Gordon Ramsay’s banana bread uses overripe bananas mashed into a butter and brown sugar base with dark chocolate chips and pecans, baked at 180°C for 50 minutes and glazed with maple syrup while still hot. The recipe is from the Gordon Ramsay Academy and serves 4-6.
What most sites won’t tell you is that Ramsay grew up eating banana bread and went looking for the best version in the world. In his Uncharted book he writes about Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread on the road to Hana in Maui, saying “the hot fresh loaves take me back to my childhood.” In the Uncharted episode he watches them make it with just flour, sugar, salt, bananas, and melted butter, and calls it “banana bread that makes you curse, it’s that good.”
The Academy version is richer with chocolate and pecans, but both start from the same truth: overripe bananas are the only ingredient that actually matters. The blacker the skins, the sweeter and more intense the bread, because the starches have fully converted to sugar.
Gordon Ramsay Banana Bread
Course: Breakfast, DessertCuisine: British, AmericanDifficulty: Easy4-6
15
minutes50
minutes380
kcal65
minutesFrom the Gordon Ramsay Academy, one of their most popular baking class recipes. Mashed overripe bananas with softened butter, brown sugar, dark chocolate chips, and pecans, glazed with maple syrup. In Uncharted, Ramsay calls the simple Hawaiian version banana bread that makes you curse.
Ingredients
140g unsalted butter, softened, plus extra for greasing
75g caster sugar
75g light brown sugar, plus 1 tsp for topping
2 eggs
140g self-raising flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of sea salt
75g pecan nuts, roughly chopped
75g dark chocolate chips
3 very ripe bananas, 2 mashed and 1 for topping
1-2 tbsp maple syrup, to glaze
Directions
- Preheat: Set the oven to 180°C (350°F)/160°C fan/Gas 4. Grease and line a 900g (2lb) loaf tin with baking paper.
- Cream the base: Beat the butter and both sugars together with an electric whisk until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each. If the mixture splits, beat in a spoonful of the flour to bring it back together.
- Add the dry: Fold in the flour, baking powder, and salt until just combined. Do not overmix or the bread will be dense.
- Add the good stuff: Gently mix through the pecans, chocolate chips, and 2 mashed bananas until evenly distributed.
- Top and bake: Pour into the tin and smooth the top. Slice the remaining banana in half lengthways and press gently into the surface. Sprinkle the extra teaspoon of brown sugar over the top. Bake for 50 minutes until golden brown and springy when pressed. A skewer should come out clean, though gooey lumps of chocolate or banana are fine.
- Glaze and cool: Brush maple syrup all over the top while the loaf is still hot. Cool in the tin for 10-20 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack.
FAQs
What makes this different from basic banana bread?
Three things most recipes skip. The dark chocolate chips melt into pockets through the crumb so you hit a vein of warm chocolate in every other bite. The pecans add crunch that stops the bread from being one-note soft. And the maple syrup brushed on while the loaf is still hot soaks into the surface and gives it a shiny, sticky top that caramelises as it cools.
Without those three additions it’s still banana bread, just a plainer one. Which is exactly what Ramsay found in Hawaii and loved, so both versions have their place.
What did Ramsay find in Hawaii that changed his view?
On the road to Hana in Maui, he visited Aunty Sandy’s Banana Bread, a bakery run by the same family for four generations. Her father is Hawaiian Chinese with seven generations on that spot. They make banana bread with just flour, sugar, salt, bananas, and melted butter.
Ramsay watched them mix “without a measure and cup in sight, judging quantities completely by eye.” He tasted it and said “banana bread that makes you curse.” If you want that simpler Hawaiian version, strip this recipe back: drop the chocolate chips, pecans, and maple syrup, swap the softened butter for melted, and use plain flour with half a teaspoon of baking soda instead of self-raising.
Why does Ramsay put a whole banana on top?
The sliced banana on the surface caramelises during the 50-minute bake and turns golden brown with crispy edges. It adds texture contrast: the top is firm and slightly chewy while the inside stays soft and moist.
Slice it lengthways, not into rounds, so it lies flat and covers the full length of the loaf.
How ripe do the bananas need to be?
As dark as you can stand. Brown spots aren’t enough. You want the skins almost completely black with the fruit soft and sweet inside. At this stage the starches have fully converted to sugar so you get natural sweetness without needing more added sugar, and the banana flavour is intense rather than mild.
If your bananas have gone past even banana bread stage, Ramsay’s banana tarte tatin from Bread Street Kitchen caramelises them in butter and sugar so nothing gets wasted.
