
Molasses - Unsulphered molasses. This gives a rich dark color and adds moisture.
Flour - an all-purpose flour is the base of the loaf.
Baking soda - The rising agent needed in the loaf.
Salt - a flavor enhancer
Boiled water - Adding hot water to the batter creates a more moist loaf.

Equipment

You'll need a 9x 5-inch loaf pan (23x16cm.)

The method

Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C) and line a 9x5-inch loaf pan with parchment paper.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda until no clumps remain. Set this aside.

Melt the butter in a large microwave-safe large bowl. Add in the bananas and mash them well.

Add in the sugar, vanilla, eggs, and molasses.

Whisk until combined.

Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and whisk together. Pour over hot water.

Stir it together carefully until combined into a pourable cake batter.

Pour the batter into the prepared pan.

Slice the extra banana lengthwise and place the sliced banana on top of the batter.

Baking

Bake in a preheated oven for approximately 60 minutes until the center of the bread is cooked through. The cooking time will depend on your oven and the pan used. A skewer inserted into the center of the loaf should come out clean.

Remove the banana gingerbread loaf from the oven and allow it to cool in the pan for 5 minutes.

Lift it from the pan and allow it to cool further on a wire rack for at least 20 minutes before slicing.

Serving and storing

This makes a lovely afternoon treat, or enjoy with a cup of tea or your morning coffee.

This delicious loaf cake stays fresh at room temperature for up to 3 days. It can also be wrapped tightly and frozen for up to three months.

Additions and substitutions

Banana bread is a great recipe that can easily be adapted to suit your tastes. Texture can be added with seeds and nuts, flavors can be changed with spices and fruits. Sugars and flours can be switched up too.

Walnuts, pecans, or almonds can be chopped and added to the batter. In the case of nut allergies, seeds can be added instead. Pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds give a great crunch to the moist bread.
Stir in finely chopped candied ginger for extra spice.
Swap the spices with 2 teaspoons of pumpkin pie spice.
Spices, fruits, chocolate - This gingerbread banana bread is already full of spices, but these can be changed too. Cardamom and all-spice can be added, or orange zest too. Dark chocolate chips are a delicious addition too, especially when the bread is still warm and the chocolate has melted.
½ the all-purpose flour in this recipe can be switched to whole wheat flour for a healthier touch.

Want more sweet bread recipes? Try this cinnamon glazed apple bread or these delicious brioche cinnamon rolls.

Homemade cultured butter is another great thing to try to make and spread on your loaves.

This recipe is written using grams as the main measurement.

If you don't have a scale US* cup equivalents are also included, however, using a kitchen scale to measure grams will give the best, and most consistent results. *US cup sizes are smaller than metric cup sizes.

Full Recipe