There is this little thing that happens every time at my place. My husband usually picks up bananas from the grocery store on his way back from office and he always picks up more bananas than we can eat. There will be no takers in the house after the bananas have become overly ripe. So what do we do with the ripe bananas? I do what I do best with ripe bananas. Banana nut bread or Banana muffins. Last week, he confessed to the crime that he intentionally picks up extra bananas so he can have a good slice of his favorite banana bread often.
Come with me. Let me show you how to do the best American bakery style banana nut bread. This is the only banana bread recipe you will ever need. I adapted this recipe very minimally from Chef Joanne Chang’s Flour cookbook. I like her method of beating eggs and sugar until fluffy and then adding it to the batter. It creates a great texture to the finished bread. I add a small tablespoon of cocoa to enhance that dramatic color of the bread. This is one nice spiced up banana bread.
“You can’t teach calculus to a chimpanzee. So just share your banana banana bread. OK”
Overly ripe bananas are the secret to a good banana bread.
Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F.
Peel four medium sized bananas and mash them with a back of a fork. Set aside.
Butter and flour a bread loaf tin. Preferably a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan. I also line it with parchment paper so the baked bread releases smoothly in one piece. Its not necessary but I do it. Its just me. I cannot take in tensions. The baked bread stuck on the bottom of the pan is the last thing I wanna see. I am sorry I have issues. Thanks for listening. I am happy I shared it with you.
Measure and add all the dry ingredients to a bowl. I measure the flour alone by weight as its accurate. Lets sift the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, salt, cardamom powder, cinnamon powder and the cocoa powder. Most of the time, baking soda and other leaveners might lump up. Sifting helps in eliminating this. Just use your hands to break the lumps while sifting. Sifting also helps in even mixing of the ingredients. Once sifted, set aside.
In a bowl, add in the eggs and the granulated sugar.
Beat together the eggs and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. It will take about 5 minutes.
Slowly drizzle in the oil. Slow is the key. You want to create an emulsion. Dumping all the oil at once will create the egg mixture to break. Drizzle the oil slowly so everything becomes one homogenous mixture. Once the oil has been added, add in the vanilla and the yogurt.
Add the sifted flour mixture and the nuts to the batter. Chop the nuts coarsely. Walnuts or pecans work well.
Fold the mixture until roughly mixed. Add in the mashed bananas to the batter.
Fold the mixture until everything is combined well. No specks of flour should remain visible. Make sure the nuts are evenly distributed. Transfer it to a loaf tin and bake for 60 – 80 minutes until the center springs back when lightly pressed. Do not open the oven door for the first 45 minutes. Moving the pan while baking might cause the middle of the batter to deflate. So no moving or opening the oven door unnecessarily.
Let the bread cool on a wire rack completely.
Store it in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
- 1⅔ cups-200 grams all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon cardamom powder
- 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 eggs
- ½ cup oil
- ¼ cup yogurt
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 4 very ripe bananas
- ¾ cup walnuts or pecans
- Preheat the oven to 180 C / 350 F.
- Peel bananas and mash them with a back of a fork. Set aside. Butter and flour a bread loaf tin. Preferably a 9 by 5 inch loaf pan.
- Measure and add all the dry ingredients to a bowl. Sift the dry ingredients. Sift the flour, salt, cardamom powder, cinnamon powder and the cocoa powder. Set aside.
- In a bowl, add in the eggs and the granulated sugar. Beat together the eggs and sugar in a mixer until light and fluffy. It will take about 5 minutes.
- Slowly drizzle in the oil. Slow is the key. You want to create an emulsion. Dumping all the oil at once will create the egg mixture to break. Drizzle the oil slowly so everything becomes one homogenous mixture. Once the oil has been added, add in the vanilla and the yogurt.
- Add the sifted flour mixture and the nuts to the batter. Chop the nuts coarsely. Walnuts or pecans work well.
- Fold the mixture until roughly mixed. Add in the mashed bananas to the batter.
- Fold the mixture well until everything is combined well. No specks of flour should remain visible. Make sure the nuts are evenly distributed. Transfer it to a loaf tin and bake for 60 – 80 minutes until the center springs back when lightly pressed.
- Let the bread cool on a wire rack completely.
- Store it in an airtight container for up to 2 days.