This recipe makes a moist, rich flavored loaf, that you can make plain, sweeten with chocolate chips, or add some crunch with chopped walnuts. Or do all three!

Banana Bread

  • Servings: 12
  • Difficulty: easy
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Ingredients

  • 3  medium-sized  ripe bananas (ripened bananas have more flavor and are easier to mash)
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1/3 cup softened butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1.5 cups flour (suggest 3/4 cup white and 3/4 cup whole wheat)
  • pinch of salt
  • optional mix-ins e.g chocolate chips or  walnuts

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to  325ºF. Grease and flour loaf pan (approx. 9″ x 5″).
  2. Mash bananas and stir in baking soda. Set aside.
  3. Cream butter and add sugar.  Beat in egg.
  4. Stir in banana/baking soda mix.  It may separate a little at this point, but don’t worry.
  5. Gently fold in flour and salt, mixing only until blended. Don’t over-mix.
  6. Gently fold in optional ingredients such as chopped nuts or chocolate chips. For decoration, reserve a few of the mix-ins and add them to the top of the loaf.
  7. Bake for one hour until center is set and the sides pull away slightly. Additionally, test with a toothpick which should comes out clean.

cindysbananabread

Lessons Learned/Advice:

  • When making my small loaves as pictured, I use a double batch and divide into three before I add the mix-ins. My small loaf pans are 5.63″ x 3.13″ x 2.25″
  • Bananas can be really black as long as they’re not moldy. If you have overripe bananas but aren’t ready to bake, remove the bananas from their skin and freeze three of them in a ziplock.  When you’re ready to bake you can let the frozen bagged bananas thaw and you’re ready to go.
  • Bananas that have been frozen create a slightly different texture when preparing the batter, but I have never had any problem with the finished loaf so don’t worry if it looks a little too runny.
  • Optional to use all whole wheat or white whole wheat flour. When I do half of each no one notices any difference from the original white flour recipe so I tend to stick with the half of each.
  • Let me know if you try any variations in flour, sugar or mix-ins. I’d love some new variations on this.
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