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basic banana bread
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5 from 4 votes

Basic Banana Bread Recipe

Recipe adapted from a lot of different recipes. It's even easier if you remember it as "3-2-1" for 3 bananas, 2 cups flour, 2 eggs, 1 cup sugar. Of course, there are all those other stupid ingredients but AT LEAST THIS GETS YOU STARTED.
Prep Time5 minutes
Total Time55 minutes
Total Time1 hour
Course: Breakfast, Brunch, Dessert, Quick Breads
Keyword: banana bread
Servings: 10 slices

Ingredients

  • 3-4 very ripe bananas to yield about 1½ cups mashed
  • 2 large eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • ½ cup neutral flavored oil
  • ¼ cup water if you actually do have milk, yogurt, or sour cream, use it, in the same amount
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour substitute with other whole grain flour if you'd like
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • optional: 1½ cup coarsely chopped toasted nuts or chocolate chips

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 350°F degrees. Cut a piece of parchment paper the length of the loaf pan and about 3x the width. Place in pan with edges hanging over the side of the loaf pan, and grease the paper and the pan. (This all helps to shimmy the bread out of the pan after it's baked.) Set aside.
  • Mash the ripe bananas with a sturdy fork on the surface of a cutting board (this is far easier than mashing against the curved sides of a bowl).
  • Scrape the mashed bananas into a mixing bowl. Add eggs, liquid, oil, and vanilla extract and beat together just until well incorporated into a uniform mixture.
  • In a fine mesh sieve set over the wet ingredient, add the flour, cinnamon, baking soda and salt. Sift the dry ingredients into the mixing bowl over the banana mixture.
  • Gently combine the dry ingredients into the banana mixture until just combined and no large streaks of flour appear. Try not to over-mix the batter, the batter should be a little lumpy. Fold in optional chopped nuts, chocolate chips or whatever.
  • Scrape the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the surface with the spatula. Add ¼-inch thick banana slices on top.
  • Bake until the loaf is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Start checking at 55 minutes, up to 65 minutes.
  • Cool in the pan for 5 minutes, then lift the banana bread out of the pan with the parchment paper. Allow to cool fully on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature. The banana bread taste great the next day and even the day after that.
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