Best Banana Bread

by Maggie Noble

YIELD & BAKE TIME:    

One bundt cake (65 minutes)     

One 5” x 10” loaf (65 minutes)

12 muffins (30 minutes)   

INGREDIENTS:

butter 2 sticks (8 ounces, 226 g) softened to room temperature

brown sugar 3/4 Cup

eggs 2

vanilla 1 teaspoon

all purpose flour 3 cups

baking powder 1/2 teaspoon 

baking soda 2 teaspoon

salt 1 teaspoon

bananas 4, smashed. Nasty-looking dark ones are the sweetest but any color will do.

yogurt 1 cup (Full fat is best. You can substitute with sour cream or mix half greek yogurt and half milk or half greek and half buttermilk).

ADDITIONAL INGREDIENTS:

butter for coating bundt or loaf pan. No need to use flour to line a bundt pan but you should use butter and flour to coat loaf pans. 

flour for the loaf pan or muffin tins if you aren’t using liners.

cooking oil spray or butter for the muffin liners if you choose to make cupcakes.

TOOLS:

  • pan

  • mixer with paddle attachment

  • whisk

  • spatula

  • wire rack for cooling

METHOD:

  • Preheat oven to 425F. Getting the oven good and hot in the preheat will give your baked goods oven spring, or a lift. When you open your oven door, you loose a lot of heat so this hot preheat compensates for that. Just remember to turn it down when you put the cake in!!!

  • Mise en place Sounds like meeze on ploss, French for get all your ingredients out and measured before cooking or baking.

  • Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, baking soda & salt) using a whisk. Mix well. No need to sift.

  • Prepare pan preferably with butter but cooking spray works, too. Bundt (just coat with butter), loaf (coat with butter & dust with flour) or muffin (line with papers and spray).

  • Cream butter This means to mix the butter with the paddle attachment until it is soft. If your butter is still a bit cold and is chunking, you can help it soften by holding your hands on the mixing bowl as the paddle moves on medium speed. Your warmth is enough to help prompt softening. The butter should resemble mayonnaise before you move to the next step.

  • Add brown sugar

  • Add first egg and mix on medium for about 15 second.

  • Add second egg and mix on medium for about 15 seconds.

  • Add vanilla

  • Scrape the bowl

  • Add bananas and mix on medium for about 30 seconds. Stop mixer and scrape the bowl again to ensure everything is incorporated.

  • Add 1/2 the dry ingredients and mix on medium for about 15 seconds

  • Add yogurt and mix for about 15 seconds. Scrape the bowl.

  • Add the other 1/2 of the dry ingredients and mix until incorporated, about 30 seconds.

  • Scrape the bowl thoroughly by taking it off the mixer and making sure you get to the bottom. Give a couple more turns with the spatula to ensure mixing.

  • Pour into prepared pan and level with spatula if making bundt cake or a loaf. If making muffins, heap the batter up to the rim of the liner or baking tin. A bigger muffin is better than three or four more piddly ones.

  • Drop oven temp from 425F to 350F DON’T FORGET THIS PART! I HAVE

  • Bake at 350F for the amount of time that corresponds to the pan you are using (listed above). For the bundt and heavy duty loaf pans, do not use a sheet pan underneath, bundt pans are typically thick and a sheet pan will make the bottom of the pan bake more slowly than the top. For muffins and tinny thin loaf pans, sheet pans underneath are recommended for easy in and out of the oven.

  • Cool on a rack in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn out the loaf or bundt cake onto a wire rack when the pan is cool enough to touch. Remove muffins from pan to a wire rack to cool completely.

NOTES: 

My first banana bread recipe came from my grandmother, who gave it to my mother, who gave it to me. She probably got it from a magazine. She was a hairdresser, not a baker. This recipe is extremely similar to the one I grew up with but we tend more towards Dorie Greenspan’s method in using 3 cups of flour and 4 bananas rather than the 2 that the original family recipe called for. It helps keep things sweet with the reduced sugar in our recipe. Dorie also gives the tip of not using the sheet pan under the bundt pan as it makes for uneven baking at the bottom. She is a wizard.

We make banana bread A LOT and it doesn’t last long. My understanding of the negative effects of sugar on the body is growing so I’m trying to cut it out completely or reduce drastically in my cooking and baking. We also like to eat tasty food. We’ve made this recipe countless times and incrementally dropped the sugar to this 1/4 cup. The molasses in the brown sugar adds a richness that makes up for the reduced amount of sweet. Also, this recipe calls for more bananas than the average loaf, another source of sweet. The browner, the better. I can barely pick my bananas up when I make this loaf. The more rotten, the sweeter the banana. Good for the procrastinating crowd. 

To store: Wrap in beeswax cloth or plastic wrap. Keeps up to two days… it should last that long. Slice, wrap and freeze in individual servings. Reheat in a 350F oven for 5-7 minutes. No need to thaw.

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