Classic Banana Bread

About This Recipe

Banana bread became the unofficial bread of the 2020 pandemic, with Google searches reaching their highest level in history during March-April 2020. This recipe sits at the sweet spot: moist enough that it never feels dry, banana-forward without being mushy, slightly nuanced through brown butter and brown sugar. The only real secret is using the most overripe bananas you have — black-spotted, almost embarrassing.

Ingredients

Serves 8

• 3very ripe bananas(the more black spots the better)
• 115 gunsalted butter(browned (see step 1))
• 150 gsoft dark brown sugar
• 2 largeeggs(room temperature)
• 2 tspvanilla extract
• 240 gplain flour
• 1 tspbaking soda
• 0.5 tspfine sea salt
• 1 tspground cinnamon
• 100 gwalnuts or pecans(chopped, optional)
• 60 gdark chocolate chips(optional)

Instructions

1. 1

   Brown the butter

   Melt butter in a small pan over medium heat. Continue cooking for 4-5 minutes, swirling, until deep golden-brown and nutty. Off the heat, transfer to a bowl to cool 10 minutes.

   Brown butter is the single biggest upgrade to banana bread. Don't skip it.

2. 2

   Mash the bananas

   In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until mostly smooth — small lumps are fine for texture.

3. 3

   Combine wet ingredients

   Whisk the cooled brown butter and brown sugar into the mashed banana. Beat in eggs and vanilla until smooth.

4. 4

   Mix dry ingredients

   In a separate bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.

5. 5

   Combine and add mix-ins

   Fold the dry ingredients into the wet — DO NOT OVERMIX. Stop as soon as no flour streaks remain. Gently fold in the nuts and chocolate chips if using.

6. 6

   Bake

   Pour into a buttered 9×5-inch loaf tin. Bake at 175°C / 350°F for 55-65 minutes until a skewer inserted in the centre comes out with just a few moist crumbs (NOT wet batter). The top should be deeply golden-brown.

7. 7

   Cool and slice

   Cool in the tin 15 minutes, then turn out onto a rack to cool completely. Slice with a serrated knife. Keep covered at room temperature; banana bread tastes BETTER on day 2.

Variations

• •

  Chocolate Banana Bread: replace 30g flour with 30g cocoa powder; double the chocolate chips.

• •

  Healthy-ish: substitute half the butter with Greek yogurt; reduce sugar to 100g.

• •

  Espresso Variation: stir 1 tbsp instant espresso into the wet ingredients.

• •

  Cream Cheese Swirl: swirl 200g sweetened cream cheese mixture through the batter before baking.

Storage

Room temperature, covered, 4 days. Refrigerated 1 week. Freezes excellently for 3 months.

Frequently Asked Questions