Instructions for preparing banana bread

by Josh
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Banana bread: I’m a firm believer that banana bread is something you should be able to bake anytime, anywhere, with a blender or a fork, in a colander or a muffin tin—whenever you have a couple of soft, freckled bananas. I’m pretty sure banana bread is at least 50 per cent of the reason bananas exist.

Here is a very basic and very indulgent recipe that takes 10 minutes to whip up. To make banana bread, use ripe bananas to make your bread even more banana-y and rich. An hour of waiting for your house to fill with enticing aromas and then snacking on your very own slice of warm, freshly baked banana bread.

Banana Bread Ingredients

With a few variations, the recipe I share below is universal for almost every church or community cookbook written in the last 50 years. It is time-tested and uses ingredients most commonly found in our pantries.

  • Ripe bananas. The more brown, the better.
  • Butter: Or you can use margarine or oil.
  • Sugar: Replace brown sugar with white (which is denser and moister bread) or a completely different sugar.
  • Eggs: The recipe calls for two, but it will still work with just one egg.
  • Milk: Swap almond milk, kefir, buttermilk or even water for liquid.
  • All-Purpose Flour: Replace up to half of the flour with whole wheat or another favourite whole-grain flour.
  • Baking powder. It works as a leavening agent.
  • Chopped nuts or chocolate chips. Optional and completely up to you.

My point is that you can still make banana bread even if you’re missing one of the other ingredients (besides the baking soda – you need that!). You can also be creative and play with these basic ingredients as you see fit.

banana bread

Two tips for the best banana bread

  • Use ripe bananas. The only requirement for making banana bread is to use ripe bananas. As soon as freckles start to appear on the skin and the fruit is too soft to chew, it’s time for banana bread. If you let the bananas ripen even longer – until the skins turn brown and the fruit falls apart when peeled – your bread will have an even stronger banana flavour and be richer.
  • The mashing method is important. I like to keep some pieces of banana in the bread, and I also like the one-bowl simplicity of mashing the bananas directly into the dough. If you are against chunks and like bananas completely smooth, I recommend mashing them in a separate bowl and then mixing them into the batter.

Using a blender vs fork

If it wasn’t already clear by this point, the implied subtitle of this recipe is “don’t get upset; Make it easy.” If it’s easier for you to make a recipe like this in a stand mixer or with an electric hand mixer, then that’s the method you should use. I prefer to do it by hand in a bowl, as my mom taught me — it feels somehow easier, even if the same number of dishes get dirty.

If you are using a mixer, you have two options: you can melt the butter according to the instructions and follow the recipe exactly, or you can leave the butter softened and cream the sugar. The cream of softened butter and sugar will make your banana bread lighter and cakeier with a finer texture; the melted butter will make the bread denser and less crumbly.

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